Pago 2
Dally Nebraskan
Friday, September 20, 1985
News
Bv The Associated Press
Nelson outlines FarmAid plan;
no funds targeted for lobbying
CHAMPAIGN, 111. - Willie Nelson
has outlined a five-point FarmAid
spending plan that would provide
counseling and cash for financially
troubled farmers, and spread the word
about their plight.
Nelson, the driving force behind the
star-studded FarmAid benefit concert
scheduled to be in Champaign Sunday,
set aside no funds for lobbying Con
gress on farm legislation, according to
a release from his office near Austin,
Texas.
Nelson said he thinks the millions of
dollars expected from the all-day event
and related fund-raising efforts should
be used for direct cash payments to
needy farmers, legal assistance, "tran
sitional" help, such as counseling and
job placement, for those who have lost
their farms or risk losing them, a
nationwide hotline to direct farmers to
service agencies best able to help them
and for improving public awareness of
the financial plight of many U.S. family
farmers.
Nelson had indicated earlier that
some FarmAid money might be used to
lobby Congress for enactment of one
version of the hotly disputed 1 985 farm
bill that would call for a referendum on
federally mandated crop reduction.
"Farmers need it desperately. They
have to have it to survive," Nelson said
Sept. 5 after a meeting with farmers.
The idea immediately drew fire from
the American Farm Bureau, and Nel
son's decision to drop it was hailed by
spokesman Dennis Vercler of the Illi
nois Farm Bureau.
Fifty country and western, rock,
blues and bluegrass performers are
lined up for FarmAid at the University
of Illinois football stadium, including
Nelson, John Cougar, Neil Young, Bob
Dylan, the Beach Boys, Glen Campbell,
Lacy J. Dalton, Waylon Jennings, Billy
Joel, Joni Mitchell and B. B. King.
The nearly 80,000 tickets for the
concert were sold out in three days.
The Nashville Network is televising 12
hours of the concert to cable subscrib
ers and has syndicated a three-hour
segment to more than 100 television
stations, including superstation WGN
TV of Chicago.
FarmAid already has drawn at least
$1.8 million in corporate donations, an
aide to Illinois Gov. James R. Thomp
son said Wednesday.
Hollywood joins in AIDS battle
LOS ANGELES From rock star
Cyndi Lauper to former film star Ronald
Reagan, Hollywood joined the battle
against AIDS Thursday night as it
aimed to raise $1 million in a glittering
"Commitment to Life" benefit.
Scheduled performers included
Lauper, Rod Stewart, Carol Burnett and
Sammy Davis Jr., with a finale featuring
Bette Midler, singing from Germany via
an audio and video hookup and accom
panied by.the Gay Men's Chorus of Los
Angeles.
President Reagan sent a message of
support during the $250- to $500-a-plate,
black-tie affair at the Bonaven
ture Hotel.
Rock Hudson, the movie and televi
sion le ading man whose battle with the
lethal immune-system disease has
gained worldwide publicity, was too ill
to attend. Hudson, whose illness helped
generate interest in the event, prom
ised to be with his friends in spirit. "I
am not happy that I have AIDS, but if
that is helping others, I can, at least,
know that my own misfortune has had
some positive worth," Hudson wrote in
a letter to be read by actor Burt Lancas
ter. It was his first public comment
about the illness, for which there is no
known cure.
Talk-show host Phil Donahue and
his wife Mario Thomas were to make a
pitch for contributions from the more
than 2,500 people in attendance, and
former first lady Betty Ford was to
receive a Commitment to Life Award,
presented by Elizabeth Taylor, a key
organizer of the benefit.
The fund-raiser was to benefit the
AIDS Project Los Angeles, with the
money to support AIDS victims and pay
for education about acquired immune
deficiency syndrome.
In his letter, which was revealed
Wednesday, Hudson said he was pleased
by the show-business support.
"I am particularly proud to learn
that there is such a significant turnout
of people from my industry present,
and extremely proud of my good friend,
Elizabeth Taylor, who organized this
event," said Hudson, 59, a star of tele
vision's "Dynasty" and "McMillan and
Wife."
Book traces starts of self-made millionaires
NEW YORK They hustle frozen
french fries with valleys and peaks,
helpful computers and chocolately
chocolate-chip cookies. They are
among the legion of the self-made
super rich who feed us, fly us and
give us fun, and who peddle every
thing from pizza to running shoes to
floppy discs. The names are familiar:
Pizza Hut, Winnebago, Honda, NIKE,
McDonald's, Toys 'R Us, Celestrial
Seasonings, Mrs. Field's Cookies and
Chun King.
