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March 23, 1990_University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 89 No. ^^77
Proposal for agriculture research approved
Senators agree complex needed
By Jerry Guenther
Staff Reporter
The Nebraska Legislature gave second
round approval Thursday to a proposal
that would allocate $190,000 for plan
ning of an agricultural research complex at
Mead.
The proposal was approved after Sen. Loran
Schmit of Bellwood offered it in an amend
ment to LB898, which appropriates $100,000
for the design of the Trailside Complex at Fort
Robinson Stale Park in northwest Nebraska.
Senators advanced LB898 by voice vote
after lengthy discussion of Schmit’s amend
ment.
Sen. Sandra Scofield of Chadron, co-spon
sor of LB898, said she is against the amend
ment because the additional funding for the
Mead complex might jeopardize approval of
the Trailside Complex.
Although Scofield said she isn’t against the
research complex at Mead, she said it should be
treated separately from LB898.
The Trailside Complex needs to be started
because it would house historical artifacts that
could be destroyed, as evidenced by a fire
around the area last summer, she said.
Schmit said the Mead complex is needed to
help keep the agricultural industry up to date
with new advancements.
1 ne appearance of existing facilities at Mead
“does an injustice” to the importance of re
search the University of Nebraska conducts, he
said.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have told you
before on this floor,” Schmit said, “Agricul
ture is the only basic industry in Nebraska
which contributes to the new wealth of this
state.”
Senators have approved all kinds of propos
als this legislative session, Schmit said, but if
the agricultural industry is not healthy, that
won’t be possible in the future.
Sen. Owen Elmer of Indianola also said the
foundation of industry in the state is agricul
ture.
The Mead complex would keep the state on
the “cutting edge” of technical advances in
biotechnology and other related fields.
Sen. George Coordsen of Hebron said the
Mead complex is needed so that agriculture in
the state can keep up with the latest interna
tional technology.
Political change in Central European coun
tries, Coordsen said, will lead them to increase
agricultural output as they move away from
their current governments.
Poland, Czechoslovakia, parts of Germany
and the U.S.S.R. have some of the most fertile
lands in the world, he said.
If the United States doesn t keep up with
technology, Coordsen said, some day it will
have to import agricultural products.
Sen. John Weihing of Gering said he thinks
the Mead complex is needed, but he doesn’t
want to jeopardize approval of the Trailsidc
Complex.
Weihing said the existing research building
at Mead was built during World War II and
only was supposed to be temporary. But he said
the Mead complex isn’t as urgently needed as
the Trailside Complex.
If members of the NU Board of Regents
thought the Mead Complex was so important,
Weihing said, they would have listed it high on
their list of priorities. The Mead complex is
listed 13th on the list.
Scofield also said she thinks the regents
should have listed the Mead complex higher.
“It seems to be that it’s awfully difficult
sometimes to get agriculturally related proj
ects high enough on the priority list to do any
good,” Scofield said.
Sen. Rod Johnson of Sutton said he thinks
both complexes should be financed.
Johnson said about $500 million of the 1990
federal farm bill will go toward research, and
he thinks the state could get some of that
money to build the Mead complex.
Schmit’s amendment was adopted 27-13.
Recount adds one
vote for VISION
From Staff Reports
CISION presidential and first vice
presidential candidates Phil Gosch
and Stacy Mohling picked up one
more vote in Thursday’s recount of the
ASUN runoff election.
The Association of Students of the
University of Nebraska Electoral Com
mission recounted at the request of
TODAY’S campaign manager.
W ednesday ’ s coun t showed fi ve votes
between the two parties’ candidates.
Jim Langenberg, electoral commis
sioner, said that after the recount VI
SION received 1,350 votes to TODAY’S
1,344.
Marlene Beyke, ASUN director of
development, said the results still are
unofficial.
That’s because Electoral Commission
rules require parties to file their financial
statements today and campaign complaints
by April 2.
If the parties comply with those rules,
the commission will vote to validate the
results.
If there are complaints, the commis
sion must hear them and decide accord
ingly, Beyke said.
1-^ Butch lr«tand/D«lty Nebraskan
Casanova ...
Dodae High School freshman Mike Emanuel watches as fellow students perform a
Spanish version of “Who’s on first?” during Thursday’s University of Nebraska-Lincoin
Language Fair held on campus.
‘Person living with AIDS’
condemns denial mentality
By Emily Rosenbaum
Senior Reporter
CC A IDS. It’s a word.”
