By The
Associated Press
Edited by Sarah Scalet
Wednesday, October 11, 1995 Page 2
ai ,_ _ __ r
News
-in a
1 Minute?
Gates buys large photo archive
BELLEVUE, Wash. — Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates has
bought The Bettman Archive, one of the world’s largest photo
collections, for his privately-heId digital media company.
Corbis Corp., said Tuesday that it acquired Bettman’s 16 mil
lion photos, including the entire United Press International col
lection and other news and historical material, from the Kraus
Organization Ltd. for an undisclosed sum.
The purchase represents a major advance in Gates’ efforts to
create a huge bank of images available to consumers for a licens
ing fee. It also raises questions about who, ultimately, will con
trol the world’s visual history.
Hurricane heads to Mexican resorts
MERIDA, Mexico — Tourists fled beachfront hotels on the
Yucatan Peninsula by the thousands Tuesday, but honeymooners
and hardy souls hunkered down as Hurricane Roxanne marched
toward Mexico’s Caribbean resorts.
Roxanne, the 1 Oth hurricane of the busy Atlantic storm sea
son, threatened to turn into one of the worst storms since Hurri
cane Gilbert swept through the Caribbean in 1989, killing 300
people.
As night fell in Merida, the streets became mostly abandoned.
The only businesses open were grocery stores filled with people
buying candles, batteries and purified water.
The hurricane formed Monday in warm Caribbean waters and
gained strength rapidly over two days, taking aim at palm-stud
ded beaches with sustained 115-mph winds.
“Please be careful. This is a dangerous storm,” warned meteo
rologist Fiona Horsfall at the U.S. National Hurricane Center in
Miami.
Probe of Amtrak derailment
focuses on ‘Sons of Gestapo’
HYDER,Ariz.—FBI agents hunt
ing the saboteur who derailed an
Amtrak train worked Tuesday to de
termine whether the “Sons of Gestapo”
is really an anti-government terrorist
group or just someone with a grudge
against the railroad.
Fifty-five miles away in downtown
Phoenix, authorities found a device
capable of derailing a train placed on
a track. The FBI refused to discount
the possibility it was a second sabo
tage attempt.
The FBI expanded its painstaking
search for evidence to a mile-square
area surrounding the gulch where the
Sunset Limited lurched off a damaged
track and asked the public for help
finding the culprit.
The train jumped the tracks at the
damaged section early Monday, top
pling 30 feet from a bridge, killing a
crew member and injuring at least 78
people.
A letter found at the scene men
tioned federal raids on right-wing ex
tremists at Waco, Texas, and Ruby
Ridge, Idaho. It was signed “Sons of
Gestapo,” raising fears the sabotage
was the work of anti-government ex
tremists.
A passenger who saw one version
of the note said Tuesday that it didn’t
specifically claim responsibility for
the derailment, was written ina sort of
verse and gave the impression the
writer “wanted to be some sort of
poetic martyr.”
“It was a lot of gibberish. It started
out with something about women and
children praying as it gets dark, then it
talked about how they didn’t have any
electricity,” said Michelle Cruz, a psy
chiatric nurse from Sacramento, Ca
lif., who saw the letter about 8 to 10
feet from the coach, held down by a
rock. The FBI was mentioned along
with other government agencies she
couldn’t recall.
There apparently are several ver
sions of the letter, said Gov. Fife
Symington, who said he has read one
version. He wouldn’t talk about what
it said, except to say he was told there
were multiple versions that were “com
parable in terms of content.”
FBI officials held a brief news con
ference si x mi les from the scene Tues
day, but offered little insight into the
investigation called Operation
Splitrail, refusing to comment about
the letter.
With about 90 agents on the scene,
Larry McCormick, acting special agent
in charge of the Phoenix office, said
he believed it was the bureau’s sec
ond-biggest crime scene investigation
after the Oklahoma City bombing.
“We are going to pursue every bit
of evidence and every lead very thor
oughly ... until we find the person or
persons who committed this crime,”
said U.S. Attorney Janet Napolitano.
Acting on a tip from a trucker who
heard a noise and saw two men acting
suspiciously around a Southern Pa
cific track in downtown Phoenix, po
lice Tuesday recovered a device used
in rail yards that can derail a train.
i r* -t
The so-called derailer—two heavy
pieces of metal with a hinge between
— is normally used to get trains back
on the rails, but could have caused a
derailment if a train had come by, said
Mike Furtney, spokesman for South
ern Pacific Railroad in San Francisco.
