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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 29, 1997)
^■sports__ **e__ WEDNESDAY I Cyclone visit Lean and Meen January 29,1997 Nebraska basketball team looks to bounce Tim Mahoney and the Meenies, a Minneapolis i back from two-straight losses tonight against Iowa based alternative pop quintet, will rock the Zoo Eyes To The Sky State. PAGE 7 Bar, 136 N. 14 St., tonight. PAGE 9 Chance of snow, high 23. VOL. 96 THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 . 89 .. - «/.:'.Vv ~a-: : 7* 4 By Jdi Goodwin * - Staff Reporter PALMYRA — In 1957, when other 7-year-olds were trading Hank Aaron baseball cards for Mickey Mantles, Richard Pugsley was trad ing a set of golf clubs for a shotgun. Pugsley’s telling transaction may explain why he handcrafts reproduc tions of Civil War era weaponry for a living today. The Otoe County resident is the world’s only builder of old-style Gaffing guns — 10-barrel, crank operated field guns designed by Chi cagoan Dr. Richard Gatling at the height of the Civil War. The mechanics of guns have al ways underscored Pugsley’s inter est in the machines, Pugsley said, which is quite the opposite of the macabre obsession many have ac cused him of harboring. To the machinist Pugsley, assem bling a Gatling from solid blocks of - brass and steel is completing a three dimensional puzzle alluding to sim pler, more traditional times, he said. Pugsley said he relished his con ception of pre-industrial American life over the mass-production-based society to which it gave way. “How long does a computer last anymore? Three years?” Pugsley asked rhetorically. “Thompson guns are 90 years old and they still work. Firearms interest me because they Were built to last” Shooting for success In 1989, Pugsley decided he wanted a Gatling. He couldn’t af ford the gun, so he set out to teach himself how to build it. Pugsley closed the gun shop he operated for Please see GATLING on 3 By Jim Goodwin Staff Reporter Students burning living room furniture to offset the sharp price increase of natural gas heating, take notice:douse the davenport. Next month’s bill should be lower. Peoples Natural Gas representatives gave the forecast Tuesday to a small State Capitol assem bly of senators and staff concerned about January’s rise in gas prices. Donald Nordell, customer service director for Peoples Natural Gas, said if the gas com pany received expected lower supplier costs next month, customers’ February statements should go down. Nordell said he expected supplier prices to drop from the January price of about $4.15 per million-cubic feet to about $2.85 per million cubic feet next billing period. A typical Lincoln customer uses a monthly average of 16,000 cubic feet of gas, costing > MitVofdMte will cost closer to $6832, Nordell said. Two factors account for the shock custom ers may Save received after opening this month’s bill, January’s below-average temperatures and the West Coast gas company’s recent low stor Nebraska’s gas prices, like those of other states, are subject to national demand because gas is distributed through an interstate pipeline Please see GAS on 6 By Matthew Waite Senior Reporter The prosecution rested its case against Riley Washington Tuesday and defense attorneys wasted no time attacking the prosecution’s wit nesses. ^ < The first major evidence from the defense was video evidence that contradicted three pros ecution witnesses ’ Identifications of the former Husker wingback.Three witnesses said they saw Washington wealing a red tanktop. Videotape _ ifom the KwikShop showed him wearing a black T-shirt. Washington is on trial for the shooting of Jermaine Cole on Aug. 2,1995, at a Kwik Shop on 27th and W streets. He is charged with sec ond-degree attempted murder and use of a fire arm to commit a felony. Special Prosecutor Ronald Lahners ended his case with the testimony of two police witnesses who said they checked the area around the Kwik Shop. However, under cross-examination, they said they could not find evidence of shots fired at the Kwik Shop. t Sgt. Donald Arp said officers checked the fence along the east side of the parking lot and the house behind and areas around the parking lot for spent shells and bullet markings, but found nothing. Please see TRIAL on 3 Student’s death in Cather Hall classified accidental by police From Staff Reports The death of a University of Nebraska-Lin coln student found in his residence hall room Monday night has been ruled accidental, the UNL Police Chief said. Chief Ken Cauble said senior Paul Wolfendale, 28, had been dead about two to three days when he was found hanged by a belt in Room 407 of Cather Hall, 609 N. 17th St. The Lancaster County medical examiner de termined the death was accidental, Cauble said. Investigators would not say why die death, which had been rumored as being a suicide, had been classified as an accident. Investigators would not say where in the room Wolfendale was hanging or to what the belt was attached. UNL police received a call from Cather Resi dence Director Joel Johnson at 9:50 p.m. Mon day. Johnson had been investigating a foul odor reported by fourth-floor residents when he dis covered the body, Cauble said. Please see DEATH on 6 Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http: l / www.unl.edu /DailyNeb ■ ,'v ' ■ ' • .. , : V -y • - “