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WEATHER:
Today,- Mostly ctou
and cooler. North
wind 10 to 20
Tonight - T
Low
Cleaning up
Tanna Klnnaman/DN
Al Leupold, president of A.A. Leupold and Sons, a Lincoln painting company, cleans graffiti off the west wall of
Walgreens at 13th and 0 streets Wednesday.
Graffiti artists leave mark downtown
By Jeff Zeleny
Senior Reporter
Graffiti artists are on the loose in down
town Lincoln.
Spray-painted messages in at least five
colors decorate walls of businesses and dot
city lamp posts. Police say the one-word
messages are the works of youth vandals, not
traditional street gangs.
“They consider it artwork, but they are
still vandals,” said Lincoln Police Officer
Emery Bashus.
Police believe the red, black, green, blue
and white artwork is created by taggers, a
slang term for graffiti artists. However tal
ented they might be, Bashus said, taggers are
not playfltl youth with a love of art.
“They are just as dangerous as gang mem
bers,” he said.
In the last two months, at least 75 acts of
spray-painted vandalism have been reported
to Lincoln police. Nine incidents — with
damages totaling more than $2,000—were
reported to police over Labor Day weekend.
In alleys throughout downtown—where
traditional forms of graffiti, such as “Move
you Emily,” are fading into the concrete —
new, simple messages glaze the walls. -
The words—“frost,” “deface,” “phase,”
“CIA” and “Kans” — probably come from
computer games or taggers in other cities,
Bashus said, adding that the vandals likely
are in middle school or high school.
“CIA,” or cans in action, indicates paint
cans used to create a message, Bashus said.
The other words also could have alternate
meanings, he said.
The messages, most of which are painted
a few feet from the ground, are created with
precision. Many of the words have similar
letter styles and shapes.
“I’m not going to knock their ability,”
Bashus said. “If you could redivert them,
they could have an artistic ability.”
As A1 Leupold, president of A. A. Leupold 7
See GRAFFITI on 7
New users have problems with program
By Thor Schrock
Staff Reporter
After Microsoft’s Windows 95 users get past
all the hype, they might encounter a few set
backs before basking in the benefits of the
acclaimed new operating system.
Dave Anderson, a salesman at Software Etc.
in Gateway Mall, said he had heard of two
major problems since the program hit the mar
ket Aug. 26. *
^ __ If a customer purchases the floppy disk
format instead of the CD-ROM version, 12 of
the 13 disks required to install the system are
ordinary 1.4-megabyte disks. The last disk,
however, is a 1.8-megabyte disk—designed as
a copyright protection device.
“Some people have had a iot of problems
because either their floppy drive or their com
puter couldn’t*handle or recognize the 1.8 meg
format,” Anderson said. “If you can, just get the
CD version.”
The other complication is the amount of
memory needed to run Windows 95. The mini
mum requirement to run the program, accord
ing to Microsoft, is a 386 DX computer with
four megabytes of random access memory. That
requirement targets computers built in the last
five to eight years.
Though Microsoft says a minimum of four
megabytes of RAM is necessary, Anderson
said, that statement can be deceiving.
“Even if you have eight megs of memory,
you can still tell it runs slow,” he said. “You
really should have 16 megs. You would be able
to get it started with four megs, but it would take
a very long time.”
Other requirements include 35-40 mega
bytes of hard disk space, a graphics card of at
least VGA resolution, a double speed CD-ROM
drive or a 3.5-inch, high-density disk drive, and
a mouse or compatible pointing device.
Allen Randal, district manager for the Best
Buy chain, said sales of Windows 95 started
strong but have tapered off in the past couple of -C
See WINDOWS on 7
DN reporters
allowed back
into practices *
By Paula Lavigne
Senior Reporter
The Daily Nebraskan has been allowed to
return to Comhusker football practices.
Nebraskacoach Tom Osborne, who on Mon
day banned the newspaper from attending
Husker work-outs, said Daily Nebraskan, re
porters will be treated like other local media.
NU Sports Information Di- ;
rector Chris Anderson said
she was unsure why Osborne
changed his mind Wednes
day evening. She said coaches
and players would choose in
dividually whether to speak to
student reporters.
Anderson said all media now
Dchnrnn WlU ^ escortea 10 a Dneting
usDorne after practices. Reporters and
photographers can attend the first 15 minutes of
practice, she said, but cannot watch the entire
Husker work-out.
Anderson said those rules have always ex
isted but have never been enforced.
The coach said Monday that “attending our
practices is a privilege, not a right.” He objected
to two editorial cartoons published last week
that criticized NU wingback Riley Washington
and I-back Lawrence Phillips.
Osborne’s decision to lift the ban came a few
hours after a Daily Nebraskan reporter attended
Wednesday’s practice. Osborne did not ask the
reporter to leave.
Your reporters can do what they want, but
I have to go to a radio show,” Osborne said as
he left the field.
The decision came after a barrage of local,
national and international media coverage
Wednesday. The newspaper ban generated cov
erage in The Washington Post, The Associated
Press, ABC, ESPN and a Toronto radio station.
Daily Nebraskan Editor J. Christopher Hain
said he hoped the new arrangement would work
out well for the newspaper’s reporters.
“We’re pleased to be back at practice and
covering the Nebraska football team,” Hain
said.
interim chancellor Joan Leitzei said Wednes
day afternoon that she, Osborne and Athletic
director Bill Byrne were gathering information
and sorting out facts before the university would
issue a response.
Byrne would not speak to a Daily Nebraskan
reporter at his office Wednesday. He issued this
short statement:
“Each of our head coaches sets his/her own
individual media policies regarding whether
practices are open or closed and when players
and coaches are available to the media .for
interviews.”
Richard Wood, NU vice president and gen
eral counsel, was assigned to review the case.
Telephone calls to Wood were not returned
Wednesday.
James Griesen, vice chancellor for student
affairs, said the university would balance both
sides.
“We understand the coach’s concern on
some of these matters,” he said, “but at the same
time, it’s important that we not act in a dis
criminatory manner relative to individual re
porters, unless clearly justified and legal.”
Griesen said he sometimes went out of his
way to work with Daily Nebraskan reporters
because of their tie to the university.
“I think the DN should beTreated at least as
equal as the public, off-campus media,” he said.
“It’s an important learning lab for many of our
students.” >"
John Bender; an assistant news-editorial
professor at the University of Nebraska-Lin
coln, has said Osborne’s action violated the
newspaper’s civil rights.
Because Osborne is employed by a public
university, Bender said,lie is a public official.
And public officials cannot isolate arid dis
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