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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 12, 1996)
Suppliers blamed fix’ price hike GAS from page 1* But if one gas station raises prices, another may follow suit, she said. “They think, ‘Why should I lose that extra 3 or 4 cents per gallon?’” Foreman said. And Don Tindle, a cashier at Fast Fuel Conoco, 55th and Superior streets, said customers feel free to whine about rising prices. Prices went up about two weeks ago, Tindle said. Unleaded now costs $1.319 per gallon, and diesel costs $ 1.359 per gallon at Fast Fuel Conoco. High diesel prices are particularly hard on truck dnvers, he said. “They’re not happy about it at all,” Tindle said. And neither is Brian Shanks, vice president of American Courier Corpo ration, a trucking company at 2443 Winding Way. * The extra cents at the gas pump add up, and the cost eventually gets passed along to consumers through goods transported by truck, he said. As a result, prices go up on every . day items, such as fruit in the grocery store, he said. These and other items are often transported from states as fai away as California. People aren’t aware that we only make pennies a gallon. When they see prices over a dollar, they just assume we’re making a lot.” Helen Foreman gasoline distributor The high costs may be because of more than $1,500 per tank each year suppliers who keep oil supply down so on these procedures, she said, demand drives prices up, Shanks said. Gas lines also have to be tested an But Foreman said customers who nually at a cost of $100 per line, she complain of high prices may not real- said. lze how much of the pump pnce is state and federal taxes, she said. “Nebraska has one of the highest tax rates in the nation,” Foreman said. Right now, the gas excise tax is 25.3 cents per gallon for the state, plus 18.3 cents per gallon in federal taxes. Tax rates are typically lower in neighboring states, Foreman said. Also, costs of testing and registra tion of fuel tanks add to gas prices, she said. Each gas station could spend Gas stations that choose to decrease prices at the pump may be luring cus tomers inside to buy snacks and pop, she said. But sooner or later, such sta tions will realize they need to make a small profit on gasoline to stay in busi ness. This means pump prices will con tinue to rise if fuel suppliers raise their prices again, she said. Shanks said he predicted prices would rise for the holidays. Coke, Pepsi, 7-Up must 1 sign contract for limits I CONTRACT from page 1 with Pepsi for around $14 million. Main said administrators from at least a dozen other campuses said students were hesitant to accept the changes in the early stages of a tran sition to one beverage company. Beverage companies typically provide millions of dollars to uni versities who sell their beverages exclusively. The beverage lines nor mally include juices, teas and dif ferent kinds of pop. Money gained from a contract could possibly go to the honors program, scholarship fund, athletic programs and toward improving information technology, Main said. That should lessen the blow to those angry about losing their favorite drink on campus, he said. “People perceive those gains to be beneficial to the university,” Main said. “It lessens that antago nistic reception.” Main stressed that the intention was not to inconvenience students, but to increase revenue. “We certainly don’t want to do something that doesn’t serve our campus well,” Main said. But, he added, “if someone wants to give ^ us millions of dollars per year it’s kind of hard to look the other way.” Restaurants in the unions that al ready have contracts with beverage companies would allow their con tracts to expire before having to comply with the university, Ne braska Union director Daryl Swanson said. The hardest contracts to handle would probably be those of national chains like Subway, Swanson said. But for the most part, restaurants seemed receptive to the idea, he said. Money is not the only factor in ( picking a beverage company, Main said. Beverage companies could re imburse the university for' selling their products other ways, he said, such as providing leadership pro grams, bringing in speakers or giv ing students a chance to work in their companies. “They could improve the intel lectual excitement on our campus,” Main said. No one injured in chemical blasts BOMBS from page 1 The two 20-ounce bottles were apparently filled with a liquid that smelled like ammo nia. When police arrived, they found two other bottles filled with the liquid where the man normally parks his car. Another bomb apparently detonated in side a plastic mailbox near a house on 44th and Baldwin streets. The 51 -year-old resident of the house told police she heard a loud bang at about 7:30 pm. Saturday. : Hie next day, she found a mess of bro* ken, twisted plastic that used to be her mail box. “One side was still standing. The other side was Mown clear off,” she said. She said she found the bottom of a green 16-ounce plastic bottle with a bluish-green liquid in it and little shards of foil scattered around it. She said the liquid smelled like ammonia glass cleaner. A witness near Spectronics, 4645 Hartley St., said he heard what sounded like four gunshots at midnight Sunday. An officer checked near the electronics store and found the remains of four plastic bottles and two full bottles sealed with green packaging tape. Darrel Kinnan, manager of the chemistry lab at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, said those common components could be dangerous if mixed correctly. ‘‘It can be a pretty good explosion if you have the right amount and the right ratio,” Kinnan said. y • Although the blast of the explosion is confined to a small area, it can launch small fragments at high speeds, he said. The blast could also detonate other explosive chemi cals, such as gasoline, Kinnan said. The formulas for mixing volatile chemi cals are easily accessible on the Internet and World Wide Web, Kinnan said. How a bomb is built crashed into little wads. I 2. The foil wads axe inserted into a plastic soft drink bottle. 3. An anrnnntiia-haaati fflnaning solvent is poured into the bottle. 4. The bottle is sealed. The liquid combination will heat up and create expanding gas and pressure, which will cause the bottle to explode and scatter its contents.