“It wouldn’t absolutely derail a
train, but I’m glad we found it before
we found out if it would have worked,”
Furtney said.
The FBI was looking into the mat
ter and wouldn’t rule out the possibil
ity that it was related to the derail
ment, said agent A1 Davidson.
However, he noted that the derailer
is a standard piece of railroad equip
ment, while the derailment was caused
by sabotaging rails; the derailer was
on a line used by freight rather than
passenger trains; and “copycats come
out of the woodwork when things like
this happen.”
The Amtrak case was put under the
supervision of Assistant FBI Director
Robert Bryant, who runs the bureau’s
national security division, according
to a senior Justice Department official
who spoke to The Associated Press in
Washington on condition of anonym
ity. The division handles terrorism
cases.
“Bryant’s national security divi
sion has the case because it has the
potential to become a terrorism case,
but we have not reached any conclu
sions yet whether terrorism is the
motive or not,” the source said.
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canning laws tor Homosexuals
makes some justices skeptical
WASHINGTON — Colorado’s solicitor
general ran into skeptical questions from sev
eral Supreme Court justices Tuesday when he
argued the state’s citizens have the right to
prohibit laws that protect homosexuals from
discrimination.
“I would like to know whether in all of U.S.
history there has ever been anything like this,”
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg told the state’s
lawyer, Timothy M. Tymkovich, who asked the
high court to reinstate the ban.
Tymkovich did not provide a specific ex
ample. But he argued that voters have the right
to bar all state and local laws giving homosexu
als “special protection” from bias in housing,
employment and public accommodations.
The case is the most important involving
homosexual rights to come before the court in
nearly 10 years.
in a 1 reierenaum, dj.4 percent 01 Colo
rado voters approved the amendment to the
state’s constitution. But the Colorado Supreme
Court invalidated the amendment before it could
take effect, saying it denied homosexuals an
equal voice in government.
Jean E. Dubofsky, lawyer for the cities and
individuals who challenged the amendment,
said it denies homosexuals a political right
enjoyed by everyone else—the chance to seek
protection from discrimination.
Tymkovich said Colorado voters approved
i ■
the amendment in response to the success ho
mosexuals had in winning enactment of anti
bias ordinances in Denver, Boulder and Aspen.
But Justice David H. Souter was skeptical.
“Why is discrimination against one group
dealt with under state law differently than dis
crimination against other groups?” he asked.
Justice John Paul Stevens added, “What is
the rational basis for the people outside of
Aspen telling the people in Aspen they cannot
have this nondiscrimination provision?”
Justice Antonin Scalia appeared more sym
pathetic to Tymkovich’s argument that ordi
nances protecting gays against bias constitute
special — not equal — protection.
“They are laws that provide special protec
tion to that particular category of person,” Scalia
said. Other forms of discrimination are not
banned, he said, adding that employers can
refuse to hire someone “because you don’t like
the way they comb their hair.”
Scalia asked Dubofsky why, if states can
outlaw homosexual conduct, Colorado cannot
bar legal protections for homosexuals.
The case does not address the morality or
legality of homosexuality or gay conduct. But
the justices’ ruling, expected by July, could
indicate their views on the continuing validity
of the high court’s 1986 ruling that let states
outlaw consensual homosexual conduct.
Nebraskan
Editor J. Christopher Hain Night News Editors Julie Sobczyk
„ . M 472-1766 Matt Waite
Managing Editor Rainbow Rowell Doug Peters
Assoc. News Editors DeDra Janssen Chad Lorenz
_ . . _ Brian Sharp Art Director Mike Stover
Opinion Pape Editor Mark Baldridge General Manager Dan Shattil
• _ W*re Editor Sarah Scalet Production Manager Katherine Policky
Copy Desk Editor Kathryn Ratliff Advertising Manager Amy Strothers
Sports Editor Tim Pearson Asst. Advertising Manager Laura Wilson
Arts & Entertainment Editor Doug Kouma Publications Board Chairman Tim Hedegaard, 436-9253
Photo Director Travis Heying Professional Adviser Don Walton, 473-7301
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