News digest
Gore, Quayle tangle in spicy Atlanta debate
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ATLANTA — With pointing fin
gers and insistent interruptions, A1
Gore and Dan Quayle clashed over
leadership, abortion and the economy
Tuesday night in a vice presidential
debate denounced by James Stockdalc
as “why this nation is in gridlock.”
“I feel like an observer at a ping
pong game,” Ross Perot’s running
mate said after lis
tening to perhaps
the tenth or twen
tieth time that,
Gore and Quayle
interrupted one
another.
_ It was a messy
affair that ended
on a sharp, negative note, with Re
publican Quayle looking into the
prime-time camera and referring
darkly to the Democratic front-run
ner.
“The American people should de
mand that their president tell the truth.
Do you really believe Bill Clinton
Stockdale says clash indicative of gridlock
will tell the truth, and do you trust Bill
Clinton to be your president?”
The lines were drawn from the
outset on the main issue of the cam
paign. -
President Bush and Quaylc were
like “deer caught in the headlights”
when the recession struck, Gore
charged — “Blinded to the suffering
and pain of bankruptcies and people
who arc unemployed.” He pledged
that he and Democratic presidential
candidate Clinton “stand for change.”
Quaylc retorted that Clinton and
Gore “will make matters much much
worse. He will raise your taxes, he
will increase spending, he will make
government bigger. Jobs will be lost.”
The 90-m inulc debate also touched
on environmental, defense and trade
policy.
The political imperative was clear
for each of the three running mates: to
boost the fortunes of the man at the lop
of the ticket in a race that has exactly
throe weeks left to run and shows
Clinton with a double-digit lead in the
polls.
Quaylc atttackcd the Democratic
standard -bearer vigorously, persis
tently. He accused Gore several limes
of “pulling another Qinton,” which
he quickly defined as saying one thing
in one place and another thing some
place else. Several times he said, “Bill
Clinton has trouble telling the truth,”
referring to the Vietnam draft contro
versy and policy positions on school
choice and the North American Free
Trade Agreement.
At one point, Gore responded with
a litany of Bush flip flops, starting
with “Read my Tips, no new taxes.”
Stockdalc erupted at one point af
ter Quayle and Gore argued, saying,
“I think America is seeing right now
the reason this nation is in gridlock,
adding that Perot was the man to (ix
the system.
The heated debate sparked occa
sional applause from an audience
made up of partisans of the three men
— and few hisses, as well. That
prompted moderator Hal Bruno of
A BC News to say, “There ’ s no cal 11 or
that... so knock that off.”
The formal—no panel, just Bruno
— made it a lively affair. The debate
ended with brief closing statements in
which each man recapitulated his
underlying theme for the evening.
Stockdalc said the United States is
“in deep trouble,” and Perot alone can
“bring out the firehoses” needed to
restore the nation.
wc vc got locnungc directions,
Gore said. “Bill Clinton offers a new
approach.”
The unknown f gure was Stockdalc,
lapped to be Perot’s running mate but
with no political experience after de
cades in the Navy. He stressed his
non-politician’s status, and he
stumbled over his words periodically
in a demonstration of his inexperi
ence at political combat and his lesser
familiarity with some of the issues.
“Don’t expect me to use the lan
guage of the Washington insider,” he
said in his opening statement.
On abortion, Stockdalc said, “I
believe a woman owns her body and
what she does with it is her own
business. Period.” That was Gore’s
position, too, but not Quaylc’s.
When the subject turned to health
care, Stockdalc seemingly had little
to say.
“I m out of ammunition on that
one,” he said after Gore and Quayle
clashed.
Baker lobbied
for oil interests,
group charges
WASHINGTON — While House
chief of staff James A. Baker III, who
has large oil investments, played a
role in the administration’s effort to
lobby Congress on oil spill liability in
1990 as secretary of state, documents
show.
The Project on Government Over
sight, a liberal research group, said
Tuesday the documents raise ethical
qucstionsaboutactionsby Baker, who
also heads President Bush’s rc-clcc
lion campaign.
Janet Mullins, a former State De
partment official who is now an assis
tant to Bush for political affairs at the
White House, dismissed the group’s
statements as “totally bogus.”
