Spotting of common crane in Nebraska creates stir GRAND ISLAND (AP) — A bird that normally flies with a flock in Asia probably took a wrong turn in Siberia to turn up in Nebraska. The sighting of the common crane hanging out with a flock of sandhill cranes in south-central Nebraska has created quite a stir among bird watch ers. The news has shown up on bird alerts on the Internet, and bird watch ers hoping to add the bird to their “life lists” of personal bird sightings have been calling bird watchers here to in quire. Don’t let its name fool you. The common crane, also known as the Eur asian crane, is common only on its home turf of Europe and Asia, said Gary Lingle, habitat manager for the Platte River Whooping Crane Main tenance Trust in Grand Island. Only about 10 sightings have been recorded in North America outside of Alaska. “In the bird world, this is quite an event,” said Craig Faanes, a former Grand Island resident who now works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Arlington, Va. He has seen 1,665 dif ferent birds in North America but never a common crane. Bob Janssen, a Minnesota orni thologist and author of “Birds in Min nesota,” spotted the common crane Saturday. It was in a field about six miles east of Prosser near the Adams County-Hall County line. Bird watchers are drawn to Ne braska each spring when an estimated 500,000 sandhill cranes stop here to rest and feed before going north to their summer nesting grounds. About 40,000 to 60,000 sandhill cranes nest each summer in Siberia. Common cranes’ summer nesting grounds extend to Siberia. Lingle said the local common crane probably be came mixed up with the wrong group last fall in Siberia. Lingle said he expected the com mon crane would bring quite a bit of economic activity to the state from bird watchers. “This is like the golden crane,” he said. UNL aid applications delayed By Joshua Gillin_ Staff Reporter Students who applied for finan cial aid for the 1996-97 academic year may have to wait awhile, ac cording to the director of UNL scholarships and financial aid. John Beacon said mailing de lays, software glitches and the fed eral government shutdowns all had contributed to a delay in process ing the Free Application for Fed eral Student Aid. Mailing delays caused by bad weather and problems with a new software program have set back ap plications by up to 70 percent, Bea con said. And, he said, “The employee furloughs that were given (during the government shutdown) didn’t help matters any.” As of March 22, Beacon said, fewer than half of the 3.3 million applications had been entered into “Almost every school in the country has to wait for the Department of Education to send out its figures” JOHN BEACON UNL financial aid director the federal disbursement system. “We’ve (UNL) only got about 4,400 students processed now, com pared to the 8,800 we had done about this time last year,” he said. But Beacon said the staff mem bers in federal data-processing of fices were going full-speed trying to catch up — three shifts a day, seven days a week. Beacon said receiving informa tion regarding federally awarded money for education was vital for the distribution of award notes for UNL students. “The set deadline for getting all of the applications processed for next year is April 15,” he said. “Af ter we get the federal information, we can start sending out award let ters.” He said students who had ap plied for financial aid should not worry or resubmit applications. Money will be awarded based on the order in which applications were received. Beacon said he wanted UNL stu dents to know that the fault lies with the system, not the university. “Almost every school in the country has to wait for the Depart ment of Education to send out its figures,” he said. “Basically, we’re all in the same boat when it comes to waiting.” Property Continued from Page 1 said. “This does not affect 292CA a bit. It only lets the voters approve what’s already in statute.” By keeping levy levels in state stat ute and not putting it in the constitu tion, Sen. Jerome Warner of Waverly said LR29CA would keep some flex ibility by not requiring a constitutional amendment to change levy levels in future adjustments. If it’s put into the state constitution, he said, “you will have locked into the constitution that ag land will be taxed at 80 percent of market value. Period.” When senators voted on the Schrock amendment again, they de feated it 21-22. In other property tax related action Tuesday: School districts in rural Nebraska won’t get a “gentle little nudge” to consolidate after an amendment was put down by lawmakers earlier in the day. By a 13-18 vote, senators rejected Lincoln Sen. Chris Beutler’s amend ment asking rural school districts to look at the possibility of merging. The amendment would have been part of one of the Legislature’s prop erty tax relief bills, LB 1085. Sen. Bob Wickersham of Harrison opposed the amendment and said the bill focused on encouraging local gov ernments — not schools — to merge or consolidate. “If we include schools, should we then expand it so it deals with com munity colleges, NRDs (Natural Re source Districts) and the airport au thority?” he asked. “I don’t think so.” School districts already had the in centive to consolidate in another bill awaiting final reading, Wickersham said, and didn’t need the prompting of the Legislature. One of the few supporters of the bill, Sen. Carol Pirsch of Omaha re minded senators the schools were the biggest users of the property tax lev ies the Legislature would be cutting. “I hate to put a mandate on schools,” she said, “but I don’t know any other way to make sure they do this.” ____ LONDON $319 FRANHFORT $425 PARIS $399 AMSTERDAM $399 MILAN $439 Fares are from Lincoln each maij based on a AT purchase. Fares do no! include federal taxes and passenger facilities charges, inhich can total hehueen $19.95 and $31.95. depending on Itie destina tion. nor do they include departure charges pad directly to to foreign governments, inhich can total hehueen $3.00 and $00.00. Int I Student 10 may be required. Fares are subject to change. Restrictions appiq. talid for departures until 31 Hag 1990. _Travel - CIEE: Council on International Educational Exchange VV^IIT *n line for. \y '' '' '13,2007 ' From a two or lour year college. Must finance through GMAC. Offer subject to change. See your participating dealer for qualification details t Based on normal maintenance. See Owner’s Manual for limitations C1996 GM Carp. AK rights reserved “ $13220 MSRP including dealer prep and destination charge, fax, hcense and other optional equipment extra Prices higher in CA MA and NY. Price as of 4/1/96, subject to change.