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Passing to Spokane Candy-caned December 12,1997
The Nebraska volleyball team competes in the Naughty children will be on the receiving end of
NCAA Regional Tournament this weekend with an angry Santa Claus come Christmas Eve, the Fat
a berth in the Final Four on the line. PAGE 7 One reveals in an exclusive interview. PAGE 9 Pj
VOL. 97 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO.'SS
Moul calls off campaign plans
By Brian Carlson
Assignment Reporter
Maxine Moul said this week that
she won’t seek the Democratic nom
ination for governor in 1998.
Expressing concerns about tim
ing and financing, Moul opted not to
become the third Democrat to enter
the race.
“I went through all the processes
that a candidate should go through,”
she said. “It simply came at the
wrong time; the timing wasn’t right.”
Ecologists:
City growth
v -..T —
By Tanya Wortman
Staff Reporter
As Lincoln continues to expand on its
southwestern borders, some UNL environmen
talists are worried about the effects the devel
opment will have on nearby Wilderness Park.
The Ridge Development Company bought
136 acres of land southwest of Lincoln, at 14th
Street and Pine Lake Road. Fifty-nine of these
acres are on a flood plain and at its closest
point is just 150 feet from Wilderness Park.
The proposed development has some
University of Nebraska-Lincoln students,
which include members of Ecology Now, con
cerned about how such developments will
affect the park.
Robert Klein, a senior environmental stud
ies major, said one of his biggest worries is
how the project would affect the area’s func
tion as a flood plain.
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about a foot of dirt to be placed below any
buildings, which would displace any excess
water and possibly flood Salt Creek inside
Wilderness Park.
A representative for Ridge Development
Company, Lincoln attorney Kent Seacrest said
there was no need to worry. He said the devel
opment will require only a small amount of dirt
to be placed on the flood plain - not enough to
cause a drastic change.
Klein and his wife, Carol Reed-Klein, also
an environmental studies major, disagree.
“When you go and tamper with flood
plains, you’re asking for trouble, in my opin
ion,” Klein said.
Reed-Klein is a former Ecology Now mem
ber and is active in the cause.
Reed-Klein said she thinks any change
would be drastic. Wilderness Park has evolved
over thousands of years and is one of the only
wild spaces left in the area, she said.
Robert Klein said he has other concerns
Please see WILDERNESS on 3
Moul, who served as lieutenant
governor from 1991 to 1993, said
she enjoys her role as state economic
development director and wants to
continue serving in that capacity.
The 1998 campaign promises to
be expensive for candidates, Moul
said, and she said this also deterred
her from running.
“I was raised not to go into debt,”
she said, laughing.
Moul had explored a possible
campaign during the past few
months and, along with the party’s
three announced candidates, had
i
spoken at recent Democratic party
gatherings.
Kearney podiatrist Steve
Bennett; Bill Hoppner, a former aide
for Sen. Bob Kerrey and former Sen.
James Exon; and former Lincoln
state Sen. Jim McFarland have
announced candidacies for the
Democratic gubernatorial nomina
tion.
Moul said she plans to contribute
to the debate during the 1998 cam
paign, especially on economic
development issues she has worked
with during the past few years.
“I will be an interested observer,”
she said.
Nebraska Democratic Party
Chairwoman Deb Hardin Quirk said
Moul would have been a strong can
didate, but she said the party under
stood her reasons for not running.
“I think she would have added
strength to an already strong
Democratic field,” she said.
Quirk said she wasn’t sure the
Democratic field was set, but said
she hadn’t heard of any others con
sidering bids. In Bennett, Hoppner
and McFarland, she said, the party’s
voters have three experienced and
knowledgeable candidates from
which to choose.
“They are strong in their experi
ence, geographic distribution and
depth of thinking and consideration
on the issues facing Nebraska vot
ers,” she said. “They are three indi
viduals who are not using one politi
cal office to get to another.”
i
Scott McClurg/DN
MARTIN GASKELL, associate professor of physics and astronomy, examines the new 16-inch telescope that was installed in November
at the new student research observatory on the top floor of the parking garage. Gaskell wrote the proposal sent to the National Science
Foundation for support of the project.
Telescope finds home at UNL
By Erin Gibson
Senior Reporter
Like a home without a family, the new
astronomy observatory west of Memorial
Stadium had no telescope for most of the
semester.
Its silver shell served only as a rooftop
decoration for the University Parking
Garage.
Then, the planets started to align in the
evening sky. And soon thereafter, a 16-inch
telescope was placed inside the dome.
Coincidence? Maybe. But the new tele
scope seems almost magical to those who
have peeked through its lenses.
“I was really pleased with it,” said Martin
Gaskell, an astronomy and physics associate
professor. ‘This was just what I wanted.”
For years, Gaskell sought to place a
strong telescope on campus for undergradu
ates’ use. The university’s large Behlen
Observatory sits about 25 miles from the
university - too far away for many under
graduates to visit easily, he said.
Another telescope kept in Ferguson Hall
was too small for observing faint celestial
bodies, he said. Gaskell knew a strong, on
campus telescope was needed to improve the
education of astronomy students at UNL, he
said.;. i•>
But getting what he wanted was neither
quick nor easy, Gaskell said. The process
started more than five years ago.
In 1992, Gaskell wrote a proposal to
receive funding from the National Science
Foundation, which soon approved his
request. When the telescope arrived in 1995,
the department was ready to install it on the
roof of Ferguson Hall. There, UNL
astronomers frequently star-gazed through a
portable telescope.
Please see TELESCOPE on 6
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at http: / / www.unl.edu/DailyNeb
