Support of project
delayed by ASUN
By Jessica Fargen
Assignment Reporter
ASUN senators tabled a bill
Wednesday night that would have
voiced their support for the
Antelope Valley Project pending
remaining studies of the project.
The bill would have voiced sup
port only if parking and recreation
fields lost in the project would be
replaced before construction took
them down.
Paul Schreier, engineering and
technology senator, was concerned
about the steady loss of parking on
campus, even without the project.
“We have to replace whatever is
being lost before it’s lost,” Schreier
said. “We don’t have a lot of land
left to use for surface parking.”
John Benson, director of
Institutional Research Planning,
said the project would benefit stu
dents by diverting traffic from
campus and making 16th and 17th
streets two-way, as well as revital
izing neighborhoods surrounding
the University of Nebraska
Lincoln.
Another part of the project aims
to create a storm-water drainage
system that would remove 20 per
cent of City Campus from a 100
year flood plain. After campus is
out of the flood plain, the universi
ty could develop that land.
The Association of Students of
the University of Nebraska spent
much of the remainder of the meet
ing talking about UNL’s recent
racial issues.
Linda Crump, director of affir
mative action and diversity pro
grams, explained the findings two
weeks ago by the Office for Civil
Rights. The visit resulted in recom
mendations on how UNL could
improve its racial climate and
grievance policy and procedures.
She said a committee of students,
staff and faculty members will be
meeting to review policies at UNL.
She said officials identified
grievance and harassment policy
and procedures, the investigations
of complaints and training as areas
UNL should review.
In other ASUN news:
■ About 100 students were
approved to be on 30 ASUN com
mittees, subcommittees and
boards. Positions are still open on
eight committees.
■ Senators voted on one bylaw
change that combines the
Technology Fee Advisory Board
with the Information Services
committee.
Bomber to be added
to most-wanted list
WASHINGTON (AP) - The FBI is
preparing to add Eric Robert Rudolph,
charged with the nation’s first fatal
bombing of an abortion clinic, to its 10
most wanted list and offer a $ 1 million
reward for his capture, officials said
Wednesday.
Bureau officials had originally
planned to announce that the 31-year
old carpenter from Murphy, N.C., was
added to the list Wednesday, but post
poned that until next week while they
obtain the expected approval from the
Justice Department to boost the reward
from $100,000 to $1 million, accord
ing to Justice officials, who requested
anonymity.
Rudolph has eluded capture since
the Jan. 29 bombing at the New
Woman All Women Clinic in
Birmingham, Ala., which killed a
security guard and badly injured a
nurse.
Within a week of the blast he was
sought as a material witness. By Feb.
14, he was formally charged with using
an explosive device to damage the
building, which carries a possible
death sentence.
Late last month, Rudolph was the
subject of a false alarm in Denver after
someone thought he had spotted the
license plate for his truck, which actu
ally had been found abandoned near
his hometown in North Carolina with
in days of the bombing.
On March 17, the task force inves
tigating the Birmingham bombing was
formally merged with an older task
force assigned to solve three bombings
in Atlanta, including one at Centennial
Olympic Park in July 1996.
Although the merger announce
ment made no mention of Rudolph, the
now-superseded Atlanta Bomb Task
Force had been looking into whether
he might also be responsible for the
Atlanta attacks.
Tainted beef leads to recall
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
country’s biggest meat-packing
company is recalling more than
282,000 pounds of ground beef
nationwide following the discovery
of contamination with a virulent
strain of E. coli bacteria.
The tainted sample was found
during a routine testing program
conducted by the Department of
Agriculture on a single package of
beef produced April 14 at IBP Inc.’s
plant in Joslin, 111. -
The recalled amount represents
that entire day’s production and was
possibly shipped to numerous states,
Jacque Knight, spokeswoman for
USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection
Service, said Wednesday.
“We consider it a nationwide
recall,” Knight said.
IBP, based in Dakota City, Neb.,
said in a statement that 50 retail and
food service customers have been
contacted and asked to return the
meat to IBP. The beef is typically
processed further by grocers and
restaurants, so there are no product
codes for consumers to check.
“To our knowledge, there has
been no illness associated or report
ed on the product from this date,”
the IBP statement said. “However,
in an abundance of caution, IBP is
conducting this voluntary recall.”
Health departments in all 50
states have been alerted to watch for
cases of E. coli, as has the federal
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention. The Agriculture
Department has isolated the DNA of
the sample in question, which could
be used to determine if any illnesses
result from the recalled beef.
