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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 21, 1997)
SPORTS i Ready to run ( The Big 12 indoor track and field championships 1 start today at 9 a.m. at Bob Devaney Sports Cen ■ ter and continue through Saturday. PAGE 9 k I E_ High-powered music The Winter Electronic Music Festival will bring local musicians and the digital tools of their trade to the Wagon lYain Project Saturday. PAGE 12 FRIDAY February 21, 1997 tar Nam Windy and gray, high 38. Clearing tonight, low 23. 1% -avv; ^5 ’ ,-----1 Chambers struggles for all Nebraska senator takes job duties to extreme Editor’s note: In honor of Black History Month, the Daily Nebraskan is profiling prominent Mack leaders in the Lincoln community. Today is the last in a five part series. By Erin Schulte Senior Reporter —i Rip through the pages of the legislative roster and the occupations of Nebraska’s state senators are easy to predict: lawyers, business owners, ranchers, insurance agents, professors and fanners. On Page 11, though, one man’s job de scription cuts against the grain. It says, sim ply: “Defender of the Downtrodden.” That defender is Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, a 27-year servant in the Legislature and the only black senator. Chambers is as unique among the state’s 49 senators as Nebraska’s one-house Leg islature is among the other 49 states. He’s appeared on national television to challenge the president of the NCAA and lambasted apartheid in front of a U.N. com mittee. He’s fought for the rights of women ath letes, criminals, gays and lesbians, North Omaha blacks, and white supremacist farm ers. ,, ,:^s He has a law degree from Creighton University but has never taken the bar exam. During floor debate, he eloquently quotes the Bible, literature, and poetry to make a point or win arguments. There is a weight bench in one comer of his office; his own framed drawings are tucked away in another. He breaks the unwritten starched-suit and-tie dress code of the State Capitol, speeding around the halls in a short-sleeved sweat shirt and Levi’s — the same ones he wore on “Donahue,” to the United Nations, and when he met President Jimmy Carter. Over the years, he’s been described as an “incurable idealist,” a “man of the people,” an “apostle of the very poor,” and an “outspoken Negro firebrand.” Among his colleagues, he has been — for the better part of three decades — a chronic thorn in the side and a recurring burr in the saddle. But Ik’s been something else. “He’s the conscience,” said Rich Lombardi, who has been a lobbyist at the Capitol for 17 years. “If he was on the East or West Coast, he’d be a celebrity.” In his domain ‘ Inside Room 1107 in the west wing of the Capitol in Lincoln, the day is a flurry of Please see CHAMBERS on 6 — '• <• •••••arjgfei.. • Vr «&. '■Vi'i'*'. ; • • . •> * •. - Legislators considered two bills Thursday expressing different ideas about the future of the death penalty in Nebraska. LB331, sponsored by Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, would eliminate the deathpenafty^ad ensure life sentences instead. LB390, sponsored by Sen. Jim Jensen of Omaha, would seek to . shorten the length of time, between death sen tences and executions by limiting die number of Ideals at the state court level. Rick Wallace, president of the Nebraska chapter of the National Association for the Ad vancement of Colored People, told members of the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee that the ' death penalty should be eliminated because it is racially biased. He said when the U.S. Supreme Court up held the death penalty’s constitutionality in 1976, justices insisted the penalty be applied uniformly but with attention to each individual case. But the criminal justice system has been un able to reconcile these criteria, Wallace said. ‘Twenty years have passed since the Supreme Court said die death penalty must be applied fairly, and the system is still fraught with mis takes,” he said. Jim Cunningham, representing the Nebraska Please see APPEALS on 3 Rec center staff, security make fights anomalies By Josh Funk Staff Reporter The Office of Campus Recreation does ev erything it can to ensure that students have a safe workout, its director said Thursday. Stan Campbell, the director of Campus Rec reation, said the Lee and Helene Sapp Recre ation Center is a safe environment. The fight in the weight room Wednesday was an exception in the rec center’s history. “Considering the number of people that use the center, the behavior is quite good. This time of year we get about 3,500uses a day,” Campbell said. There are only two entrances into the rec center, and both of them are staffed by desk workers with student ID card scanners to pre vent unauthorized entry. Please see SECURITY on 3 Read the Daily Nebraskan on IheWorld Wide Web at http: / / www.unl.edu / Daily Neb