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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 8, 1997)
■ New security devices show all Hand-held version could find a gun from 60 feet away. RALEIGH, N.C. (AP)—The next generation of weapons detectors is deadly accurate, able to look through clothes to find guns, explosives and even syringes and drug vials that can be tucked into rolls of fat. About the size of a voting booth, a machine manufactured by Nicolet Imaging Systems of San Diego goes beyond metal detectors to show any solid object. It is being tested at North Carolina’s Central Prison and the fed eral courthouse in Los Angeles. Capt. Marshall Hudson, a correc tions officer, said the $100,000 ma chine is capable of showing shin bones near the skin and even a person’s pri vate parts on the “uncloak mode.” The device uses very low-level X-rays, he said. While police groups are intrigued, civil libertarians are concerned be cause the same technology is being developed by other manufacturers into a hand-held model, which will enable I police to detect a weapon hidden un der someone’s clothing up to 60 feet away. “It becomes a question of how in trusive they are,” said Mark Kappelhoff, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. But officials who represent police officers disagreed. “Anything that enhances public safety and officer safety, we’re for,” said Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation’s largest police group. Social security information online; privacy is in danger, critics say ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — The financial status of millions of Ameri cans is now available on the Internet by looking up Social Security records. The development worries critics who say privacy rights are being sac rificed. The Social Security Administra tion went online a month ago, mak ing it easier for taxpayers to look up their records. But the system also al lows easy snooping. “As soon as crooks start exploit ing this service to get other people’s information, Social Security is going to have a real problem on its hands,” said Evan Hendricks, chairman of the U.S. Privacy Council in Washington. Social Security officials said the dangers are minimal. “We have con fidence that in the huge majority of cases, the people requesting these things are the right people,” said John Sabo, head of electronic services in the Social Security Administration. The agency said the new system can save millions of dollars that it costs to mail financial reports to tax payers who request the information about themselves. Beth Givens, manager of the Pri vacy Rights Clearinghouse in San Diego, said it is easy to abuse the sys tem by obtaining the Social Security numbers of others and using them to gain online access to the records. There are varous types of poten tial abuse: potential employers could get the salary history of job applicants; co-workers could determine how much fellow employees make; land lords could use the information to de termine whether someone can afford an apartment. “It would be a tremendous asset to people who know how to obtain this information,” said Paddy Calabrese, owner of a Seattle detective agency. “If somebody calls me up and says they want to know somebody’s income, I just pop into this thing. I charge them $2,000 and it costs me nothing.” Matt Haney/DN Thief hot for a cop gets more than a date JERUSALEM — Answering a call on a mobile phone he had just stolen in a break-in, a gullible thief succumbed to the seductive voice on the line and unknowingly made a date with the law. Police First Sgt. Major Yardena Rahamim said she initially called the suspect after the break-in in Haifa on Saturday just to “get an idea of who he was.” “In the course of ad-libbing I realized he was friendly, so I sponta neously pretended I was a lonely girl from a conservative village who wanted to go out. I realized he was hot for me so I arranged a meeting and he fell for it,” she said. Dressed in plainclothes, Rahamim met the man, who approached her enthusiastically, smelling strongly of after-shave. But his amorous mood was soon dampened when the date turned into an arrest. The suspect, a 22-year-old Israeli who was not identified, had driven to the rendezvous in a car stolen in the break-in, along with the phone. Rahamim said thousands of dollars worth of stolen property were in the car. Ointm selects Atlanta activist as AIDS policy head WASHINGTON (AP)—President Clinton Monday selected the former director of an Atlanta AIDS organi zation to be his AIDS adviser, saying the nation must continue to strive for a cure for the deadly virus. Clinton chose Sandy Thurman as head of the Office of AIDS Policy, call ing her a person “who tells it like it is. She speaks the truth unvarnished. She won’t hold back in this office. She is passionate. She is committed. She is difficult to say no to.” He continued: “America has not beaten AIDS yet, but we’ve gotten closer.” In a brief Roosevelt Room cer emony, Thurman told Clinton, “The