By The
Associated Press
Edited by Kristine Long
NEWS DIGEST
Netjraskan
Friday, January 21,1994
Bodyguard claims Harding
conspired in assault plan
PORTLAND, Ore. — Tonya
Harding knew of the plot to attack
Nancy Kerrigan and at one point com
plained it was taking too long to carry
out, her bodyguard told The Orego
nian newspaper in an interview pub
lished Thursday.
“You know, you need to stop screw
ing around with this and get it done,”
Shawn Eckardt quoted Harding as say
ing.
Eckardt also told the newspaper
that Harding’s ex-husband, Jeff
Gillooly, offered a $10,000 U.S. Fig
ure Skating Association check as a
bonus if the attack on Kerrigan was
carried out immediately. Top figure
skaters get financial aid from the
sport’s governing body.
The newspaper interview was pub
lished a day after Gillooly ’ s arrest and
the release of an affidavit from a sher
iffs deputy implicating Harding in
the Jan. 6 attack for the first time.
In the affidavit, which accompa
nied Gillooly’s arrest warrant, Eckardt
claimed Harding made two phone calls
to find out Kerrigan’s practice sched
ule at a skating rink near Boston and
later devised an alibi to explain the
calls.
‘Tonya categorically denies those
allegations,” said Harding’s attorney,
Dennis Rawlinson. “We believe Mr.
Eckardt’s lack of credibility is already
well documented.”
Eckardt; Gillooly; Shane Stant, the
alleged “hit man” in the attack; and
Derrick Smith, the alleged getaway
driver, have been charged with con
spiring to injure Kerrigan. Harding
has not been charged and has denied
any involvement.
Eckardt told The Oregonian that he
met with Gillooly several times to
plan the attack. At one midnight meet
ing around Dec. 31, while Stant was in
Boston seeking a chance to attack
Kerrigan, they talked while Harding
practiced at a rink, he said.
Harding skated over and said “she
was disappointed these guys didn’t do '
what they said they were going to do,”
he told The Oregonian. Eckardt said
he suggested Harding call Stant, but
she replied, “No, I want you to do it.”
Harding remains under investiga
tion, Assistant District Attorney John
Bradley said. She was questioned for
10 hours by the FBI and the district
attorney on Tuesday.
Claire Ferguson, president of the
USFSA, said figure skating officials
will vote next week on whether to
keep Harding on the U.S Olympic
team. Harding could appeal to the
U.S. Olympic Committee and go to
court as well, Ferguson said.
Gillooly, who has also denied any
involvement, was released on $20,000
bail Wednesday. Gillooly and Harding,
23, were divorced in August, then
reconciled in September. Harding an
nounced Tuesday that she was sepa
rating from him again.
Russian finance minister quits
MOSCOW — A key reformer quit
as Russia’s finance minister Thursday
after President Boris Yeltsin appoint
ed a new Cabinet dominated by con
servatives opposed to rapid economic
re forms.
“I have no intention of staying in
the government,” Boris Fyodorov said
at a news conference.
Fyodorov, who has earned the con
fidence of Western leaders and the
International Monetary Fund, had been
asked to stay as finance minister.
He was the most important reform
er remaining in the government after
the resignation Sunday of First Depu
ty Prime Minister YegorGaidar, wide
ly considered the architect of Yeltsin’s
economic reforms.
Fyodorov said he had offered to
stay in the Cabinet if State Bank Chair
man Viktor Gerashchenko and L>epu
ty Prime Minister Alexander
Zaveryukha were removed, but this
demand was not met.
Fyodorov is an advocate of tight
credit policies to fight inflation. Re
formers blame Gerashchenko and
Zaveryukha for huge low-interest
loans to state farms and enterprises
that sent inflation soaring last year.
Prime Minister Viktor
Chernomyrdin announced Thursday
that both Gerashchenko and
Zaveryukha would remain in the Cab
inet, while most of Russia’s bold young
reformers were removed or demoted.
Chernomyrdin told reporters that
“the period of market romanticism
has ended” and that the reforms must
be moderated to “make people’s lives
easier.”
