The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, September 09, 1997, Image 1

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    SPORTS APE
Fore score A little mousey September 9,1997
Nebraska golfer Hanne Nyquist led the Although it’s a small, intimate lounge off the
Comhuskers in the first two rounds of the Chip- downtown strip, Mouse’s Library really spikes GROOVIN’ To Till 70s
N-Club Invitational. PAGE 9 the punch. PAGE 12 Partly cloudy, high 77. Clear tonight, low 50.
VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 , NO. 11
City Council drops law, hears pleas
: Public debates^ale of hospital
■ r :
rote, with dozens of people repeating opposi
tions word for word and offering legions of
amendments to the proposed sale.
Mayor Mike Johanns, who started the hear
ing, said the proposed sale was the best option
for Lincoln’s future.
The agreement would turn Lincoln
General over to Bryan, but the city would
retain some access to governing boards. The
city would also retain a right to buy the hospi
tal back should Bryan decide tosell.
The proposal started four years ago when
the Lincoln General Hospital board began
looking at options for the future. Over the
years, the board narrowed the choices down to
a sale to Bryan or St. Elizabeth Community
Health Center.
Other considerations had been Columbia
^Please see HOSPITAL on 2
City lifts Sunday off-sale liquor ban
■
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
_
With little fanfare and less debate, an
exhausted City Council unanimously passed an
ordinance allowing off-sale Sunday liquor sales.
After listening to more than four hours of
debate Monday night on the proposed sale of
Lincoln General Hospital, council members
plowed through the remainder of the agenda.
Just minutes before midnight - the meeting
- started at6:30 p.m. - council chairwoman
Linda Wilson asked whether there was any
debate on the ordinance, which would allow all
sales from noon to 1 a.m. Sundays. A look left,
a look right, and Wilson saw there was none.
With a short laugh, Wilson said the only
words of debate heard since one person testi
fied at a public hearing.
“We need to do this,” she said. “The courts
have ruled.” - } — ' ,
Councilman Jerry Shoecraft was the only coun
cil member not fervote. Shoecraft left the meeting
-f
early. Shoecraft owns Shoe’s Bar, 813 Q St
The ordinance now goes to Mayor Mike
Johanns for approval. Johanns asked die City
Council to introduce the ordinance after a judge
struck down Lincoln’s no Sunday off-sale law.
Lancaster County Court Judge Earl Witthoff
declared Lincoln’s law banning off-sale Sunday
alcohol sales unconstitutional Aug. 21.
On Aug. 22, Witthoff stayed his decision
until Sept. 24. If the City Council did not act
before the stay expired, Lincoln would be dry
on Sundays.
The Liquor Control Act, a Nebraska state
law, does not allow alcohol to be sold on
Sundays. However, a provision of the law
allows individual communities to permit sales
in their boundaries.
Lincoln banned all alcohol sales in 1957,
but in 1984, the City Council passed an ordi
nance that permitted restaurants and bars to
sell alcohol by the glass.
4
.
: ---
By Matthew Waite
Senior Reporter
It started just after 7 p.m. Monday. It start
ed with the mayor. Four hours later, a public
hearing on a hospital sale ended, and a vote
was scheduled for next week.
The Lincoln City Council, haggard and
worn, scheduled the vote on a proposed sale of
Lincoln General Hospital to Bryan Memorial
Hospital for its meeting in a week. Bryan has
offered the city $42 million for the public hos
pital.
The council started the hearing just after
the meeting started at 6:30 p.m. and people
didn’t stop testifying until just short of 11 p.m.
More than 50 people testified in pro, con, pro,
con order.
Council members divided the room, with
the pro side on the east, the con on the west and
themselves in between.
c4 The pro side was stacked with Lincoln
'* General employees - the con was testimonyfjy
L
Christensen commits
to ‘98 governor’s race
■ The congressman says
he’s been considering a
run for six months.
By Brian Carlson
Assignment Reporter
In a decision that took even state
Republican Party officials by sur
prise, U.S. Rep. Jon Christensen
announced Monday that he will run
for governor of Nebraska in 1998.
The Republican representative of
the 2nd Congressional District in
Omaha told The Associated Press he
had been considering a gubernatorial
run for the past six months.
Christensen said he moved closer
to his decision following the recent
announcement of U.S. Rep. Doug
Beregter, a Republican from the
state’s 1 st District, not to run for gov
ernor.
Christensen did not return Daily
Nebraskan phone calls Monday. His
press secretary, Mindi King, con
firmed that Christensen was in the
race, but said the congressman did
not want to make a highly publicized
announcement at this time.
King said Christensen would
begin campaigning in earnest after
the congressional recess in
November.
Christensen became the third
Republican candidate to announce
his candidacy in the governor’s race.
State Auditor John Breslow and
Lincoln Mayor Mike Johanns have
already filed for the May primary.
Before Christensen’s Monday
decision, neither the congressman
nor other Republicans had hinted at
the possibility of Christensen’s candi
dacy.
In his statement announcing he
would not run for governor, Bereuter
had mentioned three possible candi
dates: State Treasurer Dave
Heineman, Beatrice state Sen. Dave
Maurstad and Secretary of State
Scott Moore.
Bereuter did not, however, men
tion Christensen.
Andy Abboud, executive director
of the Nebraska Republican Party,
said he learned of Christensen’s deci
sion Sunday night.
He said he was surprised by the
decision because the party had con
sidered Christensen a probable candi
date for the U.S. Senate race in 2000.
The possibility of a gubernatorial
run for Christensen hadn’t been dis
cussed much, Abboud said.
“We’re glad because we have
another quality candidate for gover
nor,” he said. “We now have three
outstanding candidates, and that
shows the strength and vibrancy of
our party.”
Abboud noted that the
Republican field now includes candi
dates with experience at the local,
state and national levels of govern
ment.
Asked if he was concerned the
May primaries could become too
hotly contested for the party’s good,
Abboud said the purpose of the pri
maries is to foster debate and discus
sion of ideas.
“The one thing that unites all the
candidates is the goal of putting a
Republican in the governor’s man
sion,” he said.
I , . - . , I
Matt Miller/DN
KEN SIEMEK AND DEB COLLINS have been married for five years and have worked together at Channel 10/11
for 10 years. The weatherman and co-anchorwoman are expecting their first child in November.
Jobs combine TV, love
By Ted Taylor
Assignment Reporter
Here comes the bride . . . with
today’s top stories.
Here comes the groom ... with
your five-day forecast.
While some people have a prob
lem with even dating a co-worker,
two pairs of local TV personalities
have gone one step farther - they
got married.
And just about 6: IS p.m. and
10:15 p.m. weekdays when
Lincoln’s KOLN/KGIN Channel
10/11 co-anchorwoman Deb
Collins and Omaha’s KETV
Channel 7 co-anchorwoman Julie
Cornell “turn to weather” with Ken
Siemek and Bill Randby, they are,
in effect, introducing thousands of
viewers to their husbands.
Both Collins and Siemek and
Cornell and Randby were married
in 1992, but the stories of their rela
tionships and the road to the altar
are as different as a high and low
* •* -
pressure system.
“This was not a love-at-first
sight sort of thing,” said Siemek,
38, KOLN’s chief weather forecast
er. “We were friends for a year or
two and then probably started golf
ing with mutual friends. Then we
dated for probably a year. We start
ed really slow.”
Their relationship stayed slow
for a while, said Collins, 38, who
Please see LOVE on 6
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