ASUN looks for answers
before LB1176 approval
■ Senators voice concern
over ambiguities in Sen.
Bruning’s proposed “brain
gain” bill.
By Jessica Fargen
Assignment Reporter
Keeping UNL grads in the state
to work and international students
in the state to study were the hot
topics for ASUN Wednesday night.
The Association of Students of
the University of Nebraska voted to
table a bill to endorse LB 1176, the
“brain gain” bill, until Omaha Sen.
Jon Bruning, the bill’s sponsor,
could address senators’ concerns at
an upcoming ASUN meeting.
Senators had questions about
what would happen if students have
“brain gain” scholarships, but
change their major after their fresh
man year.
“If you change your major,
you’re going to lose it,” said-John
Wiechmann, chairman of the
Government Liaison Committee.
Senators also wondered what
would happen if “brain gain” schol
arship holders graduated, but found
no Nebraska jobs in their field.
Wiechmann said until questions
were answered ASUN would not
fully support it.
Moving from state government
to an international money crisis
affecting students, ASUN did pass
Senate Resolution #5, which
acknowledged the financial diffi
culties international students were
having.
Julian Sundaram, a junior inter
national business major, asked for
ASUN’s help in dealing with prob
lems stemming from Asia’s drasti
cally devaluated currencies.
Many Asian students have been
forced to work extra hours,
Sundaram said, and at the same
time it is nearly impossible for them
to get permits to work off campus.
Sometimes even the extra hours
are not enough.
“Basically, some people have
been forced to go home,” Sundaram
told senators.
Sundaram, a member of the
international students subcommit
tee, offered suggestions on ways the
university could ease the financial
burden of international students.
In an open forum, ASUN
President Curt Ruwe asked senators
for feedback on President Clinton’s
State of the Union address, which
was shown on television in the
Nebraska Union on Tuesday.
The “Watch Party,” included
discussion and feedback which will
be sent to the White House, Ruwe
said.
In other ASUN news:
■ The appointments board
appointed students to the
Publications Board and the 1998-99
Student Court.
■ Government Bill #26, which
passed unanimously, gave a com
mendation to Kim Todd for her
landscape improvements at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
over the past 20 years. Todd will be
leaving UNL on Feb. 6.
■ Senate Bill #20 was passed
unanimously recognizing Students
for Camp Heartland and Vocational
Industrial Clubs of America as
organizations at UNL.
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Affair between Lewinsky
and married man possible
WASHINGTON (AP) - A grand
jury investigation into allegations of a
presidential affair and cover-up accel
erated today as prosecutors questioned
the former White House chief of staff
and weighed an offer from former
intern Monica Lewinsky to testify in
exchange for immunity from prosecu
tion.
Attorney William Ginsburg, who
represents Lewinsky, is now dealing
with questions about an affair that
Lewinsky had with a former drama
instructor, a married man.
That man, Andy Bleiler of
Portland, Ore., held a news conference
just minutes before Clinton’s State of
the Union address Tuesday night,
alleging that Lewinsky had referred in
telephone conversations to a “high
ranking White House official.”
Terry Giles, Bleiler’s lawyer, said
Lewinsky also claimed she was having
oral sex with this official and was
“frustrated and agitated” that that was
all the official wanted to have.
Giles said his client had docu
ments and photographs that Lewinsky
had sent him. Bleiler had stored the
materials in a safety deposit box and
planned to give them to prosecutors,
he said.
Interviewed Wednesday on CNN,
Giles called Lewinsky “a young lady
obsessed with sex who went to
Washington, D.C., with an agenda.”
And he said Lewinsky had a “tenden
cy sometimes to twist facts in order to
enhance her own self-importance.”
He said most of the items
Lewinsky sent his clients were White
House trinkets but that a few were doc
uments that might shed light on she
how she got “access to certain files in
the White House, and why an intern
would have access to those files.”
Ginsburg also said Whitewater
prosecutors investigating the case
have been in regular contact as they try
to clarify various points in his client’s
offer.
“There is regular give and take,”
Ginsburg said in an interview with The
Associated Press. “We are clarifying
points (in the offer) as they come up.
And they have kept us pretty much in
the loop. There’s an open line of com
munication.”
Asked if he was growing more
hopeful, Ginsburg said: “In negotia
tions, it is not a matter of optimism, it
is a matter of patience. Patience is the
hallmark of good negotiation.”
Lewinsky, 24, swore in an affidavit
earlier this month in the Paula Jones
sexual harassment case that she did
not have an affair. But prosecutors
have custody of secretly recorded con
versations in which Lewinsky tells a
friend she did have an affair and was
asked to lie about it.
