News Digest
Bush addresses civil rights on two fronts
■ •• _ _ r__ rr* _ _ \ •
President signs bill,
issues new order
to unite America
WASHINGTON — President Bush
signed a civil rights bill Thursday that
he said would “fight the evil of dis
crimination,” and tried to silence a
new furor over race by withdrawing a
tentative order to end government
hiring preferences for blacks and
women.
— “For the past few years the issue of
civil rights legislation has divided
America,” Bush said. “No more.”
The political divisions that sus
tained a two-vear congressional fiehl
over the civil rights bill and prompted
Bush to veto a similar measure last
year, remained sharp.
The new law negates Supreme Court
decisions that made it more difficult
for minorities to win lawsuits charg
ing job discrimination by employers.
It also expands the rights of women
and religious minorities to sue and
collect damages for job discrimina
tion, including sexual harassment.
It was Bush’s agreement to sup
port a modified version of the bill and
drop his potent political argument
that it would prompt employers to
resort to racial quotas, that broughi
overwhelming congressional passage
Bush signed the Civil Rights Act
of 1991 in a Rose Garden ceremony
that was overshadowed by the storm
of controversy over a proposed presi- i
dential affirmative-action order cir
culated Wednesday evening to gov
ernment agencies. Most Democrats
stayed away from the signing in pro
test.
The order would have ended pref
erential hiring and promotions for
women and minorities, and dropped
federal guidelines for hiring practices
that the courts apply to private busi
nesses.
White House spokesmen said Bush
had never seen the document. They
said it was written by his legal coun
sel, C. Boyden Gray and circulated
without Bush s approval.
After the signing, the White House
eleased a new statement in Bush’s
lame replacing the earlier one and
ieleting the termination orders for
affirmative action programs.
But presidential press secretary
Marlin Fitzwater refused to rule out
the possibility that Bush would later
order such changes.
“We support preferences and seta
sides as long as they’re consistent
with the law,” Fitzwater said.
A senior administration official,
speaking on condition of anonymity,
said there is strong support among
Bush’s advisers for proceeding with
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action programs.
That official predicted more activ
ity in that area and said Bush decided
to remove the language proposed by
Gray because “he thought this was
not the right time.”
“I support affirmative action,” Bush
said in signing the new civil rights
law. “Nothing in this bill overturns
the government’s affirmative action
program.
“Unlike last year’s bill, a bill I was
forced to Vfeto, this bill will not en
courage quotas or racial preferences
because this bill will not encourage
lawsuits on the basis of numbers alone,”
Bush said.
U.S. delays withdrawal
of troops in S. Korea
SEOUL, South Korea — The
United States will delay withdrawals
of U.S. troops from South Korea to
pressure North Korea to stop making
nuclear weapons, Secretary of De
fense Dick Cheney announced Thurs
day.
The announcement underscored
growing U.S. concern about Commu
nist North Korea’s nuclear capability
and its refusal to allow inspection of
its nuclear and reprocessing facili
ties.
North Korea denies any nuclear
weapons program, but South Korean
officials say the secretive nation could
manufacture weapons-grade nuclear
bombs in two or three years. U.S.
officials say it could be sooner.
Speaking at the end of two days of
security talks with South Korea,
Cheney said that troop cutbacks will
be postponed “until the dangers and
uncertainties of the North Korean
nuclear program have been thoroughly
addressed.
“We are convinced that North Korea
is developing the capability to build a
nuclear weapon,” said Cheney, whose
talks with South Korean officials
focused on the North’s nuclear weap
ons development.
He spoke at a joint news confer
ence with his South Korean counter
part, Lee Jong-koo.
Under the new troop withdrawal
plan, U.S. forces will be cut from
43,000 to 36,000 by the end of 1992
as planned, but further reductions
designated for 1993-1995 will be
postponed. Fewer than 10,000 troops
will be affected.
North Korea, a bitter enemy of the
South since the peninsula was di
vided in 1945, for years has demanded
the withdrawal of U.S. troops. U.S.
forces came to the aid of Seoul in the
1950-53 Korean War.
Cheney called on North Korea to
publicly forswear the development of
nuclear weapons or the ability to
produce enriched or reprocessed
nuclear fuel that could be used in
producing such weapons. He said North
Korea must also allow verification of
such changes.
He and Lee said they would “pur
sue all available means” to halt North
Korea’s nuclear weapons develop
ment Drocram.
Forces in the
Korean peninsula
ARMY NAVY AIR FORCE
1,000,000 41,000 70,000
ARMY NAVY AIR FORCE
650,000 60,000 40,000
U.S. Army and Air Force
troops: about 40,000
AP
Soviet Union’s creditors
I
to let debt payments slide
i MOSCOW — The world’s richesi
industrial democracies on Thursday
gave the Soviet Union a reprieve from
t the bill collectors, deferring S3.6 bil
lion in debt payments and offering
new loans that would be secured by
Soviet gold reserves.
The agreement is aimed at allow
ing the Soviet Union to save its tradi
tionally good credit rating and give it
time and money to implement vital
economic reforms.
