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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 8, 1994)
Inside Thursday Sports ■ No. 1 Nebraska faces Texas Tech tonight, Page 10 Arts & Entertainment ■ Crosby, Stills & Nash weathers 25 years, Page 12 PAGE 2: U.S. and Japan negotiate trade barriers September 8, 1994 Scott Bruhn/DN Brick layers Paul Yates and Bob Jansen from Seedorff Masonry Incorporated put up a brick wall at Dillard’s Tuesday afternoon. Construction at Gateway is expected to be completed by the fall of 1995. Gateway Mall takes on new look By Paula Lavigne Senior Reporter Palm trees,skylights and tile floors highlight ed the first phase of the renovation and expan sion of Lincoln’s Gateway Mall. The complex, located at 61st and East O streets, will be finished by the fall of 1995. Built as a strip mall in 1960, Gateway ex panded to an enclosed mall in 1972. The Richard E. Jacobs Group of Cleveland purchased the mall in 1985. Scott Vyskocil, the mail’s manager, said the new renovations were necessary to update the appearance of the mall. “We wanted to enlarge the mall and add new stores,” he said. One major change to the mall’s structure was the enclosure of the “garden mall” area. The garden mall site was an open courtyard with store fronts on both sides. The concrete in the enclosure was replaced with an earth-toned, porcelain-tile floor. The new courtyard area also features 18 skylights and scattered shrubbery. The food court was expanded to 450 seats. and parking lots have been enlarged and reconfigured, Vyskocil said. The renovations have made way for a variety of new stores at Gateway, including Bath & Body Works, Compagnie Internationale Ex press, Helzbcrg Diamonds, Hot Sam’s Pretzel Bakery, Structure, Camelot Music, Gadzooks and Victoria’s Secret. The Olive Garden and Montgomery Ward Auto Center also arc new additions to the mall. Gateway Mall currently features five depart See GATEWAY on 8 Man caught after chase with police By PeDra Janssen Senior Reporter A man who escaped from an Arkansas county jail was captured in downtown Lincoln Wednes day after his vehicle hit a University of Nebraska Postal Service van, police said. Capt. Byford Bruce of the Lancaster County Sheri IT’s Department said the two vehicles collid ed at 11 th and P streets about 9:30 a.m. Wednes day. Lincoln Police Sgt. Ann Hecrmann said that when the accident occurred, police cruisers were chasing Chad Beers, 25, the wrong way on a one way street. Police were pursuing Beers in connec tion to an attempted convenience store robbery near Bennet early Wednesday. Law enforcement authorities gave this account of the incident: At 2 a.m. Wednesday, Beers tried to rob the Bennet Comer Shop, located at the intersection of Nebraska Highway 43 and Nebraska Highway 2, about 10 miles southeast of Lincoln. Beers entered the store and demanded money from store employees. When the employees re fused to hand over the money, he struck one of the employees on the left shoulder with a crescent wrench. Afterashort scuffle with the employees, Beers fled in a white pickup truck. He look no money. The vehicle later was identified as a public works truck owned by the city of Lawrence, Kan. Police believe Beers stole the truck there. After the attempted robbery, the vehicle was seen heading toward Lincoln. About 9 a.m., the sheriffs department re ceived a call from a KOLN-TV reporter who had spotted the truck at 27th and Randolph streets. The reporter knew police were looking for the truck. The deputy investigating the robbery was near that area when the report came in. The deputy soon spotted the truck and chased it. The deputy was chasing Beers weston P Street, See ACCIDENT on 7 Witek’s candidacy status remains an uncertainty By Brian Sharp Senior Reporter Kate Witck thought a legality ques tion about her Republican candidacy for 1 icutcnant governor had been answered. Allan Eurek, the Democratic candi date for secretary of state, is frustrated that nothing has been done. And Secretary of State Allen Beermann is waiting to find out if he has the right to make a decision — again. Wednesday morning, Eurek filed a protest with Beermann about Witek’s candidacy. The protest alleges that Witek has not established the required five year residency in Nebraska in order to run for lieutenant governor. The deadline for establishing resi dency for the 1994 election was Nov. 8, 1989. Witck was in the process of mov ing from Denison, Iowa, when the dcad linc expired, she said. Witek said she had signed a pur chase agreement on her Omaha home in October 1989. She had sold her Iowa home that same month, she said. But the deed for her