B T 1 Dclily | L 37/25
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B B B B B B Saturday, partly sunny
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On tap
Dodd Wamberg, a senior mechanical engineering major, gives blood for the first time at the
University of Nebraska Campus Red Cross “Give for Life” Bloodmobile. The blood drive
was Wednesday and Thursday at the Nebraska Union.
Former UNL student sentenced
From Staff Reports_ _
A 30-ycar-old Lincoln man, ar
rested in November while trying to
steal computer equipment from the
Nebraska Union, was sentenced to
two years in prison last week.
Rodney Bell of 1530 D St. was
sentenced to a one-year prison term
on a burglary charge and another year
on a charge of second-degree forgery.
i ne terms win run consecutively.
A third count of possession of bur
glary tools was dismissed.
Bell, the former president of the
Gay/Lcsbian Student Association at
UNL, was arrested Nov. 22 at 4 a.m.
after a custodian called the university
police department.
An officer dispatched to the scene
found a computer mouse, paper, power
cable and printer cable after Bell was
witnessed loading equipment into a
car.
Bell was issued citations for theft
and criminal mischief on the scene
and released.
In 1987, while at the University of
Ncbraska-Lincoln, Bell was involved
in GLSA’s attempts to distribute
condoms on UNL Condom Day and
the opening of the UNL Gay/Lcsbian
Resource Center.
Death penalty advocates
argue lethal injections
more humane, less gory
Process lengthy,
opponents say
By Andy Raun
Staff Reporter
Lethal injection was touted
■ Thursday as more humane and
less scnsationalistic than
electrocution during a hearing on a
bill to adopt injection as Nebraska’s
official means of capital punishment.
But lethal injection may be more
unpleasant than
electrocution and
may, because it is
considered less
gory, be given as
a sentence more
often than the
electric chair,
LB874 opponents told the Nebraska
Legislature’s Judiciary Committee.
Sen. Elroy Hefner of Coleridge,
the main sponsor of the bill, said that
out of 36 to 38 states that allow capi
tal punishment, 20 use lethal injec
tion.
Fourteen states still use the elec
tric chair, he said.
Hefner said he supported the death
penally and hoped a switch to lethal
injection might result in more execu
tions being performed.
“The news media and some others
get carried away with sensational
aspects of carry ing out the death penalty
using electrocutionshe said. “It upsets
a lot of people, even though they may
know that the ttiurdercrs got what
(they) deserved.”
Steve King, planning and research
manager for the Nebraska Depart
ment of Corrections, said research
showed that lethal injection was pain
less, more humane and less distress
ing to prison staff and execution wit
nesses than electrocution.
While the department neither sup
ports nor opposes the death penalty,
King said, it recommends that LB874
be changed to call for a lethal combi
nation of three drugs instead of two.
The dosage should include an
anesthetic, a paralyzing agent and a
drug to bring on cardiac arrest, King
said.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, a
member of the judiciary committee,
questioned King’s contention that
lethal injection was painless and
humane.
“How can you establish that?”
Chambers asked King, who responded
See DEATH on 6
Make American interests
priority, say proponents
By Sean Green
Senior Reporter
It’s lime lo send other countries
the message that Nebraskans arc
serious about protecting their
own interests, said proponents of a
“Buy American” act at a legislative
committee hearing Thursday.
Proponents of LB 1216, sponsored
by Sen. Don
Wcscly of Lin
coln, said the
Nebraska Legisla
ture’s Govern
ment, Military and
Veterans Affairs
Committee should
support the bill because of the grow
ing need to put America first.
LB1216 would require public
agencies to buy only goods or com
modities made in the United States,
except under certain circumstances.
Gordon McDonald, president of
the Nebraska AFL-CIO, told com
mittee members that the bill would
send a strong message to “a lot of
people” that the Legislature was seri
ous about protecting American-made
goods.
Nebraska is one of 19 stales in the
country lhal docs not have such a
provision, McDonald said.
“If we keep going in the direction
we arc now, we’ll end up the highest
skilled, lowest-paid nation in the
world,” he said.
Lincoln resident Vicki Sullivan, a
member of the Teamster’s Union, told
committee members that she and her
family always had purchased Ameri
can-made products, but she said it
was getting harder to do so.
Sullivan blamed foreign competi
tion for the economic problems and
said LB 1216 would reverse the trend.
“There arc nine million people out
of work in this country,” she said. “I
believe if you asked, most of them
would say foreign competition has
pul them out of work.”
Sullivan also said companies that
moved their factories to foreign coun
tries were hurling American workers.
“The only way to stop companies
from moving their factories to places
like Mexico, for slave labor, is to slop
See AMERICA on 6
Scholarship offer could be a scam
By Cindy Kimbrough
Senior Reporter
If anything sounds too good to be true, it
probably is.
Thai’s what John Beacon, director of the
Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid at
UNL, said about a mailing recently distributed
to several University of Ncbraska-Lincoln stu
dents, promising them more than SI,(XX) in
scholarship money.
Beacon said the mailing came to his atten
tion when eight to 10 students called to check
its validity.
Postcards mailed to the students claimed
Ihcy could be eligible for a minimum of $ 1,698.12
in scholarships, he said.
The students also had been informed that
the National Scholarship Foundation, the
company that mailed the postcards, had been
trying to contact the students, he said, and this
was their last chance to call for complete infor
mation.
Beacon said the odd scholarship amount
made him wonder about the offer’s validity. He
also said he thought the offer was confusing
because when students called to get more infor
mation on the “24-hour call-processing sys
tem,” a recording told callers they could not
leave a message on the system’s mailbox.
Students who receive the mailing should be
cautious if contacted, he said.
About a year and a half ago, Beacon said his
office saw a (lurry of mailings similar to this,
telling students to send S60 to get a list of
scholarships they were eligible for.
The mailings claimed a refund was avail
able, he said, but students found out later the
refund only was available if they could prove
they were denied every scholarship on the list.
Beacon said the Better Business Bureau had
received no complaints about the recent mail
ings and had no information on the company.
But a number of people had called to check on
it, he said.
Beacon said he was not calling the company
illegitimate, “I’m just saying ‘buyer beware.”’
The men's basketball team looks to con
tinue their winning ways on the road at Iowa
State Saturday. Page 7
"Terminator 2” is no match for the dy
namic duo of "Thelma and Louise” in this
week's list of top ten rentals. Page 10
Z INDEX "
Wire 2
Opinion 4
Sports 7
A&E 9
, Classifieds11_