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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 9, 1992)
sssu, News digest Clinton touts plan for $2 billion manufacturing program PORTLAND, Conn. — Bill Clinton pledged Tuesday to spend $2 billion a year to help manufacturers put more Americans to work, spicing «his economic pitch with a reminder that 1.3 million factory jobs were lost on President Bush’s watch. President Bush asked Congress for $7.6 billion in emergency aid for cleanup and re building in the wake of Hurricane Andrew. Later, in a speech to Jewish leaders, he suggested that Saddam Hussein’s ouster from Kuwait might not have happened had Clinton been president. “Ask yourself where we would be if we had someone in the Oval Office who would have waffled, who would have wavered and wanted to have it both ways,” said Bush. Clinton was in Connecticut detail ing plans to help manufacturers deal with fast-evolving technology and ever-changing world markets. “Unlike our competition, this na tion has no national strategy, no com prehensive partnership between busi ness and workers and education and government,” Clinton said. Connecticut is among the states Bush won in 1988 that the Clinton campaign believes are ripe for pluck ing this year. Clinton running mate A1 Gore spent the day in a larger, tougher prospect on that list—Bush’s adopted home state of Texas. Gore targeted Hispanic voters who live near the Mexican border, calling Bush a “puppet of the rich” and prom - ising that a Clinton-Gore administra lion would bring better roads and jobs to the poor, isolated area. Vice President Dan Quayle cam paigned in California, the biggest elec toral prize of all and a state where a punishing recession has pounded Bush’s standing. The vice president met privately with former President Reagan. Dur ing an appearance on a morning tele vision show in Los Angeles, Quayle tried to distance the Bush-Quayle ticket from GOP convention “rheto ric” critical of homosexuality. “We are the ones that have imple mented a non-discrimination policy when it comes to gays and lesbians,” Quayle said on KTLA-TV. Still, he said he supported the military ban on homosexuals, which Clinton has promised to end. Clinton’s morning speech to the owner-employees at Standard Knapp in Portland was more policy lecture than partisan stemwinder. He said the president sat idly by as America’s manufacturing sector lost 1.3 million jobs since 1988. He prom ised an investment tax credit for pur chasing new plants and equipment, constant retraining of workers, and tax reform to remove incentives that encourage American plants to move overseas. Clinton also called for creating 170 manufacturing extension service centers around the country in commu nities where local government and businesses need help and promise to share costs. The centers would serve as incuba tors for research, clearinghouses for cost-cutting measures such as energy efficiency and offer small-and me V. M dium-sized businesses advice that major corporations can afford on their own. “We have simply got to become as able as other nations are in finding new manufacturing technology and turning ideas into new jobs in America,” Clinton said. Clinton adviser Bruce Reed said the entire manufacturing package would cost $2 billion a year, paid for with defense cuts and other spending cuts promised by Clinton. Bush said he expected quick agree ment from Congress on the hurricane relief package. In a speech to the B’nai B’rith convention, he pledged to ask Congress for $ 10 billion in loan guarantees to help Israel house immi grants. Bush had opposed the loan guaran tees until recently. .Vi.. ' r K Baboon liver functioned fine, doctors report PITTSBURGH — A baboon liver transplanted into a man worked nearly as well as a human organ for 71 days until his death, a positive sign for more such operations, doc tors said Tuesday. The 35-year-old man died Sun day night after a blood vessel burst in his brain, said Dr. Anthony Demetris, director of transplant pathology at the University of Pitts burgh Medical Center. At the family’s request, the man’s identity remained secret. He had an advanced case of hepatitis B that would have killed him had he not gotten the transplant June 28 at Presbyterian University Hospital, doctors said. The transplant apparently was unconnected to the burst vessel, and the autopsy indicated no signs the liver failed, Demetris said. Doctors were unsure of the signifi cance of traces of blood found in his lungs