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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 30, 1995)
SKr“ News Digest Thursday, November 30, 1993 Page 2 i ' . - - . Congress OKs lobbying changes I WASHINGTON—Stungby polls that indicate the public still believes lobbyists have runaway influence in Washington, Congress on Wednes day approved the first overhaul of lobbying law in half a century. President Clinton has said he will sign the bill that would require lobby ists to disclose information many would prefer to hide: who their cli ents are, the issues they are seeking to influence and how much they spend on persuading Congress and the ex ecutive branch. “There may be some activities that have been going on quietly, secretly, that will stop because of the light of day,” said Rep. Charles Canady, R Fla., a primary sponsor of the bill. “I believe there have been abuses.” “For untold numbers of years the American people have justifiably be lieved unseen forces were causing Congress to make decisions,” said Rep. John Bryant, D-Texas, who sup ported both the lobbying changes and a gift ban the House passed this month. “Those forces will no longer be un seen, and this Congress is no longer going to be wined and dined.” Wednesday’s 419-0 House vote— following a 98-0 vote by the Senate in July—belied the difficulty of bring ing the bill through the legislative thicket. At least 10 times since the first, loophole-riddled lobbying regu lations were passed in 1946, efforts to update the law had ended in failure. The most recent dead end was last year, when a similar bill fell victim to an end-of-the-session attack by Rep. Newt Gingrich, R-Ga. — now House speaker but then the minority whip — and his GOP allies in the Senate. Republicans said privately that they had to buck their own leaders to get the bill through this year. While reformers called the bill progress, they acknowledged it was not perfect. A particularly large omis sion was an exemption from disclo sure for so-called “grassroots” lobby ing, the fastest-growing area of the persuasion business — including ac tivities such as advertising, toll-free phone lines and computerized direct mail aimed at generating phone calls and letters from the public to Wash ington. Canady and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., promised that those and other leftovers would be addressed in future legislation. Thousands flee exploding volcano LEON, Nicaragua — An ex ploding volcano rained mud, sand and ash on the city and countryside for miles around Wednesday, send ing thousands fleeing by foot, bus and ox cart. Civil defense workers used ma chetes and their bare hands to clear roads for people escaping the rum bling Cerro Negro, which was spurting lava 1,000 feet into the air. The volcano flung 50-pound chunks of glowing rock for hun dreds of yards. Fifteen miles east of Leon and 75 miles northwest of the capital of Managua, the 2,200-foot Cerro Negro began belching sand and lava Nov. 19 after a three-year lull. It roared to life Tuesday night, as molten lava formed a new volca nic cone higher than the original mountain, said Camilo Urbina, seismologist at the Nicaragua Earth Studies Institute. i Officers scout around Tuzla KALESIJA, Bosnia-Herzegovina — U.S. military experts arrived in northern Bosnia Wednesday to scout the battered countryside where thou sands of GIs are to keep the peace. “We’ve got a lot to do and very little time to do it,” said Col. John Brown, splashing through the mud in a U.N. pickup truck. Within weeks, some 20,000 U.S. soldiers are to begin arriving, and then will fan out across northeastern Bosnia. French, British and other troops will patrol the rest of the coun try. In the meantime, Brown’s teams will be bouncing over hundreds of miles of northeastern Bosnia, check ing landing strips, pothole-riddled roads, scores of villages and many minefields. The GIs will face “the same dan gers that have been here for several years and will continue. That’s why we’re down here,” said Brown, chief of staff for the 1st Armored Division. Brown and nine other officers from “We’ve got a lot to do and very little time to do it. ” COL. JOHN BROWN the division flew from Germany to the Croatian city of Split. They ar rived in the northern city of Tuzla in four white armored personnel carri ers driven by Norwegian U.N. peace keepers. Shortly afterward, the team made its first foray into the smog-shrouded hills around the U.N. airbase at Tuzla. “We’re just taking a look around,” Brown, in a helmet and camouflage fatigues, said curtly during a stop in burned-out Kalesija. The town, about 10 miles east of Tuzla, was on the frontlines through much of the war and has been empty since May 1992. Survey finds teachers happier with jobs, pay WASHINGTON — Teachers like their jobs more today than a decade ago and are more likely to recommend the profession to oth ers, a survey found in a rare bright spot for public schools. One possible reason: Teachers are nearly twice as likely now than in 1985 to say their jobs pay them a decent salary, the poll done by Louis Harris and Associates found. And more teachers felt they were recognized when they had per formed well. “There is a real, objective basis for these findings, and that is the rise in teacher salaries and the restructuring many schools have undertaken,” said Linda Darling Hammond, a researcher at Colum bia Teachers College. But there was bad news, too, Urban teachers said public support for schools plummeted in the.Iasi decade, while suburban teachers saw it rise. The survey released Wednes day found other evidence of what il called “a slow, steady and danger ous drift toward inequality” be tween urban and suburban schools. City teachers were less pleased with their schools’ curriculums and academic standards. And they wor ried more about problems like drugs, teen pregnancy, over crowded classrooms and violence than suburban teachers did. The survey found 54 percent of teachers very satisfied with teach ing, compared to 44 percent in 1985. Two-thirds said they would recommend the career to young people. % Teachers’ salaries steadily ro^e throughout that period before lev elling off in the last few years, Darling-Hammond noted. In addi tion, many schools have under taken reforms that give teachers more decision-making power. “Teachers know more about what works in the classroom, and they have a clearer idea of their role,” said Elaine Griffith, the nation’s teacher of the year. Nefcfraskan Editor J. Christopher Hain Night News Editors Julie Sobczyk 472-1766 Matt Waite Managing Editor Rainbow Rowell Doug Peters Assoc. News Editors DeDra Janssen Chad Lorenz Brian Sharp Art Director Mike Stover Opinion Page Editor Mark Baldridge General Manager Dan Shattil Wire Editor Sarah Scaiet Production Manager Katherine Policky http://www.unl.edu/DailyNeb/ FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily NebraskanOJSPS 144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Ne braska 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. 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