Omaha home was not dated until November, she said, because of unfilcd paperwork. Eurek said he didn’t think the deed was signed until December. Before ruling on Eurek’s challenge, Beermann said some questions needed to be answered. Beermann said the first question was whether he or the courts had jurisdic tion to rule on the issue. The attorney general’s office is researching that is sue, he said. If jurisdiction is established, Bcermann said, the decision would be made “between the immediate and any time sooner.” “It’s not unheard ofor totally unique (to have candidacy challenges)," Bcermann said. “It is in terms of this time frame.” Most challenges arc filed in Febru ary or March, Bcermann said. Given thelalcdatcofthischallengc, the statute of I imitations on a candidacy challenge may have expired, he said. The statue cites two 10-day periods in which challenges can be filed, Bcermann said. The first, he said, was following Witck’s February announce ment that she was running for office. The second period was after the candi dacy board certified Witek in June. Once jurisdiction and the timing of the complaint arc considered, Bcermann said he must decide whether Eurek could even file the challenge. The stat ute says state party committees must file complaints, Bcermann said. Eurek filed the challenge under the Eurck/Sccre tary of State Committee. Eurek said he first brought up the See WITEK on 6 Sign displays federal debt By Matthew Waite Senior-Reporter At 12:35 p.m. Wednesday, the federal debt stood at $4,680,569,372,940 and was grow ing at a rate of $9,600 per second. That and another figure, which calculated each family s contribu tion to pay off the debt, ticked away on a 20-foot-long sign at Broyhill PI a/a. The sign was sponsored by the University of Ncbraska-Lincoln stu dent government and the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan organiza tion designed to inform the public about the federal debt and ways to stop its growth. Tim Potter, the Nebraska coordi nator for the Concord Coalition, said the group took the sign to college campuses across the nation to make students aware of the federal debt. “The main purpose (of the cam pus visits) is to get the youngsters in college to realize we’re having fun spending the money, and they’re going to have to pay it off,” said Don Nelson, a Nebraska businessman and member of the coalition. The sign has gone to universities in Champaign and Peoria, 111.; Johnson City. Tcnn.; Richmond, Va.; and Washington, D.C. A driver will take the sign to Des Moines, Iowa, and Denver this week. Potter said the numbers on the sign were estimated using federal spending trends from the last 10 years. Andrew Loudon, president of the Association of Students of the Uni versity ofNebraska, said the debt was not only a federal issue but a gener ational one. “It affects everyone who is going to walk by herc,bccausc we are going to have to pay it off,” Loudon said while standing at the exhibit. The Social Security system will be bankrupt by 2029, Loudon said. He said that scared him, because he would be 58 years old when the system collapsed. Loudon said no one in his gener ation was a member of Congress, so any efforts to curb the deficit and Social Security shortfalls would have to come from older representatives. Nelson said that if the federal government were to pay just for de fense, interest on the debt and entitle ments— such as Medicare and So cial Security—a budget deficit still would exist. The government would have to eliminate the deficit to pay off the debt, Nelson said. The deficit is the difference be tween what the government makes and spends each year, he said. The government borrows money to pay off the deficit. That borrowed money adds up along with interest payments to form the federal debt. Nelson, 50, said his youngest daughter, Jennifer, 21, would have to pay three times the amount of payroll taxes she does now for her to receive the same Medicare and Social Secu rity benefits his 86-year-old mother receives. He said too few taxpayers would be contributing to the the Social Se curity system to keep benefits and taxes at the same level. The problem will have to be sol ved soon by negotiation, he said. “Will this get solved by them throwing tea into the harbor or by negotiating?” he asked. John Mitchell, who was hired to drive the sign to different college campuses, said he had seen many different reactions to the sign. He said most people just shook their heads. Mitchell, who is from Virginia, said the number on the sign wonied him. “I’ve got a 12-year-old son to worry about,” he said. “1 think there is something that ought to be done.”