Ginsburg has declined to say
whether Lewinsky’s would change her
original testimony in the affidavit. But
he said Wednesday what prosecutors
are likely to do if a deal is struck is to
ask her to submit to “various forensic
procedures, including polygraph
examinations.”
The Secret Service had no com
ment on news reports that its lawyers
were talking to the independent coun
sel’s office to head off questioning of
agents who guard the president about
the Lewinsky matter.
“The Secret Service has a well
recognized and longstanding policy
that precludes discussing elements
relating to an ongoing investigation,”
said spokesman Arnette Heintze.
“Given the current status of the inde
pendent counsel’s investigation, we
will not be commenting on these
issues.”
Clinton’s former chief of staff,
Leon Panetta, spent the day at the U.S.
Courthouse, where a grand jury has
begun hearing testimony on the
Lewinsky matter. While at the court
house, he was served with a subpoena
to testify in the Jones sexual harass
ment case.
Lewinsky started her internship by
working in Panetta’s office. Panetta
has said in the past week that he never
knew Lewinsky but that he recognized
her photo when he saw it in the news
paper. He also has said he was not
aware of any improper relationship
between the president and an intern.
On Tuesday, prosecutors brought
the president’s personal secretary
before the federal grand jury while
vigorously disputing Mrs. Clinton’s
accusation they were allied with right
wingers to get her husband.
Wednesday, the first lady repeat
edly expressed assurances that the full
truth will come out eventually, and she
said she was confident the matter will
“fade into oblivion.”
Prosecutors now have an outline of
what Lewinsky is willing to testify if
she is granted immunity from prose
cution. Ginsburg said he hadn’t heard
back from the prosecutors.
Waste-site estimates questioned.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) —
Opponents of a low-level radioactive
waste site in Nebraska raised ques
tions Wednesday about the accuracy
of figures from the commission over
seeing the development.
The Nebraska governor’s
appointee to the commission, Greg
Hayden, told the Central States Low
Level Radioactive Waste Compact
Commission the site will cost much
more than the estimates from US
Ecology, the company contracted to
plan and build the site.
In addition to Arkansas and
Nebraska, other members of the com
pact are Kansas, Oklahoma and
Louisiana.
John DeOld, Nebraska project
manager for US Ecology, told the
commission that building a site in
Boyd County, in the far northern part
of the state, would be more economi
cal then shipping wastes out of the
region.
DeOld said that paying up front to
reserve space for waste disposal at
Barnwell, S.C., where waste is now
shipped, would expend millions of
dollars. US Ecology’s projections
were based on a formula of costs
divided by volume of waste.
It would cost between $500 and
$550 per cubic foot to dispose of
waste if the Nebraska site disposes of
i
55,000 cubic feet each year, accord
ing to DeOld.
The formula did not account for
other factors that could increase costs
of operating the site, including densi
ty, weight or levels of radiation, he
said.
Hayden conducted a study last
summer that estimated it could cost as
much as $ 18,500 per cubic foot.
“We’re wasting money,” said
Hayden, an economics professor at
the University of Nebraska-Lincoln,
who was appointed to the commis
sion by Nebraska Gov. Ben Nelson.
Nelson also opposes having the dump
in his state.
Hayden is calling for a moratori
um on developing the facility. He tes
tified Tuesday before a meeting of the
joint Public Health, Welfare and
Labor committees of the Arkansas
Senate and House at the request of
Arkansas Sen. Jim Scott, (D
Warren.), who has proposed studying
whether Arkansas should pull out of
the compact.
Some Nebraska legislators are
also examining whether their state
should leave the compact.
Kansas commissioner Jim
O’Connell said it would be a gamble
to depend on a single site and not con
tinue with the review process. The
commission has spent nearly 10 years
and $80 million to develop the new
site.
“It doesn’t seem wise to stand on
one foot,” O’Connell said.
Gary Sedlacek, a trustee for the
village of Butte, which is near the
proposed site, presented a resolution
from the village board supporting
construction of the facility.
“US Ecology had met the burden
that the facility can operate safely,”
Sedlacek said. Butte trustees also
welcome the jobs and economic
opportunity the site would create, he
said.
Loren Sieh, chairman of a moni
toring committee in Boyd County,
said he believed Hayden’s numbers
over those presented by US Ecology.
Sieh also said he wondered whether
other compact members would con
tinue to support Nebraska if any prob
lems arose after the site was built.
“I can already see in 30 years you
other states ready to ride off into the
sunset,” he said. “I can see it in your
legislatures. I can see it in your com
missioners’ eyes.”
Before the close of the meeting,
the commissioners voted to approve a
pre-construction work plan and first
quarter funding for US Ecology to
continue work on the Nebraska site.
Public hearings are scheduled to
begin in Boyd County on Monday.
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