Job report snows negative sign
WASHINGTON — The number
of Americans filing initial jobless
claims surged 23,000 to the highest
level in six months, the government
reported Thursday, demonstrating that
the nation’s job market remains as
volatile as ever.
The Labor Department said a sea
sonally adjusted 380,000 people filed
claims for the first time during the
week ending Jan. 15, up from a re
vised 357,000 the previous week.
It was the steepest increase report
ed since July 24,1992, when 395,000
people sought unemployment com
pensation for the first time.
Job losses were reported in con
struction, textile and service indus
tries, but there were no broad-based
layoffs to provide a conclusive expla
nation for the steep rise.
Most economists had predicted a
sizable decline in the number of initial
claims to about 340,000 after the pre
vious week’s 3,000 increase.
The four-week moving average of
initial jobless claims also posted an
increase, rising 12,500 to 346,000.
Economists pay more attention to
that figure because it is less volatile
than the weekly number and is consid
ered a more accurate measure of hir
ing trends.
The job market has shown wide
fluctuations for months, but econo
mists still insist that the job market is
steadily improving, with most new
hires coming in smaller companies.
Nebraskan
Managing Editor
Assoc. News Editors
Editorial Page Editor
Wire Editor
Copy Desk Editor
Sports Editor
Assistant Sports Editor
Arts & Entertainment
Editor
Photo Chiot
Editor Jerernj^Fttzpatrick
Adeane Leftin
Jeff Zeieny
Steve Smith
Rainbow Rowell
Kristine Long
Night News Editors Jeff Robb
Matt Woody
DeOra Janssen
Melissa Dunne
Todd Cooper
Jeff Ortesch
Sarah Duey
An Director
General Manager Den Shettil
Production Manager
Advertising Manager
Senior Accl Exec.
Publications Board Chairman
Katherine Pollcky
Jay Cruse
Sheri Kraiewskl
Doug Fiedler
4K42S7
Professional Adviser Don Walton
Steel McKee 473-7301
FAX NUMBER 472-1761
The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Ne
braska Union 34, 1400 R St.. Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the
academic year; weekly during summer sessions.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by
phoaing 472-1763 between 9 a.m and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also has
access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Doug Fiedler, 436-6287.
Subscridtion price is $50 for one year
Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R
St.,Lmooln, NE 68588-0448. Second class postage paid at Lincoln ME.
ALL MATERIAL COPYRKSHT1M4 DAILY NEBRASKAN
Whitewater counsel named
WASHINGTON—Former Re
publican U.S. attorney Robert B.
Fiske Jr. Thursday was named spe
cial counsel to probe President
Clinton’s ties to a failed Arkansas
savings and loan when he was gov
ernor. He pledged a “complete, thor
ough and impartial investigation.”
Fiske said it was certain that he
would question both the president
and the first lady under oath as part
of his investigation.
The appointment, announced by
Attorney General Janet Reno at a
morning news conference, came on
the first anniversary of Clinton’s
inauguration.
Fiske said the scope of his re
view would be as broad as neces
sary, and it would determine
“whether any individual or entity
have committed a violation of any
criminal law” in dealings surround
ing the Whitewater Development
Corp. and the Madison Guaranty
Savings & Loan.
He said the investment dealings
of the president and Hillary Rodham
Clinton would be closely reviewed,
as would the July suicide of White
House deputy counsel Vincent Fos
ter. A file on the Clinton’s
Whitewater investment was among
the items found in Foster’s office
after his death.
White House officials said the
-44
I don’t know Robert Fiske, but my reaction is
to wait and see what happens. They’ve
chosen someone. That’s what we asked them
to do. ^
,v —Dole
Senate Republican Leader
---H “
Clintons would cooperate with
Fiske.
Asked about Fiske’s promise to
talk to the Clintons under oath, Press
Secretary Dee Dee Myers said, “He
hasn’t done it yet. We’ll deal with
that when it comes.”
Reno’s selection of the 63-year
old Wall Street attorney answered
suggestions that the special counsel
be a veteran attorney and, to dem
onstrate independence, a Republi
can.
