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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 9, 1988)
News Digest Bush wins big in Super Tuesday primaries George Bush won Super Tuesday primaries from one end of Dixie to the other, reaping a rich harvest of convention delegates to seize control of the Republican presidential race. Michael Dukakis captured Florida and Mary land in a demonstration of nationwide appeal and Sen. Albert Gore Jr. emerged to split Dixie with Jesse Jackson in the splintered Democratic race. Jackson and Gore dueled one another in a series of close contests in the 14 southern and border states on the busiest night of this or any other presidential nominating season. That left Rep. Richard Gephardt the odd man out in the Democratic contest. He won only his home state of Missouri and was failing to qualify for convention delegates in several states. Bush routed Sen. Bob Dole and his Repub lican rivals in state after state by margins of 2 1 or 3-1, and exulted in a “unique political happening.” Pat Robertson’s best states were Arkansas and Louisiana, where he challenged Dole for second place. But he was running third in his home state of Virginia and overall the South failed to produce any spark at all for the former TV evangelist. Rep. Jack Kemp was in fourth place in most of the states, and was a candidate for with drawal from the race. “You’ve given me and Barbara a tremen dous lift,” Bush said in Houston. And indeed the voters had. The vice president led for over 550 of the 712 Republican delegates at stake. Campaign manager Lee Atwater predicted the vice president’s total for the night would exceed 600. Dole congratulated the vice president on an “extremely good day,” adding, “He’ll probably sleep better than I will.” But the Kansas senator tried to turn the talk to next week’s Illinois primary, saying, “Tomorrow we will be on the road to recovery.” Bush romped to victory in Texas, Florida, Georgia, Virginia, Kentucky, Mississippi, Alabama, Maryland, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Louisiana and Massachusetts. North Carolina was a closer call — but it landed in Bush s column anyway. Dole’s best states were Missouri, where his lead was paper-thin, and Oklahoma, where he trailed narrowly. Dukakis was a winner at home in Massachu setts, as well as in Florida, Rhode Island and Maryland, and he led handsomely in Texas. “I feel good about the South,” said the man wun tnc incw c,ngiana accent. Gore captured his home state of Tennessee and added Kentucky, Oklahoma and North Carolina to his column as he jump-started his candidacy in the 14 Southern and border states. He pronounced himself the winner in the battle for the allegiance of the “independently think ing voters who will be the real battleground in the fall” election for the White House. He promised a “long, hard-fought contest” for the nomination. Next stop for Gore; a weekend duel with Jackson and Gephardt in South Carolina. Gephardt won his home state of Missouri hut was running in third or fourth place in several states. He vowed to stay in the race for the industrial state battlegrounds ahead, but aides said in advance that he wouldn’t make much of an effort in next week’s contest in Illinois. Masters and Johnson study chastised by WHO official LONDON — The World Health Organization’s chief AIDS investi gator said Tuesday that sex experts William Masters and Virginia Johnson were “irresponsible” for suggesting AIDS can be transmitted by casual social contact. Dr. Jonathan Mann, the American director of WHO’s Global Program on AIDS, challenged the noted sex researchers to produce scientific evidence or admit they were indulg ing in “idle speculation.” “If it’s just theorizing, then I think they have done us all a grave disserv ice,” Mann told reporters at the First International Conference on the Global Impact of AIDS. About 1,100 specialists from 20 countries attended the start of the three-day meeting at London’s Bar bican Center. In a new book, Masters and Johnson claim U.S. health officials have understated the extent of AIDS among heterosexuals to avoid public panic. They also say that AIDS might be transmitted by casual contact such as from a toilet seat or a waiter’s bleeding finger. They wrote in their book: “The AIDS virus is now running rampant in the heterosexual community.” When that assertion came under fire at a news conference in New York on Monday, Masters said, “I simply believe this.” Johnson, asked the same question, said “I ’m not sure we chose the word ‘rampant’ ourselves.” Mann suggested the authors’ as sertion that AIDS might be more prevalent among heterosexuals than health officials believe was a matter for debate and might be useful if it strengthened awareness that the dis ease can be transmitted both hctcr oscxually and homosexually. “But if they’re talking about put ting their prestige behind the idea that you can catch this from a toilet scat, 1 think that’s irresponsible unless there arc data.” Mann said he strongly objected to the authors’ implication “without data, without information, that the virus spreads in other ways than we know it spreads.” Mann and most other experts be lieve AIDS spreads mainly by sexual contact, through the sharing of needles and from pregnant mothers to their babies. The WHO official suggested that Masters and Johnson were trying to promote their book with headline grabbing findings, saying “publicity about this will un oublcdly sell more books.” He also expressed doubt about the authors’ scientific qualifications regarding AIDS. ‘‘They know a lot about sex. I don’t know how much they know about AIDS,” said Mann, w ho added that he had not read the book and was responding to news reports about its content. During the AIDS conference, Dr. Gary Noble, deputy director of the Centers for Disease control in At lantaand hcadof the federal agency’s AIDS program, also refuted the Masters and Johnson study without mentioning it by name. He said separate U.S. studies confirmed that AIDS is not spread through casual social contact. One study showed that infected people did not pass AIDS to members of their family except through sexual contact. Another study showed that insects cannot transmit the virus. Noble said the incidence of of AIDS among