Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 2, 1996)
Judge reverses controversial drug ruling NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge who came under attack from the White House on down for throwing out a confession and 80 pounds of cocaine and heroin reversed himself Monday and reinstated the evidence. U.S. District Judge Harold Baer Jr. said additional testimony from police and the defendant caused him to switch his initial ruling. The judge had ruled that police of ficers violated the rights of Carol Bayless of Detroit by pulling over her car in New York City on April 21 be cause four men around it hurried away when they noticed police. Police found the drugs in her trunk. But Baer said in his original ruling that the evidence was inadmissible because it was only natural in that neighbor hood for black men to fear police and run away. ■* Sen. Bob Dole had said the judge i should be impeached, and House Speaker Newt Gingrich had charged that Baer’s rul ing was “the perfect rea son why we are losing our civiliza tion.” The White House called the judge’s ruling “wrongheaded” and threatened to ask him to quit. Clinton appointed Baer in 1994. In his reversal Monday, Baer apolo gized for the inference in his original mling that it is common to mn from police in Manhattan’s gritty Washing ton Heights section because of past corruption. “Unfortunately, the hyperbole ... regretfully may have demeaned the law-abiding men and women who make Washington Heights their home and the vast majority of the dedicated men and women in blue who patrol the streets of our great city,” he wrote. The case now will be readied for trial, although Bay less had indicated that she may pursue a plea agreement. She is charged with conspiracy to di s- , tribute cocaine and heroin and remains jailed without bail. Star Whitewater witness takes stand LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The prosecution’s chief witness tes tified Monday that he and two Whitewater defendants devised a scheme to use his investment com pany to enrich themselves and also benefit “some members of the po litical family” in Arkansas. David Hale was a small-time in vestment banker who claims Presi dent Clinton pressured him to make an illegal $300,000 loan to his Whitewater business partners. Clinton has denied the claim, call ing it a “bunch of bull.” Hale’s allegations are central to the Whitewater trial. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and James and Susan McDougal — Clinton’s former Whitewater partners—are charged with fraud and conspiracy in a 21 - count indictment. Hale testified that he. Tucker and McDougal hatched the scheme in October 1985 to use proceeds from a bogus $825,000 land deal to in fuse $500,000 into Hale’s small business investment company. The money would increase Hale’s lend ing limit, enabling the firm to make loans for McDougal and Tucker. Hale said McDougal told him that he and Tucker needed money. “(McDougal) said, 'We’re going to have to clean up some members of the political family,’” Hale testi fied. McDougal did not identify any one by name. Hale said. However, he said he believed McDougal was referring to then-Gov. Bill Clinton “and maybe some of his aides, and some of Jim’s associates, and Jim Guy Tucker.” Hale did not specify what “clean up” meant, and Deputy Indepen dent Counsel W. Hickman Ewing Jr. refused to comment after court on use of the phrase. Ewing said Clinton was “periph erally involved.” He said after court that later testimony would show that Clinton “was at a meeting where some of these transactions were dis cussed” Under questioning from the de fense, Hale acknowledged that McDougal was good friends with several well-connected political fig ures in addition to Clinton, his aides and Tucker. Bill Watt, who did legal work for Hale in the 1980s, testified last week that Hale told him Clinton was pressuring him to close the $825,000 transaction. Watt quoted Hale as saying in 1985: “I’ve been to a meeting ... and Gov. Clinton wants to get it done. He’s got to help his friends.” Robert Palmer, the appraiser on the land deal, said Watt told him then that it would be OK to file false figures on the appraisal because “this goes all the way to the top.” At Hale’s sentencing last week, prosecutors said Hale broke a “con spiracy of silence” in the Whitewater investigation. Defense attorneys said Hale’s time on the stand represented an important week in the month-old case. The charges against Tucker and the McDougals were based largely on Hale’s allegations. When Hale starts testifying, Tucker attorney W.H. “Buddy” Sutton said, “You’ll see a man that knows no human being in the world that he wouldn’t betray for his own interest.” Defense attorneys said Hale turned government witness to get a reduced sentence after being caught defrauding federal regulators. Cancer vaccine ready soon for human testing WASHINGTON (AP) —A vaccine 'rom genetically engineered cells eradicates tumors in laboratory rats md may be ready for testing on a vi nous kind of human brain cancer by his summer, researchers say. Habib Fakhrai, a University of California, Los Angeles, cancer sci entist, said the vaccine has the effect if