TUESDAY
WEATHER:
Today - Partly sunny.
Northwest wind 10 to 20
mph.
TOHiOht- Partly cloudy.
T 0/1
COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 VOL. 95 NO. 79 - °W ne(2r-:
-- -January 9, 1996_
GO FISH
Scott Bruhn/DN
Gilbert Hess, of Farnam, and Virgil Jackman spent Monday afternoon ice fishing at Holmes Lake. “We don’t have enough to
wet the bottom of the skillet tonight,” Jackman said. They had caught only three fish.
Law imposes stiff penalties for uninsured
By Ted Taylor
Senior Reporter
A new state law may have Nebras
kans thinking twice before driving
without insurance.
LB37, which Gov. Ben Nelson
signed at the end of the last legislative
session, went into effect Jan. 1. The
law increases the penalty for operat
ing or allowing another person to op
erate a motor vehicle without valid
insurance.
“What it says is that for any car
operating on Nebraska highways, if
you can’t prove there is insurance,
whoever owns it or is driving it could
be in big trouble,” said Cynthia
Bowsman, legal counsel for the De
partment of Motor Vehicles.
If convicted of violating the new
insurance requirements, motorists
stand to lose their license, registration
and plates until they get proper insur
ance.
“Before, there was no license revo
cation,” Bowsman said. “Now there
is.”
Violators also face a class II mis
demeanor carrying a
a maximum of six months in jail and a
$1,000 fine.
Nebraska law requires motorists to
have a minimum $25,000 insurance
coverage.
Alvin Abramson, director of the
DMV, said in a Jan. 5 statement that
the bill made it clear to drivers without
insurance that they would be dealt
with severely.
Bowsman said the law was needed
because requiring proof of insurance
at time of registration did not guaran
tee that a motorist was insured.
According to the DMV’s statement,
the new law also requires vehicle own
ers to maintain the insurance through
out the entire registration period or be
handed a mandatory $100 to $500
penalty.
Abramson said he hoped the law
would send a message to motorists.
“It will make people aware that
they must have insurance to drive a
car,” he said.
English courses offer students
experience on World Wide Web
By Tasha E. Kelter
Staff Reporter
Twenty years ago, the concept
of a computerized classroom was
little more than an idea out of “The
Jetsons.”
But with the World Wide Web
expanding at a phenomenal rate,
UNL students in English 254 and
258B — Composition and Auto
biographical Writing, respectively
—arc taking advantage of the web ’ s
offerings.
The classes still meet at speci
fied times, in classrooms or a com
puter lab. All class writing must be
turned in electronically and is posted
on the classes’ home pages on the
web.
Privacy is a big issue with stu
dents said professor David Hibler,
who teaches both courses. Authors
are identified by number, unless
they wish to include their names.
Students are not assigned fixed
topics, but are encouraged to write
about personal issues. Hibler said
the setup had led students to pro
duce some of their most successful
writings.
Students must save their mate
rial on a disk and bring it to the
Mabel Lee computer lab to save in
their personal “e-folders.”
Owning a computer is not a re
quirement of the course, although
Hiblcr said students with comput
ers at home would have a slight
advantage. Access to a computer,
however, is required.
People who read the composi
tions on the web may respond to the
author (who still remains anony
mous) via e-mail.
Hibler said students also had the
opportunity to creata their own
home pages on the web—the final
project for both classes.
The project gives students the
opportunity to be creative and get
more in touch with their writing, he
said.
“Students can add in anything
See ENGLISH CLASS on 6
Aaron Steckelberg/DN
Gateway not
alarmed by
Westroads
disturbance
By Chad Lorenz
Senior Reporter
Alter an outbreak of violence Sat
urday eveningat Westroads Shopping
Mall in Omaha, store managers at
Lincoln’s Gateway Mall said Monday
they aren’t worried that a similar inci
dent could occur there.
“We just don’t have the problems
they have in Omaha,” said Phyllis
Dilley, a manager at A & W Hot Dogs
& More.
Officials at Westroads were forced
to close the mall Saturday night after
a crowd of 300 to 400 teen-agers
started pushing each other and caus
ing a violent disturbance. Witnesses
told police the disturbance was gang
related.
Dilley worked at a store in
Westroads six years ago and said she
was more comfortable working in Lin
coln.
Omaha gangs had become a prob
lem at Westroads, Dilley said, but not
at Gateway.
Rosemary Vogt, manager of
Wilson’s Leather Store at Gateway,
said she thought the Lincoln Police
Department was large enough for the
size of the city to reduce the threat of
gangs.
Inside the mall, security guards
patrol common areas and are avail
able to assist if employees encounter
problems, Vogt said.
The guards are helpful and keep a
close eye on the mall, she said, but she
hasn’t seen them handle violence.
None of the managers interviewed
said they had seen any changes in
security in the mall since the Westroads
incident.
Scott Vyskocil, general mall man
ager at Gateway, would not comment
about security at the mall or say if it
had been increased since the Omaha
incident.
But Julie Heigel, marketing man
ager at Crossroads Mall in Omaha,
said the mall tightened security Satur
day night upon hearing of the
Westroads incident.
Many of the people cleared from
Westroads, including those involved
in the disturbance, got on a Metro
Area Transit bus, she said. That bus’s
next stop was Crossroads.
Security guards met the bus at its
stop near 72nd and Dodge streets and
denied the passengers access to the
mall, Heigel said. ‘
The next two buses bypassed Cross
roads and were diverted to downtown,
she said.
Westroads security were compe
tent in dealing with the incident, she
said, because they protected the ten
ants and public. Crossroads’ security
force could have dealt with a similar
problem just as well, Heigel said.
Tenants at Crossroads feel their
stores are safe from violence, Heigel
said, because security has been well
trained and has fine-tuned its patrol
ling.
Many Gateway stores have proce
dures for handling violence, and em
ployees are trained to work with man
agers and security toprotect the store’s
merchandise.
Michelle Wallman, assistant man
ager at The Buckle, said employees
were prepared to handle a violent situ
ation, but not firsthand.
“You wouldn’t catch me jumping
out in the middle of it.”
