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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 2000)
Wednesday November 29,2000 Volume 100 Issue 67 dailyneb.com Since 1901 Sen-elect Ben Nelson reminisces about his recount experience in the 1990oloction In News/2 Who wfll Eric Crouch get to elude (and where wfll he get to elude them) this holiday season? In SportsWednesday/10 During the hectic holiday season, massages help melt the stress lnArts/8 Clinton is coming to Nebraska - finally BY JILL ZEMAN If the maxim, “Save the best for last” is true, then President Bill Clinton is giving Nebraska a big compliment Next week, Clinton is sched uled to visit Nebraska, the only state in the country in which he hasn't stepped foot The president will stop in Kearney on Dec. 8 to visit the University of Nebraska at Kearney campus and then tour the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument The Kearney administration asked Clinton to visit about six months ago, said UNK Chancellor Gladys Styles Johnston. The original invitation asked Clinton to speak at UNK’s com mencement ceremony onDec 15, she said. Clinton was unable to come for the ceremony, but Johnston said she was pleased just because he was coming. "I’m very exdted about it,” she said. “I feel he's been an education president” Plans for Clinton’s time at the UNK campus are tentative, she said. But he should speak some time in the morning, probably in the Health and Sports Center, which holds 8,000 people. Johnston said she has been inundated with phone calls since news of Clinton’s visit was announced. “There’s been an enormous response,” she said. “People have a lot of enthusiasm.” Former Democratic Gov. Frank Morrison said the push to bring Clinton to the state has been going for months. Morrison, who served from 1961-67, was the founding force for and is a member of the board of directors of the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument The monument, a 79,000 square-foot historical museum, opened over Interstate 80 in June. “We wanted him to visit the monument because we thought it was a national shrine the presi dent needed to see and under stand,” Morrison said. Clinton’s invitation is a cumu lative effort of the Archway Monument board of directors, UNK and several other Nebraska organizations, he said. Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Anne Boyle said Clinton’s appearance will attract national attention to Nebraska. In fact, the media frenzy has already begun for her. Boyle said she was contacted by the British Broadcasting Corp. and USAToday. She said NBC’s Today Show has already taped an interview with her, to be aired on the morn ing of Clinton’s visit “I’m thrilled he’ll be here,” she said. “Anything we do to highlight the state is good for us.” On Monday, before Clinton’s visit was confirmed, Jake Siewert, the president's press secretary, reassured members of the media Clinton would make the trip to Nebraska. With reporters’ laughter in the background, Siewert said he didn’t know when Clinton would visit Siewert said the president had an “ironclad commitment” to visit the state. “We will go to Nebraska,” Siewert said. “I promise you.” With what’s been confirmed so far, Clinton’s visit will pass over the larger cities of Omaha and Lincoln. Association of Students of the University of Nebraska President Joel Schafer said he wasn’t upset Clinton planned to visit UNK rather than the Lincoln campus. Groups in western Nebraska have been working on bringing Clinton to the state for a long time, Schafer said. “Clinton didn’t make a choice between UNK and UNL,” Schafer said. “It’s about the archway - that’s the reason he’s coming.” But a visit to eastern Nebraska hasn’t been ruled out, Boyle said. The Nebraska Democratic Party has been working to bring Clinton to Omaha or Lincoln, she said. Even though Kearney Chancellor Johnston said she anticipated throngs of people coming to see Clinton, not every one will welcome the leader of the free world with open arms. Nebraska Republican Party Chairman Chuck Sigerson said he’d rather see Republican Presidential candidate George W. Bush visit the state than Clinton. “Once President Clinton comes in, we’ll lose one of our pre cious resources - our Clinton-free air, our Clinton-free water and our Clinton-free land.” Even though the Republicans don’t approve of Clinton, Sigerson said, the visit of any president to the state is honorable. "We respect the office of the president, even though we don't “I’m very excited about it. I feel he’s been an education president.” Gladys Styles Johnston UNK chancellor respect the man,” he said. Sigerson said if Clinton just visits Kearney, he’ll make a glaring error by neglecting to visit the U.S. Air Force's Strategic Command at Offiitt Air Force Base in Bellevue. “As commander in chief, he should be ashamed for not visiting (Offiitt),” Sigerson said. Sigerson said he thought Clinton didn’t visit Nebraska because Nebraska didn’t want him in the state. “I bet George W. will be in Nebraska at least once in the next four years because we want him here,” he said. License change proposed BY VERONICA DAEHN More than 50 people concerned about alcohol use met in the Nebraska Union auditorium Tuesday for the second part of a symposium spon sored by NU Directions, a group aimed at lowering high-risk drinking among UNL students. In July, 112 state policy makers, business own ers, community members and NU campus leaders met to discuss the problems associated with alco hol use. On Tuesday, they met again to figure out how to fix those problems. Tom Workman, NU Directions spokesman, said it was important for the group to begin to find solutions. „„ , . “Given the Our current card is high-risk drink easy to duplicate. inK >n Lincoln With a digital card, it would be much What we can do harder to fake ” from a P°licy nurucr iu /ukz. standpoint to help change the Beverly Neth drinking envi director of the Nebraska DMV ronment," Workman said. A key focus of those fighting against the abuse of alcohol is changing state laws. Beverly Neth, director of the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles, spoke about a bill that could be introduced to the Legislature in January that would change Nebraska state drivers’ licenses. Neth’s department hopes to introduce a digital driver’s license. The new card would be plastic and have a bar code or magnetic stripe, similar to a credit card. Renewal would be