News Digest fears*
Omaha selected to host vice-presidential debate
OMAHA — The presidential campaigns of
George Bush and Michael Dukakis Wednesday
agreed to stage the campaign’s only vice presi
dential debate here, and city officials say they
anticipate few problems preparing for the Oct.
5 event.
Gov. Kay Orr said she received a telephone
call from Bush campaign chief Jim Baker at
10:30 a.m. Wednesday notifying her that
Omaha was selected to host a debate between
Democratic Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas and
Republican Sen. Dan Quayle of Indiana.
“It was a wonderful phone call and this is
going to be a wonderful event for Omaha and
the state of Nebraska,” she said.
“We arc thrilled,” said Omaha Mayor Wal
ter Calingcr. “We had every confidence that the
debate would come to Omaha.”
City officials say they do not anticipate any
major problems in preparing for the debate.
“We’ve done all the planning that’s neces
sary and we’re ready to go,” Calingcr said. “We
intend to have a first-class debate and showcase
Omaha and Nebraska to the rest of the nation.
The debate will be held either at the City
Auditorium or the Ak-Sar-Bcn horse racing
complex, because the Broadway musical
“Cats” had already booked the Orphcum Thea
ter, Calingcr said.
Bentsen, campaigning in Texas, said he was
pleased with the Omaha site.
“As 1 indicated last week, I’m a Big Red fan,
so Omaha sounds great to me,” he said.
“I look forward to meeting the junior senator
from Indiana because I think we really ought to
measure and compare our records of experi
ence and accomplishment in the U.S. Senate.”
State Democratic and Republican leaders
expressed pleasure with Wednesday’s an
nouncement.
Mrs. Orr said she didn’t want to take full
credit for the development, but believed com
ments she made Tuesday “pushed the ball over
the goal line ... we have a debate.”
“I’ve been working on this debate for one
and one-half years. I’ll let you all figure out
what changed since yesterday,” she said.
Tuesday, Mrs. Orr had said Democrats were
to blame for delays in naming Omaha as the
site.
Mrs. Orr said she talked to Baker’s staff
Tuesday and had been told that Paul Brountas,
chairman of Michael Dukakis’ campaign, be
lieved Omaha was unacceptable.
But state Democrats disagreed, saying Mrs.
Orr’s comments almost lost the debate for
Omaha.
“I’m especially pleased that it worked out
even aftcrGov. Orr’s outburst yesterday, which
certainly hurt more than it helped our chances
of getting a debate, said State Sen. Don Wesely
of Lincoln, co-chairman of the Dukakis cam
paign in Nebraska’s 1st District.
“The fact is that the Dukakis campaign had
never objected to Omaha as a debate site and
I’m glad that the Dukakis people have decided
to overlook the governor’s unfortunate out
burst," Wesely said.
Chambers to remain candidate for U.S. Senate
State Sen. Ernie Chambers will be
a candidate for the U.S. Senate on the
New Alliance Party ticket Nov. 8.
Chambers, who had been given
until 5 p.m. Wednesday to withdraw
his name from the ballot, failed to
appear at Secretary of State Allen
Beermann’s office to decline the U.S.
Senate nomination.
“By his failure to do anything, he
stays on the U.S. Senate ballot and
comes off the legislative ballot as per
the court order,” Becrmann said
about the Omaha legislator.
Chambers, no stranger to making
reporters play the waiting game,
didn’t leave his office at the state
Capitol until after 5 p.m., leaving
Beermann and reporters waiting on
the second floor.
Chambers gave reporters a copy of
an affidavit of declination of nomina
tion with the word “void” written
across it and a note that said, “This is
what I would have filed, had I chosen
to decline the U.S. Senate nomina
tion.”
He had sought lo be on the ballot
both as the candidate for the U.S.
Senate and for the scat he’s held in the
Legislature for 18 years.
But Nebraska Supreme Court
Chief Justice William Hastings is
sued an opinion last week that Cham
berscouldn’tdoboth. He gave Cham
bers the deadline which, by statute, is
55 days before the Nov. 8 general
election.
Chambers had asked Hastings lo
extend the deadline, but Hastings
denied that request Monday.
Chambers said Hastings was
“wrong and unfair in view of how
long he sat on the opinion.” The hear
ing on Chambers’ arguments in the
stale Supreme Court was August 23.
The opinion was issued Sept. 8.
The affidavit given to reporters by
a quiet Chambers took yet another
shot at the Hastings opinion. It said
Hastings' opinion was contrary to the
constitution and laws of the state of
Nebraska.
■ ..i m • ....
Chambers has acknowledged that
he could accept the U.S. Senate bid
and easily mount a successful write
in campaign for his legislative seal.
He has scheduled a Thursday morn
ing news conference in Omaha.
Last week, Chambers said his ulti
mate aim was to be on the ballot for
both the U.S. Senate seat and the
Legislature.
Chambers was nominated for the
U.S. Senate seat at the New Alliance
Party convention in July.
— . .. ...—■i
*
Gilbert batters
CANCUN, Mexico — Hurri
cane Gilbert, one of the most de
structive storms ever, slammed
into the Yucatan Peninsula
Wednesday, shattering windows,
drenching the land and cutting off
the Caribbean resorts of Cancun
and Cozumel.
Thousands fled from the storm,
which has killed at least 14 people
elsewhere. The Jamaican Embassy
in Washington said the storm left
500,000 people homeless in that
island nation.
The hurricane’s 160 mph winds
ripped over Co/.umel island earlier
Wednesday. Ham radio operators
in the area said Gilbert knocked
down a radio and television com
munications lower, uprooted trees
and blew the roofs off buildings.
