s=Kst- News digest
WASHINGTON —With a declaration that
it was “step one in taking our streets back,”
President Clinton Tuesday signed into law the
long-fought Brady handgun control bill.
The law requires a five-day waiting period
and background check on handgun buyers and
will take effect in 90 days.
“America won this battle,” Clinton told 200
people in the East Room of the White House.
“Americans are finally fed up with violence
that cuts down another citizen with gunfire
every 20 minutes. We know that this bill will
make a difference.”
Clinton emotionally recounted an incident
in Arkansas where a friend of his sold a gun to
a man just released from a mental institution.
The man then shot and killed six people.
“Don’t tell me this bill won’t make a differ
ence,” he said. “It is not true.”
The bill’s namesake, former White House
Press Secretary James Brady, said the bill would
bring “the end of unchecked madness and the
commencement of a heartfelt crusade for a
safer and a saner country.”
Severely wounded in the 1981 assassination
attempt on President Reagan, Brady and his
wife, Sarah, have promoted gun control since
the mid-1980s.
“Twelve years ago, my life was changed
forever by a disturbed young man with a gun,”
Brady said. “Until that time, I had not thought
about gun control or the need for gun control.
Maybe if I had done so, I wouldn’t be stuck with
these damn wheels.”
Brady has used a wheelchair since the shoot
ing.
Clinton said signing the bill “will be step one
in taking our streets back, taking our children
back, reclaiming our families and our future."
He thumped the podium as he insisted the
Brady bill and other gun control laws will not
hurt hunters.
“We have taken this important part of life of
millions of Americans and turned it into an
instrument of maintaining madness. It is cra
zy,” said Clinton, the former governor o Ar
kansas, where hunting is extremely popular.
“Would I let anybody change that life of
America? Not on your lite, he said.
Attorney General Janet Reno called the
Bradys “an example for all Americans that wc
can make a difference — that one person, that
one family can make adifference in violence in
America.”
Reno noted, that Sarah Brady vowed not to
stop with the Brady bill alone, saying after the
Senate approved it last week, “Wc re going to
get the ban on assault weapons passed.
Sarah Brady thanked Clinton and former
President Reagan, whom she credited with
making the Brady bill “a badge of honor for
Republicans.”
She did not mention former President Bush,
who refused to sign the Brady bill unless it was
- it-—
Americans are finally fed up
with violence that cuts down
another citizen with gunfire
every 20 minutes. We know
that this bill will make a
difference.
— President Clinton
-tt_
part of an overall crime bill, which never passed
Congress.
In a hushed, shaky voice, Melanie Musick of
Atlanta told the crowd that her husband was
killed in 1990 by a man who had just left a
mental institution and purchased a gun.
“The Brady bill could have saved my hus
band’s life.”
Amtrak train derails after accident
INTERCESSION CITY, Fla. —
An Amtrak passenger train slammed
into a tractor-trailer stalled at a rail
road crossing and derailed Tuesday,
injuring at least 45 people.
The driver of the rig could not be
found, authorities said.
“We don’t know if he’s dead, or il
he jumped from the truck,” said Mike
Mahoney, an Osceola County fire
rescue dispatcher.
The eight-car Silver Meteor, bound
for New York City from Tampa, was
carrying 103 passengers and about
eight crew members when the acci
dent occurred in early afternoon, said
Sue Martin, an Amtrak spokeswoman
in Washington, D.C.
Four of the train cars were thrown
off the tracks in the accident, she said.
The derailment occurred near In
tercession City, 20 miles southwest of
Orlando.
A green truck, apparently with a
large generator on board, was tangled
in the train’s wreckage.
The train consisted of one engine,
one mail car, one baggage car and six
passenger cars, including a sleeping
car, a lounge car and four coaches,
Amtrak said.
It was the second derailment of an
Amtrak train in a little more than a
week. On Nov. 23, 16 people were
AP
injured, none seriously, when a Seat
tle-to-Chicago train derailed near
Boise, Idaho.
STATE WIRE -1
Tsongas supports Kerrey s deficit plans
OMAHA — A former senator
and Democratic presidential hope
ful praised proposals by his former
rival, Sen. Bob Kerrey, to cut fed
eral spending.
The proposals by Sen. Bob
Kerrey, D-Ncb., will measure how
serious Congress is about reducing
the federal deficit, said Paul
Tsongas, who like Kerrey chal
lenged President Clinton for the
1992 Democratic nomination.
Tsongas, a former senator from
Massachusetts, said Kerrey’s pro
posals willshowwhothe'^
critcs are in the Senate.
