MEMBER 17, 1998
Agreement bars man
from Internet for life
LAKE WORTH, Fla. (AP) -
The Federal Trade Commission
has reached a settlement that bars
a man for life from doing business
on the Internet because he
scammed 25 people in online
computer auctions.
Craig Lee Hare, also known
as Danny Hare, was accused by
the federal agency of selling new
and used computers through the
auctions, then pocketing the
money without shipping the
equipment.
He made $20,000 to $30,000
from people in the United States
and Canada, the FTC said. He was
charged with four counts of using
unfair or deceptive acts in mail or
telephone commerce.
“We hope this sends a message
that the Federal Trade
Commission and others are seri
ous about preventing fraud in
Internet commerce,” said Lisa
Hone, a staff attorney with the
FTC in Washington.
Hare was not required to pay a
fine or reimburse those he swin
dled because he has no money, the
FTC said. H^re, who represented
himself, did hot have a telephone
number listed• rh his riaine and
could not be reached.
It was not clear how the FTC
could enforce the lifetime ban. If
he’s found to violate the agree
ment, he could face penalties to
be determined by a federal
judge.
The two online auction houses
Hare used were not charged.
Virtual university
is virtually empty
SAtT LAlCE CITY (AP) -
just 10 students have enrolled in
the Western Governors University
since the Internet-based school'
spanning 17 states, including
Nebraska, opened its virtual doors
this month.
The school still is processing
75 applications. WGU spokesman
Jeff Xouris said enrollment has
been snarled by problems - com
puter problems.
Officials had set an enrollment
goal of 1,000 by the end of this
term.
“It would have been great to
have a massive enrollment when
we first (opened), but we’re
finding students want to know
more ... they want to find out
about the university, how it
works,” said Jeff Edwards,
WGU’s director of marketing.
“It’s a real new idea.”
The idea for a virtual universi
ty came out of a Western
Governors Association meeting
three years ago as a way of serving
sparsely populated areas at a low
cost.
Nelson: Grants will help
market state products
GRAND ISLAND (AP) -
Nebraska is being awarded
$108,000 in two federal grants
for marketing agricultural prod
ucts in an effort to help ease a
pending farm economy crisis,
Gov. Ben Nelson said
Wednesday.
On a visit to Husker Harvest
Days, Nelson said the money is
coming from the U.S. Department
of Agriculture’s Federal-State
Marketing Improvement Program.
“Given the economic chal
lenges or low commodity prices
and decreased exports facing
the ag industry, news of these
grants couldn’t have come at a
better time,” Nelson said. “We
are very excited about the
increased marketing potential
these grant projects can gener
ate for Nebraska ag producers
and agribusiness.”
The first of two grants will
provide $80,000 to the
University of Nebraska Food
Processing Center to use to help
small farmers and small to mid
sized food companies develop
new products and enter new
markets.
The second grant of $28,000
will assist the state Department
of Agriculture conduct on-site
research missions and trade
seminars for small commodity
merchandisers at selected bor
der crossing and ocean port
locations. That, the officials
said, should create better access
to export markets.
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GOP urges release of data
WASHINGTON (AP) - House
Republicans, planning to release a
videotape of President Clinton* grand
jury testimony, expressed support
Wednesday for making public much of
the sexually explicit material now in die
Judiciary Committee’s possession.
Republicans burst into applause
after Speaker Newt Gingrich told a
closed-door caucus that the House
would follow the intent of a resolution
approved last week, which directs that
most material be made public.
Clinton said Wednesday he would
leave that decision to the House because
“hat* not for me to decide.” The presi
dent said he thought at the time of his
testimony hat it would eventually be
made public.
“It* not so much a concern to me,”
he said at a news conference. “You
know that I acknowledged an improper
relationship and declined to discuss the
details, and that* what happened.”
According to House officials at the
caucus meeting, Gingrich was respond
ing to a suggestion from Rep. Nancy
Johnson, R-Conn., that enough sexually
explicit material already was made pub
lic in Independent Counsel Kenneth
Starr* original report The officials did
nrrf want tn tv* irWitrfuvt Viu mmv>
Gingrich responded to Johnson that
the information should be released
because Clinton is still insisting he did
not commit peijury when he denied a
sexual relationship with Monica
Lewinsky. Starr used the same rationale
for including graphic sexual descrip
tions in his report to the House last
week.
Asked Wednesday about lawmakers
who say Clinton should resign, Vice
President A1 Gore curtly told reporters,
“I disagree.”
The Judiciary Committee is wading
through several thousand additional
pages of information - much of it sexu
ally explicit - and attempting to
expunge material that could embarrass
innocent parties.
Committee Chairman Hairy Hyde,
R-DL, said the committee would meet in
private today to discuss exactly what
should be made public.
Republicans have made clear that
they’re ready to override Democratic
objections and bring Clinton’s video
taped testimony to television screens.
Democrats attacked the idea of
releasing the four-hour tape, but
Republicans on Tuesday said it was
important that Americans judge for
themselves whether, as Starr has assert
ed, Clinton lied before grand jurors.
