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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 22, 1995)
NewsQgest Friday, September 22, 1995 Page 2 Senate votes down ban on aid < . . .* to U.N. family planning programs WASHINGTON — The Senate rejected a move Thursday to prohibit U.S. aid to U.N. family planning programs. But while losing that battle. Sen. Jesse Helms still managed to put his stamp on foreign aid spending. The North Carolina Republican, who is chairman of the Senate For eign Relations Committee, won ap proval of amendments blocking the Agency for International Develop ment from moving to new quarters and setting conditions on future aid to the Palestine Liberation Organiza tion. The Senate voted 57 to 43 to reject a Helms amendment restoring a ban on U.S. funding for the United Na tions Population Fund unless it ter minates its activities in China. China is widely accused of forcing women to undergo abortion. The bill, approved by the Senate on a vote of 91 to 9, appropriates a total of $12.3 billion — $2.4 billion less than President Clinton requested — for foreign aid and other interna tional programs in fiscal 1996 begin ning Oct. 1. The measure now goes to confer ence with the House, which passed a bill providing $300 million less than the Senate version and also included strong anti-abortion language. After the vote, State Department lobbyist Wendy Sherman said the bill “has some problems and we hope they’ll get worked out in conference.” Before the bill reached the Senate floor, anti-abortion language ap proved by the House was deleted. Helms told senators that “the foreign aid conference report may experi ence some trouble in the House un less this and other pro-life and pro child provisions remain.” Noting that the measure would give $35 million to the U.N. agency, Helms said, it was “$35 million too much of the taxpayers’ money." Supporters of funding the U.N. family planning activities argued that the fund has a strict policy against paying for abortions. In addition, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., said that the bill before the Senate also bars use of funds for abortion. “I want to make sure everybody understands, no money in this bill can be used for abortion,” Leahy said. Behind the scenes, senators were trying to come up with a compromise on a Helms proposal to eliminate AID, the Arms Control and Disarma ment Agency and the U.S. Informa tion Agency and transfer their func tions to the State Department. School board pulls book for review EUREKA, 111. — “The Canter bury Tales,” that sometimes bawdy staple of English literature, is off limits to high school seniors during a debate over whether it’s too raunchy for the classroom. Parents and students in this central Illinois community have quietly com plained that portions of the 14th Cen tury classic are too racy, school offi cials said Thursday. As a result, the Eureka School Board told Nancy Quinn to stop discussing Geoffrey Chaucer’s tales with the 45 students in her college preparatory English class while the school board reviews the textbook. “I don’t lose anything by not teach ing Chaucer, but I think my students do,” Quinn said. Board president Eric Franz says the issue is about education, not cen sorship. Portions of “The Canterbury Tales” undoubtedly will be approved, he said, but the board must make sure sensitive material is handled appro priately. “Our intent was to choose the best material, to do what’s best for the students,” he said. “If the students complain that it’s excessive and em barrassing, then we need to take a look at community standards.” Franz said Quinn’s discussion of marriage and adultery in some of the tales prompted complaints early this year, and dozens of people have ex pressed support for the board’s ac tion. Franz, other officials and teachers refused to identify anyone with con cerns. Franz said they were private discussions. The tales are fictional stories told by people on a pilgrimage to Canter bury. The collection was among the first major works written in commoner's English and addressing issues in everyday life, from religion to sex. Juliette Cunico, a Bradley Uni versity literature professor, said prime-time television contains more sex than anything in “The Canter bury Tales.” “I think it would be a tragedy if Chaucer were not included in an ad vanced English college prep class,” she said. Attention ’December 1995 Graduates Your Degree Application is Due September 22,1995 Apply at 107 Canfield Administration m FIRST TIME AT NBC! M^MMMM MM Limited Selection MM Hurry at Vi of Vi of ■ retail it’s Gone Fast! **■£*? ^ f Sm DEPT. STORE “Sfl “ "your $9°£ Claiborne ^mm HUNDREDS OF I MEN’S & LADIES' Cng% ^ “Sff® CHAIN STORE 3"SSf 10 FOR $10 I BUYOUT HUNDREDS DEPT. STORE „,CT lM PURCHASE )0ST IN FROM ALL EAST COAST Vt OF Vi RETAIL Open Monday thru “I-— ~y No. 48th Saturday 9 to 9 VLOTHING/ (Across From Target) Sunday 12 to 6_-^VISA-MaweCanI-DISCOVER•PeraonNChtcta Editor J. Christopher Hain 472-1766 Managing Editor Rainbow Rowell Assoc. News Editors DeDra Janssen f Brian Sharp Opinion Page Editor Mark Baldridge Wire Editor Sarah Scalet Copy Desk Editor Kathryn Ratliff Sports Editor Tim Pearson Arts & Entertainment Editor Doug Kouma Photo Director Travis Heying Night News Editors Julie Sobczyx Matt Waite Doug Peters Chad Lorenz Art Director Mike Stover General Manager Dan Shattil Production Manager Katherine Policky Advertising Manager Amy Struthers Asst. Advertising Mgr. Laura Wilson FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily NebraskanOJSPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board. Nebraska Union 34.1400 R St., Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, 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 Friday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Tim Hedegaard, 436 9253, 9 a.m.