Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 20, 1988)
Weather: Wednesday, slowly decreasing cloudiness and de creasing winds, high around 25. Wednesday night, dear and cold, low around 5. Thursday, mostly sunny and warmer with highs in the 30s. A&E: Welcome to my Nightmares-f-Page 6. Sports: Maurtice Ivy prc pares to break the Ne braska career scoring rec ord—Page 8. Alleged robber won’t affect release program Avery: transition from center to freedom tough By Dan Dwinell Staff Reporter The recent arrest of Charles Mark Goodwin, who allegedly robbed Un ion Bank, 1944 O St., will not affect the education-release program of the Lincoln Post-Care Center, said David Avery, superintendent of the center. Goodwin, charged with last Thursday’s robbery, was a former inmate at the center. Goodwin at tended the University of Nebraska Lincoln while serving sentence at the center on an education-release pro gram. He was paroled Dec. 12 after serving nine years for kidnapping and sexual assault convictions. Avery said up until the Goodwin incident, the center has had good re sults. “We have an excellent track rec ord,” he said. “We try to be as careful as we can.” The education-release program gives inmates the opportunity to at tend school and earn a degree while still serving their sentences. To qualify, inmates must be “model” inmates and be recom mended by their counselor. From there, the inmates must go before a classifying committee, the director’s ‘ Some prisoners can’t handle the freedom. It’s really a good program. When something happens like this it gives it a black eye.’ —Avery IHHlISillllllllllllllllllliii office, and then the parole board. The process takes about a month and can be stopped at any poinL According to the center’s records, the center had 32 inmates in the edu cation-release program in 1985-86 attending UNL and Southeast Com munity College. The center holds up to 105 inmates. “We work closely with the univer sity staff, monitoring the educational progress,” Avery said. Avery said the transition from the center to freedom is tough for some inmates, but added that a repeat crime doesn’t happen often. “Some prisoners can’t handle the freedom,” he said. “It’s really a good program. When something happens like this it gives it a black eye.” The Post-Care Center started in Lincoln in 1967 and branched out with two centers in Omaha which later merged into one. Hastings also has an educational release program in its center. The Lincoln center also has a work release program that gives inmates a chance to work while finishing their sentences. Inmates hold city jobs ranging from cleaning trash along the highway to refurnishing antique furni ture in the governor’s mansion. Goodwin’s hearing will be Mon day at 9 a.m. in County/City Building Courtroom 11. According to Associated Press reports, a masked man forced his way into the bank while a teller was un locking the door. He tied up two tell ers, took another teller to a parking lot at gunpoint and drove away. The tell ers said the man said he hated Ameri cans. Husker player charged From Staff Reports Randall Williams, a freshman Comhusker football player, was charged Monday in Lancaster County Court with felony theft, said Mike Heavican, county attor ney. Williams, 19, a resident of Harper Hall, allegedly stole more than $300 of radar equipment, Heavican said. Lt. Frank Rowe of the Lincoln Police Department said the thefts occurred either Tuesday or Wednesday. Six radar detectors were stolen from cars parked both on campus and elsewhere throughout the city. said Ll Ken Cauble of the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department. Williams was arrested at about 9 p.m. Sunday in his Harper Hall room and booked into county jail. Cauble said Williams had some radar detectors in his possession at the time of his arrest. Bond was set at $ 1,500 in court Monday. Williams was released after posting 15 percent of the bond, according to the Associated Press. Holly Renae Tropp, 20, a resi dent of Smith Hall, was charged with aiding and abetting theft. Tropp also was released on bond. Bill would allow tax-free education accounts By Anne Mohri Senior Reporter A bill in the Nebraska Legislature that would allow Nebraskans to save for a child’s education tax-free re ceived no opposition at a public hear ing Tuesday. LB860, sponsored by Sen. Jerry Chizek of Omaha, is designed to “help ensure that higher education in Ne braska would be affordable to Nebras kans,” Chizek said. Through LB860, any contributor could establish a Nebraska College Savings Plan Account for a future college student, Chizek said. Four people testified in support of the bill and one testified as a neutral speaker. The account could be opened with any Nebraska bank, savings and loan or brokerage. The financial institu tion, which must be based in Ne braska, will