Tales of how these makers of meg
abucks rose from obscurity and some
times poverty to fame and fortune re
told in a new book by A. David Silver,
"Entrepreneurial Megabucks." It is
the story of 100 great entrepreneurs
of the last 25 years, and will be pub
lished next month by John Wiley &
Sons.
Of the self-starters named, 29 are
involved in the computer industry.
Others made their fortune in cars,
electronics, community psychiatric
centers, investment banking, adver
tising to the black community, direct
mail, motel chains, same-day mail
services, cable TV, pharmaceutical
companies, toy chains and movie
companies.
Some began with loans, Lane
Nemeth borrowed $25,000 from family
and friends to begin her Discovery
Toys company in 1977. Today, sales
amount to $40 million a year.
Others used their own money to
make their marks. Mary Kay Ash par
layed her life savings of $5,000 to
create the $450 million Mary Kay
Cosmetics, William G. McGowan used
$50,000 of his own money to start MCI
Communications Corp. Leonard
Samuel Shoen started The U-Haul
System in Scottsdale, Ariz., in 1945
with $5,000 in savings.
Masaru Ibuka and Ako Morita sold
a dilapidated Datsun truck for $500
in 1948 to start a company that would
focus "on highly sophisticated tech
nical products of great usefulness in
society." The company became Sony
Corp., a firm now worth $3.5 billion.
Silver, who formed a venture capi
tal investment banking firm in 1970,
says one thing that entrepreneurs
greatly value is time. Entrepreneurs
also tend to sleep and eat little,
check no baggage, wear no jewelry
and never get sick, Silver says. Some
entrepreneurs start young, bitten at
an early age by the success bug. Jack
R. Simplot earned $7,800 from feeding
and selling hogs in 1927. Now 76,
Simplot has become the largest
potato processor in the United States
with a patent on frozen french fries.
Rose Blumkin bribed her way past
a Russian border guard and came to
the United States on a peanut boat in
1917. She had no money. By the age of
43, she had borrowed $500 and
started a business in the basement of
a pawnshop, selling quality furniture
at lower prices than her competition.
Now 91, she heads the Nebraska Fur
niture Mart in Omaha, which was
acquired by Berkshire Hathaway in
1983 for $60 million.
Q WS HI 3 ElOTS A rounduP of the day's happenings
John DeLorean says he's recovering slowly from a
disease called egomania, which devoured his fortune,
broke up his marriage and dragged his name through the
courts in a celebrated criminal trial.
A Phillippine mountain tribe priestess fed 72 fol
lowers porridge laced with insecticide, killing 69 of them,
and then stabbed herself to death because she failed to
make money grow on a tree, a top Phillipine military
commander says. There were no first-hand accounts of the
incident, which reportedly happened about 11 days ago.
Pope John Paul II has summoned all 152 cardinals
of the Roman Catholic Church from 56 countries to a
meeting on Nov. 21 through 23. There is speculation that
the cardinals will discuss proposed changes in the Curia,
the church's administrative body.
The 1985 Albert Einstein Peace Prize will be
awarded to former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt,
the group sponsoring the award has announced. Brandt is
chairman of his country's opposition Social Democratic
Party. His efforts for friendlier East-West relations brought
him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1971.
The biggest problem in American education is
"the perpetual parents' strike," the Rev. Jesse Jackson
says. "When children are watching five hours of television
a night, choosing entertainment over education, the par
ents are on strike .... And -nobody can increase reading
and writing and comprehension levels when there is a
massive parental strike in that school system." A federal
study released Wednesday found that 27 percent of 9-year-olds
watch more than six hours of television a day.
A former baby sitter and her nephew, charged with
sexually abusing and taking pornographic pictures of 14
children in the woman's care, have been ordered to stand
trial in Nevada. Martha Felix, 37, and Francisco "Paco"
Ontiveros, 33, are accused of performing sexual acts on
children as young as 8 months old.
The fate of Philadelphia caterer Curtis Strong, 39,
characterized by a federal prosecutor as "a traveling
salesman of cocaine," was handed to a jury of nine women
and three men who must decide if he dealt drugs to major
league baseball players on 14 occasions.
f , . Don Belie u "
Violent crime in state higher in '84
OMAHA Nebraska law enforcement authorities reported increases
in most types of violent crime in 1034, but reports of property crimes
declined from the previous year, a Nebraska Crime Commission report
shows. The total number of reported crimes in 1984 wa3 7.1 percent below
the 1883 figure.
The statistics are contained in an annual report compiled by the crime
commission. The report includes data provided by 168 Nebraska law
enforcement agencies and police in all towns with populations of more
than 1,C00.
