The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current, December 11, 1998, Page 2, Image 2

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    Friday, December 11,1998 Page 2
House hears final arguments
WASHINGTON (AP) - In sorrtber
silence, the House Judiciary Committee
weighed final arguments Thursday over
alleged “high crimes and misde
meanors” by President Clinton.
Speaker Newt Gingrich notified the
full House to prepare for a historic
impeachment vote next week.
Republican counsel David
Schippers said Clinton’s perjury,
obstruction of justice and abuse of
power left lawmakers with die “sorrow
ful duty” of seeking his removal from
offiee.
Democratic lawyer Abbe Lowell
countered: “Listen to the American peo
ple, who are asking you to find a truly
bipartisan way to avoid the course you
are about to undertake.”
But by all accounts, Republicans
were ready to approve at least one article
of impeachment
At the White House, spokesman Joe
Lockhart insisted the GOP charges “fall
well short of impeachment” but the
president’s Democratic defenders
expressed increasing concern about die
vofeonfogHouse floor next week.
on condition of anonymity, said
Democrats laboring to gain support for
censure from pivotal GOP moderate
lawmakers were ready to demand a
financial payment from Clinton as well
as his signature on a written condemna
tion of his conduct.
Each lawyer relied on late 20th cen
tury technology to aigue a case that aris
es from the 18th century constitutional
remedy of impeachment
Lowell made liberal use of snippets
of videotape, and audio tape to bring
Clinton, Monica Lewinsky,
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr ami
other major figures in the drama into the
committee room.
A few hours later, Schippers did
likewise. At one point, he queued up a
videotaped segment that showed
Clinton saying, “I don’t recall” whether
he and Lewinsky were ever alone
together in the White House.
In fact, die two had multiple sexual
encounters in the area around the Oval
Office over a period of several months.
The 37 members of the Judiciary
Committee, 21 Republicans and 16
Democrats listened intently to the two
legal presentations. -
Committee votes are set for Friday,
( possibly spilling over until Saturday.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman
Henry Hyde has pledged to give
Democrats a vote on censure at die end
of the proceedings, but in the commit
tee, at least, that proposal is doomed to
failure.
Gingrich’s “Dear Colleague” letter
to fellow lawmakers did not use the
word “impeachment.” Instead, it noted
that the Judiciary Committee was on the
verge of wrapping up work on “this
matter,” and lawmakers should prepare
for a debate on the House floor begin
ning next Thursday.
I ;-!
It will mark the first time since 1868
that the House has ruled on a presiden
tial impeachment. President Andrew
Johnson was impeached, then survived
a Senate trial by a one-vote margin.
Latest video release
shows Clinton Ivins?
WASHINGTON (AP) -
President Clinton, his dark suit a
blot against the bare white wall,
avoids looking his lawyers in the
eye. The judge offers him a second
look at the tricky definition. He
declines.
“I have never had, um, sexual
relations with Monica Lewinsky.
I’ve never had an affair with her,”
he swears, looking down at the
polished stone conference table.
Perhaps the last secret of the
-Lewinsky affair-the videotape of
Clinton’s deposition in the Paula
Jones lawsuit - was televised for
the first time Thursday for the
House Judiciary Committee and
the nation to judge.
“I’d like you to listen to the
president’s deceptions for your
self,” Republican investigator
David Schippers said as he cued
an aide at the VCR. More than a
dozen snippets showed Clinton
hedging, stammering and scratch
ing his head.
He stared straight down, nod
ding again and again as his lawyer,
Robert Bennett, read Lewinsky’s
denials of a sexual affair. Asked to
vouch for her affidavit, the presi
dent leaned forward for emphasis:
“That is absolutely true.”
He blinked rapidly, his lips
tight in silence, as Bennett inter
preted the affidavit to mean “there
is absolutely no sex of any kind, in
any manner, shape or form.”
Off-screen, Schippers con
cluded for the panel: “He’s lying.”
White House spokesman Joe
Lockhart decried the showing of
Clinton’s deposition, which had
been kept under wraps by a judge’s
order, as partisan “theatrics.”
