&aae- New Digest
Tuesday, October 4, 1994 Page 2
Distraction drives Espy out
WASHINGTON — Agriculture
Secretary Mike Espy resigned Mon
day, saying an investigation into gifts
he accepted from people and compa
nies who do business with his depart
ment was too distracting for him to
stay on. He predicted he would be
exonerated.
“I owe it to the president to allow
his agenda to go through with a mini
mum of distraction,” Espy said in
announcing he would leave the Cabi
net effective Dec. 31. Both Espy and
his attorney said there was no evi
dence that any government practice
or policy was affected by the gifts
given to Espy or his girlfriend.
‘‘I must personally overcome the
challenge to my good name,” said
Espy, 40.
A court-appointed independent
counsel is investigating whether Espy
violated rules governing contacts with
companies that do business with his
department. Among the companies
involved is Tyson Foods Inc., the
nation’s largest poultry company. The
Arkansas company has longtime ties
to President Clinton.
Questions also have been raised
about Espy’s acceptance of tickets to
sports events, travel and lodging. Espy
denied any wrongdoing, and has re
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9 p.m.
1823 "O" Street
JVOCOVEJ^
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HALLOWEEN
Experience the unknown
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Refreshments will be
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Limited seating is available.
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7 must personally
overcome the challenge
to my good name. ”
■
MIKE ESPY
Agriculture Secretary
paid more than $7,600 in expenses.
“I have failed myself,” Espy said.
He said he had not been as careful as
he should have been in “managing
some of the details” of his personal
finances. And he apologized to Presi
dent Clinton for any embarassment
he had caused the administration.
He said allegations he improperly
billed the government for travel or
other expenses were “untrue and un
founded.”
Espy said he could not comment
specifically on the allegations because
of the investigation.
Espy said be had been fighting the
allegations for months and had begun
to feel as if he was “twisting in the
wind, twisting in the wind. ... The
bough finally broke.”
The resignation will end a two
a .1__
■ An American soicter was shot and
wounded Monday in Lee Cayee, He was
the second American wounded since
US. troops arrived two weeks ago.
■ 300 soldiers from six Caribbean
nations are scheduled to arrive Monday
to form an international peacekeeping
torn.
■ 1,600 U.S. Marines in Haiti will begin
to withdraw.
year Cabinet career for Espy, a former
Mississippi congressman who made
history by being the first black South
erner and the youngest person to serve
as secretary of agriculture. He be
comes the second Clinton Cabinet
member to resign, following former
Secretary of Defense Les Aspin.
Espy took over at Agriculture
promising change and a “new atti
tude,” quoting from the Patti LaBelle
song. He sped to the sites of crises
including a food poisoning case and
record flooding in the Midwest.
He also worked on global trade
treaties and an overdue move to reor
ganize the department.
Espy’s frenetic travel schedule also
included professional sports tickets,
corporate jet travel and lodging from
Tyson Foods. *
Espy’scloseness with Tyson raised
allegations, reported in March by The
Associated Press, that Espy aides sup
pressed, then delayed, work on tighter
sanitary controls in poultry plants.
Further investigation by the
department’s Office of Inspector Gen
eral, then the Justice Department,
found Espy had accepted free football
tickets from Quaker Oats, another
company doing business with the de
partment.
Weapons seized
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haili — In
the most dramatic strike yet at Haiti’s
ruling military, U.S. soldiers raided
the headquarters of a hated pro-army
militia Monday, seizing weapons and
arresting more than three dozen
people.
A joyous crowd of Haitians gath
ered to cheer the Americans. As the
soldiers pulled away from the para
military headquarters, the Haitians
surged forward in ajubilant mass and
gleefully trashed the place, smashing
everything they could lay hands on.
The raid came hours after Haitians
in the southwestern town of Les Cayes
shot and wounded a U.S. Special
Forces soldier — the second Ameri
can casualty since U.S. troops arrived
two weeks ago.
UNL CLUB
presents a
Wild 'n Western Weekend
Saturday, October 8 8pm • 1am
Benefit Dance
Featuring
Steel-n-Hearts
Airport Rama da Inn - Lincoln
$5 per person $4 with Student I.D.
minors welcome
Sunday, October 9 11:30am
. Intramural* Rodeo
33rd A Leighton, East of Audio Visual
Events include:
Calf Tying*Dummy Roping*Steer Wrestling
Human Barrel Race’Goat Tying*Steer Riding
Wild Cow Race
no experience necessary
5 people per team 3 guys & 2 gals
$5 per person
event prizes & overall awards
$1 admission fee for non-contestants
Goat Roping directly following
$3 a man
Belt buckle to high money winner
I Video shows locks failed on ferry doors I
Videotapes sent up by robots from the wreck of the ferry Estonia
showed a two-fold failure: The front cargo door was ripped off and the
bow's inner door was partly dislodged.
Front cargo door
The hinged door used for
loading cars and trucks on
the ferry had separated
from the ship. The door has
not been found.
J Hydraulic link
\ mechanism
sLsbiT —^
Inner bow door -
This door, which
doubles as a ramp for vehicles, had
been partly dislodged. A gap of about three feet
along the top edge allowed water to rush into the car deck.
Source: International Maritime Organization. Sea Link AP
Cargo door failure
doomed the Estonia
TURKU, Finland — Banging
thunderously in a violent storm,
the huge front cargo door of the
ferry Estonia was ripped off after
its locks failed, letting in tons of
water that sank the vessel, investi
gators said Monday.
The crew probably was helpless
to save the ship and the more than
900 people who died in the tragedy
last Wednesday, according to a pre
liminary conclusion based on video
images sent up from the wreck by
robots.
Eerie images of twisted metal,
broken windows, unused lifeboats
and even wafting newspapers flick
ered on a screen as investigators
described their findings from the
wreck lying 230 feet below the
Baltic Sea’s surface.
could’ve done,” said Tuomo
Karppinen, a member of the inves
tigatory commission.
The nine-member commission
still must determine why the lock
ingde vices on the 60-ton front cargo
door failed. Karppinen speculated
there likely was a problem before
the ferry sailed out of harbor in
Tallinn. Estonia, into the storm,
headed for Stockholm, Sweden.
Swedish police launcheda crimi
nal investigation Monday looking
for possible negligence in the di
saster, the Swedish news agency
TT reported.
Mechanical heart pumps
for transplant patients
WASHINGTON—The Food and
Drug Administration approved the
first implantable heart pump to keep
patients alive while they await heart
trai lants.
8 HeartMate Left Ventricular
Assist System provides hope for the
20.000 Americans who vie for some
2.000 donor hearts every year, the
FDA said in approving the device
Monday.
“This device could help save the
lives of many transplant candidates
who now die for lack of available
donor hearts,’’ said FDA Commis
sioner David Kessler.
HeartMate supports the natural
heart when its main pumping cham
ber, the left ventricle, is no longer
strong enough to pump on its own.
The only viable therapy for this
fatal disease is a heart transplant.
HeartMate helps patients’ hearts con
tinue beating while they undergo the
typical yearlong wait fora transplant,
the FDA concluded.
The I I/2-pound titanium pump is
implanted into the abdomen and con
nected to the left ventricle, helping
the ventricle pumpblood intothe main
artery that supplies the body.
The natural heart continues per
forming such vital biological func
tions as regulating blood flow and
producing peptides.
The FDA approved the device only
as a bridge for patients on transplant
waiting lists whose hearts are failing
so rapidly that they are likely to die
within two days.
So far, 230 Americans from age 14
to 66 have received the device. The
average implant lasted 76 days, al
though one patient lived with the de
vice for 344 days.
Nebraskan
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