P2C News Digest Saya.**
Three aftershocks rattle Northern California
SAN FRANCISCO -- Three strong after
shocks rattled a jittery Northern California on
Thursday, and rescuers who found fewer cars
than feared under a collapsed freeway said the
World Series may have reduced the rush-hour
traffic.
“Maybe we got lucky because of the
game,” Oakland police Sgt. Bob Crawford
said. “Normally at 5 o’clock in the afternoon
this area would be bumper-to-bumper. Maybe
the World Series saved our lives.”
Power and commuters returned to much of
downtown San Francisco as a tentative city
tried to recover and regroup following Tues
day’s earthquake, which claimed an estimated
270 lives and S2 billion in damage.
At the 1 1/4-mile stretch of the collapsed
double-deck Interstate 880, the Nimitz Free
way in Oakland, workers cut holes in concrete
and used cranes to pull out pancake-flat cars.
Rescuers reported finding the cars as far apart
as 60 feet, rather than bumper-to-bumper as
had been feared, Assistant Fire Chief A1 Sig
wart said.
That could lower the death toll in the high
way rubble -- estimated earlier at 250,
Crawford said.
On Tuesday, many people left work early to
watch the third game of the World Scries,
scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m., and 60,000
people already were across the bay in San
Francisco at Candlestick Park when the quake
struck at 5:04 p.m.
The World Scries will resume Tuesday at
Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
Oakland Mayor Lionel Wilson said Thurs
day that only 85 people were officially re
ported missing.
On Thursday morning, three aftershocks
struck south of San Francisco. The first, meas
uring 5.0 on the Richter scale of ground mo
tion, hit at 3:15 a.m. and was centered near
Watsonville, about eight mi|£s from the epi
center of Tuesday ’ s 6.9 quake, according to the
state Office of Emergency Service. Two other
aftershocks measured 4.5. ,,
“No one is really sleeping around here,
Watsonville resident John Mu^hy said.
Fifty-six people were treated at a Watson
ville community clinic, mostly for bruises and
frazzled nerves, city spokeswoman Lorraine
Washington said. About 150 people were
evacuated from -a National Guard Armory
shelter after a natural gas leak.
As of early Thursday, more than 1,400 after
shocks had been recorded. The strongest, 5.2
on the Richter scale, struck within 40 minutes
of the initial jolt, according the U.S. Geologi
cal Survey.
Across the Bay area, the nation’s fourth
largcsl metropolitan area with more than 6
million people, shaken cities tried to cope with
still-limited services, sirappcu puucc anu ure
departments and transportation havoc created
by the closing of freeways and the Bay Bridge,
the lifeline that links Oakland and San Fran
cisco.
A transportation department spokesman
said a large marine barge crane was being
moved into place to lift the fallen upper deck
slab of the bridge, which might be reopened in
three weeks.
Frustration and despair were evident on city
streets.
Throughout the district, sirens wailed, port
able generators hummed and heavy equip
ment, brought in to finish the destruction the
earthquake left unfinished, groaned.
Marina residents gathered at police barri
cades and begged for permission to retrieve
food, clothing and medicine from their homes,
but were denied because officials said the area
was unsafe.
■..—i-1
Gov. Orr calls special session
LINCOLN -- Nebraska’s Legisla
ture will be called into special session
in mid-November to deal with the
state’s troubled personal property tax
system, Gov, Kay Orr said Thursday.
The governor didn’t specify a
starting date for the session but said
she is working with Speaker of the
Legislature Bill Barrett of Lexington
to set one.
Her announcement follows sev
eral legislators’ comments that such a
session should be called to deal with
potential revenue loss stemming
from a.recent state Supreme Court
decision.
Orr told a news conference
crowded with legislative staffers,
lobbyists and lawmakers that the
administration would offer two pro
posals:
• To redefine real property by
statute to include clearly such items
as buried pipelines, buried cables,
overhead cables, transmission towers
and lines, railroad tracks, fixed sig
nals and right-of-ways, and other
similar types of property attached to
real estate.
The governor said the proposal
“would retain 80 percent of the cen
trally assessed property (the items the
proposal would redefine) that would
be exempted” by a recent decision by
the state Supreme Court, or more than
S30 million in tax revenues.
She said she has had no response
from the companies that might be
affected by such a move, but “there
are other states that do this already.”
Orr said her reason for calling the
special session “in great part is to
make sure that we don’t lose the $30
million.
“If we don’t do anything in 1989,
we may lose that money,” she said.
• To clarify state law on tax re
funds to ensure that refunds for the
prior years’ taxes aren’t permitted, in
case courts declare the stale’s per
sonal property tax system unconstitu
tional.
It also would specify that only
taxpayers who have pursued their
“equalization” claims and have
been successful in court are entitled
to refunds for the years in dispute.
“Equalization” claims are claims
properly submitted to the State Board
of Equalization and Assessment to
equalize the valuation of property for
tax purposes and acted on by the five
member board that includes Orr.
The second proposal also would
prohibit injunctions delaying the
payment of taxes in such “equaliza
tion” cases and require those making
such protests to pay their taxes while
such protests are pending. It would
add a penalty for willful failure to
timely pay taxes.
Recent calls for a special legisla
tive session have followed a Ne
braska Supreme Court ruling that
some Orr administration officials say
threatens to deprive local govern
ments of $222 million a year, or 19
percent of the revenue derived from
property taxes.