Richard Carper, who
describes himself as a
“person living with AIDS,” told about
30 people Thursday in the Nebraska
Union that “we need to start talking
about AIDS in a normal manner.”
Carper said the lack of communi
cation about acquired immune defi
ciency syndrome is one of the reasons
the disease has spread so quickly.
“This is what we call denial,” he
said. “We don’t want to talk about
it.”
Carper said the media help to cre
ate a picture of the disease - a picture
that says “AIDS equals death.”
Carper was diagnosed as HIV
positive in 1986 and then developed
AIDS in 1988.
At the time of the HIV diagnosis,
he said, he was happily married, had
his own business as an electrical
contractor and was seven months into
recovery from heroin addiction.
In 1988, doctors told him he was
going to die, he said. He was running
a 105-dcgree temperature, weighed
117 pounds and said he “bought into”
accepting death.
Standing in the Harvest Room on
Thursday night. Carper told the audi
ence that 19 months ago, “I was
supposed to be dead.”
Carper said he tells his story - a
story of discrimination by friends and
strangers who wonT shake his hand --
not to gain sympathy, but to get the
message out about wnat \s nappemng.
“1 refuse to lay down and die,”
Carper said.
Part of that refusal included a walk
across the United States, from Port
land, Ore. to Washington D.C., to
show that people with AIDS arc not
“victims,” he said.
Carper left May 1,1988 and walked
3,300 miles.
Current statistics indicate that
-4 4
I refuse to lay down
and die.
Carper
-f f -
120,000 Americans now have AIDS.
By 1992 that number will reach
480,000, he said. Six million Ameri
cans are HIV-positive.
At that rale, in five years, AIDS
will personally affect every Ameri
can, “in some way or another.”
Carper describes AIDS as a “ test
AIDS will determine whether people
act as Christians or treat other human
beings with criticism, he said.
“Rather than throwing blame, we
need to educate,” he said.
While the federal government has
spent billions of dollars on AIDS
research, it has allocated nothing
toward caring for people with AIDS,
he said.
A national health-care system is
needed to provide for those who can
not afford health care, Carper said.
Drunk driving bill advances to final reading
Proposal complies with Supreme Court ruling
By Victoria Ayotte
Senior Reporter___
Nebraska legislators on Thurs
day gutted one bill to get tough
on drunk driving as they
amended another bill into it which
tightens up drunk driving laws.
LB799 was advanced to final read
ing on a voice vote.
The bill, sponsored by State Sen.
Emil Beyer of Gretna, originally would
have authorized the Department of
Motor Vehicles to automatically re
voke drivers’ licenses within 30 days
after arrest if a hearing was not held to
decide if the alleged drunk driver was
guilty.
With only nine days left in the
session and about 13 amendments
pending to the bill, Sen. Doug Kris
tensen of Mindcn proposed ridding
the bill of its original provisions and
including the provisions of his bill,
LB 1020.
Kristensen said that instead of
wasting more time in the waning days
of the session with the probability
that many priority bills will not get
passed, the Legislature needs to pass
LB 1020.
This need is based on the tact that
the Nebraska S upremc Court recently
ruled it unconstitutional to use only a
urine lest to prove drunk driving,
Kristensen said. Some Nebraska
counties do not have breath tests and
instead must use blood or urine samples
to prove a person drunk when driving,
he said.
The person under current law can
choose which test they want the law
enforcement officer to give, Kristensen
said. Since the Supreme Court ruling,
a drunk driver could not be convicted
if they were4 4 lucky enough ’' to chose
the urine test, he said.
LB 1020 specifies that a person
may be required to submit to more
than one test to show if they are under
the influence of alcohol or drugs. The
bill also states that the court may
require those convicted of driving
under the influence of alcohol or drugs
to attend a treatment program.
Beyer and Sen. Jerome Warner of
Waverly, supporters of the original
provisions of LB799, supported gut
ting that bill to include Kristcnsen’s
biU.
“At least let’s save what we have,”
Warner said, and make sure that those
arrested for drunk driving can get
caught instead of allowing the urine
test loophole.
“As important as 1 think 799 is,”
Beyer added, “1 will acquiesce and
support this...”
Kristensen said senators must act
quickly so as not to “condone the
behavior of letting them (drunk driv
ers) go scot-free.
Kristensen’s proposal was adopted
29-1 after an emergency clause was
added to make the bill effective upon
the governor’s signature.
