SPORTS ARE_
All-American girl The chase is on May 2,1997
NU shot putter Tressa Thompson has gone from Kevin Smith, the writer and director who earned
the small town of Bloomfield to win an NCAA praise for “Clerks,” is back with his take on the BREEZIN’ On Out
indoor title and set an NCAA record. PAGE 9 filmed love story in “Chasing Amy.” PAGE 12 Sporadic rain, high 55. Clearing tonight, low 40.
VOL. 96 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 ~ NO. 151
Jay Calderon/DN
Kindergarten students Asalea Booth, 5, and Jaclyn Vermeline, 6, share a laugh about their schoolwork.
On the left is 7-year-old Noah Long.
Malmo school faces uncertainty
By Erin Schulte
Senior Reporter
MALMO — In one room in Lincoln, 49 senators
have spent the last few weeks wrestling with details
of a bill that could force hundreds of small schools
across Nebraska to close or consolidate.
In one room in the Nebraska town of Malmo
Thursday, 17 students — kindergarteners to third
graders — had a drawing deciding which lucky stu
dents got to take home their science project: eight
baby chicks peeping under a heat lamp in the hall
way.
As the left hand may not know what the right
hand is doing, so go the daily routines of the Legis
lature and the 27 students in Malmo’s two-room, kin
dergarten-through-sixth grade schoolhouse.
But the actions of the Nebraska Legislature have
the potential this session of making an immense im
pact on these children.
Del Lindgren, secretary of the school’s three-per
son board, said parents of children at the school and
members of the board wait nervously for whatever
moves the Legislature might make.
“It seems like the formula keeps changing,”
Lindgren said. “There’s a lot of not knowing right
now.”
Lindgren said that under LB806, the Malmo
school will probably not be forced to close its doors.
The Wahoo elementary schools are crowded and a
bond initiative failed, he said, so the district might
not be able to handle the additional students.
However, Malmo will probably have its budget
put under control of the Wahoo School Board. Un
der LB806, all of Nebraska’s 656 Class I (elemen
tary-only) school districts would have to join one of
the state’s 289 K-12 districts.
Provisions of the bill stipulate that people from
the subdistrict could vote in school board elections
Please see MALMO on 3
British vote
Blair while
Labor takes
47 percent
By Maureen Johnson
Associated Press
LONDON — The Labor Party surged to
ward a landslide election victory Thursday
night that would restore it to power for the
first time in a generation and make 43-year
old Tony Blair the youngest British prime min
ister in 185 years.
Moments after the polls closed, a BBC exit
poll projected that Labor would take 47 per
cent of the vote, compared to just 29 percent
for the Conservatives.
That would be the poorest Conservative
showing since 1832, and a reversal of the 1983
election when Labor was the party that took
just 28 percent of the vote.
Independent Television News said its exit
poll projected a huge Labor victory, with 159
more seats in the 659-seat House of Commons
than any other party. That would mean a big
ger Labor triumph than the one that swept
Winston Churchill out of office in 1945.
“It looks like we’re going to win in very
good fashion indeed,” said Labor’s deputy
leader, John Prescott, savoring the first exit poll
reports.
Defense Secretary Michael Portillo refused
to concede defeat on the basis of the exit polls,
although he acknowledged that his party was
hurt by internal squabbling.
“I think what the party needs to reflect upon
is that it has done itself no good by showing its
divisions,” he said. »
In power since Margaret Thatcher ousted
the last Labor government in 1979, the Con
Please see LABOR on 7
Warner find
supports NU
By Shane Anthony
Staff Reporter
Money from an endowed fund created by
former Nebraska Sen. Jerome Warner will sup
port the three political science divisions in the
University of Nebraska system.
The fund, given through the University of
Nebraska Foundation, is intended to help pay
the fees and travel expenses of faculty who
present papers or attend conferences. Warner,
who died April 21, started the fund with money
left over from his 1996 re-election campaign.
“This is a very welcome addition. This is a
much-needed addition,” said David Forsythe,
professor and chairman of the Political Science
Department at the University of Nebraska-Lin
coln.
Forsythe said political science faculty have
the opportunity to attend about six conferences
Please see WARNER on7
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http: / / www.unl.edu I Daily Neb
■
. ■ • *4■'