Senate Republican Leader Bob
Dole of Kansas, who had called for
a special counsel, told reporters to
day: “1 don’t know Robert Fiske,
but my reaction is to wait and see
what happens. They’ve chosen
someone. That’s what we asked
them to do.”
“As far as I know, people who
know him think he is extremely
well-qualified, is independent. He
has some Republican leanings,”
Dole said, adding: “Some of the
conservative Republicans have not
been happy with him.”
Fiske ran the U.S. attorney’s of
fice for the Southern District of
New York in Manhattan from 1976
to 1980.
Fiske said he would conduct the
investigation as quickly as possi
ble, but could not set a timetable.
He said he would hire his own legal
team to conduct the investigation
and also planned to meet with Jus
tice Department lawyers who have
been conducting a government in
vestigation of Whitewater and its
dealings with a failed Little Rock
savings and loan, Madison Guaran
ty.
President still striving to deliver
WASHINGTON — A year ago
today, President Clinton used his in
augural address to package a long list
of campaign promises into a simple,
guiding theme: “We pledge an end to
the era of deadlock and drift, and a
new season of American renewal.”
Clinton can look back at the one
year mark with satisfaction at the prom
ises he kept—from signing the family
leave, motor voter and Brady handgun
control laws to creating a new national
service program, turning Reaganomics
on its head and reversing the anti
abortion policies of successive Re
publican administrations.
Beyond the specifics, even
Clinton’s harshest critics concede he
has tried to deliver on his campaign
and inaugural calls for a more activist
and diverse government.
He intervened to end an airline
strike, got the warring parties in the
Northwest’s timber vs. owl dispute to
the bargaining table and named a
record number of women and minor
ities to his Cabinet and other senior
jobs.
But the president’s track record is
not without bruises, blemishes and
considerable compromise.
Sober budget realities swallowed
Clinton’s middle class tax cut, pared
the spending increases promised for
Head Start and whittled down the scope
of his plan to make college money
available to every American regard
less of income.
Political realities also took their
toll, compromising if not killing many
of Clinton’s promises, as well as chang
ing the president himself.
His campaign pledge to open the
military to homosexuals became a
muddled “don’t ask, don’t tell” com
promise that left neither side happy.
His fellow Democrats held hostage
Clinton’s hope for a line-item veto.
And bickering among lawmakers in
both parties kept any campaign fi
nance reforms from reaching Clinton’s
desk in the first year.
And as a newcomer on the global
stage, Clinton quickly found he could
not deliver on a few specific promises
he had made about world affairs. His
harsh rhetoric about the civil strife in
Bosnia never escalated into the tough
er actions he promised as a candidate.
Haitian boat people were turned away
despite candidate Clinton’s promise
to accept them. Jean-Bertrand Aristide
remained a refugee in America de
Clinton’s first
year ratings
Approve
Nsapprove
Question: Do you approve or disapprove of the way
Bill Clinton Is handling his job as president?
No religion
m 51 %
37%
Not#: |ram awtoninfl po«s v
cpn*«*i by CsWup ‘or USA Today and C#0*«
Now* NetwwK Iron Janwwy'1^2 tfvougft ■
mid November. Samote «ouaib 20.026 adofti
Sp
•- :•:■
spite Clinton's pledge to restore the
deposed Haitian leader.
Clinton kept some promises that
translated into foreign policy success
es.
•He had pledged to overcome deep
opposition in his Democratic Party
and enact the North American Free
Trade Agreement, and he did. And
part of his promise to help the econo
my at home was to somehow settle the
global trade talks known as GATT. He
did that, too, ending a seven-year stale
mate.
Because he pushed on so many
fronts in his first year, both his boost
ers and critics have plenty of ammuni
tion when it comes to assessing
Clinton’s commitment to his promis
es.
"The problem with his promises is
they always sound great,” said the
Republican National Committee chair
man, Haley Barbour. “But what he
does often has nothing in common
with what he says.”
But Clinton’s first year closed with
the economy on the upswing — infla
tion at a record low, the unemploy
ment rate creeping lower and a slug
gish housing market showingsignsof
life.
“The fundamental promise was to
get the economy moving again,” said
Stephanopoulos. "That was a com
mitment kept."