epidemic is not over and we must not — will not—rest until HIV is eradi cated. “This is not an epidemic of a few,” she said. “This is an epidemic of us all.” Thurman is a longtime AIDS ac tivist and member of the president^ AIDS advisory panel. She served as executive director of AID Atlanta from 1988 to 1993 and as director of a task force on child survival and develop ment for The Carter Center from 1993 to 1996. Thurman is also director of citi zen exchanges at the United States Information Agency. The Human Rights Campaign, a gay and lesbian advocacy group, com mended the selection, calling Thurman “a solid choice to take the Office of National AIDS policy to the next level.” But ACT UP, a radical gay activist’s group, called Thurman a “Democratic Party insider” who is the latest in a series of “ineffective, no-* name bureaucrats” to be named AIDS adviser by Clinton. Nafl»n/Wor1d Teen-ager shot, killed in confrontation with police NEW YORK — A 16-year-old boy was fatally shot in the back after he threatened two officers with a machete, police said Monday. An autopsy showed that a bullet entered Kevin Cedeno’s back and exited his front lower torso. Cedeno, the father of a 5-month-old son, was pronounced dead at a hospital. Officers Anthony Pellegrini, 25, and Mike Garcia, 36, answered a 911 call early Sunday. Pellegrini fired a single shot after the teen-ager “threatened officers with a machete,” said police spokesman Detective Mark Patterson. Police Commissioner Howard Safir said Cedeno was shot in the back, but it was too early to say whether Pellegrini acted properly. Po lice have said the officer feared for his life. He was not suspended. Cedeno was on probation for an armed robbery and had prior ar rests as a juvenile, Patterson said. The shooting, which was being investigated by the police department’s Internal Affairs Division, happened in the same Wash ington Heights neighborhood that in 1992 erupted into several nights of arson and violence after an officer shot a reputed drug dealer. I i Soldier pleads guilty to improper sex charges ABERDEEN PROVING GROUND, Md. — A former drill in structor pleaded guilty Monday to having sex, in violation of Army rules, with 11 trainees, but denied charges he raped eight women un der his command. Staff Sgt. Delmar Simpson, 32, said he had sex with subordinates in his office, his hone and at a hotel on another military base. In most cases, he said, the sex was initiated either by the woman or by both partners. “She would come to my office and we would engage in conversa tion and one thing would just lead to another, sir,” he told a military judge, describing one encounter. The 13-year enlisted man pleaded guilty to a total of 16 counts alleging he had sex or otherwise engaged in inproper conduct toward a subordinate at the Ordnance Center and School at Aberdeen Proving Ground. Each of the charges carries up to two years in prison and dishonor able discharge. Simpson is one of 11 instructors charged with sexual misconduct at Aberdeen Proving Ground, about 30 miles northeast of Baltimore. The scandal led to an investigation into sexual misconduct at U.S. military bases worldwide. Astronauts work by flashlight on returning shuttle CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Forced to fly on only two-thirds power, space shuttle Columbia’s astronauts squeezed in as many ex periments as possible Monday, working by flashlight before closing their lab for an early return to Earth. The seven astronauts might have been able to fly the entire 16-day science mission if NASA had halted the countdown Friday and re placed a faulty electric generator that had been giving unusual voltage readings hours before liftoff. That generator slowly lost voltage in orbit — a situation that can cause an explosion — and forced NASA to cut short the $500 million plus mission. Questions? Comments? Ask for the appropriate section editor at 472 2588 or e-mail dnGunlinfo.unl.edu. Editor: Doug Kouma Managing Editor: Paula Lavigne Assoc. News Editors: Joshua Gillin Chad Lorenz Night Editor: AnneHjersman Opinion Editor Anthony Nguyer AP Wire Editor: JohnFulwider Copy Desk Chief: Julie Sobczyk Sports Editor: Trevor Parks General Manager: DanShattil Advertising Manager: Amy Struthers Asst Ad Manager: Cheryl Renner Classified Ad Manager: Tiffiny Clifton A&E Editor: Jeff Randall Photo Director: Scott Bruhn Art Director: Aaron Stecteiberg Web Editor: Michelle Collins Night News i Editors: Bryce Glenn Leanne Sorensen Rebecca Stone Amy Taylor Publications Travis Brandt Board Chairman: 436-7915 Professional Don Walton Adviser: 473-7301 FAX NUMBER: 472-1761 The Daily Nebraskan (USPS144-080) is published by the UNL Publications Board, Nebraska Union 34,1400 R St, Lincoln, NE 68588-0448, Monday through Friday during the academic year; weekly during summer sessions. Readers are encouraged to submit story ideas and comments to the Daily Nebras kan by calling 472-2588. The public has access to the Publications Board. 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