and kidneys. An inspection Monday revealed the arteries serving the liver and the surgical graft holding the organ in place were intact, Demetris said. Mandela urges ruler s removal BISHO, South Africa — An angry Nelson Mandela called Tuesday for the removal of the black homeland ruler whose troops killed 24 protest ersand wounded 196, sparking a major confrontation between black and white leaders. Religious leaders, including An glican Archbishop Desmond Tutu, tried to persuade the ruler of theCiskei homeland to hold a referendum on returning the nominally independent territory to South Africa. They said the ruler, Brig. Gen. Oupa Gqozo, refused. The killings on Monday deepened South Africa’s political crisis, mak ing it unlikely Mandela’s African National Congress will return soon to stalled talks on giving blacks the vote and ending apartheid. ANC leaders said President F.W. de Klerk’s gov ernment bore direct responsibility for the killings. The ruling National Party lashed out at the ANC in one of the harshest attacks in recent months, saying the opposition group was trying to seize power. The National Party called ANC leaders “hard-liners hooked on the Communist shortcut of trying to force the country to its knees and seizing - power by force.” The talks collapsed in June after 39 blacks were massacred in Boipatong township. The ANC has accused the white minority government of en couraging fighting between black fac tions. Dc Klerk denies that. ANC leaders in Johannesburg called for the removal of two other homeland rulers who are major foes of the ANC — President Lucas Mangope of Bophuthatswana and Mangosuthu Buthelezi, chief minis ter of KwaZulu. Buthelezi heads the Zulu-dominated Inkatha Freedom Party. The ANC did not call for the re moval of Maj. Gen. Bantu Holomisa, military ruler of the Transkei home land, who is allied to the ANC. The ANC considers the homelands illegitimate creations of the apartheid system and wants them reincorpo rated into South Africa. Mandela called for an independent investigation into the killings. “Gqozo is not going to last, I can tell you,” Mandela later told thou sands of cheering supporters at a rally in King William’s Town, just inside South Africa. “We will not rest until Gqozo is removed.” In an interview with British Broad casting Corp., Ggozo rejected calls for his resignation. “The people that are calling for my standing down are foreigners to the Ciskei country,” he said. Mandela was escorted by South African police with guns at the ready as he walked about 20 yards into Ciskei to lay wreaths. Ciskei soldiers with lowered guns stood near by. “There are many people who came to this place with hope and never returned,” the ANC president said. “It is a very emotional moment for us that those fighting for democracy, for peace ... should be mowed down by those who fear democracy.” Ciskei troops fired on about20,000 ANC supporters who marched into the homeland to call for Gqozo’s re moval. Angry blacks sc uf fled T uesday with police outside the Ciskei consulates in Johannesburg and Cape Town. Sev eral protesters occupied the building housing the Cape Town consulate and protesters sprayed the Johannesburg consulate with red paint to symbolize the blood of those shot. Police and protesters traded punches and kicks in Johannesburg when protesters tried to haul down a U.S. flag at a nearby hotel. Other protesters said the U.S. flag was singled out by mistake and yelled to pull down an adjacent South African AP/Carl Fox flag. ANC secretary-general Cyril Ramaphosa said relations with South Africa’s government were at the low est ebb ever and expressed pessim ism about resuming talks. “My own assessment is that nego tiations are in serious jeopardy,” he said. Andrew’s wrath fuels localized boom economy PERRINE, Fla. — Welcome to Boomlown, Les Gory proprietor. Like a magician pulling a rabbit from a hat, the building supplier reaches under his counter and produces a 50-pound box of 2-inch tin circles used in nailing down roofing fell. That brought a smile to Ted Thornes’ face. But Gory turns down the roofer’s request for two boxes. A few minutes later he laughs when another desperate contractor asks for as much as he can spare. “This is gold,” Gory says, tossing one of the wafer-light caps essential in fixing roofs on the morc<han 100,000 homes damaged by Hurri cane Andrew. ‘This is the hardest item to find at this time.” Tin caps. Plywood. Ice. Gas cans. Child care. Kennels. Pool cleaners. Amid the over whelming rubble, the nation’s most destructive hurricane has created a temporary economic boom typical after disasters natural or man made. Along a 20-mile stretch of U.S. 1, from Miami neighborhoods scarred only by toppled palm trees to the wiped-out towns of Home stead and FloridaCity, hand-painted signsoffer jobs or promise services. “Discount Auto Parts — NOW HIRING!!!”