F' ' -
s_p»■ ts • me__ THURSDAY
Blown out On the good side January 30, 1997
The Nebraska basketball team lost its third-straight Local legend Sideshow has been a player in the
game, losing 77-67 against No. 11 Iowa State last Lincoln music scene for more than 10 years, and it FlT AND 40
night. PAGE 7 will be doing it out again Friday night. PAGE 9 Sunny, high 40. Partly cloudy
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VOL. 96 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 ~~~~ NoT7o
L i
■ Ryan Soderlin/DN
| pay
W Firefighters may get higher pay
By Pamela Storm
Staff Reporter
or risking their lives and saving
others, Lincoln firefighters think
they deserve more from the city.
But for the daily risk they
“take and important work they do,
their starting wages are less than
se of an employee at Amigos.
That could change because of an agree
last Friday. The Commission of
elations, a Nebraska commission
jartial third party, announced
—it the fire department deserves
increase.
y, the minimum wage for Lincoln
is $6.12 per hour. The CIR rec
ended a minimum $9.36-per-hour wage,
he decision has not been quick or easy,
inough. The local firefighters’ union No. 644
has been in contract negotiations with the
Lincoln City Council and Mayor Mike
T/Aanns for almost two years.
Such prolonged bargaining came at a price
to both the union and Lincoln. The city spent
$200,000 for outside counsel. The city has a
number of attorneys on a payroll staff, but
used only one of them as co-counsel.
The commission’s decision does not mean that
the negotiations are over, though. The city still
has to appeal or agree with the decision.
Relative rates
The bottom line of the contract argued
which U.S. cities should be surveyed to
compare wages and benefits to the Lincoln
Fire Department.
Capt. Mike Spadt, vice president of local
firefighter union No. 644, said the efforts the
union exerted to assure that the pea cities
they found were truly comparable.
A survey was sent to about 50 cities in
a specific area. Of those, about 12 were ex
amined, Spadt said.
He‘ said the union believes its research has
established comparable cities by visiting and
focusing, on size, firefighter training, Emer
gency Medical Systems, public help and re
action time.
Firefighter Union President John
Enevoldsen said he also thought the new
cities agreed upon by the Commission of
Industrial Relations were comparable. The
seven cities are Minneapolis; Peoria, lit;
Davenport, Cedar Rapids and Des Monies,
Iowa; Sioux Falls, S.D.; and Topeka, Kan.
Lincoln’s minimum firefighter wage of
$6.12 per hour, was the lowest by $2.25;
Topeka’s fire department pays $8.37. The
highest was $10.23 per hour in Davenport.
- --y-;—:
The cities previously used for compari
son, such as Springfield, Mo., were no
longer comparable, Enevoldsen said.
Springfield, unlike Lincoln, has no Emer
gency Medical Service.
Other cities used in previous years in
cluded Des Moines and Cedar Rapids, Iowa;
Omaha; Topeka and Wichita, Kan.
The OR decided two years ago on the
seven new cities. However, the city council
didn’t agree- with two of their choices —
Peoria, 111., and Minneapolis.
While Lincoln has been growing on pace
to be a metropolitan city, Spadt said the de
partment hasn’t grown past 250 members.
In a larger city, overall destructive losses
tend to be higher, Spadt said. A fire depart
ment that stays the same size requires sac
rifices be made, he said. Cutting expenses
instead of finding more money would re
duce the quality of public protection, he
said, and could hurt citizen trust.
Keeping the faith
Firefighters had been anxious to reach a
settlement, Enevoldsen said, but negotia
tions have caused some disruption of the
work force.
Spadt said the disruptions have not af
fected their service yet—firefighters have
Please see UNION on 6
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http: /lwww.unl.edu IDailyNeb
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Shooting
suspect
to testify
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
Riley Washington told the judge overseeing
his case Wednesday that he would testify in his
defense and will appear today in court.
Lancaster County District Court Judge Ber
nard McGinn asked Washington if he understood
he did not have to testify.
“Yes, I do,” Washington said.
Washington, a former Husker football player,
will answer to charges of second-degree at
tempted murder and use of a firearm to commit
a felony. He was accused of those crimes after
Jermaine Cole was shot Aug. 2, 1995, outside
the Kwik Shop on 27th and W streets.
The former wingback’s testimony will come
in the third day of the defense’s case. Defense
attorneys spent Wednesday introducing wit
nesses who were with Washington the night of
the shooting.
One of those witnesses was Willis Brown,
who lived with Washington for part of the sum
mer of 1995. Brown said he and Washington
were as close as brothers.
The night of the shooting, Brown and Wash
ington were at Mum’s Liquor across the street
from the Kwik Shop. Brown said the two walked
Please see TRIAL on 6
Professor
studies effects
\
of violence
By Lori Robison
Staff Reporter
A husband has the right to beat his wife with
a stick no thicker than his thumb, according to a
once widely accepted ordinance of Puritan Co
lonial America.
But Cynthia Willis-Esqueda, an assistant pro
fessor of psychology and Native American stud
ies at UNL, said Wednesday that examining such
laws can provide insights on misconceptions
about domestic violence.
Willis-Esqueda was the featured lecturer
during the latest Paul A. Olson seminar, “The
Impact of Race and Victim Resistance on Do
mestic Violence Perceptions.”
Even though many unjust laws have been
wiped off the books, she said, the pervasive at
titudes behind the logic that once viewed wife
beating as a method for domestic bliss is still
alive and well in the United States.
Willis-Esqueda’s lecture focused on two
studies she conducted involving the effect of
various stereotypes on the conviction and sen
tencing of domestic violence offenders in
America.
The first study focused on the effects of race,
Please see VIOLENCE on 3