The court ruled that pipeline
companies were being unfairly taxed
on personal property because rail
roads were exempt from such a tax.
In the wake of the ruling, more
than 900 companies sought similar
exemptions which were denied by the
equalization board. More than 200
have appealed that decision to the
state Supreme Court.
E. German reformists warn of protests
BERLIN - Protesters may fill
East German streets again unless the
new leader, Egon Krenz, belies his
hard-line record and begins the kind
of reforms under way elsewhere in
the Soviet bloc, pro-democracy ac
tivists said Thursday.
Krenz made clear almost immedi
ately after replacing Erich Honeckcr
on Wednesday that the Communist
Party would resist the democratic
trends evident in Poland and Hun
gary.
“Krenz stands for the continu
ation of neo-Stalinsl politics,” said
Reinhard Schult, a founder of New
Forum, the largest pro-democracy i
group in East Germany.
Speaking on RIAS radio of West i
Berlin, he said Krenz “did not have
one word to say about the causes of
the current crisis and made no offer
for talks with the opposition.”
Author Rolf Schneider, a critic of
the government, told RIAS: “The
crisis will keep dragging on.”
A Lutheran church leader said
privately “the demonstrations will
start again soon” unless the govern
ment changes its course. The church
has been in the forefront of reform
ifforts in East Germany.
Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich
jenscher of West Germany, to which
ens of thousands of East Germans
lave fled in search of freedom, urged
Krenz to make “fundamental re
forms.” He said East Germans de
mand “their basic rights.”
Reform activists in East Germany
said 1,000 people held a peaceful
protest in the northern city of
Greifswald hours after Krenz, 52,
was named Communist Party chief.
He is a protege of Honccker, 77, who
led the party for 18 years.
Senate defeats flag burning amendment
WASHINGTON - The Senate
Thursday defeated a proposed consti
tutional amendment to ban burning
and desecration of the American flag,
delivering a sharp rebuff to President
George Bush on a high-profile issue.
The vote was 51-48 in favor, but
constitutional amendments require
approval by a two-thirds margin in
both houses of Congress and the
Senate vote thus fell far short.
“We can support the American
flag without changing the American
Constitution,” Majority Leader
Nebraskan
Editor Amy Edwards Photo Chief Eric Gregory
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Arts 4 Entertainment _ , . .... _ „
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Diversions Editor Joeth Zucco 473-7301
Sower Editor Lae Rood
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braska Union 34,1400 R St , Lincoln, NE, Monday through Friday during the academic year;
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1969 DAILY NEBRASKAN
George Mitchell, D-Maine, declared
before the vote.
The measure would authorize the
state and federal governments to ban
burning and desecration of the flag.
Eighteen Democrats joined 33
Republicans in support of the amend
ment, while 38 Democrats and 10
Republicans voted against it.
Bush repeatedly called for ap
proval of such a measure, saying a
simple statute such as one approved
by the Senate last week would be
inadequate.
Critics of the amendment said it
ampunted to tampering the constitu
tional right of Americans to freedom
of expression. But they also ex
pressed concern that opposition
could be turned against them at elec
tion time in view of the power of the
flag as a political symbol as demon
strated in last year’s campaign.
Those concerns appeared to case
in recent days. Asked why that was,
Mitchell told reporters this morning:
“I think the sound judgment of the
American people.”
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Andy Manhart/Daily Nebraskan
Debate over nuclear plant
seismic standards revived
wAaniiMj iuin — inc ban
Francisco Bay area earthquake
revived a debate over whether 16
year-old federal seismic standards
for nuclear power plants are tough
enough.
Tuesday’s quake caused no
damage to the five active nuclear
reactors in California, according to
the Nuclear Regulatory Commis
sion. The three that were operating
at the time are still running nor
mally, said Frank Ingram, an NRC
spokesman.
The five reactors are in South
ern California: two at Diablo Can
yon, 12 miles southwest of San
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Onofre, five miles south of San
Clemente.
Under the 1973 standards set by
the NRC.each nuclear power plant
must be built to quake-resistance
specifications that differ accord
ing to local seismic conditions.
The standards for Diablo Canyon
arc the stiffest in the country, In
gram said.
The risk of nuclear plant acci
dents Irom earthquakes was a
major point of contention between
the industry and environmentalists
during the 1960s and early 1970s,
when site planning was done for
most of the 110 plants now operat
ing in this country.
The chief danger is that a quake
would cause a crack in the piping
that carries cooling water to the
reactor core. A rapid loss of cool
ant could cause the fuel rods in the
core to melt, possibly allowing
radioactive material to escape into
the atmosphere.
Although the seismic issue has
faded in recent years, the environ
mental group Public Citizen,
founded by consumer advocate
Ralph Nader, said Wednesday the
Northern California quake under
scored a need to reexamine the
nuclear construction standards. |
“Federal regulators should at |
least view (the) earthquake as a f
final warning that seismic stan- I
dards and testing for all nuclear
reactors as well as evacuation
planning needs to be substantially
upgraded before the next quake
hits,” said Ken Bossong, director
of Public Citizen’s Critical Mass
Energy Project.
Bossong said at least two nu
clear plants are “perilously close
to known fault lines.’’ He cited |
Diablo Canyon, which is near the 1
Hosgri fault, and Millstone, near j
the point at which the Honey Hill I
and Lake Char fault lines intersect |
in Connecticut $