&=_ News Digest
News... _
in a Minute
Clinton will appeal policy ruling
WASHINGTON — The Clinton administration has decided to
appeal a federal judge’s ruling that its “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy on
gays in the military is unconstitutional.
Solicitor General Drew S. Days decided to take the case to the U.S.
2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, Justice Department spokes
man Joe Krovisky announced Thursday.
A week ago, U.S. District Judge Eugene Nickerson in New York, the
first federal judge to rule on President Clinton’s policy, barred the
Pentagon from discharging six homosexuals.
The judge said the policy violates the constitutional rights to free
speech and equal protection of the law. “The policy ... is not only
inherently deceptive, it also offers powerful inducements to homosexu
als to lie,” Nickerson said.
The government, Nickerson said, failed to prove its key argument that
homosexuals, by their presence, can harm a military unit’s cohesion.
Under the “don’t ask, don’t tell, don’t pursue” policy, gays can serve
as long as they keep their sexual orientation to themselves and do not
engage in homosexual acts. Otherwise, they can be honorably dis
charged. In addition, commanders may not ask a service member his or
her sexual orientation.
Convicts execution delayed
JACKSON, Ga.—A British native won a stay of execution an hour
before he was to die in the electric chair Thursday as the archbishop of
Canterbury and others pleaded for leniency.
U.S. District Judge Horace T. Ward delayed the execution of Nicho
las Lee Ingram until Friday afternoon while he considers an appeal.
Ingram’s lawyer had argued that Ingram should be granted a new trial
because he was under the influence of the anti-psychotic drug Thorazine
during his 1984 trial, making him appear emotionless and remorseless.
The state Supreme Court rejected that argument earlier Thursday.
Ingram, 31, was sentenced to death for the 1983 robbery-murder of
55-year-old J.C. Sawyer, who was abducted from his suburban Atlanta
home, robbed of $60, tied to a tree and shot in the head. Sawyer’s wife
survived and identified Ingram as the killer.
The state Board of Pardons and Parole unanimously refused to grant
clemency to Ingram Thursday, saying his punishment fit the Crime.
The case has drawn intense scrutiny from the media in Britain, which
effectively outlawed capital punishment in 1965, although it’s still on the
books for treason.
Federal anti-drug money
possibly being misused
WASHINGTON — In Michigan,
federal anti-drug money paid for giant
toothbrushes in a health class. In Wash
ington, it went for a basketball team’s
party. In a St. Louis suburb, it helped
pay for a high school security guard.
In the last eight years, critics con
tend, taxpayermoney designed to warn
schoolchildren away from drugs and
alcohol has been diverted to a slew of
inappropriate and wasteful things.
“It was a slush fund,” says Bob
Peterson, who heads Michigan’s Of
fice of Drug Control Policy.
Even many anti-drug activists and
grassroots supporters agree: A pro
gram begun with high hopes in the
Nancy Reagan era, and recently
praised by President Clinton as cru
cial for children, was riddled with
waste from the start.
“It really is sad, because we need
this anti-drug message so desperately
rightnow,”saysB.J. McConnell, who
helped pick the program’s nationally
recognized drug-free schools. “And
now we’re risking losing it.”
In recent years, McConnell and
other supporters insist, die program
has improved dramatically because of
better oversight from the federal gov
ernment.
As they fight in Congress to save its
$482 million budget, supporters also
point to a recent study indicating drug
use among young people is again on
the rise.
“I would be the first to admit there
are abuses of the program like in any
federal program,” drug policy direc
tor Lee Brown told a House subcom
mittee Thursday. That is ho reason to
gut the only federal money targeted
toward drug prevention in children,
both Lee and Education Secretary
Richard Riley insist.
Thousands of schools use the
money wisely, bringing in police to
talk with students and paying for peer
mediation, counseling and interven
tion for children and teens, the federal
officials say.