But a CBS News poll released
Wednesday said that by a margin of
Clinton asks public
to put scandal aside
WASHINGTON (AP) -
President Clmton urged die public
and Congress Wednesday to avoid
getting “mired in all the details” of
his relationship with Monica
Lewinsky and to move beyond die
scandal jeopardizing his presidency.
Asked point-blank if he would
resign, the president gave no direct
answer but said Americans “want to
put it behind them and they want to
go on-and they want me to go on.”
Friends and aides have said he
won’t resign.
Nor would he respond to ques
tions about whether he committed
perjury or whether Lewinsky told
the truth when she described their
White House trysts. Democratic
leaders have warned Clinton to
drop legal “hairsplitting” in deny
ing sexual relations with the for
mer intern.
Asked whether he still had the
moral authorityto lead, the president
said firmly, “That is something you
have to demonstrate every day.”
A joint news conference at the
State Department with the president
of the Czech Republic, Vaclav
Havel, was dominated by questions
about the Lewinsky affair.
“I think that the right thing for
our country and the right thing for
all people concerned is not to get
mired in all the details here but for
me to focus on what I did, to
acknowledge it, to atone for it and
then to work on my family, where I
still have a lot of work to do - dif
ficult work - and to lead this coun
try,” he said.
He said his legal defenses
“should not obscure” the fact that he
is Sony for his acts.
The president remained calm
throughout the news conference
but seemed uncomfortable and a
bit impatient with reporters’ ques
tions.
Clinton was asked about House
Republican plans to release the
videotape of his Aug. 17 grand jury
testimony, a move White House
advisers fear will embarrass Clinton.
“I... knew the rules were against
it but I thought it would happen,”
Clinton said.
Alter Havel praised Clinton for
helping to “build a new Europe,” the
American president insisted the con
troversy has not hampered that his
ability to lead the country and the
world.
“I have never stopped leading
this country in foreign affairs in this
entire year, and I never will,” Clinton
said.
“The issues are too important
and drey affect the way Americans
live at home,” he said.
Ticking off his foreign policy
involvements, Clinton said he has
acted to crack down on terrorism,
cope with a world economic crisis
and handle foreign policy trouble
spots such as Northern Ireland the
Middle East
Havel would not speculate about
the impact of a Clinton resignation.
“I believe this is a matter for the
United States and the American peo
ple.” He called himself a friend of
Clinton.
more than 2-1, Americans surveyed
think it is unnecessary fen-the commit
tee to release Clinton’s videotaped testi
mony.
According to the poll of450 adults
taken Tuesday, 70 perrent said die tape
should not be released, compared to 28
percent who believed it should be made
public.
Lawyers familiar with Clinton’s tes
timony said the videotape shows the
president at times angry with sexually
graphic questioning by Starrfe aides-at
one time even accusing diem of crimi
nalizing his private life.
A few times, Clinton appears
caught off guard by a question and
struggles to answer it, die lawyers said.;
And many times when pressed to give
more details, Clinton keeps referring
back to die narrowly legalistic statement
his lawyers prepared to answer ques
tions about the sexual nature of his rela
tionship with Lewinsky.
White House officials worried that
the tape may undo the contrite image
Clinton carefully built over die past two
weeks with frequent public apologies.
And they also worried the public;
release of the video would begin
appearing in Republican political attack
ads and fund-raising appeals.
Anti-tobacco ad campaign pending
WASHINGTON (AP) - The
American Cancer Society announced a
$5 million television campaign
Wednesday “to expose the lies” of a
tobacco industry advertising aimed at
undermining anti-smoking bills in
Congress.
The attempt to turn the tables on
Joe Camel will employ images of
tobacco executives swearing to tell
the truth before a House committee
and a clip from a tobacco industry TV
commercial showing a Christmas tree
showering tax dollars oh the federal
government.
The first cancer society spots use
these words:
“Tobacco companies are on the air
with over $50 million in advertising.
The question is - can we believe a word
they are saying? Have they told the truth
about cancer? The truth about nicotine
being addictive? The truth about mar
keting to kids?
“The fact is, no matter how much
money they spend-a lie isjust that Tell
Big Tobacco that we don’t buy their lies
- or their ad campaigns.”
Efforts Wednesday seddng industry
reaction were not immediately success
ful.
The advertising campaign launched
by the tobacco companies last spring
was widely credited for thwarting major
anti-tobacco legislation. The ads sought
to picture the tobacco bills as merely a
new tax on “foe little guy.”
Cancer society executives said
they hope the ads will refocus the
public spotlight on protecting chil
dren from the addictive and often
cancer-causing properties of tobacco.;
“We believe that it is very important
that die American people not believe
this latest lie from the tobacco indus
try,” said John Seffrin, the cancer
society’s chief executive officer.
Seffrin said that die $5 million will
pay for six TV ads, two of which are
ready to air. They will appear in markets
across die country targeted by the tobac
co industry for its own $50 million cam
paign.
! The cancer society’s chief execu
tive called the tobacco industry
efforts a “bait and switch” deception
aimed at diverting attention from the
health hazards of tobacco by using
proposals to raise cigarette taxes as a
smoke screen.