0TA7G X^X *1 GX Associated Press
JL ^1 W JL L Edited by Bob Nelson
Gunman holds schoolchildren, teachers hostage
TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A gunman who
said he wanted to help the homeless held more
than 30 children and two teachers hostage at a
private school here Tuesday.
“There are people on the streets who don’t
have a place to sleep or anything to eat. I’m
doing this for them,” the slightly built, gray
bearded gunman ^aid as he held a rifle in a
hallway of West End Christian School. “This is
a political act, not a criminal act.”
The gunman, who did not give his name,
made his comments to reporters several hours
after invading the school’s elementary division
Judy Dunn, who is pregnant, and Mary Alice
B lanton. The teachers and children could not be
seen by Harwell, who was in a hallway while
the gunman, with' the rifle pointing above
Harwel 1 ’ s head, stood in a doorway of one of the
classrooms holding hostages. The children
were quiet as the gunman spoke.
The governor sent the gunman a taped
message, but its contents were not disclosed,
said Hunt spokesman Terry Abbott.
“It’s a real critical situation, and the less we
say, the better,” Abbott said.
“All I want is proof the governor will do
something,” the gunman said. “They’re wast
ing my time. The kids wantout and I wantout.”
The gunman, who appeared to be in his 40s, )
said at another point that he wanted “immunity i
and a pardon.”
Police said two men wearing ski masks and
carrying at least one rifle invaded the school
about 8:40 a.m., shortly after class began. !
Police Lt. David Hartin said about four hours
after the school siege started, one of the two
men surrendered to police, who did not release
the names of the two.
building and taking about 80 children hostage
along with four teachers and an assistant.
The gunman sent a request for reporters to
enter the school building and hear his case to
help “get my message out.” Nine children were
released by the gunman after Associated Press
reporter Hoyt Harwell entered the building and
heard the man's statements.
Earlier, the gunman had freed about 40 of
the initial hostages, with the freed children
walking across a street in intermittent heavy
rain to safety.
The remaining hostages included teachers
Civil rights leader arrested in Alabama
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Law
officers arrested Alabama NAACP
President Thomas Reed and 10 other
black leaders on Tuesday when they
tried to climb a fence around the
Capitol to take down the confederate
battle flag flying over the dome.
Reed, a state representative from
Tuskcgec, led a group of several
dozen blacks to a driveway gate
where Reed talked to state troopers
for almost 20 minutes before at
tempting to climb the 8-foot high
fence.
“I consider myself not violating
the law of this state,” Reed said.
After officers grabbed Reed by the
collar and pulled him down from the
fence, other members of his group,
among them National NAACP board
member Emmett Bums, attempted to
climb over but were also restrained.
“We are under arrest,” state Rep.
John Rogers of Birmingham said as
he entered the bus. The charges were
not immediately known.
Earlier, as crowds had gathered
for the march sponsored by the Na
tional Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People, local and
state law enforcement officers set up
barricades and confiscated an ax
handle.
Reed contends the flag represents
racism and oppression and said that if
it was not taken down voluntarily he
planned to “enter the Capitol grounds
and climb to the top of the state
Capitol dome and remove the Con
federate battle flag.”
He said the banner is resented by
blacks and “better-thinking white
people.”
The NA ACP also is campaigning
to bring down Confederate battle
flags at statchouscs in Alabama and
South Carolina, as well as remove
Confederate flags from the designs of
the Georgia and Mississippi state
flags.
Capitol security police were un
der orders from Gov. Guy Hunt not to
allow anyone to reach the Capitol.
Key index falls for third straight month
WASHINGTON — The govern
ment said Tuesday its chief eco
nomic forecasting gauge fell for a
third consecutive month in Decem
^ her, the traditional, but no infallible,
signal of an impending recession.
While some economists said the
three downturns were indeed fore
^ telling an end to the record five-year
,,, peacetime expansion, other analysts
< disagreed, contending that 1988 will
feature slower growth but no outright
.^downturn.
The Commerce Department’s
Index of Leading Economic Indica
tors has taken on added significance
since the record 508-point decline in
stock prices which occurred on Oct.
