Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 1, 1988)
T News Digest TNeg^8 Tutu and other leaders arrested CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other religious leaders from all races were arrested Monday while kneeling near Parliament with a peti tion against government bans on anti apartheid groups. Membersof a procession T utu and his colleagues had led recited the Lord’s Prayer as police sprayed them w ith jets of water and loaded them into vans. All the detainees were freed in a lew' hours and the churchmen said they would continue protests regard less of the consequences. Their peti tion referred loan order last Wednes day prohibiting political activity by 18 major anti-apartheid organiza tions. Riot police blocked Tutu and two dozen other clergymen, wearing robes and holding Bibles, as they tried to march toward Parliament from nearby St. George’s Cathedral, the main Anglican church in central Cape Town. They knelt and linked arms as a policeman called through a bullhorn that the gathering was illegal. Offi cers escorted the protesters into vans as others aimed jets from water can nons at scores of protesters who remained on the sidewalk praying and singing an African hymn. After being told at a police station that charges might be filed later, the white, black, mixed-race and Indian clergymen were freed. They held a news conference at St. George’s, which was surrounded by policemen. “We are not defying the law,” said Tutu, the black foe of apartheid who won the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize. “We arc obeying God. We also obey God every day.” “In the past, it was possible for people to say it was the usual rabble rousers demonstrating. They can't say it any more. It’s the church.” The Rev. Allan Boesak, mixed race president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, said the white authorities would view the protest as “an act of subversion.” “We told the South African gov ernment that we had decided we would be obedient to God,” he said. “That is a higher law to us.” Nebraska land values up in lyo / The val lie of all lypes of Nebraska agricultural land rose 8.3 percent during 1987, according to year-end estimates issued Monday by the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City. The value of land in the bank’s 10th District, which includes all or parts of Nebraska and si x other states, rose an estimated 5.1 percent. Bank analysts think the increase in land prices may mark the end of a seven-year crash in rural real estate, the worst decline in a half-century. “We think there’s room for some optimism, not wild optimism, but I think we’ve seen the bottom,” said Lynn Gibson, assistant economist at the back. “1988 may be about the same — nothing w ild and cra/y, but fairly steady.” The bank’s latest statistics are based on a survey of 151 bankers in Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colo rado, New Mexico and portions of Missouri and Wyoming. In Ne braska, 51 bankers reported. The survey asked bank officers familiar with the land market in their area to estimate the value of farm and ranch land at the end of the fourth quarter of 1987. The survey breaks land into three categories: non-irrigated cropland, irrigated cropland and rangeland. Throughout the district, land values rose in all three categories from the fourth quarter of 1986 to the fourth quarter of J987. It also rose between the third quarter of last year and the end of the year. The same trends showed up in Nebraska, where the increase in land values from the end of the third quarter to the end of the fourth was 3.14 percent. Late in 1986 is when things seemed to bottom, at least in Ne braska, Gibson said. The low point in non-irrigated Nebraska cropland occurred during the third quarter of 1986 when prices hit $429 an acre. The stale’s irrigated cropland bot tomed outduring the fourth quarterof that year at $763 an acre. Nebraska ranch land hit bottom at the same lime at $120 an acre. Gibson cited several reasons for the gradual improvement in land prices. The number of farmers and ranchers going out of business and selling land has slowed, she said. And those who did not have high debts have begun to buy land as the prices approached a level they considered reasonable. “When land got low-cnough that it could begin to pay for itself, people started coming back in,” she said. Federal commodity programs provided income subsidies that helped maintain producers’ cash flow, Gibson said. And livestock prices remained strong through 1987. Anti-Noriega strike stumbles in Panama PANAMA CITY, Panama — A general strike called by opponents of Panama’s military regime faltered Monday, with transportation and most commerce proceeding uninterrupted. But the strike, called to press for the resignation of strongman Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, appeared somewhat more effective in indus try. Intimidation, censorship and an apparent lack of faith in the effec tiveness of mass action conspired against the strike’s success. The fact that Monday was payday also hurt the strike call. Reagan to ratify existing Panamanian sanctions WASHINGTON — President Reagan plans no new economic sanctions against Panama, even though he has determined that Panama has not been cooperating in curbing drug trafficking to the United .Stales, a U.S. official said Monday. The official said that penalties to be announced on Tuesday had already been applied against Panama and thus would have no material impact on that country. A1986 u.S. law decreed that countries which do not take steps to hall drug trafficking to the United States arc no longer eligible for U.S. aid and arc not entitled to U.S. support for their assistance requests to international lending institutions. ‘Hooligans’ go on rampage in Soviet City MOSCOW — “Hooligans” went on a rampage in a city in A/cr baidzhan, Tass reported Monday. An Armenian dissident said “thugs” beat and knifed Armenians as the ethnic hatred kindled by a territorial dispute spread in the Caucasus republics. A Soviet deputy prosecutor general said over the weekend that two people in another region of Azerbaidzhan had been killed in “disorders” sparked by Armenian demands that a part of Azerbaidzhan be reat tached to their republic. Mecham impeachment trial begins in Arizona PHOENIX, Ariz.