“GLASS FOR SALE— All Kinds.” “Trailers $475 to $900.” Entrepreneurs swearing honesty peddle nails and generators from the backs of U-Hauls. Robert Mulvaney cleared some shelves of stock, packed a trailer and drove from Tallahassee to sell chain saws in a parking lot amid downed power lines. “It’s profitable, even selling below list,” he said. Stale officials report rampant price-goug ing and supply shortages. Plywood that nor mally sells for S8 a sheet goes for up to $20. One insurance agent complained that a homeowner was quoted $31,000 to remove four trees. An other said a customer wanted to rent an RV for $800 a week. Still, complaints are down about half from a peak of 1,200 daily last week. Newspapers and radio stations arc brimming with ads from insurers, home improvement companies, car dealers. On Sunday, The Miami Herald carried two pages of storm-related clas sified ads on a “Hurricane Bulletin Board.” For sale: cranes, bulldozers, power cleaners, office trailers. And though an estimated 250,000 people were left homeless, some targeted the only moderately unfortunate. “Victor Restores Hur ricane Damaged Pianos & Organs,” one ad read. The disaster economy in Andrew’s estimated $20 billion in damage has attracted contractors from such places as Ohio, North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Alabama and Kentucky. But economists warn the frontier mentality is deceptive. In the first three months after the hurricane, southern Dade County’s economy likely will be jolted by high uncmploymcni, a sharp decline in business activity and a huge loss of personal income. Judging by Hurricane Hugo, which wrecked South Carolina’s coast in 1989, causing nearly $6 billion in damage, reconstruction will pro vide economic support for three to five years. But the building boom likely will mask perma nent dislocations in other sectors. “It’s a very rapid infusion of money into an area that does create an artificial boom econom y that benefits really only a few people,” said Douglas Woodward, a University of South Caro lina economist who studied Hugo’s impact. “It’s artificial in the sense it doesn’t last,” he said. “But people caught up in booms tend to think these things last forever.” Kidnapper says Exxon man’s death accidental TRENTON, N.J. — A former Exxon security official pleaded guilty Tuesday to federal charges in the kid napping death of company executive Sidney J. Reso, saying he never meant to kill Reso and that he died in his arms. Arthur D. Seale said he acciden tally shot Reso after abducting him in an attempt to extort $18 million from Exxon Corp. He said Reso, president of Exxon International, died four days after the April 29 kidnapping. Seale admitted he tried to extort the money even af ter Reso’s death. Seale and his wife, Irene, both 45 and of Lebanon Township, were ar rested June 19 and charged with ab ducting Reso from his Morris Town ship home. Mrs. Seale pleaded guilty to federal extortion charges and had been expected to testify against her husband at his federal trial. Seale, whoon Tuesday spoke freely about the kidnapping, said he found Reso near death the Sunday after the abduction in a box in a self-storage locker where they had taken him. “He actually died in my arms that afternoon. We attempted to revive him but had no success,” Seale said. Reso’s widow, Patricia, sat in the front row of the courtroom listening as Seale described her husband’s ab duction and death. Afterwards she appeared at a news conference with federal and state prosecutors. “It’s been a dreadful experience, but through it all truth has prevailed,” Mrs. Rcso said. During a hearing, U.S. District Judge Garrett E. Brown questioned Seale on all seven counts of the fed eral indictment against him, confirm ing that Seale committed the acts, understood they were wrong and in tended to commit them. Brown thenaccepted Seale’sguilly plea to attempted extortion, con spiracy to commit extortion, mail fraud and interstate travel to promote extortion. Seale faces a maximum penalty of 95 years when he is sentenced on the federal charges. He also faces static charges of kidnapping and felony murder. f - ---»— . .«
