The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, November 18, 1996, Page 2, Image 2

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    News _
PAGE 2 __ " " __ MONDAY NOVEMBER 18,1996
Black leaders celebrate Tfexaco settlement
Protestors vow to
pressure other
corporations for
equality among women
and minorities.
The Associated Press
Demonstrations against Texaco’s
racial policies on Saturday turned into
celebrations of a $ 176 million discrimi
nation settlement, though the Rev.
Jesse Jackson and other black leaders
promised to keep the pressure on.
Jackson said the settlement “does
A A "V
not indicate that the culture has
changed,” and while pickets will be
dropped, a boycott against the oil com
pany will continue until Texaco shakes
up its white male infrastructure.
“There is this racism and sexism
and hostility in corporate America,”
Jackson told 75 protesters in front of
Texaco’s massive Wilmington refinery
in Los Angeles. “We want to detoxify
corporate America, extend the roof and
be fair.”
“This issue is not the owners of the
gas stations, but the board of direc
tors,” Jackson said.
Earlier at a news conference in
Chicago, Jackson said the settlement
was a step in the right direction, but
did not include a comprehensive plan
with goals, targets and timetables for
the development of minorities and
women.
Jackson said his Rainbow PUSH
Action Network plans to buy $1,000
worth of Texaco stock to get a voice in
the company, and also will look at the
racial policies of other major compa
nies that share directors with Texaco
— including Gillette, Johnson &
Johnson and Campbell’s Soup.
A protest planned for a Texaco ser
vice station in Stone Mountain, Ga.,
was called off after Friday’s settlement
announcement, but about 20 people
showed up anyway.
“We went to the designated loca
tion but we really went more in the
sprit of celebration,” said Joe Beasley,
southern regional director for the Na
. (-5
tional Rainbow Coalition.
Texaco agreed to pay $115 million
to about 1,400 current and former em
ployees and to give black employees
10 percent raises. It also will spend $35
million on an task force that is to open
opportunities fa- black workers, moni
tor discrimination and develop diver
sity and sensitivity training.
In New York City, the Rev. A1
Shaipton led about two dozen sign
waving demonstrators at a Texaco sta
tion in Brooklyn. “Justice At Texaco,
End Racism at Texaco” read some
signs; “We Want Fairness” read an
other.
“We feel it was a historic agree
ment,” Sharpton said. “But now we
must deal with corporate structure,
board makeup, contracting, advertis
mg and franchises.
“We have won the first game of the
World Series, but the series is not
over,” he said.
Another demonstration went ahead
at a Texaco station in Dallas, with
members of the Black State Employ
ees Association. About 40 protesters
waving signs and carrying bullhorns
showed up.
“Tfexaco must now settle up with the
African-American community for the
irreparable harm, vile and disparaging
attacks directed at the African-Ameri
can community,” said Darren Reagan,
chairman of the Texas group.
Ministers in the New Orleans area
dropped plans for a boycott of Texaco
stations after the settlement.
-,
Kussia tails Mars mission
Lack of funds, old facilities limit future for new journeys
MOSCOW (AP)—With the biggest launch
since the Soviet breakup, Russia’s space scien
tists had hoped tojrevitalize the ailing space pro
gram with Mars ’96, an ambitious mission to
the Red Planet.
But the unmanned craft never made it out of
Earth’s orbit Sunday, and disappointed scien
tists are now looking at a bleak future of shrink
ing budgets, aging facilities and dim prospects
for any new missions.
The space probe, which would have reached
Mars in September, was already two years be
hind schedule by the time it lifted off late Satur
day night at the Baikonur cosmodrome in the
former Soviet republic of Kazakstan
Scientists blamed the delay on chronic
li,'-.:.:■, - " "
money problems in a program that is receiving
only one-fifth the cash it got in Soviet times.
The Russians spent $54 million over the past
two years preparing for Mars ’96—a large sum
for the impoverished Russians.
One example: the United States is paying
Russia $335 million just to sublet the Mir space
station, where U.S. astronaut John Blaha cur
rently has a four-month, time-share deal with
two Russian cosmonauts..
Mir, which is nearing th&end of its life after
10 years, is a shining example of Soviet-era suc
cesses. But the Russian space program has been
“running on the brink of collapse for several
years,” said James Oberg, an American special
ist on Russian space activities.
j&EVDrrg CALENDAR
Any submissions for the Events Calendar, published every
Monday, should be sent to Nebraska Union 34, Attn: Kelly
Johnson, 1400 R Street, Lincoln, Neb. 68588-0448. Phone:
472-2588 Fax: 472-1761 M
- - - - --5?
Monday, Nov. 18
Animal Science Graduate
Student Assoc, Turkey Sale
For iporgi information call:
Dana Allen at 472-5237
Tuesday, Nov. 19
Interested in Account
ing? Undecided?
Accounting seminar: Jobs
in accounting and the CPA
exam explained.
I Pizza ami refreshments
1 7:30 p.m.
CBA, room 25
UNL Department of Geogra
phy Awareness Week
I Open house
| Avery Hall, IJiird Floor
6:00- 9:30 p.m.