-.__ t_ !_. „
uuixv/i iiuu ui/.x/iui^iy iivsuiin^ iw
do with this issue,” said Mullins, who
worked on the oil-spill liability issue.
She co-authored a memo on the sub
ject to Lawrence Eaglcburgcr, the
acting secretary of state who was then
Baker’s deputy.
A memo from thcn-Transporla
lion Secretary Samuel Skinner to
Baker, indicated the two discussed
preparing a joint letter urging Con
gress to approve international accords
limiting oil companies’ liability for
spills. The letter to Senate Majority
Leader George Mitchell was signed
by Skinner and Eaglcburgcr, but not
by Baker.
That March 1990 letter is one of
several State Department documents
on the matter obtained by the Project
on GovcmmcniOvcrsight, a nonprofit
group in Washington that investigates
activities of the executive branch and
Congress.
Baker had promised a month ear
lier to abstain from involvement in
any issues affecting domestic oil and
gas prices in order to avoid a conflict
of interest.
Baker has a blind trust for his in
vestments, but it docs not shield him
from federal conflict-of-interest laws
because it is not diversified.
Cairo earthquake
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§ EGYPT
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Aswan Dam: Aswan• ,
No damage Lake Ji^onmiesi
reported Nasw #
Shubra: Heliopolis:
Schools 14-story apartment
-| collapse building collapses
In Cairo: L$S /£>
At least 20 Wf( yM^& sy
buildings ■ c*,ro
destroyed Airport
Universify'1i,/_'^'
of Cairo ■$#
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I V VO 2.5 km
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Valley of the Kings: No damage
to the Sphinx or pyramids.
AP
Cairo quake causalities mount;
officials try to calm survivors
CAIRO, Egypt — Egypt’s earth
quake death toll climbed past 400
Tuesday, and officials broadcasted
appeals for calm among Egyptians
terrified of another temblor. Many
prepared for a second straight night
under the stars.
Authorities blamed the high death
loll partly on panic stampedes but
mainly on the many weak, old or
poorly constructed buildings in the
Cairo area.
Countries pledged millions in aid.
A security official told Cairo Tele
vision the search for survivors was
called off Tuesday at all the scores of
collapsed buildings in the capital area
except for one: a 14-story apartment
complex in the affluent suburb
Heliopolis.
Dozens of people were believed to
be buried in the rubble. Relief work
ers were using their bare hands to sift
through dust and stones, and drills to
cut through steel construction rods.
Many workers said they had little
hope of finding anyone alive.
Police Maj. Gen. Nadir Noman,
director of civil defense, said 11 bod
ies were pulled from the debris by
early afternoon. As many as 15 people
were found alive in the debris shortly
after the quake.
Witnesses reported two people died
Tuesday as three quake-weakened
structurcscollapscd in the poor Sayeda
Zeinab neighborhood.
Life was generally back to normal
elsewhere, but hundreds of aftershocks
didn’t help. Almostall were loo feeble
to be felt but not to be imagined:
“Now I know what hell is like,’’ said
Nadia E/.zeddin, a housewife in
Cairo’s residential Zamalck Island.
In hopes of calming the public, the
official Cairo Radio and Television
broadcast a statement by Subhi Freiha,
deputy director of the government’s
Helwan Observatory.
“All the observatory’s reeprdings
indicate that the situation is stable,’’
Freiha said. “There is no need to
worry.”
On TV, Information Minister
Safwalcl-Shcrifanswered a reporter’s
question about the rumor of another
strong quake by chastising Egyptians
to watch their own media instead of
believing the foreign press.
The “second quake” rumor was
rampant, and intensified as telephone
service neared normalcy Monday
-«
Now I know what hell
is like.
— Ezzeddin
Cairo housewife
night.
Sometimes the rumors went be
yond a simple prediction of another
big quake. One reported being falsely
told by a crowd of people gathered in
a park that the American, British and
Italian embassies had been evacuated
in expectation of another temblor.
Government officials said 409 bod
ies have been found and 3,369 people
were injured in the quake.