“The chance for real reform is now
there,” said David Mulford, U.S.
representative at the Group of Seven
talks with republic officials.
A communique signed at the end
of the talks said eight of the 12 re
maining Soviet republics agreed to
repay the entire foreign debt run up
by the former Communist central
government and to work with the
International Monetary Fund to re
structure the economy.
Questions remained about the exact
size of the foreign debt, with esti
mates ranging from $65 billion to
$100 billion.
Mulford, a top Treasury Depart
ment official, said all countries that
lent money to the Soviet Union will
be invited to a meeting to calculate
the amount of outstanding lOUs, They
would also be asked to join the debt
relief plan by the Group of Seven —
the United States, Japan, Germany,
France, Britain, Italy and Canada.
The plan allows the Soviet Union
to defer payments on the principal of
medium- and long-term foreign debts
until at least March 31.
After a review at that point, the
deferral will probably be extended to
the end of 1992, providing the repub
lics make progress on their promises i
to disband the old command econ
omy and move to a free market sys
tem.
Interest on the debt must continue
to be paid.
Mulford said the Soviet Union will
be deferring payment on at least S3.6
billion.
He said that when loans from
another 10 creditor countries and
commercial banks are included, the
deferral could be as high as $6 billion.
Nebraskan
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ment Editor John Payne Chairman Bill Vobe|da
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I More older students attending college
WASHINGTON — College stu
dents are older than ever before —
one in four is 30 or more, a govern
ment survey said Thursday.
These older students, educators say,
are practical, they demand full value
for their tuition dollar, and they’re
lough competitors for top grades.
“Older students often fret about
going back to the classroom and
competing with bright-eyed younger
people, but I think for the most part,
they manage well,” said Susan
Kaufmann, associate director of the
Center for the Education of Women
at the University of Michigan in Ann
Arbor, Mich.
I__
Many of the women are under
graduates, retraining to take advan
tage of new job opportunities.
A Census Bureau survey found in
1989 there were 3.3 million college
students aged 30 and older. That’s
about double the number 15 years
earlier.
One out of every five women in
college was 35 or older in 1989, ac
cording to an Associated Press analy
sis of the census numbers. Fifteen
years before, only one in eight was
that age.
In the early 1970s, more than three
fourths of the nation’s college stu
dents were just out of high school.
Now, their share is less than 60 per
cent and shrinking.
Tom Snyder of the National Cen
ter for Education Statistics in Wash
ington said most older students fall
into these categories:
•Students taking longer to get their
degrees. Some college students in their
30s are completing work they started
in their 20s.
•Engineers and other technical
workers wanting to improve their skills
on the job. Some take a course or two,
without worrying about a degree.
•Professionals wanting an ad
vanced degree, such as a masters ol
business administration.
AIDS
Continued from Page 1
Garland Bare, a physician at the
University Health Center, said people
disagree over how much blood would
have to be transferred to transmit the
AIDS virus.
“No one knows exactly, but the
concentration of the virus is highest
in human semen and second-highest
in blood,” Bare said.
It would be minutely possible for
only a droplet of blood to transmit the
AIDS virus, he said.
As of Oct. 31, 200,000 cases of
AIDS had been reported in the United
States, Fallis said. More than 128,000
of those victims have died.
Fallis said the center doesn’t rec
ommend mandatory testing for any
group of individuals — that decision
should be made by the organization,
he said.
But he said the center recommends
that anyone dealing with blood wear
gloves.
USA Wrestling encourages any
one who works with wrestlers to wear
gloves and protective eye wear when
dealing with serious injuries, Harvey
said, but trainers get careless.
George Sullivan, head athletic
trainer at UNL, said that neither he
nor the other athletic trainers wear
gloves when working on athletes.
“We discard completely any bloody
towels and that kind of thing,” Sulli
van said, “but I haven’t gone as far as
wearing gloves every lime I see a
scratch.”
Neumann said he saw trainers
wearing gloves for the first time while
working with wrestlers at a tourna
ment in Wyoming last weekend.
But he said many trainers prefer
not to wear gloves because they made
taping athletes more clumsy.
“1 don’t think we’ve got that much
of a problem,” Sullivan added. “I
guess I’ve been doing this too many
years to get that excited about it.”
Sullivan said educating athletes
about the virus is his biggest concern.
UNL athletes are aware of the AIDS
testing that the University Health
Center provides, he said, and student
health aides and other health officials
give educational lectures to athletes,
especially incoming freshmen.
Neumann said that none of the
athletes he has coached have expressed
concern about the possibility of con
tracting the virus.
“I don’t think it’s going to scare
any athletes out of competing,” he
said, “but I think that what might
happen is that parents may send their
kids to the piano instead of to try
outs.”
Traditional high standards of clean
liness and policies of frequently dis
infecting equipment, clothing and head
gear should help safeguard wrestlers,
Neumann said, but more precaution
ary measures may have to be taken as
more is learned about AIDS.
“We were trained to coach wres
tling, not to deal with anything like
this,” he said. “We’re learning right
along with everyone else.”