19.
The 0.2 percent December de
cline in the index followed a sharp 1.2
percent November drop, which had
been the biggest setback in more than
six years, and a smaller 0.1 percent
decrease in October.
Since the leading index was cre
ated in 1948, it has fallen for three
I
months a total of 12 times. In eight of
those instances, a recession fol
lowed. The other four times eco
nomic growth slowed but there was
no recession.
The last time the index declined
three months in a row was from June
through August in 1984. No reces
sion followed, although the economy
entered a two-year period in which
growth slowed as a soaring trade
deficit robbed American manufac
turers of sales.
Some economists insisted that the
leading index was signalling an ac
tual recession, which they said had
been triggered by a loss of consumer
confidence after the collapse of stock
market prices.
“The question now is not whether
we arc in a recession, but how long
and how deep it will be,” said Irwin
Kellner, chief economist of Manu
facturers Hanover Trust.
Michael Evans, head of a Wash
ington forecasting firm, said he also
believed the recession has begun,
noting a second economic report
Tuesday which showed that sales of
new homes fell in December for the
second consecutive month. The
housing industry is often one of the
first sectors to show weakness in an
economic downturn.
The Commerce Department re
port said that home sales fell 6.2
percent in December, the biggest
setback in seven months, with the
weakness concentrated in the North
east.
The Reagan administration, how
ever, downplayed the sign ificancc of
the leading index. Beryl Sprinkel, the
president’s chief economic advisor,
told reporters that the administration
had no intention of changing its fore
cast of continued economic growth in
1988.
The administration’s 2.4 percent
GNP forecast is the most pessimistic
government outlook since 1981, but
it is still above the consensus forecast
of many private analysts.
i
Early spring
is on the way
PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa. —
Those dreary days of winter got you
down? Don’t despair, spring is just
around the comer if you believe
Punxsulawney Phil, the weather
forecasting groundhog who pre
dicted an early thaw Tuesday for
only the ninth time in 101 years.
At sunrise, the woodchuck was
whisked out of his luxurious burrow
in a muddy clearing atop Gobbler’s
Knob and looked about at a crowd of
* reporters, photographers arid sev
*■ eral hundred Groundhog Day cele
brants. But he failed to see his
•• shadow.
* According to Groundhog Day
tradition, if a groundhog sees its
shadow after crawling out of its
burrow, six weeks of winter will
follow. If it doesn’t, spring will ar
rive early.
Phil’s fame hasgiven rise to furry
forecasters elsewhere, who deliv
ered a split verdict Tuesday.
In Quarryville, Pa., Octarao
Orphic saw his shadow at 7:11 a.m.
The woodchuck crawled out of his
burrow at the Slumbering Ground
hog Lodge, spotted his shadow, then
went back inside to keep warm dur
•- ing predicted cold days ahead, ac
cording to his supporters.
*•* A groundhog named Jimmy in
bun Prairie, Wis., also saw his
shadow Tuesday morning.
But Buckeye Chuck, Ohio’s offi
cial groundhog, along with General
Lee of Atlanta, New York City’s
Woody the Woodchuck, and
Dunkirk Dave of Dunkirk, N.Y.,
agreed with Phil.
West Virginia’s groundhogs
were indecisive. Concord Charlie
saw his shadow, but a grouchy
French Creek Freddie finally
emerged to rain, a gray sky and no
shadow.
Folks in Punxsutawney, a west
ern Pennsylvania mountain com
mumty of 8,(XX), scoff at all of Phil’s
imitators, no matter what their fore
casts.
“Phil is the only true weather
forecaster,” said James Means,
president of the Punxsutawncy
Groundhog Club and leader of its
“inner circle,” a group of about a
dozen prominent businessmen who
decide Phil’s prediction in advance.
The group took Phil from his
year-round home at the town library
and placed him inside the burrow
several hours before dawn. They
plucked him out at the first light of
day in a steady, cold rain.
