News Digest
Thursday, December 7, 1995 Page 2
Clinton starts selling budget
WASHINGTON — The White
House began unveiling its new seven
year budget-balancing proposal to
congressional Democrats on Wednes
day, even as President Clinton deliv
ered his long-promised coup-de-grace
to a Republican plan he said bore
“wrongheaded cuts and misplaced
priorities.”
Clinton dispatched Leon Panetta,
his chief of staff, to the Capitol to
brief House and Senate Democrats
about the package, which the admin
istration plans to present to Republi
cans when budget talks resume Thurs
day.
Compared with a proposal Clinton
made in June, the new plan will have
deeper cuts in welfare and many do
mestic programs and additional lim
its on business tax breaks. It will call
for the same savings of $124 billion
from Medicare and $54 billion from
Medicaid that he had sought earlier,
and about the same $98 billion tax
cut for families he had proposed.
In addition, it would contain a
mechanism for forcing the federal
deficit to reach zero, Panetta told re
porters. He would reveal no details.
But another administration official,
speaking on condition of anonymity,
said the White House might suggest
that some of the tax cuts — includ
ing the president’s proposed $500 per
child tax credit — be withheld in any
year that annual deficit targets were
not achieved.
The new proposal was a conces
sion to GOP demands that the presi
dent propose a detailed, seven-year
package, rather than working with the
broad-brush, 10-year outline he un
veiled six months ago. Republicans
had mixed reactions.
Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole,
R-Kan., said he wanted to see if
Clinton’s proposal will be “warmed
over" or “a step toward a balanced
budget in the next seven years.”
And House Budget Committee
Chairman John Kasich, R-Ohio,
warned, “They’d better lower the
rhetoric if they want to get this done."
The new plan was drafted chiefly
by administration officials. Demo
cratic support for the measure was
broad, but there were objections.
Numerous congressional Democrats
want the tax cuts eliminated alto
gether, and many think its reductions
in Medicare and Medicaid are too
high.
Republicans try to agree
on Bosnia peace mission
WASHINGTON — Senate Re
publicans moved closer to agree
ment Wednesday on a response to
President Clinton’s plan to deploy
20,000 U.S. troops in Bosnia as
part of a NATO peacekeeping
force. “I think it will come to
gether,” said Sen. John McCain, R
Ariz.
At the same time, Clinton
sought to build bipartisan backing
for the hazardous mission, telling
a White House.gathering: “Lead
ership is not a spectator sport.”
McCain and Senate Majority
Leader Bob Dole were backing a
resolution that supports the deploy
ment but insists on a U.S. commit
ment to arm and train the Bosnian
army and prohibits U.S. troops
from becoming involved in civil
administration.
Dole has said Congress has little
choice but to support the president,
but some Republicans flatly op
pose.
McCain said those backing de
ployment with conditions will
meet Thursday with opponents.
But he also indicated that he
would agree to a strategy in which
the Senate would vote on a resolu
tion opposing deployment. If that
is defeated, the Senate would then
vote on the Dole-McCain resolu
tion.
No Senate vote on the issue is
expected before next week.
School bus accident kills 2 kids
LOS ANGELES — A malfunctioning
hydraulic trash compactor blasted through
the side of a garbage truck Wednesday and
ripped open the side of a passing school bus,
killing two children.
A third child was hospitalized in critical
condition.
The bus, taking 48 youngsters to an el
ementary school, was eastbound and the mu
nicipal garbage truck was coming from the
opposite direction on a busy thoroughfare,
police said.
The truck was in use despite a trouble
report.
A 12-foot arm, which pushes a ram to
compact trash inside the truck, punched
through the side of the vehicle with a force
of 1,500 pounds per square inch, said Roland
Silva, spokesman for the Sanitation Depart
ment.
“It was like a missile coming out of a
launch pad,” Silva said.
The arm raked the side of the bus, smash
ing windows and bending frame posts, said
Officer Rhett Price of the California High
way Patrol.
“We’ve never had something like this
happen to one of our trucks,” Silva said. “It
was a very freakish thing.”
City officials were investigating why the
truck was in use after a different driver re
ported problems with the hydraulic system
on Tuesday.