automatic every five years - no one would have to go to their county’s court house to get a new license. The new system of licensing is necessary, part ly, Neth said, to help stop the use of fake IDs. The lamination on the current card can be tampered with and information underneath can be changed. The plastic card would also eliminate counter feiting or photocopying. “Our current card is easy to duplicate,” Neth said. “With a digital card, it would be much harder to fake.” Neth is still seeking a senator to sponsor the bill. Other problems the group identified in June included minors’ consuming alcohol, adults’ buy ing alcohol for minors and alcohol-related injuries and deaths. Workman said one of the best ways to counter act those problems was by changing state policy. “(Our laws) are part of the reason our environ ment is like this,” he said. Changing drivers' licenses would help, Workman said, as would enacting harsher penal ties for minors caught with alcohol or adults pur chasing for youth. The goal of Tuesday's symposium was to hear ideas and get a sense of what support was out there for them, Workman said, even if nothing happens right away. “There are a gazillion options,” he said. “We can’t do them all. But we got to talk about ideas together and join forces.” Emilio Gonzales and Juan Rubio milk cows at Prairieland Dairy near Firth. Workers at the dairy said they had spent much time and money to meet envi ronmental regu lations. ■ An Oklahoma civil engineer says cows and vague environmental laws threaten the valuable resource. BY GEORGE GREEN Government officials say a recent flood of dairy cows to Nebraska will not jeopardize the quality of the state’s environment. But Kathy Martin, a Norman, Okla., civil engineer, in environmental policy says Nebraskans should be con cerned with the influx of cows and dung. In the past three years, 14 dairy operations with an average of 1,500 cows each have moved to Nebraska. At one operation near Neligh, con cemed landowners are suing to stop dairy expansion before waste jeopard izes the water quality of a local stream. No matter how many cows show up, farmers have to follow state laws protecting the environment, said Dan Borer, dairy division manager for the state Department of Agriculture. “We want them to know the regula tions,” he said. The Department of Agriculture inspects every farm before it begins operating, he said. And the Department of Environmental Quality checks local rivers and streams for traces of pollution, Borer said. Dennis Heitmann, supervisor of the agriculture section of the Department of Environmental Quality, said every feedlot, whether it houses swine or cows, has to control runoff from the animal waste. To do this, he said, each farm pres ents a plan describing how it will dis pose of the waste without damaging the surrounding area. With these precautions in place, Heitmann said, Nebraskans should not worry about waste spoiling their water. “Properly operated dairies should n’t hurt the state,” he said. Cow dung, though, has already raised a stink at the operation near Neligh. A case is pending in county district court that will halt dairy expansion near the East Verdigre Creek. Landowners fear cow manure will seep into the creek and poison the “Properly operated dairies shouldn’t hurt the state.” Dennis Heitmann agriculture supervisor cold-water trout that live there. The last day of the trial is Dec. 8, and a decision is expected before the first of the year. Nebraskans should not be so quick to assume that the new farms are harmless, said Kathy Martin, a civil engineer in Norman, Okla., who spe cializes in environmental issues. Please see COWS on 2 Can justice, democracy mix? BY BRIAN CARLSON When responding to atrocities, the international community walks a fine line between criminal justice and future demo cratic stability, two ideals that don’t always go hand in hand, UNL professor David Forsythe said Tuesday. Forsythe, a political science professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a world authority on human rights, said this dilemma forces leaders to address these problems on a case-by-case basis. “The primary problem with interna tional criminal courts is that international peace and criminal justice don't always go together,” he said. The 1990s have witnessed a renewed interest in international criminal justice, Forsythe said. Ad-hoc courts to prosecute war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda are the first of their kind since the Nuremberg and Tokyo trials at the end of World Warn. In 1998, an international conference agreed to form the International Criminal Court, which would officially come into being when 60 nations ratified it. The United States has refused to support the ICC - an example of its “spasms of chauvin istic nationalism,” Forsythe said. Although the ad-hoc courts were creat ed partly to mask the lack of decisive Western action to halt the violence in the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, these courts are procedurally fair, Forsythe said. They don’t rule on the basis of “victor’s jus tice," common throughout history, he said. “All of this is good for international law and human rights in general,” Forsythe said. Although those who have gone to trial in these courts richly deserve their punish ment, the courts may actually undermine future democratic stability if they embrace Please see JUSTICE on 2 ASUN, faculty question not releasing records BY JOSH FUNK UNL faculty and student leaders questioned the wisdom of keeping student disciplinary records confidential but want more information before sup porting the records’ release. ASUN and Academic Senate presidents said Tuesday they wanted to know more about why the university maintains that these records from the Office of Judicial Affairs should be kept private. “It does bother me that things may go on and not be released,” Academic Senate President Sheila Scheideler said. “We’re not protecting any body by proceeding this way.” Scheideler said she planned to discuss the issue with the Academic Senate’s executive board today. Joel Schafer, president of the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska, said he wanted to meet with Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs James Griesen and Judicial Affairs Director Rosemary Blum before deciding whether the records should be released. Nationally, several groups such as Security On Campus Please see LAWSUIT on 2