The winds leveled slum areas in
Cancan on the Mexican mainland,
where many people live in card
board shacks, the operators said. In
Quintana Roo state, huge waves
lashed at Caribbean resoit beaches,
and trees were downed by the
punishing winds, Mexican offi
cials said.
“The sound of the wind outside
is horrible,” said receptionist Pablo
Torres at the Hotel Carrillos in
£ancun in a telephone interview as
the storm approached. “You
couldn’t leave even if you wanted
to.”
There were no immediate re
ports of casualties in Mexico.
The National Hurricane Center
in Coral Gables, Fla., said a hurri
cane watch was in effect along the
Texas coast from Brownsville to
Port Arthur and along the coast of
northeast Mexico from Tampico
north.
At 6 p.m. EDT Gilbert was
centered near latitude 21.3 north,
longitude 88.8 west and approach
ing the north coast of Yucatan,
about 60 miles east-northeast of
the provincial capital, Merida, the
statement said. The storm was
about 600 miles southeast of
Brownsville.
Gilbert’s winds had decreased
to 140 mph as it moved over land,
but the center said wind speed was
expected to rise once tne storm
moved back over the warm Gulf of
Mexico waters. It said the hurri
cane was moving west-northwest
at 15 mph.
Gilbert is a Category 5 storm,
the strongest and deadliest type of
hurricane. Such storms have maxi
mum sustained winds greater than
155 mph and can cause cata
strophic damage.
Only two Category 5 hurricanes
have hit the United Stales—a 1935
storm that killed 408 people in
Florida, and Hurricane Camille,
which devastated the Mississippi
coast in 1969 and killed 256
people.
Jamaican Prime Minister Ed
ward Seaga called the storm "the
worst natural disaster in the mod
em history of Jamaica.”
Shootout ends hostage crisis, 3 hijackers killed
MASERU, Lesotho — South Afri
can police killed three hijackers and
arrested the fourth in a shootout
Wednesday night that ended a hos
tage drama in which the gunmen
seized a bus carrying 71 pilgrims
headed to see the pope, South African
officials said.
One of the hostages, a young
woman, was killed, and 11 passengers
were injured, the officials said.
The report of the shootout came
from South African police headquar
ters. Lesotho’s military government
had requested South African help in
handling the hijacking. Police said
the shootout occurred when the hi
jackers tried to drive the bus through
the closed gales of the British High
Commission in Maseru.
The hijackers began shooting, and
South African officers relumed fire.
Police said the casualties among
the hostages were ‘‘apparently caused
by the wild firing of the hijackers.”
They said no policemen were injured.
The shooting broke out about 20
minutes after Pope John Paul II ar
rived in Maseru, eight hours behind
schedule. The hijackers earlier had
demanded to meet with the pope and
Lesotho’s king, Moshocshoc II, a
government official said.
After nightfall, gunfire was heard
at the site where the bus was parked,
and flares lit up the sky. Reporters
were blocked from getting close
enough to the scene to determine what
was happening but saw ambulances
take bloodied victims to a hospital.
Police ordered journalists at the
scene to disperse and then chased
them away with whips. The bus was
hijacked Tuesday night en route to
Maseru.
Before the shootout, helicopters
and armed cars blanketed central
Maseru as 100 armed soldiers and
police set up roadblocks and kept
spectators at least four blocks from
the bus, parked outside the British
High Commission.
Voters not strongly committed
National poll shows movement to Dukakis
NEW YORK — Gov. Michael
Dukakis and Vice President
George Bush were essentially tied
in a national poll released Wednes
day, with 48 percent supporting
Dukakis for president and 45 per
* cent backing Bush.
The ABC News-Washington
poll was conducted Sept. 7
gh Tuesday, finishing two
days after two other polls that had
found an eight-point Bush lead.
That indicated some movement to
Dukakis in those last two days.
An ABC-Post poll released a
week ago had also found an eight
point Bush lead, 51-43. That poll
was done Aug. 31 through Sept. 7.
Pollsters have stressed that
many voters are not strongly com
milted to either candidate, allow
ing for a unusually fluid race. The
new ABC Post poll, of 1,092 likely
voters, did not delve into underly
ing issues.
A Los Angeles Times poll also
released Wednesday put the race at
a 47-47 tie. It was done Friday
through Sunday, the same period
as a Gal lup poll that found Bush up,
49-41. A CBS News-New York
Times poll done Thursday through
Sunday was the other to find an
eight-point Bush lead, 47-39.
The ABC-Posl poll had a mar
gin of sampling error of approxi
mately plus or minus three percent
age points. The CBS-Times poll
also was given a three-point mar
gin; Gallup’s and the Los Angeles
Times’, four points.
NelSra^kan
Editor Curt Wagner
472-1766
Managing Editor Diana Johnson
Assoc News Editors Jane Hlrt
Lee Rood
Editorial
Page Editor Mike Rellley
Wire Editor Bob Nelson
Copy Desk Editor Chuck Oreen
Sports Editor Steve Sipple
Arts & Entertain
ment Editor Mlckl Haller
Diversions Editor Joeth Zucco
Sower Editor
Graphics Editor Darryl Mattox
Photo Chief Eric Gregory
Assi Photo Chief David Fahleson
Night News Editor Amy Edwards
Asst Night News
Editor/Librarian Anna Mohrl
Art Directors John Bruce
Andy Manhart
General Manager Dan Shaft II
Production Manager Katharine Pollcky
Advertising Manager Robert Bates
Sales Manager David Thiemann
Circulation Manager Eric Shanks
Publications Board
Chairman Tom Macy
475-9868
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