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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1995)
inside fT 1 hursday Sports Husker softball team ranked No. 8, page 7 Arts & Entertainment Omaha native returns to Nebraska this weekend with The Murmurs, page 9 March 2, 1995 Kids hurt when cash is cut, bill foes say By Chad Lorenz Staff Reporter A bill to reform welfare in Ne braska would harm children, oppo nents said Wednesday at a hearing befqre the Health and Human Ser vices Committee at the Legislature. Milo Mungaard of the Nebraska Center for Legal Services said he fa vored welfare reform but thought LB455 hadpotential dangers that over shadowedits advantages. “We don’t want reform that cuts children’s benefits and exposes chil to the risk of egligence,” Mungaard said. The proposed Nebraska reforms would be enforced on adults who fail to uphold parts of self-sufficiency LEGISLATURE contracts. Under the bill, recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children would be limited to two years of assis tance, provided they fulfill a self-suf ficiency contract to participate in edu cation, employment search or j ob train ing. But Mungaard said if people couldn’t fulfill that contract and sanc tions were enforced, their children ultimately would be penalized. Sheryl Walker, of Families Achiev ing Independence and Respect, deliv ered 500 postcards to the committee to represent the what she said were the unheard voices of children. “Now their hearts are in your hands,” Walker said. Sen. Ardyce Bohlke of Hastings said many of the bill’s opponents mis understood LB455. The self-sufficiency contract would act as a partnership between the re cipients and the state, she said. Gov. Ben Nelson said LB455 would make it easier for recipients to achieve self-sufficiency. “We want to truly help people who want to help themselves,” Nelson said. The reforms would help Nebras kans thrive, he said, not just survive by relying on the welfare system. Toencourage independence, fami lies would be allowed up to $5,000 in assets instead of the current $1.000. Jessie Rasmussen, director of the Office for Children and Families, said the two-year time limit would serve as a motivator for recipients to find jobs. She said there was more value in working than just earning a living. The dignity and work ethic adults would develop from their jobs would be a positive influence on their chil dren, Rasmussen said. Governor -- -- ~ :i optimistic on regents By J. Christopher Hain Senior Reporter The plan to appoint University of Nebraska regents is not dead yet. Gov. Ben Nelson said Wednesday he ex pected the Legislature’s Education Committee to advance some type of a constitutional amend ment allowing the governor to appoint the NU ? Board of Regents. Several senators on the com mittee agreed. Sen. Ardyce Bohlke of Hastings, chairwoman of the committee and sponsor of LR29CA, said advancing the resolution out of committee hinged on finding the right mix of appointed and elected regents. The committee advanced Monday a version of the resolution that would have made the f Board of Regents an 11-member body with eight,elected and three appointed regents. The committee voted Tuesday to cancel Monday’s action. The resolution, introduced by Bohlke at the request of the governor, originally called for all bee REGENTS on 6 Past student arrested for multiple theft From Staff Reports A former University of Nebraska-Lincoln student was arrested Tuesday on three counts of felony theft. Gail Tvrdy was arrested for stealing three saxophones — two from Westbrook Music Building. UNL Police Sgt. Bill Manning said two saxophones, together worth $2,500, were checked out from Westbrook Music Building by Tvrdy on Feb. 17. Manning said the third saxophone, valued at $2,000, apparently was borrowed from a friend. Manning said whoever checked out the ' .university’s saxophones to Tvrdy was unaware ; that she was no longer a student. John Gill, band instrument technician at | WestbrookJVlusic Building, said 400 UNL stu- - i dents were allowed to check out instruments. \ ’ Unfamiliar students, he said, are checked for i identification. j Tvrdy, who was a music student last semes i ter, was not considered unfamiliar and was not checked for identification, he said. Manning said the saxophones were reported j missing on Monday and were recovered Tues ' day ana Wednesday at local music stores and a i pawn shop. Tvrdy apparently had traded them 1 for cash, Manning said. Scott Bruhn/DN Greg Snow, associate professor of physics and astronomy, helped discover the top quark, the last of six quarks believed to be the fundamental building blocks of all matter. The project to find the top quark has been his top research priority , for five years. j Professor basks in sub-atomic success Years of research pay off in search for definite proof of the evasive top quark By John Fulwider Staff Reporter Greg Snow has just crossed the finish line. The University of Nebraska-Lincoln associ ate professor of physics and astronomy found out last week that the elusive top quark, a sub atomic particle, had been proven to exist. Snow got involved with the project to find the top quark in 1989 while he was an associate professor at the University of Michigan. He joined a team of800 physicists searching for the top quark, the last of six to be proven to exist. Quarks are believed to be the fundamental building blocks of all matter. £ Snow’s role in the project included building a piece of the detector used to find the top quark, collecting data on particle collisions and com puter analysis of the data. Snow said he was excited to be part of the, discovery. now it ieeis more tiKe completing a mara thon,” he said. Snow said he felt a bit odd being suddenly famous and seeing his name in newspapers after working for so long on the project that began in 1982. “That feels sort of like routine work to me,” he said. “It’s been hard work and long hours.” Snow worked at the Fermi National Accel erator Laboratory in Batavia, 111., where the Tevatron particle accelerator was used to col lide protons and antiprotons together at high speeds. Those collisions produced sprays of par ticles and rarely produced a top quark. Snow said that of 60 million experimental collisions, only 13 produced a top quark. Snow also worked at his computer in Ferguson Hall on UNL’s. City Campus to ana lyze data from the collisions. Snow said it was difficult to find the top quark because it occurred so rarely. And when ?it does appear, he said, it decays in a fraction of a second. There are five other quarks, named up, down, charm, strange and bottom. The up and down quarks are found inside Electron tk (XI ^'sS ) Atom v"'x:.7 Nucleus Particle Quark# Courtesy of Greg Snow protons, which along with neutrons, form the nucleus of an atom. The other quarks, including the top quark, are not found in nature and can only be produced in a particle accelerator. The top quark is an especially important one, Snow said, because it is so massive. Atomic weights are based on the number of times heavier the particle is than a single proton. The topquark is about 200 times heavier than a proton. '■ ' The discovery also is important, Snow said, because the last quark, the bottom quark, was discovered 18 years ago in 1977.