7 ivould be the first to
admit there are abuses
of the (drug) program
like in any federal
program. ”
■
UEE BROWN
Drug policy director
Los Angeles, for example, uses the
money in part to pay for anti-smoking,
anti-drug and anti-steroids education.
“This is absolutely crucial for us,”
says Ruth Rich, who heads the Los
Angeles program. “If this money is
taken from us, what message does that
send to our kids?”
But Republicans in Congress, who
recently held a hearing with Mrs.
Reagan to call attention to growing
drug use, say a mismanaged, “scatter
shot” program isn’t the answer.
Safe and Drug-Free Schools, ad
ministered by the Education Depart
ment, began when Mrs. Reagan was
actively promoting her “Just Say No”
slogan, the type of message that many
grassroots parents groups had long
supported.
But in at least one state, Michigan,
the state education agency failed to
send the money down to the local
level. Instead, Michigan used it on a
statewide health education program,
including $82,000 for giant tooth
brushes and teeth, plus bicycle pumps
and sex-education consultants,
Peterson says.
Education Department officials
insist Michigan was an aberration.
They audit state programs, and in the
vast maj ority of cases the money went
to schools’ drug programs, they say.
Senate Democrats reject
spending-cuts compromise
w rtormNvj i win — eager 10 de
clare victory, Senate leaders sought to
revive a stalled $ 15 billion package of
cuts in social programs after liberal
Democrats balked at a potential com
promise.
Majority Leader Bob Dole, R-Kan.,
and Minority Leader Tom Daschle,
D-S .D., labored to find middle ground
on the measure Thursday. Democrats
rejected a tentative deal Dole and
Daschle—with the backing of Presi
dent Clinton — had struck Wednes
day night.
That agreement would have pro
tected programs for children, housing
and jobs from some Republican
sought cuts while slashing other pro
grams even deeper. Total savings
were raised to $ 16 billion. But Demo
crats, worried that the deal still
wounded anti-poverty initiatives, re
buffed Clinton and rejected it.
“It’smore than numbers,” said Sen.
Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. “It’s policy.
It’s principle. It’s a question of what
you stand for.”
The measure is a top priority for
Dole and other GOP senators eager to
prove they are as zealous about deficit
reduction as their faster-moving House
brethren. The House already has ap
proved a bill slashing $ 17 billion from
home-heating aid, education, public
broadcasting and other programs.
With the stakes that high, Dole
vowea to aeiay tne rnday start of the
Senate’s recess until lawmakers com
pleted the spending-cuts bill. He tried
limiting debate, which began March
29, but Democrats held together. The
56-44 roll call was four votes shy of
the 60 needed to force a quick vote.
“Be patient, take two aspirins, take
a nap, whatever,” Dole advised his
Republican colleagues as he prom
ised that one way or another, the bill
would be completed.
Even Daschle conceded that Dole
eventually would get the votes he needs
to pass the spending-cuts bill. He said
Democrats might as well accept a
toned-down measure that protects
some programs from GOP-sought cuts,
and share credit with Republicans for
the bill’s deficit reduction and $6.7
billion disaster assistance to states.
“In spite of the sacrifices we’re
making here, there is a tremendous
amount of advantage to doing this,”
he told reporters.
Despite the maneuvering, the bill’s
ultimate fate remained in question.
House-Senate negotiators still
would have to agree to a compromise
bill, and House lawmakers were non
committal about whether they would
try to force major changes.
“We’re back to ground zero” if the
House insists on big alterations,
Daschle said.
A compromise plan drafted by
vfdlew c^ect*or^.i|iumda|:ii^::'l;I
Upemocni^Wh#
j what would jose: - * ¥y 7
,:- Funds restored:
11 • $22Q mSlion for housing
i| modernization
* $105 million for President
Canton’s national service
program
• $106 million for drug
prevepSon in schools lii
progragsfor women and1
ohik
I- lllllfzz&i illli
dwerometit ClCfir. in
administrative and travel
excises
j
Mysterious, deadly new vims
jumps from horses to humans
WASHINGTON — The mys
tery disease that killed 14 horses
and a horse trainer in Australia
last fall was caused by a highly
virulent new virus that jumps from
animals to man, scientists reported
Friday. They have no idea where
it originated or how big a threat it
poses.
