■ WEATHER: Partly sunny with a _ *1_ _ I Inside:
■ slight chance of morning showers I 1^1 U\f _
■ Highs in the mid to upper 60s, Frday 1 J I 1 V B News Digest... Page 2
| night. Mostly clear. Lows in the upper I _ ■ _ _ J ■ . _ B Editorial.Page 4
B 30s to the upper 40s. Saturday, mostly I I H AA ^^^k B Sports.Page 6
B sunny and not as cool. High around 1 j* | ■ ■ B Entertainment.Page 8
September 18, 1987 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 87 No. 17
Workers
plunge
4 floors
Crane malfunction
said to be culprit
By Amy Edwards
Senior Reporter
and
By Mary Nell Westbrook
Staff Reporter
1WU lOIIMIUlUUII WUIK.CI5 es
caped serious injury after they fe!!
about 45 feet at the Lied Center for
Performing Arts Thursday — the
second accident at the site since
late August.
Troy Sowers and Randall New
land were working on scaffolding
attached to a crane when the boom
lowered. The men were four stories
above the ground, but did not fall
off the scaffolding until the boom
collapsed, said Lynn Lightner, an
engineer with Builders Inc.
Sowers was treated and released
in good condition from Lincoln
General Hospital with a twisted
kneecap. Newland was not injured,
Lightner said.
The accident happened because
of a mechanical malfunction in the
crane, Lightner said. The crane’s
boom was extended over the cast
side of the building. The malfunc
tioning crane slowly lowered the
t boom until it hit the east wall and
collapsed, he said.
Lightner said this accident
wasn’t related to an Aug. 24 mis
hap where a worker fell 18 feet
after unhooking a safety belt. The
worker was not allowed to return to
his job, Lightner said.
"There’s a lot of normal con
struction work taking place,” he
said. "The accidents are not ac
countable to any one thing.”
Bruce Moen, a supervisor with
the Occupational Safety and
Health Association, said the or
ganization will try to investigate
the accident today.
Lightner said the crane will be
repaired soon, with no delay in
construction. Construction on the
Lied Center began m January and is
expected to be completed by spring
1989.
Troy Sowers, a construction
worker at the Lied Center for
Performing Arts, is taken by
stretcher to an ambulance
after a crane boom collapsed;
dropping him and another
worker, Randall Newland, four
floors.
Mark Davis/Dally Nebraskan
Seats saved
for farmers
Special sections
j to show solidarity
j By Bob Nelson
j Staff Reporter_
Two sections, of Memorial Sta
• dium will be reserved for farmers and
: their families during FarmAid III,
S officials said at Thursday's FarmAid
j III Dress conference.
“Wc’-e just helping the farmers to
i show their solidarity." said \bby
! Shapiro, spokesperson for "arm Aid
j III.
Sections 26 and 2r m the Hast
\ Stadium will be set aside for the farm
! ers, Shapiro said.
Gene Weed, producer and director
| for Dick Clark Productions, said eve
rything was going smoothly in orepa
s ration for Saturday’s concert. Weed
; said the onlv problem they have faced
was having only one driveway to
; move equipment Into the stadium.
“There's a lot of staging and equip
ment we nave ‘o get in here.” Weed
said. He said it becomes a nightmare
when having to coordinate all the
trucks coming in and out of the sta
dium.
)
Weed predicted the setup will be
■ completed by Friday afternoon if it
! doesn’t min.
“If the great gaffer upstairs will
j cooperate, we'll be fine." Weed said.
Weed said the times each per
former will be on stage had not been
j set. He said a schedule will not be
. made until Friday afternoon. Neil
Young, Kris Kristoffcrson, The
Grateful Dead, Merle Haggard, John
Mcllcncampand Willie Nelson would
probably play during the nationally
televised Inal two hours of the con
| cert. Weed said.
There will be a finale to *bc syndi
j cated two-hour show. Weed said.
“Willie will comcouton stage with
1 40 other artists and do .a huge concert
) finale." he said. “They w*!’ sing the
| theme to this whole thing, "Hiir- 'and
J is your ’and. ’*
Devaney, Osborne want successful FarmAid III
By Chuck Green
Senior Editor
While thousands of Nebraskans
anxiously await the arrival of Far
mAid III at Memorial Stadium Satur
day, at least two members of
Nebraska’s athletic department also
hope for its success — contrary to
some media reports.
