8 P 0 B T 8_ * * E_ FRIDAY
High flying Back in the Hole February 14,1997
The NU women’s gymnastics team starts a three- KFRX disc jockey Andy Vaughn is back as host
meet homestand with a dual against Denver Sat- of “The Donut Holes in the Morning,” and he That LOVING Glow ,
urday. The Huskers are 8-1 this season. PAGE 9 couldn’t be happier. PAGE 11 Partly sunny, high 38. Cloudy topight, low 17.
VOL. 96 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 101
Paridng lot may pave way for new hotel
By Kasey Kerber
Staff Reporter
It’s 250 parking spaces today, and might be
250 hotel suites tomorrow.
Lincoln Mayor Mike Johanns announced
Thursday that Block 35, now used as a 250-spot
parking lot between 10th and 11th streets and P
and Q streets downtown, will become a 250
room Embassy Suites Hotel if negotiations go
smoothly and it’s approved by the City Coun
cil.
The announcement was originally expected
for the week of Jan. 13, but the committee
needed additional time to consider the informa
tion submitted by prospective developers.
John Q. Hammons, a Springfield, Mo., de
I
U --
... the project will enhance the UNL campus for foot
ball, the Lied Center and everything else ...”
Mayor Mike Johanns
veloper, was selected for the project.
The committee visited and approved an
Embassy Suites Hotel that Hammons built in
Omaha.
“This developer is a very seasoned entrepre
neur,” Johanns said. “He’s indicated an ability
to be flexible on the project.”
Flexibility will be a necessary component,
Johanns said, as details are uncertain.
Considerations in constructing the Embassy
Suites Hotel include: designing the building to
attract interest, replacing the 250 parking spaces
and possibly providing a first-floor market with
shops and restaurants.
The effect of Block 35’s development on the
nearby UNL campus also was discussed.
“I believe the project will enhance the UNL
campus for football, the Lied Center and every
thing else at the university,” Johanns said.
> UNL Chancellor James Moeser later com
mented on the announcement.
“I think it’s a positive development,” Moeser
said.
While a developer has been chosen for the
project, the detailed plans have not been devel
oped for Block 35.
Johanns said the next stage is the negotia
tions with Hammons. Dallas McGee, commu
nity development coordinator, said the negotia
tions stage could take anywhere from weeks to
months.
Johanns said the construction date could be
pushed back to 1998. It was scheduled to begin
this year.
KEG party
taps into
government
By Lindsay Young
StaffReporter
It’s a keg party, but instead of
pouring beer, members of KEG
pored over issues Thursday night.
KEG party President Scott
Brauer said his party wants to bring
student government to the students.
The party announced its candi
dacy and platform Thursday in the
Abel Residence Hall ballroom in
preparation for the Association of
Students of the University of Ne
braska elections in March.
KEG stands for Knowledge and
Education through Government.
The main focus of the platform
is to get the residence halls and
more minority organizations in
volved in student government,
Brauer said.
“For one, I am sick of being
underrepresented,” he said at the
beginning of his platform speech.
One way the party plans on get
ting more students involved is
through representation on each resi
dence hall floor, Brauer said. The
party plans on getting contacts not
only for the upcoming election but
to benefit the party in the future.
These contacts, Brauer said, will
be a way to help educate more stu
dents on campus about the issues
that face student government.
This will help increase voter
participation on campus from the
8.4 percent of students who voted
in ASUN elections last year, he said.
Listening to the concerns and
wants of minority students and or
ganizations was important to the
party, he said. Brauer said it was the
party’s responsibility as student rep
resentatives to speak for all stu
dents’ views.
Brauer said the party had many
concerns with the current represen
tation in ASUN. He said it does not
devote enough attention to bills that
would affect a large percentage of
students on campus.
Ben Poole, campaign manager,
said the KEG party targeted central
ized billing as one important stu
dent issue in its platform.
Brauer said students were con
fused by the new centralized bill
ing plan, and needed more options.
