THURSDAY
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COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA SINCE 1901 yOL 95 NO 126 possibly low near 30._
. ■ I' . . March 14,1996
Tanna Kinnaman/DN
Don Stenberg, Nebraska attorney general and GOP U.S. Senate candidate,
speaks before a political science class Wednesday in Hamilton Hall.
Stenberg to UNL class:
Republican leaders needed
By Erin Schulte
Staff Reporter
Nebraska needs a Reagan Republican, not
a Clinton Democrat, in the U.S. Senate, Don
Stenberg told students in a UNL political
science class Wednesday.
Stenberg, a candidate for the Republican
U.S. Senate nomination, said overspending
by a Democratic Congress in past years high
lightcd the need for Republican leadership.
Focusing on reforms for government
overspending, Stenberg said that if elected
to the Senate, he would vote for proposals to
scale down U.S. government.
,
Stenberg is running against businessman
Chuck Hagel for the GOP nomination.
Power should be returned to the states in
issues such as welfare, Stenberg said. De
regulation of private businesses also is im
portant, he said.
Passing a balanced budget amendment,
which failed by one vote this year, also would
be a priority, he said.
Stenberg said he favored term limits for
U.S. senators and representatives. Shorter
terms keep senators more closely in touch
with their home states, he said.
See STENBERG on 6
Legislature works to relieve
state prison’s overcrowding
By Ted Taylor
Senior Reporter
While Gov. Ben Nelson witnessed firsthand
Wednesday the state’s prison overcrowding
problem, the Nebraska Legislature took a step
toward doing something about it.
Legislators added $3.5 million for two 100
bed modular housing units at the Nebraska State
Penitentiary to Appropriations Committee
amendments Wednesday morning.
Nelson held his weekly press conference at
the Nebraska State Penitentiary on Wednesday
and toured one of those units with Department
of Corrections Director Harold Clarke.
Nelson told reporters that the modular hous
ing proposal was the logical route to fixing the
overcrowding problem.
“Ours is a less costly and more expeditious
proposal to new prison construction and will
achieve our immediate goal of reducing the
stress level inside this facility relating to over
crowding,” he said.
Nelson’s original proposal to the Appropria
tions Committee called for a third 100-bed hous
ing unit. That amendment will be brought forth
later this session by Sen. John Lindsay of
* Omaha.
Now, the Nebraska State Penitentiary has
three dormitory-style housing units that are de
signed to hold 150 inmates — but hold 250.
Other state facilities arc 200 percent above ca
pacity.
“The bottom line is that we as a state must
act now to address overcrowding,” Nelson said,
“rather than waiting and having a solution im
posed on us by the courts.”
Sen. Dwite Pedersen of Elkhom supported
the addition of the housing units but said they
were only a temporary solution.
“The modulars are only a stopgap,” he said.
Pedersen said he also would support another
“The bottom line is that we as
a state must act now to
address overcrowding, rather
than waiting and having a
solution imposed on us by the
courts."
BEN NELSON
Governor of Nebraska
to appropriate $55 million for a new 480-bcd
prison.
“If we’re going to be harder on crime, we’re
going to have to have somewhere to put them,”
he said. “And we’re going to have to bite the
bullet and pay for it.”
Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha op
posed the amendment and any increase in crimi
nal housing.
“If you build them, they’ll fill them,’’ he said.
Opponents of the amendment said money
would be wasted if the building were used for
only temporary housing.
But Sen. Ray Janssen of Nickerson reminded
senators that the building would be used for
other inmate programs down the road.
“The modular units will be used a lot longer
than 3040 years,” he said. “This is not going to
be money poured down the drain.”
But funds are not now available for a new
prison, Janssen said.
Elm Creek Sen. Ed Schrock said he hoped
Nebraska voters realized the intense overcrowd
ing problem and that something needed to be
done now.
“We need to expand, we need to do it quick,
therefore, we need the modulars,” he said.
Apollo 009 to reappear soon
Future location
of UNL’s capsule
not yet disclosed
By Julie Sobczyk
Senior Reporter
The Apollo 009 space capsule will be land
ing back at UNL soon, but its new home is still
a secret.
Herb Howe, associate to the chancellor at the
University of Ncbraska-Lincoln, said a site for
Apollo 009 would be announced in about a
month, once repairs were completed by Duncan
Aviation.
“It’s a secret,” he said. “It will be somewhere
in the state of Nebraska.”
NASA gave the capsule to UNL in 1972.The
university displayed it outside Morrill Hall un
til 1991, when it was placed in a shed cm East
Campus, he said.
Apollo 009 was worn and weathered from
Nebraska’s climate, Howe said. It was taken to
Duncan Aviation for repairs last summer.
l ne new location tor the capsule came about
after much discussion among administrators, he
said.
“It will be in a wonderful spot that everyone
will love,” he said. “It will be very well-re
ceived.”
Doyle Garrett, a Duncan Aviation employee
who is supervising the Apollo 009 renovation,
said the work was coming along fine.
“We’ll be finished in about three weeks,”
Garrett said. “We’re painting it right now.”
Duncan Aviation, which normally repairs
See APOLLO on 6
PoHcy leads to full gun storage unit
tsy unaa Lorenz
Senior Reporter
A no-vacancy sign might as well
be posted at the University of Ne
braska-Lincoln police station’s on
campus gun storage unit.
The station’s 54 gun lockers,
provided free of charge for students
and faculty, are filled with 87 fire
arms, UNL Police Chief Ken
Cauble said. Two other guns are
being kept in special storage, he
said.
UNL police started offering gun
storage last fall, after the university
introduced a policy that prohibited
storing firearms in residence halls
and greck houses on campus.
Before then, residence hall stu
dents were required to store their
weapons at the residence hall desk,
Cauble said. But that storage, which
consisted of only one metal safe per
building, wasn’t as secure as the
police’s unit, Cauble said.
“When they’re here, I feel safe,”
Cauble said.
People who wish to store their
guns at the department are assigned
individual lockers, so some lockers
hold multiple firearms, Cauble said.
Owners can check out their guns
any time.
Most of the weapons in storage
arc hunting shotguns, he said.
Cauble said he was amazed
when the department’s first 36 lock
ers filled. Another case of 18 was
added, and another 54 lockers are
on the way for the 1996-97 aca
demic year.
Two guns brought in since the
lockers filled have been stored in
another area with officers’ weap
ons, Cauble said.
Since the policy began, police
haven’t found any firearms on cam
pus, Cauble said, but he added that
students probably were storing their
weapons on campus illegally.
Some off-campus students and
faculty also store their guns at the
station, he said.
Gun-owners want a safe place to
store their guns to keep them out of
the hands of others who shouldn’t
use them, such as young children,
See GUNS on 6
Scott Bmhn/DN
A 12-gauge shotgun is one off 87 firearms in the UNL police
department's gun storage unit..