SPOBTS
Containing Zebbie
Jason Peter’s task in Saturday’s 12:30 p.m. game
against Texas Tech will be containing Red Raider
quarterback Zebbie Lethridge. PAGE 10
A&E
Stayin’ alive
Well, you can tell by the way they don’t stop, The
Samples are here to stay. Back from near dissolu
tion, they’ll play Omaha Saturday. PAGE 12
October 16,1997
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Partly cloudy, high 62. C^e^pight, low 36.
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U.S. SEN. CHUCK HAGEL addresses University of Nebraska-Lincoln law students Wednesday at the NU College
of Law. Hagel talked about the passing of a global wanning treaty that could have a major impact on the
United States.
Nelson joins
foundation
■ The governor and
Wendy’s pair up for an
adoption program.
By Ted Taylor
Senior Reporter
Wendy’s dad and Nebraska’s
highest-ranking adoptive father are
teaming up to “help children with
special needs find special families.”
An adoptive father of two, Gov.
Ben Nelson Wednesday kicked off
NebraskAdopt, a new partnership
with the Dave Thomas Foundation
for Adoption, the state’s Wendy’s
fast-food chain and the Nebraska
Department of Health and Human
Services.
Its goal is to promote the need of
tm&mtm Ibi^ttilrenwitfrape-’
rial needs. \
“No child;, is unadoptable,”
Nelson said at a news conference in
the Capitol. “This new initiative will
help us find families who have room
in their hearts for more children.”
Special-needs children are those
children who have a hard time find
ing foster families because they are
part of a sibling group, have a mental,
physical or emotional disability or
are older.
Through public service
announcements, table signs, tray lin
ers, billboards and bag-stuffers, the
31 Wendy’s restaurants throughout
the state will help raise awareness of
the problem facing these children,
Nelson said.
Wendy’s also will contribute
$21,000 to help cover the costs for
information packets, a toll-free
phone number that interested fami
lies can call for more information,
and any other costs the state might
incur in promoting the program.
“We’re hoping the toll-free num
ber will ring off the hook,” Nelson
said.
Nebraska joins Kansas and Iowa
as the only states taking part in the
initiative.
“This is a proactive way to get
people’s attention,” Nelson said.
“And it’s an extension of how Dave
Thomas feels about families.”
Please see ADOPTION on 7
Breslow declares
run for governor
By Brad Davis
Assignment Reporter
John Breslow said he wanted to be
“your candidate for governor” as he
announced his candidacy for the top
office in Nebraska on Wednesday after
noon.
Breslow, state auditor and a Lincoln
businessman, spoke before television
cameras and an audience of more than
100 supporters at the office of the
Linweld Co.
He gave the same speech he had
given 18 times since Monday, when he
began his campaign tour in Omaha, said
Jerry Hudson, Breslow’s director of
communication.
Also unveiled at the Lincoln office
were Breslow’s new television commer
cials, which will begin airing today
throughout the state, Hudson said.
The commercials highlight
Breslow’s promise to cut state spending
by 5 percent each year he is in office, his
commitment to “safe streets” and his
corhmitment to family.
Breslow is die owner and chairman
of the board of the Lincoln-based
Linweld Co., which his father founded.
The company sells welding products
and manufactures and sells medical and
industrial gases.
Breslow, said he would work to
make Nebraska a family-friendly state.
“As governor, I will work to make
Nebraska the most pro-family, pro-chil
dren, pro-education state in the country.”
A University of Nebraska-Lincoln
graduate, Breslow said he would lower
taxes “without compromising our chil
dren’s education.”
Breslow said streets would be safer
for children and all Nebraska residents
by enforcing strict penalties for convict
ed criminals.
“The public needs to know that vio
lent criminals will be given stiff sen
tences, and that they will serve those sen
tences-and ifthat sentence is death, then
it must be carried out,” Breslow said.
However, Breslow said family
involvement in children’s lives will
more effectively prevent crime “before
it happens.”
“The best crime prevention involves
the family - with a mother and a father
- working together to raise their chil
dren with the highest moral standards.”
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http: / / www.unl.edu /DailyNeb
Governor, USDA form
alliance against E. coli
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
Despite several past policy dis
agreements, the U.S. Department
of Agriculture and Gov. Ben
Nelson will work together on pre
venting E. coli contamination and
on safe meat-handling public edu
cation campaigns, officials
announced Wednesday.
Nelson, who criticized USD A
procedures after the Hudson Foods
beef recall, bantered on some
issues with Catherine-W*tefci,
USDA undersecretary for Food
Safety, during the, afternoon
announcement.
But the two leaders agreed on
the necessity of the USDA’s newly
developed inspection process that
will begin in January, on the need
for meat safety education and on
the need for more funding to
research new E. coli-fighting tech
nology.
Nelson and Woteki had met ear
lier Wednesday to discuss recent
USDA-required recalls of possibly
E. coli-contaminated Nebraska
beef, which Nelson contends “may
have been excessive.”
Woteki said the USDA did not
overreact when it demanded
Hudson recall 25 million pounds of
frozen ground beef in August, and
that the scale of the recall was nec
essary to protect the public’s health.
On Aug. 25, Hudson Foods
recalled 25 million pounds of
ground beef produced in its
Columbus plant that were linked to
an E. coli outbreak in Colorado that
sickened at least 16 people.
Citing a 1993 E. coli outbreak
that sickened 700 and killed three,
Woteki said the USDA “ headed off
the potential for a greater out
break” through the Hudson recall.
Nelson said he wished to avoid
a “point/counterpoint” debate, but
thought much of the contaminated
beef involved in the recall could
have been identified earlier in the
distribution process by USDA
inspectors.
He also said the USDA should
keep in mind where meat has been
distributed when making a recall
decision.
Meat distributed to fast-food
restaurants is cooked at the correct
temperature for the right duration
to kill E. coli, he said. Most beef
recalled by Hudson had been dis
tributed to Burger King restau
rants.
But Nelson praised the USDA
for recent efforts to revamp its
inspection process.
Woteki said inspectors will bet
ter monitor “critical control points”
for preventing beef contamination
in processing plants and keep a
close watch on plants’ record-keep
ing habits. She said Hudson kept
poor production records before the
recall.
To improve public education on
meat safety, the USDA will unveil a
new public-private partnership of
federal and state agencies’ beef
industry representatives Oct. 24,
Woteki said.
The partnership will sponsor a
new logo and a 30-second public
service announcement featuring
cartoon figures who will instruct
how to handle meat safely in
homes.
Please see SAFETY on 7