The still-unnamed virus is part
of the family that includes measles
and canine distemper, Australian
researchers report in the journal
Science. It’s more deadly and has a
particularly disturbing element:
Until now, all viruses in this family
had been confined to a single spe
cies.
“It ’ s not at all clear what ’ s going
on here,” said Dr. Brian Mahy, vi
ral director for the U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention.
Although Australia’s outbreak
appears over, doctors don’t know
what made this virus suddenly erupt,
where it came from and whether it
will strike again in Australia or else
where.
“Analyses suggest that the virus
has not resulted from a single muta
tion or a few key point mutations,
but most likely is a virus that has
emerged from its natural host,” re
ported Dr. Keith Murray of the
Australian Animal Health Labora
tory. “Investigations are now under
way to... establish whether the vi
rus remains a threat.”
In September, 21 horses on sev
eral Queensland farms suddenly
came down with severe respiratory
disease and 14 died. Vic Rail, 49,
one of Australia’s leading horse
trainers, died after a week of simi
lar symptoms, and a 40-year-old
stablehand who also cared for the
ill animals was sickened but sur
vived.
Frustrated veterinarians tested
the horses for everything from Af
rican horse sickness to hantavirus,
the rodent-borne virus discovered
in the American Southwest 1 1/2
years ago when it began destroying
people’s lungs.
“Investigations are
now under way to ...
establish whether the
virus remains a
threat. ”
m
DR. KEITH MURRAY
Australian Animal Health
Laboratory
Then Murray and fellow re
searchers successfully isolated the
mystery virus from the lungs of
dead horses. They proved it was the
culprit by infecting additional
horses, who quickly died.
They then isolated the virus from
a kidney of the late horse trainer.
His virus was identical to the
horses’, Murray reported.
The virus killed by creating holes
in blood vessels that leaked into
lungs until the victims basically
drowned. Veterinarians reported
horses dying with blood gushing
from their noses and mouths.
Genetic testing showed the
pathogen is a morbillivirus, the vi
ral family that includes measles.
This morbillivirus is very differ
ent from its cousins, from its ap
pearance under the microscope to
its virulence. And unlike any other
known morbillivirus, it afflictsmore
than one species: People, horses
and the original host, which could
be anything from a rodent to a bird,
Ma' said.
e notion of animals transmit
ting killer viruses to humans isn’t
new. AIDS is believed to have origi- '
nated in monkeys and CDC doctors
just returned from battling a deadly
hemorrhagic fever that ticks trans
mitted from sheep to at least 30
people in the United Arab Emir
ates.
The key to fighting such disease
is discovering what animal is the
host to the pathogen, spreading it
without getting sick. Tne Austra
lians are testing animals that live
near the horse farms to try to dis
cover that. They’re confident the
outbreak is over because tests of
1,600 horses and 90 people show
no evidence of further infection.
Murray urged doctors and vet
erinarians worldwide to review
their records of respiratory dis
ease to see if the virus has ap
peared before. He will visit the
CDC in Atlanta next week to dis
cuss the new virus.
NefcJraskan
_ ^ u . FAX NUMBER 472-1761
The Daily Nebraskan(USPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board. Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St., Lincoln, NE 685884)448
Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions.
Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebraskan by phoning 472-1763 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday
through Fnday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Tim Hedegaard 436-9258
Subscription price is $50 for one year.
atfUrooir^NESend addre8S chanfles t0 the DailV Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St..Lincoln, NE 685884)448. Second-class postage paid
ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT
_1995 DAILY NEBRASKAN