John Bruce/Daily Nebraskan
Hidden staffer kept police informed during siege
LUMBERTON, N.C. — When heads were counted during the j
hostage siege at The Robesonian newspaper, reporter Raymond
Godfrey was nowhere to be found. He had slipped away during the !
confusing early minutes and had hidden in a darkened office.
During the next 10 hours Godfrey would become a vital link to Gov.
Jim Martin’s office, which was negotiating the release of 17 people j
taken hostage Monday by two armed American Indians who said they
were protesting the death of a black jail inmate.
Hostages were released throughout the day until foe last seven were
freed and Eddie Hatcher, 30, and Timothy Jacobs, 19, members of
Tuscarora faction of the Lumbee Indians, surrendered at 8 p.m.
Curtis bill stays with appropriations committee
An attempt to rerefer LB 1042, providing for the continuation of the
College of Technical Agriculture at Curtis failed on the floor of the
Legislature Tuesday.
Sen. Jim McFarland of Lincoln, a member of the Education Commit
tee, sought to have that bill moved from the Appropriations Committee
to the Education Committee because, “it specified a mission” and that
“clearly make it an education issue.”
Bill for uniform school opening date sent to floor
The Education committee struck a compromise, then sent to the floor i
of the Legislature a bill that would establish a uniform opening date for
the stale’s public schools. „
As amended, LB841 would allow schools to open before Sept. 1
] beginning in 1990. The original bill — sponsored by Sens. David
| Bernard- Stevens of North Platte and Stan Schel Ipeper of S tan ton—tied
the opening date to Labor Day.
Proponents have said the bill is designed to benefit the tourism
industry in Nebraska. They say families could use the Labor Day
j weekend for vacations. And that, they say, would increase revenue and
taxes that could help finance education.
Reagan attempts
to salvage aid
WASHINGTON — President
Reagan made a last-ditch effort to
salvagchis$36.2 million aid package
for the Contra rebels on Tuesday by
promising to release money for aims
and ammunition only if Congress
agrees.
In an Oval Office address shunned
by three major television networks,
Reagan argued that Wednesday’s
vote in the House amounted to noth
ing less than “win or lose for peace
and freedom. It is yes or no to
America’s national security.”
“Our support is needed now —
tomorrow will be too late,” Reagan
said, pleading support for the Con
tras’ battle against the leftist govern
ment of Nicaragua.
It was unclear whether Reagan’s
last-minute maneuver would sway
those undecided about Wednesday’s
crucial vote. Prior to the evening
speech, Democratic leaders had said
the president was likely to lose.
“I think there’s going lobe a bipar
tisan group tomorrow against this
proposal,” said House Majority
Leader Thomas Foley, D-Wash.
But Reagan argued that the Con
tras represented the last hope to pre
vent the spread of communism in
Central America and must not aban
doned.
“If we cut off aid to the freedom
lighters, then the Sandinistas can go
back to their old ways,” Reagan said.
Initially, Reagan proposed that
the plan’s S3.6 million for weapons
would be held back until at least
March 31. It would be released only
il he found that no cease-fire had
been achieved and the Sandinistas
weren’t abiding by their promises for
democratic reform.
An article on a public hearing for
LB890 in the Jan. 26 issue of the
Daily Nebraskan misquoted Rosalce
Ycaworth, dean and professor of the
College of Nursing at the University
of Ncbraska-Lincoln.
Ycaworth testified that associate
degree education in nursing pro
grams most appropriately belongs in
community colleges, and that a stu
dent who earns an associate degree
rather than a licensed practical nurs
ing program has transferable college
credit and can build upon that degree
for a higher one.
Ycaworth cautioned that pro
grams need to be accredited by the
National League for Nursing for
credit to be transferable.
Ycaworth’s name also was mis
spelled in the article.
A Jan. 29 Daily Nebraskan article
on Dean Batliato contained an error.
While Batliato was quoted correctly,
after checking a local bookstore the
DN confirmed that Jerry Lucas, not
jjerry West, co-wrote “The Memory
Book.”
Nebraska n
* Editor Mike Reilley
472 1786
Managing Editor Jen Deselms
Assoc News Editors Curt Wegner
Chrli Anderson
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