The law enforcement agencies reported 55,215 crimes in 1SS4, 4,192
fewer than in 1083. Of the total, 93.5 percent were crimes against property
and 6.5 percent were violent crimes.
Fifty-three murders and manslaughters were reported across the state
last year, an increase of 25.2 percent from 1983. Murders or manslaughters
were reported in 15 of Nebraska's 93 counties.
The figures show smaller increases for two other types of violent crime.
The number of rapes increased 11.6 percent in 1984 while felony assaults
rose 7.8 percent.
Robbery was the only violent crime that showed a decline in 1984, the
. report shows. Reports of robbery dropped 12.8 percent, from 781 to 6S0.
Show aims to stimulate math interest
NUT YORK With President Eeagan and many educators giving
America's students failing grades in math, the makers of "Sesame Street"
. : are producing a new television series designed to stimulate math interest
to el S-Jrca 8 to 12, white looking a let like MTV and SCTV combined.
"-. The Children's Television Workshop, creators cf public television's
. "Scs.nae Street," "The Electric Company" and "3-2-1 Contact.' announced
: Thursday that production will start in early 1083 on what CTW colls the
... most expensive single preset for. children in TV history.
; The Count, "Sesune Street's" numbers fre&k, wcu! J go wild counting
cJthe show's $16 million funding budget that comes frcm such disparate
sources as the U.S. Deportment of Education, the National Science
Foundation, the Corporation for Public Broadens tirg and EDM,
The untitled 30-minute program is scheduled to premiere on public TV
weekday afternoons in January 1037. The producers hope the series will be
used in classrooms and are giving teachers permission to tape the
programs.
Report warns of possible epidemic
BOSTON An outbreak of rare, fatal infections among people who
received human growth hormone raises "the ominous possibility of a
burgeoning epidemic," government researchers report.
In the past year, four people have died from the rare illness, known as
Creutzfeldt JaKob disease. Experts believe they were victims of a slow
acting virus, which may take years to develop, that unknown to scientists
was contained in their hormone shots.
The growth hormone, derived from the pituitary glands of cadavers, has
been given to 11,000 people during the past 22 years to prevent severe
short stature. Patients take two or three shots a week for several years.
Federal authorities suspended distribution of the hormone in April
after it appeared that seme of it had been tainted with the virus that
causes Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, which progressively attacks the central
nervous system and is inevitably fatal.
NRD to use prisoners for projects
LINCOLN The Lower Platte South Natural Resources District has
approved a contract that will give Nebraska prisoners a chance to work.
Since January 1883, a crew of inmates has done maintenance work in
the NRD's watershed structures, public access areas and stream channels
in Lincoln, said District Manager Glenn Johnson. All the inmates are
trustees.
The district provided tools, transportation and wages for the inmates,
which was $3.29 a day, while the state paid the supervisor. To cut costs,
the state terminated the agreement last month.
Under the new agreement, which was reached Wednesday, the district
also will provide wages and benefits to the inmates' supervisor and the
state will pay transportation costs.
Last year, the district paid $8,250 for the inmate crew. The NRD's
additional cost for the supervisor's wages and benefits will be about
$21,833.
"In the past two years, through the use of the inmate crew, the district
has been able to catch up on a very large backlog of needed operation and
maintenance work," Johnson siud.
Bolivia declares state of emergency
LA PAZ, Bolivia The Bolivian government declared a stzte cf siege
Thursday and arrested labor leaders who refused to end a lG-dsy-cld
general strike against a wage freeze intended to fight Inflation of 14,000
percent.
Tanks and hundreds cf troops took up positions before dawn in this
Andean cspital, in other cities and on highways. Violence was reported in
some parts of La Pas.
Pentagon tests reporting pool
WASHINGTON Defense Secretary Caspar . Weinberger announced
Thursday that an exercise testing the Pentagon's plan to cover national '
military emergencies with a pool of reporters began Thursday morning.
Weinberger said the pool was activated at 2 a.m. CDT and sent to Fort
Campbell, Ky. -
The exercise was a test of a Pentagon system, created in response to
criticism of the Defense Department's handling of news coverage of the
invasion cf Grenada, under which selected news organisations will pro
vide coverage of Mure military actions. '
The system is designed to balance the Pentagon's need for secrecy and
the public's right to information about military activities.
Weinberger said organizations participating in Thursday's exercise
were The Associated Press, United Press International, Cable News Net
work, Los Angeles Times, the Long Island newspaper Newsday, Time
magazine, Mutu:J Ercadcasting System and the Ne?.Mii33 rewrpsper
, organization.
