insidellf
Wednesday
Sports
Nebraska gymnast looks
toward Olympics, page 7
Arts & Entertainment
Mary Riepma Ross Theater to
leave Sheldon Art Gallery, page 9
March 1, 1995
States doing
what it takes
to land Micron
By J. Christopher Hain
Senior Reporter
Nebraska, Oklahoma and Utah all have
been dangling offers in front of Micron —
now they’re just waiting for a decision.
That waiting game was prolonged Tues
day when Micron announced it would decide
on a location for its $1.3 billion, 3,500-em
ployee, computer chip plant no sooner than
the end of this week. The decision originally
was to be made by today.
In addition to Omaha, Micron also is con
sidering locating its plant near Oklahoma
City, Okla., or in Utah County, Utah, near
Provo.
All three sites have put together good
incentive packages, said Rick Moore, assis
tant to the mayor of Oklahoma City.
Moore said state and local officials in
Oklahoma had been working on an incentive
package that would aid in paying Micron’s
relocation costs.
“I think we’ve got a great package,” he
said.
The package is worth $500,000 to $1 mil
lion, said Shirley Darrell, chairwoman of the
Oklahoma County Board of Commissioners.
The package was put together by the Okla
homa Department of Commerce, Oklahoma
County, Oklahoma City and the Oklahoma
City Chamber of Commerce, Darrell said.
The county paid for $200,000 of the package,
she said.
Both Oklahoma State University and the
University of Oklahoma would work with
Micron to provide master’s programs in com
puter science and engineering at the Micron
plant, saic^Natalea Watkins, director of pub
lic information for Oklahoma State Univer
sity.
lhe two universities have provided simi
lar on-site programs for other companies in
Oklahoma, Watkins said.
Utah also has been aggressive in pledging
to meet Micron’s educational needs.
Marilyn Davies, director of extension and
community relations for the College of Engi
neering at the University of Utah, said both
the University of Utah and Brigham Young
University could provide whatever Micron
needed.
Davies said the College of Engineering at
the University of Utah had a 20-member
industry advisory board and was used to
collaborating with businesses.
“The college of engineering works closely
with state and local people to support local
economic development,” she said.
Gary Herbert, chairman of the Utah County
Commission, said the incentive package for
Micron was the same as packages put to
gether for other businesses.
Herbert said the county would provide a
site for the Micron plant and the sewer, water
and power the plant needed.
“We will provide the infrastructure neces
sary to function on the site,” Herbert said.
The cost of the package probably would
range from $25 million to $30 million, Herbert
said. It would be paid for from the tax money
generated by Micron, he said.
With other high-tech industry already in
the area, Herbert said, Utah County had a
good chance of landing Micron.
“I’m cautiously optimistic.”
What goes up ...
Garik Parmeie/DN
Nebraska’s Assistant Women’s Soccer Coach Marty Everding goes up for
the bail during a practice session Tuesday morning in the Cook Pavilion.
Approaches
to execution
being revised
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter '
Death-penalty opponents and supporters are
revising their approaches to the execution of
Robert Williams in light of the party-like atmo
sphere during the Harold Lamont Otey execu
tion last September.
Williams, 57, was sentenced June 30, 1978,
for killing two Lincoln women and raping one
in August 1977. His execution is scheduled for
March 22.
Scott Wesely, coordinator for Nebraskans
Against the Death Penalty, said the organiza
tion might try to appeal more to the rational,
rather than the emotional, aspects of the issue.
The group will start a letter-writing cam
paign and hold coffee-house discussions on the
death penalty at 7 p.m. Wednesday at The Mill,
Cafe Shakes and Mo’ Java.
Opponents also will work to support LB 18,
a legislative bill that would repeal Nebraska’s
death penalty and replace it with life in prison
without parole, Wesely said.
He said he also would work to emphasize the
high cost of executions and the ineffectiveness
of the death penalty as a deterrent.
During the last election year, many politi
cians campaigned with a “tough-on-crime”
stance that contradicted the organization’s ef
forts.
I think we learned that there s only so much
you can do to affect the consciousness of public
officials,” he said. “There’s only so much you
can do to make a big press glut, and I think the
two in combination can work against you.”
He said he did not know if death penalty
opponents would protest at the penitentiary.
“I would rather not have to go through what
we went through again at all,” he said. “I don’t
want that kind of horrible scene we saw at the
penitentiary.”
Groups around the country are avoiding
penitentiary and public protests, Wesely said.
“They realize this mob attitude is kind of
hard to face,” he said. “It doesn’t accomplish a
great deal in terms of winning over the public
and having any kind of impact.”
Although an emotional response triggered
some people’s consciousness, he said, it was
hard to control.
“We’re facing a climate that’s more angry
and more violent, and that’s a difficult thing to
counter no matter what you do in the press or
public,” he said. “We have a lot of choices to
make whether we provoke the kind of emo
tional response we had last time.”
A “wait-and-see” attitude prevails with
groups that support the death penalty, such as
the Plainsmen.
Larry Ball, Plainsmen president, said his
group did not have any immediate plans, but
would give balance to any actions taken by
death-penalty opponents.
“Honestly, we’ll be reactive,” he said.
Ball said the Plainsmen were taking a less
aggressive stance than it did with Otey because
Williams had a lower profile compared to Otey
andcurrent death-row inmates Roger Bjorkland,
See PENALTY on 3
Legislature steps toward new electoral college system
By John Fulwider
Staff Reporter
The Legislature advanced a plan
Tuesday to return to the winner-take
all system of presidential electoral
college voting used by 48 other states.
LB65 was advanced to the final
stage of floor consideration on a 26
17 vote. A move to keep the current
system in place until at least 2006 was
rejected.
In 1991, Nebraska departed from
the electoral-college system used by
most states. In Nebraska, the candi
date who wins the majority of the
statewide vote receives two of the
state’s five electoral votes.
The other three electoral votes are
divided by Nebraska’s three congres
sional districts. A presidential candi
date who wins a majority in a district
would get the electoral vote for that
district. \
In every other state exceptMaine,
all electoral votes are awarded to the
candidate who receives the majority
of the statewide vote. Electoral votes
determine the president and vice presi -
dent.
Sen. Doug Kristensen of Minden,
who sponsored the bill, said it had two
purposes: to put Nebraska in line with
other states and to prevent Nebraska
from becoming a forum for fringe
candidates.
Under the current system, he said,
a relatively unknown candidate could
get national attention by spending $5
million or $6 million to win a Ne
1
braska congressional district, and thus
an electoral vote.
“I just have a great fear that we’ll
be a convenient forum (for fringe
candidates),” Kristensen said. ‘‘And I
don’t think that’s what the electoral
process is all about.”
Kristensen said Nebraska’s elec
toral system did not affect the 1992
presidential election.