The bipartisan proposal to trim
$109 billion in federal spending
over five years “is the single most
important vote in determining who
the hypocrites are,” Tsongas said.
He was in Omaha to address the
NebraskaCattlemcn’s Association
convention.
Tsongas and former Sen. War
ren Rudman, R-N.H., have helped
form The Concord Coalition, a bi
partisan group that has proposed a
plan to balance the federal budget
by the year 2000.
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Jacksonville Jaguars add to Florida football craze
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Over
the years, Jacksonville hasproven it is
football crazy. It simply never had a
chance to go nuts over the NFL.
Now, it will.
“It’s not a miracle. It’s a well
earned victory for our community,”
said Wayne Weaver, the managing
general partner of Touchdown Jack
sonville! Ltd., the group seeking an
NFL team for several years.
“We are going to be a great new
partner for the NFL,” Weaver added,
holding up a Jacksonville Jaguars jer
sey. “This is truly a great day for
Jacksonville.
“The Jaguars will mean enormous
economic gains for the state and plen
ty of excitement for residents and
visitors alike, uov. Lawton Chiles
said in Tallahassee. “It kind of says a
community has arrived.”
Chiles said his hopes of a team for
Jacksonville had faded as the list of
cities shrank.
“1 have to say it was so surprising
— pleasantly so,” he said.
As commissioner Paul Tagliabue
made the announcement, fans at The
Jacksonville Landing uncorked cham
pagne and cheered loudly.
"There was a very strong feeling
that Jacksonville wasa hotbed of foot
ball interest,” Tagliabue said.
Dan Connell, an official with First
Union National Bank who helped
spearhead a drive to sell 10,000 club
seats, said, “This is the greatest news
tn the history oi Jacksonville.
After a tense summer between
Touchdown Jacksonville and the city,
the City Council finally approved a
$121 million renovation of the Gator
Bowl and NFL Now!, a group of
businessmen, sold 10,000 club seats
in 10 days.
Attendance has been strong for
several NFL preseason games and the
city has supported teams in the USFL
and the WFL. The Jacksonville Bulls
led the USFL in attendance.
This drive to secure a team was the
latest in a long list of attempts, includ
ing courting the New Orleans Saints.
Atlanta Falcons, Houston Oilers, St.
Louis Cardinals and the Baltimore
Colts.
Education
Continued from Page 1
and diversity, distributed to faculty
who wanted to express openness to
gay and lesbian students.
• The abolition of prayer last De
cember at graduation ceremonies. The
tradition has since been reinstated.
• The furor over using student fees
to fund gay and lesbian organizations.
“Higher education is a bit of a
farce,” Sigerson said. “We’re more
concerned with speech codes, pink
triangles and green spaces.”
Caldwell said, “We know we’re
headed in the wrong direction when
on over 600 radio stations across the
nation. Rush Limbaugh is calling the
Big Red the Big Pink.” '
Sigerson said the uni versity should
focus on its strengths and take major
steps toward program specialization.
He said the university could re
define priorities and get away from its
social agenda by reforming faculty
tenures and by avoiding the use of
graduate students in high-level cours
es.
“It just isn’t right. They should be
teaching us because that’s what
they’re being paid for.” he said.
Sigerson said taxpayers across the
country were unwilling to fund a sys
tem that adhered to such a broad
philosophy.
“We need to start looking at spe
cializing,” Sigerson said. “We should
be good at the things we’re good at.
With the things we’re not so good at,
we should let other campuses han
dle.”
Caldwell said Rotary Club mem
bers had the influence to make chang
es in Nebraska’s colleges and univer
sities.
“You should speak out for
prioritization on how we spend mon
ey on higher education,” he said.
Students attend college to get a
good job and be a positive force in
society, not to quibble about social
issues, Sigerson said.
“When you’re coming into the
university, you’re going to deal with
social issues — that is one of the
important aspects of col lege life, he
said. “But spending your time arguing
about pink triangles isn’t the kind ot
education you’re sending people to
school to get.’’
Caldwell said students’ freedom
of expression on college campuses
everywhere was under fire.
“Higher education is now trying to
dictate what students can and cannot
say through intimidation,” Caldwell
said. “It seems somewhat odd that the
very institution that supports free
thought is stifling free speech.”
Caldwell asked Rotary Club mem
bers to consider some university deci
sions in a business light.
“Suppose your company had al
ways started off your annual meeting
with a prayer,” Caldwell said. “Stock
holders had even voted on it and said,
‘We want it.’ Then your board ot
directors votes to do away with it
because you may offend someone.
NelSral&kan
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