Nebraska football coach Tom
Osborne and Athletic Director Bob
Devaney both said they approved of
the concert being held at the Univer
sity of Nebraska, and that earlier re
ports of opposition were misleading.
“At no time have we shown reluc
tance, despite what some media
people and politicians have led people
to believe,” Devaney said.
Osborne agreed, saying that Far
mAid had caused the football team
minor inconveniences in practice
scheduling, “but that was something
we had planned on,” he said.
“The only thing we had wished was
that they could have done it during the
summer when there v ould have been
minimal inconveniences,” Osborne
said. “But we certainly understand the
cause and we hope it goes well.”
Osborne said hr was upset over a
story that appeared in the Omaha
World Herald last July. The story
reported that Osborne was opposed to
allowing the concert to lake place in
Memorial Stadium. He said the story
was incorrect.
“(The reporter) said, ‘Is this going
to cause some problems?’ and I said
‘yeah, it’s going to be disruptive.' But
we’ ve never been against it,” Osborne
said.
“If we were against it, we never
would have OK’d it,” he said.
Osborne said, however, that he
thought the rest of the media had been
fair throughout the FarmAid negotia
tions.
“That one story, I was fairly upset
with,” he said. “People thought that I
was against FarmAid and that's not
the ease. I think if the athletic depart
ment would have been against it, the
administration would have backed us
up and turned it down.”
Osborne said most people that
blamed UNL for “dragging its feet
during negotiations was when "ar
mAid officials began talking of the
possibility of moving the concert to
the Iowa State University campus ;n
Ames, Iowa.
“We really felt that wc'ri been
cooperative all the way along.’
Osborne said. “There had ocen some
places like the University of ^exas
that just turned them down cold and
we thought we were bending over
backwards trying to put it together.”
Devaney also said he felt that the
athletic department had ocen treated
unfairly by some members of the
media who thought UNL opposed the
concert.
“We’vebeen kicked around on tins
thing.’’ Devaney said, “^ne media has
said that Tom Osborne is against this
and that "snot true. We were just trying
to see that out icid was adequately
protected."
Gary ';ou raker. athletic depart
ment business manager. said he stage
and lighting will be set up :r the north
end /.one. He said plywood would be
placed beneath :nc stage and that the
entire playing surface of vlcmorial
Stadium would be covered with a
rubberized mat with a fire-proof mat
under ihat.
Research expert questions biotechnology
By Christine Anderson
Statt Reporter
Some biotechnology research in agriculture
and other sciences has had more ill effects on
society than good, according to an agricultural
research and education expert.
Wes Jackson, co-director for the Land Insti
tute in Salina, Kan., said Americans are
“merely cleaning up problems” that result from
biotechnologic research that disrupts the
course of nature. _
Jackson, who spoke at the second National
University Rural Crisis Conference Thursday
at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln East
Union, cited problems such as chemically
contaminated ground water and human health
problems as negative effects on the environ
ment. The contaminated ground water has re
sulted from the use of agricultural chemicals
and the health problems stem from people
consuming livestock that have been injected
with growth hormones.
Jackson said there arc two choices for the
future of agriculture: “Human cleverness or
nature’s wisdom.”
Consequences of this research hasn't been
investigated enough or understood by scien
tists, Jackson said.
He said that humans set out to control nature
without serious considerations of ;ts -csuils.
“We reduce birds, bees, Howcrs and 'rces to
a set of transformers,” be said,
Jackson said the nature of research needs to
oc changed.
“It ;s time for scientists to stop and evaluate
what .biotechnology) has brought to us." he
said. “T ociicvc ‘nat a ’ot of scientists will
modify their nature of their experiences," il
'hey arc aware of ts dangerous effects.
tack son said hat he isn’t concerned 'with the
“monsters" — or scientists — who arc chang
ing nature’s course. 3ulhe said he is concerned
nbout what’s going to happen 20 years from
now._
_