heterosexuals in the United Slates had increased from 1.1 percent of all eases in 1982 to 2.3 percent in 1986. He said health offi cials expected that proportion to increase to 4 to 5 percent by 1991. Demonstrators erect barricades protesting Noriega PANAMA CITY, Panama — Demonstrators protesting the strong man leadership of Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega threw up barricades Tuesday in hundreds of blocks in Panama City. Small groups ofdemonstrators, most of them young, built barricades j of garbage, tires, street signs and dry palm fronds in central and eastern parts of the capital. Scores of barriers were set afire and pi umes of black smoke rose over the city. The protesters ran when approached by riot troops, whose heavy deployment prevented larger demonstrations. Many shopkeepers closed early. Police and soldiers jumped from trucks to chase demonstrators or clear barricades. The riot troops, wearing gas masks and holding clubs and shields, fired tear gas to disperse protesters. JNoon Sunday Deer, wine sales Degm iviarcn n Lincoln residents ot visitors who want some wine with brunch or beer with lunch afternoon on Sundays can get it in restaurants and bars beginning March 27. Mayor Bill Harris said Tuesday that he intends to sign an ordinance, approved 5-0 by the City Council Monday, allowing such sales of wine j or beer for consumption on the premises. The current city ordinance prohibits sale of alcoholic beverages in bars and restaurants until 6 p.m. on Sundays. The new ordinance will allow sale of wine and beer from noon until 11 p.m., but hard liquor still won’t be sold until after 6 p.m. Ortega cancels peace talks with Contras MANAGUA, Nicaragua — President Daniel Ortega canceled truce talks with Contra rebels Tuesday after the rebels said they would not attend a planned meeting in southern Nicaragua. Ortega accused the rebels of sabotaging the talks by demanding preliminary discussions. “This signifies the killing of the possibility of a meeting,’’ he said on Voicc of Nicaragua radio, but suggested new talks no later than the third week in March. Drug blamed in teen murder DEDHAM, Mass. — Rod Mat thews killed, his attorney says, be cause a prescription drug he took for school stoked the fircsof madness in his adolescent mind. In an ironic twist, Matthews’ victim, 14-year-old Shaun Ouillette, also took the drug, Ri talin, for years, using it, his mother says, to cool the frantic behavior that plagued his childhood. “It calmed him down enough so we could help him,” said Jeanne Quinn, the victim’s mother. “I was so proud that he could learn to manage his life.” Matthews, 15, is being tried as an adult on murder charges in the Nov. 20, 1986, slaying of Ouillette. He has pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. The defense has not disputed testimony that Matthews planned the killing for a month, lured his victim to a secluded woods, stalked him from behind, and hit him re peatedly with a baseball bat. His friends have testified he told them of his plans, then showed them the body on two separate occasions. One quoted Matthews as saying he killed Ouillette because “he wanted to know what it was like to kill somebody.” Police testified how Matthews calmly lied to them about Ouillette for the three weeks the boy’s body John Bruce/Daily Nebraskan lay in the snowy woods. In testimony last week, Mat ihews’ mother, Janice, said her ion’s behavior had become a prob lem in the third grade and that he was placed on Ritalin after a brief visit to Pis pediatrician. She cried as she told of the Joctor’s decision to prescribe the Jrug, a stimulant long used to calm hyperactive children and those with Mention problems. The boy s doctor, Theodore Goodman, testified that he relied only on what Mrs. Matthews told him. There was no testing and no follow-up on the drug’s effects. On Monday, psychiatrist Ber nard Yudowitz testified that if a child with mental illness is misdiag nosed and given Ritalin, “impulsiv ily and abnormal behavior increase and their ability to act appropriately in a given setting decreases.” Hostages freed in Lebanon SI DON, Lebanon — The Abu Nidal Palestinian terrorist group Ireed a British relief agency official and his Syrian aide Tuesday, five days after seizing them in this south ern port city, a Sunni Moslem leader reported. Peter Coleridge, 44, Middle East coordinator of the British relief agency Oxfam, and Omar Traboulsi, 31, appeared physically fit when members of Abu Nidal’s Fatan Revolutionary Council drove them to the Sidon apartment of Mustafa Saad, the Sunni leader. I Abu Nidal’s guerrillas seized them Thursday while Coleridge was taking pictures of the Ein cl-Hilwcn Palestinian refugee camp. Abu Nidal, whose real name is Sabry al-Banna, broke with Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Or ganization in the early 1970s and founded the Faian-Revolutionary Council. His followers have been blamed for scores of terrorist acts, including the December 1985 assaults at the Rome and Vienna airports in which 20 people died. Nebraskan Editor Mike Rellley 472-1766 Managing Editor Jen Deselms 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 & E ntertain ment editor Geoff McMurlry Asst. Arts & tntertainment Editor Mlckl Haller Graphics Editor Tom Lauder Asst Graphics Editor Jody Beem Photo Chief Mark Davis Night News Editors Joeth Zucco Kip Fiy Art Director John Bruce General Manage' Daniel Shattll Production Manager Katherine Pollcky Advertising Manager Marcia Miller Assl Advertising Manager Bob Bates Publications Board Chairman Don Johnson, 472- 3611 Professional Adviser Don Walton 473- 7301 M ™®P?.lly Nebraskan (USPS 144 080) is published by the UNL Publications Board braska Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln, Neb (except holidays), weekly during the summer S6SSI0D. hu ^re encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan y2. ’ /(>3 between 9am and 5 p m. Monday through Fnaay The public also access to the Publications Board For information, contact Don Johnson. 472-36 Subscription price is $35 for one year Postmaster Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 v t, Lincoln, Neb 68588 0448 Second class postage paid at Lincom, Neb ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1988 DAILY NEBRASKAN