—The Arizona Senate on Monday opened the first impeachment trial of a U.S. governor in six decades, and within hours an attorney for Gov. Evan Mecham lost a plea for dismissal of the charges against the first-term Republican. “This man hasn’tdipped his hands into public funds,” attorney Jerris Leonard said. "He hasn’t ripped off the treasury. He hasn’t committed high crimes in office, and I urge you to dismiss these articles of impeachment.” Bui the 29 voting senators gave Mecham an overwhelming rejection. On 11 different motions to dismiss portions of the charges, the largest number voting for Mecham was seven and the smallest was two. freeJjmversity CLASSES JUST //”"'') FOR THE ,, Uj/ FUN OF IT! f-MiA Non-Credit Mini-Courses ^-^7 \ j i March 7-April 13 J Hairstyles Meditation Manicuring Tanning Lotus Basic Bicycle Repair I Job Hunting Heritage Hoedown Earth Religions How to Come Out Travel Workshop Beginning Bridge Funtastic Drinks Financial Planning Proper Care of Your Pet j Macintosn computers The Dynamics of Soul Travel Krishnamurti: Transformation of Man Seif-Hypnosis for Self Improvement Love, Sex and Choosing Your Mate REGISTER FOR CLASSES: This Week — Room 200 Nebraska Union Registration Fee — 1.00 for Non-Student First lady attacks casual drug use WASHINGTON — Nancy Reagan said Monday that casual users of drugs are an “accomplice to murder” because they help finance traffickers willing to comma brutal crimes to keep supply lines open. Kicking off a White House Conference for a Drug-Free America at which the federal government’s anti-drug efforts were criticized, Mrs. Reagan dramatized her “just-say-no” campaign with a speech focusing on those whose lives have been ruined by drugs. With President Reagan serving in the un usual role of warm-up speaker, the first couple talked about the drug problem from both the supply and demand vantage points. “With all the headlines about how we’re losing the drug war, let’s keep in mind the progress we’ve made,” the president told con fcrcncc participants at a local hotel. He ticked off statistics he said show the United Stales is making headway, saying “drug seizures are at an all-time high.” “But as significant as stopping smugglers and pushers is, ending the demand for drugs is how, in the end, we’ll win,” the president said. Mrs. Reagan picked up the subject there, saying that while progress has been made, “many ignorant ideas persist. And one of the worst is that drugs don’t hurt anyone except the person who’s using them.” She called attention to several people in the audience who lost loved ones because of drug abuse and cited the murder of Colombia’s chief prosecutor, Attorney General Carlos Hoyos, who was abducted by a half-dozen gunmen whom the government accused of working for local cocaine barons. Panel will not hear pregnancy case again OMAHA — A federal appeals court has refused to rehear a case in which an Omaha woman said she was discriminated against because she was fired for being pregnant out of wedlock The U.S. Eighth Circuit court of Appeals decided it would not as a group hear the lawsuit brought by Crystal Chambers, who lost her job as an arts-and-cral ts teacher at the Omaha Girls Club in 1982. The Girls Club fired Ms. Chambers under a rule barring pregnant workers who arc single because, the club said, such workers would not be good role models. Ms. Chambers sued, but a federal court ruled in favor oftheGirlsClub. Ms. Chambers appealed, but the Eighth Circuit sided with the Girls Club last year in a 2-1 decision. Ms. Chambers then asked the court as a whole to hear the case, but the request was denied last week. A copy of the decision arrived at the court’s Omaha ol I ice Monday. 11 was accompanied by a d i ssent by Chief Judge Donald Lay and joined by two other judges. Lay said the Girls C lub s liring ol Ms. Chambers because she was pregnant “is the most blatant form of sex discrimination that can exist.” Ms. Chambers does not have a telephone and could not be reached for comment. Lawyer Robert D. Mullin Jr., who represented the Girls Club, said he and the club were pleased with the ruling. Nebraskan Editor Mike Rellley 472-1766 Managing Editor J#n Ceselms Assoc News Editors Curt Wagner Chris Anderson Editorial Page Editor Diana Johnson Wire Editor Bob Nelson Copy Desk Editor Joan Rezac Sports Editor Jeff Apel Arts & Entertain ment editor Geoff McMurtry Asst Arts & Entertainment Editor Mlcki Haller Graphics Editor Tom Lauder Asst. Graphics Editor Jody Beem Photo Chief Mark Davis Night News Editors Joeth Zucco Kip Fry Art Director John Bruce Circulation Manager Eric Shanks General Manager Daniel Shattll Production Manager Katherine Pollcky Advertising Manager Marcia Miller Asst Advertising Manager Bob Bates Publications Board Chairman Don Johnson, 472-3611 The Daily Nebraskan (USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board Nebraska Union 34, 1400 R St., Lincoln, NeD (except holidays); weekly during the summer session Subscription price is $35 tor one year Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 n Si, Lincoln, Neb 68588 0448 Second class postage paid at Lincoln, Neb ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1988 DAILY NEBRASKAN