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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 31, 1997)
*** TS- m- FRIDAY Rumble with No, 1 j Ticket wars January 31,1997 Nebraska heads to Lawrence, Kan., to battle the The 20th anniversary re-release of “Star Wars” top-ranked Jayhawks. KU is 21-0, while the today promises to be the country’s hottest ticket, Jabba THE Hot Comhuskers are 11 -8. PAGE 9 with some fans lining up before noon. PAGE 12 Sunny, high 55. Partly cloudy topight, low 25. VOL. 96COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 91 By Matthew Waite Senior Reporter Riley Washington took the stand Thursday morning and said he did not shoot Jermaine Cole and did not report the shooting because he did not want his name in the media. Washington told the jury he watched a fight break out between two of his friends and Cole at the Kwik Shop on 27th and W streets. He said that when shots were fired, he ran. Washington, who is a Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln track record holder in the 55-meter indoor and 100 meter dashes, said he did not look back to see who was firing. The former football player’s testi mony was the last the jury will hear in the second-degree attempted murder case against the former wingback. Af ter a defense motion to throw out the charges was overruled, attorneys in the case were set to deliver their final ar guments. The jury will start delibera tions on the case today. Washington testified for two hours Thursday morning, refuting prosecu tors’ claims that he shot Cole on Aug. 2, 1995. Washington is charged with second-degree attempted murder and use of a firearm to commit a felony. One of the more subtle pieces of evidence introduced Thursday was a paper Washington signed. As Washing ton wrote, Chief Public Defender Scott Helvie pointed out he was left-handed. Three prosecution witnesses have testified that the gunman, whom they identified as Washington, had the gun in his right hand. Those three prosecu tion witnesses also said Washington was wearing a red tank top. Defense videotape evidence, and Thursday’s testimony from Washington, has Wash ington wearing a black T-shirt. Washington testified that he turned 22 two days before the shooting. He said he was moving out of a house he shared with Abdul Muhammad and Willis Brown, two former Husker foot ball players, during the first part of August. On Aug. 2, 1995, Washington said he went to class, went to football prac tice and came home to unpack some things from his move. Later, he went to Brown and Muhammad’s new apart ment. Near midnight, Brown and Wash ington decided to go to Mum’s Liquor store, across 27th Street from the Kwik Shop. After buying some gin to cel ebrate Washington’s birthday, he said, they walked out of the store. As they walked to their car, Cole Please see TRIAL on 7 Lane Hickenbottom/DN BRIAN PFEIFER, a research engineer at Midwest Roadside Safety Facility in Nebraska Hall, helped create BEST. BEST is a a guardrail terminal created at UNL that could save thousands of lives and create millions of dollars for the university. Crash-test success: NU-designed guardrail ready for highway use By Erin Gibson Senior Reporter Twenty crashed cars could mean millions of dollars for some engineers at die Univer sity of Nebraska-LinColn. And each pile of wreckage could save anotherlife. Brian Pfeifer, a research engineer at the Midwest Roadside Safety Facility in Nebraska Hall, is {me of several engineers who designed a new guardrail end-piece that could save more lives in highway accidents than the rails now being used. The terminal is already in place along In terstate 80 near Ashland, Pfeifer said. BESTs secret to saving lives lies in the way it absorbs energy when a vehicle hits the end of a guardrail head-on, Pfeifer said. On impact, razors held inside the large, box-shaped terminal slice lengthwise through the steel guardrail, shredding the metal and curling it away from the vehicle, he said. Break-away wooden posts that support the guardrail are also knocked aside. The energy absorbed in this process pre vents the impact’s high force from pushing the car’s engine into the passenger compart ment, Pfeifer said. As a result; only 1.5 percent of all acci dents with the new terminal caused serious injury or death, according to a study by the Texas Transportation Institute based in Col lege Station, Texas, Pfeifer said. About 14 percent of accidents are as se rious with guardrail end pieces now com monly found in Nebraska, he said. These guardrail ends flare away from the road, and do little to stop a vehicle in a head-on colli sion, he said. Many large trucks will vault over the Nebraska rails and possibly roll over. In Texas, the rate of serious injury and death in accidents with guardrails climbs to 17 percent, he said. This is because of an outdated terminal, Please see CARS on 6 Admit one ... for another 50 cents As movie ticket prices increase to $6 in Lincoln, student discounts are still available. By Gerry Beltz Senior Reporter As of Friday night, some moviegoers will be shelling out a few extra bucks at the box office. Ticket prices will be going up at all theaters owned and operated by Douglas Theatre Co., which includes all but two screens in Lincoln and more than half the screens in the Omaha area. According to Douglas Theatre Co. officials, ticket prices for adults will be $6, up from $5.50, and the admission price to the discounted Star Ship 9 will go up 25 cents to $1.75 per ticket. Ticket prices for matinees, children 12 and under and senior citizens will remain $3.75, and moviegoers can still get discounts after 6 p.m. by showing either a parking garage ticket or cur rent sruaeni laenuiicauon ai time or purcnase. With a student discount, tickets are $4.50. With a parking garage ticket, admission is $5. Doug Kinney, city manager of Douglas The atre Co., said the increase involved several fac tors, especially pressure from the studios. “They want us to be comparable in price to others in the region,” he said. “It’s not some thing they can enforce, but they can give pres sure.” Other reasons included rising costs and the ater upkeep, he said. Movie theaters receive only a small fraction of the money the box office takes, about 10 per cent, he said, and their profit center often comes from inflated concession prices. “A film has to play for a pretty long time for the theater itself to make any money at the box office.” Compared to the prices at other large cities, Lincoln movie prices are still quite reasonable, Kinney said. “Kansas City is around $6.50 or seven bucks,” he said, “and the big cities are around $8 or $9 for a movie.” Kinney said hoped the price increase won’t keep people from coming to the movies. “You look at other entertainment costs,” he said, “and everything has gone up over the years. “It’s still a great value.” Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http: / / www.urd.edu IDailyNeb