Symptoms of infection include
abdominal cramps, diarrhea and
fever. E. coli, a microbe that gets in
meat mainly through contaminated
manure, is particularly dangerous
for children, the elderly and people
with AIDS.
Cooking hamburger to an inter
nal temperature of 160 degrees
Fahrenheit will kill the pathogen.
Ground beef should never be eaten
rare.
The recall is the latest in a series
of cases involving E. coli and
ground beef, including the record
recall of 25 million pounds last sum
mer by Hudson Foods Co. People
were sickened in that case, and the
financial fallout resulted in
Hudson’s buyout by Arkansas rival
Tyson Foods Inc.
Despite its high profile, E. coli
contamination still is relatively rare:
The sample found by the
Agriculture Department was only
the 13th out of some 20,100 tests on
beef since 1994.
The IBP plant in Illinois is
among those that have implemented
a new government-mandated meat
inspection system intended to
reduce E. coli and salmonella conta
mination through controls at certain
spots along the production line.
There are 45 employees at the plant
dedicated to food safety.
The IBP statement said the com
pany is reviewing all of its proce
dures and is installing new technol
ogy in its plants, including steam
cabinets that prevent contamination
on beef carcasses.
“Our company and our industry
continue to aggressively research
ways to further enhance our food
safety efforts,” the company said.
The Department of Agriculture
later this year will announce rules
enabling meat processors to use
irradiation on ground beef, which
kills E. coli, salmonella and other
pathogens.
Stories of IRS misconduct mount
WASHINGTON (AP) - Stories
describing heavy-handed tactics by
criminal investigators for the Internal
Revenue Service dominated Senate
hearings Wednesday, with three busi
ness owners contending they were
targets of unjustified raids.
“My employees heard the agents
shout, ‘IRS* This business is under
criminal investigation! Remove your
hands from the keyboard and back
away from the computers. And
remember, we arewmedl’” said
W.A. Moncrief Jr.,.iiho described a
September 1994 raid on his Fort
Worth, Texas, oil company.
No criminal charges resulted
from the case, but Moncrief agreed
to pay an unspecified $23 million
settlement to the IRS.
The testimony came at a second
day of Senate Finance Committee
hearings on the IRS. Next week, the
Senate is scheduled to vote on a bill
to revamp the agency and boost tax
payers’ rights.
Richard Gardner, a tax preparer
in Tulsa, Okla., said his business was
raided in March 1995 by more than
20 IRS agents and U.S. marshals. He
was named in a 23-count federal
indictment that charged he assisted in
preparing false tax returns. The case
was dismissed in January.
Steve Lewis, U.S. attorney in
Tulsa, declined to discuss the case,
citing a pending motion in court;
Gardner wants the government to pay
his legal bills.
“It was the intent of the IRS to
break me emotionally and financial
ly” over a 33-month period, Gardner
said, “so that I would plead guilty to
at least one count each of bankruptcy
and tax fraud.”
“I think the Criminal
Investigative Division is out of con
trol,” said Sen. Don^fick^s, R
Okla., after hearing the testimony.
“The IRS is out of control.”
The IRS apparently will not
attempt to tell its side of the story in
these cases, citing taxpayer privacy
laws and pending litigation in at least
one of the matters.
IRS Commissioner Charles O.
Rossotti said that because the com
mittee would not identify witnesses
until they testified, the agency was
unable to seek witnesses’ permission
to waive their privacy rights and
allow the IRS to respond.
However, Rossotti said at a press
briefing, “Even if one of these allega
tions is true, that would be one too
many, and we won’t tolerate it.”
“The real objective here is to
make fundamental change at the
IRS,” he said.
Also testifying Wednesday was
Leroy Warren, chairman of the
NAACP criminal justice committee,
who charged the IRS management
refused to fairly address complaints
of racial discrimination involving
employees. Warren said allegations
of racial and sexual discrimination
are a “severe and increasing prob
lem.”
Rossotti has appointed former
CIA Director William Webster to
investigate the criminal division and
recommend changes, one of several
internal reviews of IRS operations
Rossotti has launched.
Sen. William V Roth, R-Del., the
Finance Committee chairman, said
Webster needs to see if IRS criminal
investigators trained to deal with vio
lent criminals should be placed under
another agency such as the FBI or the
Drug Enforcement Administration.
The committee’s senior Democrat,
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan of
New York, concurred.
Questions about the cases went
unanswered in the hearing, such as
details surrounding Moncrief’s $23
million settlement. He described the
payment as “an arbitrary amount that
they wanted” and added the settle
ment wasn’t for back taxes owed.
You’re closer to home
than you think.
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