-11 p.m. Subscription price is $50 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St.,Lincoln, NE 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1995 DAILY NEBRASKAN There are no smal victories in the fight against heart disease. Long-delayed conference on crime and genetics starts despite criticism BALTIMORE — Amid criti cism from some scholars and black leaders, researchers will hold a long-delayed conference this weekend on whether some people are genetically inclined toward crime. The conference, which was originally scheduled for 1992 but postponed after an uproar, will also examine possible screening for genetic markers to indicate crimi nal tendencies. The three-day conference, or ganized by the University of Mary land, starts today at the private Aspen Institute in Queenstown, Md. It will be attended by research ers in sociology, neuroscience, psychology and genetics, along with legal scholars and historians. Alvin F. Poussaint, a Harvard professor of psychiatry and a black civil rights activist, said blacks should be leery. “There’s a history going way back to slavery of white Ameri cans and Europeans saying that blacks are in some way inferior genetically,” he said. “There’s such a strong chance of misuse that we have to be extremely cautious.” Some academics question whether the research would divert funding from education, unem ployment and other causes of crime. One researcher is criticiz ing a study that proposes inmates be tested for levels of a brain chemi cal that supposedly predicts vio lent behavior. Conference organizer David Wasserman, a legal scholar at the University of Maryland, said the research deals with the relation ship between crime and genetics in individuals, not groups. In 1992, the National Institutes of Health in 1992 froze the $78,000 in funding it had promised for the conference, prompting cries of academic censorship from Univer sity of Maryland officials. The NIH said a brochure public cizing the conference gave the im pression that the agency endorses a connection between genetics and crime. Funding was restored last year after an NIH appeals board found the agency didn’t have the power to freeze already-approved funds. About 3 5 participants at the con ference will present papers and discuss whether tendencies toward violent or otherwise criminal be havior can be inherited and, if so, how this can be measured. Testing for genetic markers and other so cial and ethical issues of the re search also will be discussed. Evan S. Balaban, a geneticist and neurobiologist at the Neuro sciences Institute in San Diego who will attend the conference, cau tioned against applying the re search to public policy. “I think the problem is a lot of people on the fringes of science, in government and law, have this al most religious belief that things science produces are true and you must act on them,” he said. However, Dorothy Nelkin, a New York University professor of sociology, questioned the motives of many researchers. “People doing the work are not geneticists; they are behavioral psychologists,” she said. “I think it’s research with a social agenda!’ Man with semiautomatic pistol arrested From Staff Reports A man arrested outside Avery Hall Thursday afternoon was carrying a loaded .3 8-caliber semiautomatic pis tol, police said. Malcolm Komer, 21, was arrested by Lincoln police on charges of car rying a concealed weapon and giving false information. Komer refused to give his address to police. Police gave the following account of the incident: Officers noticed what appeared to be a domestic disturbance between Komer and a woman at 12th and O streets. Police stopped a man fitting Komer’s description at about 2:30 p.m. outside Avery Hall. When asked to identify himself, Komer gave a false name, saying he was carrying no identification. While patting him down, police discovered the pistol, an extra clip of ammunition and Komer’s driver’s license. He was arrested without incident. Violence Continued from Page 1 at least one each year. She said abuse cases were differ ent depending on whether the abuser was male or female. When men abuse women, she said, they typically are bigger and stronger than the women. But when a woman abuses a man, she doesn’t have to be bigger and stronger then he is, Cauble said. Sometimes the man just doesn’t want to fight back, she said, and he takes the abuse, hoping it will calm her. The Women’s Center, which is in room 340 of the Nebraska Union, offers a support system for victims of domestic violence. Judith Kriss, center director, said domestic violence was a very real problem. “At least half of the women I’ve talked to have had domestic violence in their past,” she said. She said the Women ’ s Center tried to help in two ways. The first, and most important way, she said, is insuring the safety of the person. If a person is in immediate danger of being harmed, Kriss said (WARNING Signs Yottmay be involved in an abusive relationship if your boyfriend/girlfriend: 4 Is always jealous. 4 Loses his/her temper easily. 4 Is always giving advice and expects it to be followed. 4 Wants to be with you all the time. 4 Tells you how to dress. 4 Is always watching you. 4 Had a violent upbringing. Where to find help: 1-800-944-6282 Nebraska Coalition for Victims of Crime 475-7273 Rape and Spouse Abuse Crisis Line 472-0203 Victim Services 472-2597_Women's Center Source: Lisa Cauble. UNL Victim Services she would do whatever she could to help. The second way is building up the person’s self esteem. Kriss said vic tims of domestic violence typically had their self esteem destroyed by the experience. She encourages people so they will have the confidence to make a decision to get out of the situation.