Some students, he said, could not
pay because the bills were too large.
Brauer said KEG also is con
cerned about post-tenure review and
said it should include students’
views.
Brauer also addressed the debate
over the university’s pending accep
tance of a single-beverage company
contract.
The beverage alliance, which
would bring about $10 million to
the university, should be used to
defray student fees, Brauer said.
He said it should be used to stop
the rate of tuition increase, and said
it would improve educational qual
ity by decreasing what students pay.
And, even though it’s a KEG
party, Brauer stood by the
university’s policy of a dry campus
by saying its stand on alcohol at the
university should “be as dry as my
sense of humor.”
Ryan Soderlin/DN
FROM LEFTS CAMPAIGN Manager Ben Poole and Presidential Candidate
Scott Brauer launched the KEG party’s campaign for ASUN elections
Thursday night in Abel Residence Hall.
Legislature debates
assisted-suicide bill
JBy Erin Schulte
Senior Reporter
A bill heard Wednesday by the Ju
diciary Committee would allow phy
sicians to assist terminally-ill patients
in dying, making Nebraska the first
state to legalize the practice.
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha,
who sponsored the Physician Aid-in
Dying bill, said the practice was al
ready being done by doctors through
out the state. Although he said he didn’t
want doctors to use aid-in-dying fre
quently, the state needed laws to ad
dress it.
LB406 would ensure that doctors
who helped patients in aid-in-dying
would not be prosecuted.
Chambers urged the committee to
advance the bill, so it could at least be
discussed, rather than kill it just be
cause people didn’t agree with it.
“This (bill), literally a matter of life
or death, should be advanced,” Cham
bers said.
Under the provisions of LB406, an
adult who was expected to die of a ter
minal illness in six months or less
could sign a request for aid-in-dying
(an advance directive). The patient
could revoke the directive at any time.
The physician who gave the lethal
injection or dose of drugs could not be
charged with murder or assisting sui
cide, and the death would not be con
sidered a suicide for insurance pur
poses, according to the bill.
If a physician declined to assist in
dying, he would not be forced.
Opponents are worried that a pa
tient who changed his or her mind
would still be given a lethal injection
of drugs, and that the bill did not re
quire a psychological exam to insure
that the person requesting an advance
directive was able-minded.
Chambers tried to calm fears by
stressing that the directive could be
revoked at any time.
“You can be clearheaded as
Einstein when you make it, but if the
next day you’re crazy as a bedbug and
_ decide to revoke it... it doesn’t have
to be carried out,” Chambers said.
Consenting fear
An opponent said the bill could
open the door to Nazi-like practices.
Walt Weaver, a Lincoln cardiolo
gist, said Nazis used “the same trick
when they got rid of people in nursing
homes” in Germany.
They would check the visitors list
and kill patients who had no family
visits — no advocates to protect them.
He also said doctors could not pre
dict if a patient was near death. Some
patients are expected to die and are
taken off respirators, yet they live for
months.
Jim Cunningham of the Nebraska
Catholic Conference said his groups
opposed the bill.
Chambers said the church sup
ported removing feeding tubes and let
ting patients dehydrate if they or their
families so chose.
Others who testified said shutting
down feeding tubes was “passive eu
thanasia,” while giving lethal injec
tions was direct killing.
Teresa Wagner, an attorney for the
National Right to Life, said the bill
would let doctors kill patients who
were not terminally ill, and doctors
would have more reason to kill patients
than develop better treatments.
“The dollar spent is the largest of
considerations,” she said. “Lethal in
jections will be the cheapest, always.
“The dependent and the sick lose.
This could be called a prescription for
their death.”
Jack Kaufmann, a medical doctor
from David City, said terminally-ill
patients should live because pain can
be controlled until they die.
“When my patients cannot get well,
God’s words, ‘comfort ye my people,’
always apply,” Kaufmann said.
“Thou shalt not kill,” he said. ‘To
Please see DYING on 8
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