Dr. Mamdouh Gabr of the Egyp
tian Red Crescent told The Associ
ated Press that his agency, the Islamic
equivalent of the Red Cross, believes
1,000 people are dead, missing or
homeless because of the quake. He
said hospitals reported 10,000 injured,
although only about 400 remain hos
pitalized.
Scores of blood donors were re
portedly turned away from hospitals,
where officials said they already had
enough blood.
Surprise: College cost rise outpaces financial aid
BOSTON—The cost of attending
public colleges and universities has
increased al a double-digit rate for the
second straight year, far ahead of state
and federal financial aid, the College
Board reported Tuesday.
Thecostof higher education ranges
from S321 a year al the public, two
year College of the Mainland in Texas
City, Texas, to S24.380 at private
Sarah Lawrence Col lege in Bronxvillc,
N.Y. The highest-priced state school
is the University of Vermont, which
charges in-state students SI0,006 for
tuition, housing and a meal plan. -
Average tuition and Ices al four
year public universities and colleges
rose 10percent to $2,315 this fall, the
College Board reported. Room and
board brings the total to $5,841. At
two-year schools, the average in
creased to $1,292.
“A lolof students have been driven
from public colleges and universities
and people are also having trouble
affording community colleges at this
point,” said Stacey Leyton, president
of the U.S. Student Association.
Thisfall’s 10-pcrccnt hike follows
an increase of 13 percent last year.
The increase In the cost of private
institutions has been slowing, partly
in response locompciition fora dwin
dling number of Iradilional-agc stu
dents.
At four-year private universities
and colleges, tuition and fees now
average $10,498, and at private two
year colleges, $5,621 — increases of
7 percent and 6 percent. Room and
board adds an average of $4,575 to the
cost at private four-year schools.
“Given the stale of the economy
and its impact on stale budgets, many
pcoplccxpccted much larger increases
this year, particularly in the public
sector,” said Donald M. Stewart, presi
dent of the College Board, a New
York-based association of 2,800
higher education institutions.
Many col leges and uni versi lies arc
culling programs, laying off some
faculty and staff, and deferring main
tenance of buildings and equipment
“Even with the big tuition increases,
they ’ re sti 11 losing ground,” sa id Da v id
W. Brcncman, former president of
Kalamazoo College and a visiting
professor at the Harvard Graduate
School of Education.
Colleges and universities are also
being squeezed by falling public bud
gets for financial aid.
Gunshot incident sparks safety talks
By Sarah Scalet
Staff Reporter
Student leaders arc looking at safety
and security at the Nebraska and East
Campus unions because of a Sept. 20
incident at the Culture Center when
gunshots were fired, an official said
Tuesday.
Daryl Swanson,
♦director of the
Nebraska Union,
told Union Board
members that al
though the inci
dent was not di
rectly related to the Culture Center
because it occurred outside, students
already had discussed safety concerns
at two meetings.
The Culture Center is part of the
student unions.
Students will continue discussion
Oct. 22, Swanson said.
Suggestions at previous meetings
included having police on duly at
certain functions at the unions, re
quiring advisers to be present and
limiting events to University of Ne
braska-Lincoln students with identi
fication cards, Swanson said.
In other business, Union Board
members discussed a study about the
Nebraska Union’sacccssibilitytodis
ablcd students. - »
The study’s suggestions include:
• Raising two tables in the food
court so wheelchairs without trays
can maneuver under them.
• Making the door near the north
revolving doors accessible to students
who cannot maneuver through revolv
ing doors.
• Moving second and third floor
elevator buttons so they arc more
accessible. ,-——
• Installing flashers on fire alarms
for students with hearing disabilities.
Union Board members will dis
cuss recommendations after board
adviser Frank Kuhn researches the
cost and lime needed to implement
the changes.
Nebraskan
Editor Chris Hopfensperger Night News Editors Ksthy Stelnsuer
.. , 472-1766 Mike Lewis
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Arts & Entertainment Publications Board Chairman Tom Massey
Editor Shannon Uehllng 488-8761
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Photo Chief William Lauer 473-7301
NUMBER 472-J7S4_■ _—_
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