Congratulations to UHLs:
RUDE bOY, Rudy Moseley, Jr.
d O O D LUCK in T n C S C A I r I n A.L S I
Student
INVOLVEMENT
L University of Ncbraska-Lincoln
I I
Counsel to investigate Gingrich
WASHINGTON — The House ethics com
mittee Wednesday approved an outside coun
sel to investigate a college course taught by
Speaker Newt Gingrich and found he violated
standards of conduct in three instances. The
vote was 10-0.
The decision ensures an investigation ex
tending well into the 1996 election year. Demo
crats have been demanding an outside counsel
for months, while they planned their 1996
House campaigns as a referendum on
Gingrich’s personality and conservative legis
lative program.
A committee letter to Gingrich questioned
whether the Georgia Republican tried to “capi
talize” on his office for “personal gain” in his
publishing deal with a company owned by
media magnate Rupert Murdoch.
The committee did not vote to punish
Gingrich for the three violations. But it rec
ommended that curbs be placed on income
from book deals and that rules for floor
speeches be clarified.
In finding violations, while recommending
no punishment, the committee said that
Gingrich:
•Allowed a trusted political adviser, Joseph
Gaylord, to use his congressional'office, vio
lating a rule prohibiting use of official resources
for unofficial purposes.
• Misused his floor privileges in House
speeches, by giving out a toll-free number to
order Gingrich political materials. This
amounted to an “improper solicitation” for
commercial purposes.
• Committed a similar violation by using
floor speeches to publicize a nationwide town
meeting sponsored by the Gingrich-led politi
cal action committee, GOPAC.
Gingrich, noting that several complaints
were dismissed, said in a written statement that
he was “pleased by the unanimous bipartisan
action of the ethics committee” and confident
the remaining charge, too, will be dismissed.
Death row inmates will go to work
PHOENIX —Arizona this week will begin
shackling the 109 convicted killers on death
row and marching them out to a prison garden
where they will be forced to work 40 hours a
week.
“The alternative is for them to sit in their
cells or do nothing — or file frivolous lawsuits
against the state that cost taxpayers millions
of dollars,” said Doug Cole, a spokesman for
Gov. Fife Symington.
“Arizona law requires that each able-bod
ied prisoner engage in hard labor at least 40
hours a week. We’re just following the law.”
The death row work detail begins today at
the state prison in Florence.
Four days a week, the inmates will be shack
led hand and foot while working in groups of
20 in the vegetable field inside the prison, said
Mike Arra, a Corrections Department spokes
man.
They’ll be supervised by a minimum of four
armed guards, at least one on horseback.
It’s the latest in a series of “get-tough” mea
sures in a state that already has chain gangs
and tent jails. Last May, Arizona became the
second state to reinstitute chain gangs, after
Alabama. Florida also has instituted chain
gangs, as has Tennessee’s Cheatham County.
'Hie attitude extends to some county jails;
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio in Phoe
nix makes inmates wear pink underwear, to
discourage smuggling of the garments, and he
banned cigarettes, pornographic magazines,
television and coffee.
Every able-bodied inmate of the state’s
death row will be required to work, for 10 cents
an hour. Anyone who refuses will be taken to
the field and made to stay for the entire shift,
and be subject to disciplinary action, such as
loss of privileges.
Richard Dieter, director of the Death Pen
alty Information Center in Washington, said
death row inmates are allowed to work in some
other prison systems, but he knows of no state
that requires it.
“I’m not sure how you would punish people
in that situation who refuse to work,” he said.
“If you force them, there may be some resent
ment. But given the opportunity to spend years
in isolation or getting out and doing something,
they may jump at it.”
Donna Hamm, head of the Phoenix-based
inmate rights group Common Ground, worries
that inmates already facing death sentences will
be too violent to put out on work details, even
shackled hand and foot.
“Sure, they were sentenced to die, but they
weren’t sentenced to die at the end of a hoe or
rake,” Hamm said. There already have been
several injuries from inmate fights on chain
gangs, she said.
Nefciraskan
Editor 4. Christopher Hein 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 Pmo Editor Mark Baldridge General Manager Dan Shattil
Wire Editor Sarah Scalet Production Manager Katherine Policky
Copy Desk Editor Kathryn Ratliff Advertising Manager Amy Struthers
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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