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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 15, 1997)
SPRITS HI IE ‘ WFnNFfinAY --"- —- nil/lifiiOilnl Wrestle with greatness Radiation rock January 15,1997 Nebraska heavyweight Tolly Thompson has over- Fountains of Wayne has taken radio hy storm with taken Olympian Bill Scheer for the school record its first single, “Radiation Vibe,” but the song is Wmdy WONDERLAND in career wins with 138. PAGE 10 just the first on the band’s debut album. PAGE 13 Winter storm watch; high 2V, low 0. 1 VOL. 96COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 79 Victim helps draft new stalking bill By Erin Schulte Senior Reporter Voiceless phone calls to Shelley Freeman’s home and office 15 years ago initially caused only a sense of uneasiness. But terror wasn’t far behind for Freeman, who soon started receiving graphic, obscene phone calls. Freeman said she narrowly escaped physical harm or rape in her ordeal with a man who picked her name out of a phone book and began stalking her. Finally, the man who terrorized her went to jail for sex crimes against another woman. He was undaunted and called Freeman from jail. When he was paroled, he stalked her again. “He was relentless in pursuit of his victims,” Freeman said. That’s vic 44_ tims — plural. Free mi 7 n man wasn’t alone. The laws of in his , 7 cy « backpack, police the State Of found lists with the _ _ 7 7 names of women Nebraska the man stalked, in cluding his final Were very victim who he raped so brutally, he was inadequate ” sentenced to 100 years in prison. _ _ Freeman SHELLEY Freeman escaped that victim bill advocate ization. But even _ today she has bars on the windows of her family’s home, carries a cellular phone at all times and has multiple locks on her doors. “The horror they went through with him, I can’t imagine it,” Freeman said. “His assaults escalated to be very, very dangerous. “His final victim really believed she \yas go ing to be murdered.” Freeman went on to marry and have chil dren. And when she looked at her children, she realized what happened to her might happen to them. Protection from sexual predators became her crusade. She took her ideas to Sen. Don Wesely of Lincoln, who had twice tried to pass sexual predator bills. Similar bills in other states were found unconstitutional. She and Wesely re vamped the old bills to come up with the 1997 version of the Sexual Predator Act. “The laws of the State of Nebraska were very inadequate,” Freeman said. The Sexual Predator Act proposes a system that would assign points to different sexual crimes (three points for sexual assault in the first degree; two points for incest; one point for view ing child pornography). Points would be as signed on current severity of punishments. A sexual offender would accumulate points throughout his or her lifetime, and the more points, the longer the sentence. Six points or more are punishable with a 25-year mandatory minimum and lifetime maximum sentence. In sex crimes, there is a higher recidivism rate than in other crimes, Wesely said. Untreated Please see STALKING on 6 I f* Lincoln team finds eager Ians, devoted players, wise coaches - - .- " By Joshua Gillin Senior News Editor Gwen Russell doesn’t know what icing is. Or a deke. Or a hat trick. But what the 63-year-old grandmother of three does know about hockey is enough to enjoy a Lincoln Stars game. “My grandkids love coming to the games,” Russell says. “I usually don’t know what’s going on, but I try to pick things up.” Three children, all younger than 10, run up to the woman and grab her arms. They urge her to return with them to their seats before the start of the second period “It’s great watching the players skate around all fast and do what they do, though,” Russell says while being dragged away. “It’s a lot of fun.” And while fun is all Lincoln residents may expect from their new United States Hockey League team, a 21-8-1 record has shown the Star City it has gotten a whole lot more. On the final night of 1996, near the time the Comhusker football team is scheduled to take the field at the Orange Bowl in Miami, every one of the 4,321 seats at the State Fair Park Coliseum is accounted for. The number is more than half the number of Comhusker fans who appeared in the stands at Pro Player Stadium in Miami that night. That number of fans buying tickets to see the new hockey team is nothing new; each of the Stars’ 15 home games has sold out. And while sellouts are nothing new for USHL teams (the Omaha Lancers have packed the AKsarben Coliseum every game for the past few seasons), the biggest draw for fans may well be the Stars’ unique pace for an expansion team. If the Stars continue winning at their present rate, by season’s end they will com pile a record of 40 wins, 14 losses and two ties, the best final standing of any first-year USHL team. Head Coach Steve Johnson said fan sup port is exceptional for a first-year team and is a key factor to the Stars’ success. “The people here are more enthusiastic than most of the USHL towns I’ve been in,” he said. “These have to be some of the most enthusiastic fans I’ve ever seen.” Steve Myer had never been to a Stars game before Jan. 4. His excuses ranged from not enough time to not enough tickets avail able, but he was finally able to secure two tickets for a game against the North Iowa Huskies earlier this month. Ryan Soderun/DN FORWARD DEREK REYNOLDS has dedicated both his life and his shoulder to the game of hockey, proudly displaying the Canadian roots of both his family and the game he plays. Reynolds is one of three players on the Lincoln Stars who are from Canada. The Lincoln native was not disappointed. “This isn’t what I expected at all,” Myer said. “These guys can play, and they play hard.” Myer’s companion Rick Kessler agreed. “When I heard this was an amateur league, I kind of threw up my hands and said, ‘Oh ** well, it might be good for a laugh or two,”’ Please see STARS on 7 Former Ohio governor touts Lincoln's success By Jim Goodwin Staff Reporter A community’s economic success lies in the capable and cooperative hands of education, business and government leaders, a speaker at the Lincoln Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting said Tuesday. Former Ohio Gov. Richard Celeste spoke in front of about 600people at a luncheon held by the chamber in the Comhusker Hotel Ballroom. Celeste—who has received national recogni tion as a consultant for economic development, science, technology and trade — congratulated Lincoln leaders for their progressive mindset and encouraged them to focus on partnerships. Economic success is uuniong Deyona me traditional boundaries,” Celeste said. “We need to form alliances between municipalities and be tween the public and private sectors. ‘1 think Lincoln is moving in the right-direc tion,” he said. Celeste cited three practices Lincoln and other successful communities perform: building on ex isting strengths, recognizing time’s value and us ing innovation and education as agents of change. Celeste said education as an institution should not only answer questions irrelevant to practi cal application, but should also should spark change in the government and business sectors. “We need to learn to move new knowledge from the laboratories and classrooms into the - work force. Universities tend to sit over here ana not communicate, celeste saia. tjnange is important to success.” - Celeste suggested a partnership between Lin coln and Omaha. Leaders of both cities should cooperate to combine and capitalize on their in dustrial and manufacturing strengths, he said. “If people are sitting in Lincoln or Omaha thinking their greatest competition is up or down the road, that’s a serious mistake,” he said. “An international focus is where it’s at.” The final consideration essential to a community’s economic success is the enhance ment of communication between the business, education and government sectors, Celeste said. “I just want to emphasize economic success means being focused on and paying attention U> the community.” Read the Daily Nebraskan on the Worldwide Web at http://www.unl.edu/DailyNeb