manage the account. Chizek said all funds and interest earned can be used to pay the educa tional expenses of the beneficiary. The beneficiary must become a full time student at a public or private Nebraska post-secondary institution, he said. To encourage long-range savings for college through the account, the contributions made to the beneficiary can be deducted by the contributor, Chizek said. However, the amount of total deductions may not exceed $2,000 annually. “Yes, we taxed you to retain qual ity faculty, we taxed you to build a strong school — dam it, we forgot to do anything to help your child to at tend the school we taxed you for to make it a strong school,” Chi/ek said. Jon Oberg, president of the Asso ciation of Independent Colleges and Universities of Nebraska, said the state plays an active role in encourag ing people to save money for higher education. Should contributions be with drawn from the account, they would become taxable income, Chizek said. He said the account would pay directly to the school charges for tui tion, fees, books, supplies and rent purchased through the school. He said students would have to pay for off-campus housing and supplies bought off campus, but would be re imbursed if they showed receipts. Students who wished to withdraw from school fora while would not lose the account if they re-enrolled within a three years. However, after three years the account would become tax able income for the beneficiary. New definition raises number of AIDS cases By Joeth Zucco Senior Editor The number of AIDS cases nation ally and in Nebraska has risen because the Centers for Disease Control have redefined AIDS, said Brian James, health educator for the Nebraska Department of Health’s AIDS pro gram. The new definition allows doctors to make presumptive diagnoses with out having to run “tons of tests,” such as in pneumonia cases, James said. James said the disease was rede fined because when the criteria were first structured there wasn’t as much knowledge about AIDS as there is now. He said the more that people research AIDS, the more they’ll be able to liberalize the definition and criteria The new definition allows cases to be classified as AIDS earlier than before. Two AIDS-related complexes — encephalopathy and AIDS dementia — have been added to the definition, James said. Encephalopathy is a wast ing-syndrome condition that is related to a minor case of AIDS. AIDS de mentia is a form of mental illness where a patient is forgetful and expe riences motion problems. According to statistics released last week by the Nebraska Department of Health, 12 new AIDS cases were re ported in the fourth quarter of 1987. That raises the number of AIDS cases in Nebraska to 49 since 1983. 0- 0- J 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 ■ ■ ■ Hemophilia/ Transfusion/ Coagulation Blood Component 6% Disorders 4% Undetermined 2% Homosexual/ Bisexual Men & IV Drug 8% _ American Indian 2% Hispanic Black 10% Wh"e 84 ° IV Drug Users 6% Homosexual/ Bisexual Men 72% Source: The Nebraska Department of Health Tom Lauder/Daily Nebraskan According to the statistics, there were 28 new cases of AIDS in Ne braska in 1987 — more than twice the 11 new cases reported in 1986. Of the 49 cases reported, 46 were men and three were women, 41 were white, five were black, two were Hispanic and one was American Indian. Cumulatively, 32 of the 49 re ported patients have died. Shannon Fiene, health educator for the Ne braska Department of Health’s AIDS program, said Nebraska’s mortality rate is 65 percent. Nationally, the mortality rate is 58 percent. Fiene said national projections for 1991 indicate that the number of re ported AIDS cases is expected to grow to 270,000 and that 54,000 people will die from the disease. James said the number of Nebraska cases reported has doubled every year and is projected to rise to 84 in 1988. James said a rise to 640 is projected for 1991. There are no estimates of the number of deaths expected. James said projections are made according to the way the disease is geographically spreading across the country and according to the number of cases reported in high-prevalence areas such as New York and Califor nia. Joseph “Andy” Anderson, sexually transmitted disease counselor at the University Health Center, said AIDS cases were first counted in June 1981 in the high-prcvalcncc areas. Between then and Dec. 7, 1987, 12,503 cases were reported in New York, 10,706 in California, 3,391 inFloridaand 1,249 in Illinois. Anderson said many of the Ne braska AIDS patients may have con tracted the disease in one of the high^ prevalence areas and then returned home. The Health Department’s statistics reveal that 35 oi the reported cases were homosexual/bisexual men, three were IV drug abusers, four were homosex ual/biscxual men who abused IV drugs, two suffered hemo See AIDS on 5