removing a biological disguise from eancer cells, thus turning them into argets that are tracked down and tilled by the body’s own immune sys cm. Fakhrai is the lead author of a study hat will be publishedTucsday in Pro eeedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Cancers of the brain, breast, lung, eolon and prostate all secrete a sub stance called transforming growth fac or-beta, orTGF-B, which suppresses he immune system and protects the ;ancer, Fakhrai said. “TFG-beta cloaks the cancer cells so they arc not recognized by the im “It may not be a cure, but it could be a significant step forward for thesepatients. ” CAROL KRUSE Cancer researcher mune system” said Fakhrai. To alert the immune system to the presence of cancer, the UCLA re searchers developed a way to prevent tumor cells from making TGF-B. Using rats with brain cancer, the scientists removed cancer cells and purified the tumor DNA. They then used this DNA to make a protein that blocks the genetic process that leads to secretion ofTGF-B. “We actually created molecules that attach to precursors ofTGF-B and instructed them genetically to stop working,” said Fakhrai. The new molecules were then used to inoculate a group of rats with can cer. Another group of rats with cancer received only placebo shots. Among the rats receiving the anti TGF-B vaccinations, 100 percent sur vived for the 12 weeks of the experi ment and the cancers were destroyed by the animals’ immune system cells. The control rats, which received only the placebo, all died swiftly. Fakhrai said the technique has been approved for human experimentation by a committee at the National Insti tutes of Health and is now awaiting action by the Food and Drug Admin istration. Once approved, Fakhrai said UCLA researchers plan to offer the experimental therapy to patients with glioblastoma, an invariably fatal brain cancer. “We hope to be using this vaccine technology in humans by this sum mer,” said Dr. Keith Black, a UCLA neurosurgeon and a co-author of the study. Carol Kruse, a cancer researcher at the University of Colorado Health Center, said the UCLA cancer vaccine was “impressive” and may offer real hope for a cancer that now is always lethal. “This may prolong the lives of pa tients with brain cancer,” she said. “It may not be a cure, but it could be a significant step forward for these pa tients.” Fakhrai said the anti-TGF-B pro tein worked like a true vaccine in the laboratory rats. “All the rats survived with no evi dence of further cancer,” he said. Is your friend graduating " in May?! Yes? Well then WIN your friend a prize. The Daily Nebraskan will be giving your friend a nice graduation gift AND a feature story in the Daily Nebraskan. But first, YOU have to tell us your most creative idea for a graduation gift. The gift has to fall within a $50 budget and you have to tell us why you chose the gift for your friend. ■ Fill out this form and return it to the Daily Nebraskan, 34 ■ • Nebraska Union by April 15, 1996. I ■ Your Name:_ 2 1 Your Address:___——- ■ ■ ___ ■ ■ Your Phone No.*_, ■ 2 Your Friend’s Name:_ 2 ■ Your <R$ATIV$Idea and Reason(s):_ 2 ■ __—-- ■ B ' ■ ■ ______________— ■ ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■a ■ 1 ' -a ’ ■’ • ! Discussions Continued from Page 1 he said. He said he hoped this would influ ence students — one at a time — to notice the diversity in the world. The eight-day series is sponsored r—— ■ ■' ■■■'■ ' -■■■ ' by the Racial Pluralism Action Team and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs. Luncheons will continue in the Nebraska Union through Friday and in the East Union from Monday through Wednesday of next week. More information is available from Harris at 472-3755. ■ "■ " " ■ " 11 .. ■ • NefcJraskan Editor J. Christopher Hein Night News Editors Rebecca Oitmans 472-1766 Melanie Branded Managing Editor Doug Kouma Anne Hjersman Assoc. News Editors MattWute Beth Narans Sarah Scaiet Art Director Aaron Steckelberg Opinion Page Editor Doug Peters General Manager Dan Shattil Wire Editor Michelle Gamer Advertising Manager Amy Strothers Copy Desk Editor Tim Pearson Asst. Advertising Manager Laura Wilson Sports Editor Mitch Sherman Classified Ad Manager Ttffiny Clifton Arts & Entertainment Publications Board Chairman Tim Hedegaard Editor Jeff RandaH 436-9253 Photo Directors Scott Bruhn Professional Adviser Don Walton Travis Haying 473-7301 http://www.unl.edu/DailyNeb/ FAX NUMBER 472-1761 The Daily NebraskanfUSPS 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 am. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday. The public also has access to the Publications Board. For information, contact Tim Hedegaard, 436-9253,9 am. 11p.m. Subscription price is $50 for one year. Postmaster: Send address changes to the Daily Nebraskan, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St.,Lincoln, NE 68588-0448. Second-class postage paid at Lincoln, NE. ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1996 DAILY NEBRASKAN liMh s OANCE CONTEST ONLY 7$phi* Fmt§U4§ Sp9rtt ExthDwn Bof Frtn Ikttdn VYTlftm . 11823 0 St NO COVER Annual Jewelry Sale Entire Stock 20% to 50% off "Lincoln's largest selection of sterling silver jewelry." iW/irrr c/kd 1323 Xy Street_