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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 29, 1994)
■M SPORTS Springing into Spring Football The Nebraska football team opens its spring practices with added determination after the Huskers' narrow Orange Bowl loss. Page 5 Tuesday 36/20 Today, cold with light snow or flurries. March 29, 1994 University of Nebraska-Lincoln Vol. 93 No. 129 Crime bill grinds past Chambers By Jeffrey Robb Senior Editor After nearly 11 hours ofdcbatc. Gov. Ben Nelson’s adult crime bill earned a round of approval from Nebraska legislators with a 34-5 vote. Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha made good on his promise Monday to delay LB 1351, an adult crime bill that would tougncn pen alties and. among other things, adjust death penalty ap peals. The final vote on the bill came at 11:45 p.m. On a day when i r/«ici atiidtdebate on the adult LEuKMJtlUICfccrjmc bjjj should 4 \— have been 1 ively. Sen. Timothy HalI of Omaha said eating a Saltinc cracker was the highlight of his Monday. Sen. John Lindsay of Omaha re sponded: “What’s worse is my big gest thrill is watching you eating it.” At 1:30 p.m., the debate began on amendments to the bill. Chambers proposed amendments toother amend ments, which lasted until 10:30 p.m., and a day of debate and vote on the bill almost was lost. Despite Chambers’ delay, all amendments to LB 1351 advanced. Throughout the day. Chambers stifled debate. Lindsay tossed a green rubber ball around. He said the ball was Kryptonite, Superman’s only weakness. But, he said, hedidn’t think Chambers, the apparent Superman of the day, would catch the ball if thrown his way. Chambers made h is i nten tions clear throughout Monday’s discussion: • “I’m going to do all I can to stop this bill from passing.” • “Each one of these amendments will be discussed.” • “I in determined to discuss all aspects of the bill which I think arc important.” • “1 am prepared to talk all eight hours if I have to because this issue is that important." • “I said 1 was going to donate that time, and 1 am.” Chambers went line by line, division by division through the proposed amendments to LB 1351. By the end of the evening, Chambers had advanced to the second of 25 divisions in the amendment. One section of the proposed amend ment would link the death penalty, the Supreme Court and the secretary of stale. The section of the amendment pro posed that, if the Supreme Court did not set an execution date within 30 days after a motion for one was Hied, the secretary of stale could issue a notice. That notice would set the new execution date for 45 days after the original filing date. Chambers hit on the death penalty section for most of the debate. The problem, he said, was that an execu tive officer would be interfering in a judicial procedure, thus violating the separation of powers clause in the Nebraska Constitution. “It’s silliness, it’s outright foolish ness.” he said. Chambers often at tacked Attorney General Don Stenberg, calling him “General Stenberg.” He said Stenberg lobbied to have the section added to be vindic tive toward the Supreme Court. Chambers alsodiscusscd his oppo sition to the death penalty. Chambers’ proposed amendments to the death penalty amendment in See LEGISLATURE on 3 Damon Lee/DN Finishing touches Tom T. Towater, a senior art major, does some final sanding on an urn in the Nolle Cochrane Woods Art Building Sunday afternoon. Towater said the urn was being prepared for exhibition and competition later this week. Site style raises issue of renovation By Angie Brunkow Senior Reporter_ In the 1980s, the university pur chased a 70-year-old junior h igh building at 22nd and W streets, and administrators are still deciding what to do with it. “It’s an ongoing cflort within the university,” Donald Helmuth, associ ate vice chancellor for research, said. On March 25,ChancellorGraham Spanierexplored the 1 ittlc-known and little-used university building with fourothcr university officials, Helmuth said. The tour was prompted by a S10 million renovation estimate to turn the Whittier building into housing for married students, Helmuth said. “That’s a lot of money,” he said. Currently, about one-fourth of the building’s 128,000 square feet is oc cupied by various groups, Helmuth said. The building is being used by Amazon River Products, the United States Department of Agriculture and some University ofNcbraska-Lincoln departments. Helmuth said that, although the building originally was bought to be an incubator for new businesses, few businesses had used the space. “The way the building is actually constructed, it’s not that useful.” he said. The wide hallways, high ceilings and interior wall masonry make it difficult for businesses to expand with in the building, he said. The floors can’t support heavy equipment. “It was designed for the standards of the time,” Helmuth said. Renovations to make the building more useful, such as turning the build ing into student housing, would be costly, he said. Asbestos is in the subbasement and boilers, he said, and the heating sys tem doesn’t work. A 1991 proposal to move UNL’s College of Journalism into Whittier was abandoned because of the exten sive renovation costs. Administrators will continue to considerpossiblc uses for the building and begin making decisions about its future in the next several months, Helmuth said. “It’s something the university is striving to make a decision on,” he said. NU, Gallup mix creates poll data library By Matthew Waite Senior Reporter A joint project involving the University of Nebraska-Lin coln and the Gallup Organi zation will make nearly 60 years of information available to UNL for re search, an official said. Lynn White, professor of sociol ogy, said UNL and the Lincoln-based survey organization had created a partnership that will develop the Gallup Institute at the university. White said the institute would be used as a library of public opinion polls and would focus on the study of surveys and the methods used to con duct them. “What we will do is set up a data archive that will be computerized ... that has all the Gallup polls from 1935,” she said. “That Gallup data is not generally available for scholars.” White, who is a member of the initial planning committee ofUnivcr sity of Nebraska-Lincoln and Gallup officials, said the committee was plan ning more partnership possibilities between the two groups. The institute will be jointly housed at UNL and at Gallup in Lincoln, she said. The joint effort will make it easier to overlap academic issues with com mercial studies, White said. For ex ample, a study on minimum wages could be coupled with a study using information on labor economics. White said, however, that the joint committee was involved in the very early stages of planning the future of the institute. The institute could attract scholars from around the world, White said. She said some would come to UNL as visiting professors and others could work at Gallup on short-term projects. City finishes 10th Street viaduct construction By Brian Sharp Stall Reporter_ The barricades arc coming down. After more than a year of construction, the 10th Street viaduct will open at 10 a.m. today, officials said. The two-lane bridge, which spans about four blocks, connects 10th and 9th streets on the west side of City Campus. Paul Carlson, associate vice chan cellor for business and finance, said after last summer’s rains delayed con struction that the bridge wasn’t ex pected toopen until April 1.Tuesday’s start comes early, if only by a couple days, he said. The opening will be a quiet one, with no ribbon cutting, no ceremony, no fanfare — just pulling back the signs, he said. Al Imig, deputy city engineer, said workers spent Monday striping the bridge’s traffic lanes, putting upspeed limit signsand trimming nearby trees. When all construction is finished on the project, Stadium Drive and land around the viaduct will be turned over to the University of Nebraska-Lin coln. Imig said the bridge originally was expected to cost the city $2.6 million. He said he was unaware of the actual costs but thought they did not run significantly over budget. Including the pedestrian bridge, the Stadium Drive cul-de-sac and other project construction, the total cost is expected to be $5 million, Imig said. Carlson said trafTic patterns and parking in the area should remain pretty much the same. The biggest cnange win dc mat iramc now can head north on N Street, and drivers coming from west Lincoln will find it easier to get around without any more detours. Construction on a cul-de-sac at the south end of Stadium Drive also will begin today, Carlson said. And, he said, construction of a new narking lot on East Campus near the Law College should begin soon. The new Area 20 lot will add about 200 stalls for commuters, parking offi cials said.