I Wednesday, Nov. 20
Educator Jane Elliot,
| CREATOR OF THE FAMOUS
I “blue eyed/brown eyed*
experiment
I Speech sponsored by UPC
Centennial Ballroom
I City campus union
I 7:00 p.m.
I $3.00 with student I.D.
$5.00 for faculty
vi
An afternoon with Dr. Elda [
Walker, first woman Bota- ^
NIST AT UNL
Dr. Kathleen Keeler, professor i
of Biological sciencesi, as Dr. :
Walker presents uVegetation
of Nebraska"
Great Plains Art Collection
215 Love Library
13th and R Streets
3:30-5:00 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 21
Theatrix Speed the Plow
Temple’s second stage
12th and R Streets
8:00 p.m.
$3.00
Show runs through
Saturday
For more information call:
Julie Hagemeier, 472-9055
Saturday, Nov. 23
Brentano String Quartet,
winners of 1995 Naumberg
Chamber Music Award
Sheldon Memorial Art
Gallery, Auditorium
11th and R Streets
8:00 p.m. 3Br
For more information call:
Stephen Buhler, 472-1784
Refugees trek to homeland
GISENYI, Rwanda (AP)—Every hour,
10,000 Rwandan Hutus trudged across the
border to their homeland Saturday In a weary,
rain-soaked column of humanity desperate
to end the misery of their exile in eastern
Zaire. ;
The refugees’ unexpected return home
eases the threat of a humanitarian disaster and
is likely to alter the tack taken by an interna
tional military force cleared by the U.N. Se
curity Council to bring food and medical sup
plies to the refugees.
More than 200,000 refugees have
streamed over the border since theexodus
began Friday morning, theJUnited Nations
estimates. Attownppnr Saturday 4renched
the 25-mile line of men, womdii and children
making their way through green, winding hills
from a now-deserted refugee camp and over
the border into Gisenyi.
Fellow Rwandans lined the route beyond
the border, applauding and hugging theirefu
gees as they lugged their tattered bundles on
a 20-mile slog from the border at Gisenyi to
a U.N. transit center.
“I’m not afraid,” said Pierre-Celestin
Muyandekezi, a returning farmer. “I’m very
As night fell Saturday, up to 400,000
people on the Zairian side settled down to
rest by the road before resuming their trek at
daybreak. Another 600,000 Rwandan refu
gees remain cut off from aid in hills to the
south.
The refugees fled Rwanda 2 Vi years ago,
fearing retribution after a Hutu-led govern
ment presided over the massacre of a half
million Thtsis.
Hutu militias in the refugee camps in
Zaire virtually held the refugees prisoner until
Thursday, when an attack by Zairian rebels
sent the militias fleeing into the hills and the
refugees hurrying home.
The Tutsi-led government that ousted the
Hutu leaders after the 1994 genocide has
promised to treat the returning Hutus well,
and most refugees who returned earlier have
resettled peacefully.
Amnesty International, however, said that
the returning refugees could be arbitrarily
punished, and may wind up joining the
80,000 Hutus already in crowded Rwandan
jails awaiting trial in connection with the
genocide.
Rwandan leaders say there is no longer
any need for military intervention, calling
instead for aid in resettling refugees.
for fighter contract
WASHINGTON Lockheed Martin
and Bbeing will compete for a $219 billion
Defen se Dc^wtmcnt fighter contract that likely
will determine the U.S. leader in defense con
tracting well into the next century.
The Pentagon narrowed the competition for
the joint strike fighter contract Saturday from
three to two, cutting out defense contracting ti
tan McDonnell Douglas. Officials said the win
ning Lockheed Martin and Boeing designs were
chosen for their price tags.
“The best value to the government was re
flected in these two proposals,” said LL Gen.
George K. Muellner, former program manager
for the jet fighter, especially in the costs of de
velopment and future upkeep.
The chosen two will build and develop pro
totypes of their designs for the joint strike fighter
Din anticipation of the final decision on the larg
est procurement package in Pentagon history
coming in 2000. Concept demonstrations, in
cluding ground and flight tests, are budgeted at
$2.2 billion, the contracts awarded Saturday
said.
i.• ...■ ■ 1
Compared to current airplanes, it brings a
more lethal package into the theater and brings
it faster ... and does so with fewer supporting
assets and therefore less costs,” Defense Secre
tary William Perry said in announcing the final
ists.
Seattle-based Boeing Co., working on its
design with Britain’s Rolls-Royce, was consid
ered a long shot because of its relative inexperi
ence in developing fighter aircraft. But Boeing
has done work on the B-2 bomber and is build
ing wings for the F-22 fighter. -
For Lockheed Martin, based in Bethesda,
MtL, winning the overall contract would comple
ment its already solid base in fighter construc
tion as the prime contractor on the F-22.
Critics have questioned whether the United
States faces a current threat large enough to re
quire such a costly program. By 2005, the United
States will have more than 3,000 fighters with
the latest technology. That’s more than the com
bined inventories of Russia, China, North Ko
rea, Iran and Iraq.