Judge charges Pinochet
with genocide, torture
MADRID, Spain (AP) - The
judge driving efforts to extradite
Augusto Pinochet to stand trial in
Spain for crimes committed during
his 17-year rule Thursday issued
his indictment of the former
Chilean dictator.
In the 300-page document,
Judge Baltasar Garzon charged
Pinochet with genocide and torture
in the deaths and disappearances of
more than 3,000 people during his
virulently anti-Communist regime.
Garzon also requested a freeze
of the former dictator’s world
assets and asked that he remain
under police guard in Britain to
prevent any attempt to flee.
The indictment came the day
after British Home Secretary Jack
Straw ruled that Spain could begin
extradition proceedings against
Pinochet, who was arrested Oct. 16
in a London clinic, where he was
recuperating from back surgery.
Legal experts expect it will be
months or even years before it is
finally decided whether Pinochet
will actually be extradited.
BUILDING from page 1
Kappa Epsilon Fraternity house on
University Terrace, McDermont said.
In the core of campus, the
Kauffman Center, an honors residence
for computer science and business
majors, will be built in the existing
packing lot north of the Nebraska
Union, said Margaret Miller, -facilities
planning manager. * ; . Huy*-...
Across the street, Lyman Hall and
Bancroft Hall will be razed, and one
large building built in their place,
which will house Teachers College
classrooms, Miller said.
The College of Journalism and
Mass Communications will move into
the Security Mutual Life Insurance
Co. building on Centennial Mall with
in the next couple years. Avery Hall
will receive nearly $ 11 million in reno
vations before the math and computer
science departments move in.
A new chemical engineering
building, paid for by the $125 million
I-—
lopp (Jthmer endowment, will be built
in the parking lot south of the Walter
Scott building, at 17th and Vine streets.
Richards Hall will be completely
gutted and restored by next summer at
a cost of about $8 million, McDermont
said.
“Richards Hall is the kind of build
ing when you walked into there, it was
r opacating at less than its lull capabili
ty,” McDermonHaid. £
The temperature-and ventilation
system in Hamilton Sail wifi be
repaired, with a cost of about $12 mil
lion, McDermont said. Those types of
systems need to be repaired every 25
years or so, he said.
The unfinished skyboxes in
Memorial Stadium, which now serve
as cheap seats for construction workers
during NU football games, will soon
be completed, McDermont said.
Most of these projects fit into the
goals of the campus Master Plan,
which will be presented to the NU
Board of Regents on Saturday.
I
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRIGHT 1996
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
John Benson, director of
Institutional Research and Planning,
said most construction will occur from
1999-2005. The other phases are 2006
2011 and then 2011 and beyond.
During the first phase, the grassy
mall extending from Memorial
Stadium to the Beadle Center will be
constructed as far east as 15th Street.
The mall will be built after the Alpha
Ghi Omega Sorority house is demol
ished and fcjlocated?'..
Large parking garages on all four
corners of campus will replace lost
parking lots, with construction slated
to start soon on the structure at 14th
and Avery streets.
UNL will do everything it can to
coordinate projects so the entire cam
pus is not torn up at one time,
McDermont said.
“We will try to see that the univer
sity is disturbed as little as possible and
get information out to everyone,” he
said.
Downtown debris
If 1UAV UXV UU1TVUM»J XU XVXXVTUUXlg
and restructuring campus, Lincoln will
be working to revitalize the downtown
area.
Several major projects are already
in the works, and many more planned
to follow.
Lincoln’s Antelope Valley
Development plan will route traffic
around campus and alleviate die flood
plain between campus and the Malone
neighborhood.
“The Antelope Valley Plan will
give the university room for future
development without harming nearby
neighborhoods,” said Polly McMullen,
Downtown Lincoln Association presi
dent.
“It is important that the neighbor
hoods near us {downtown and the uni
versity) remain viable.”
Under the Antelope Valley plan,
16th and 17th streets will be routed
around campus along an expanded
Antelope Creek drainage creek in the
east.
On the north side of campus,
pedestrian and vehicle traffic will be
diverted over the Burlington Northern
railroad tracks, which currently block
traffic four hours a day.
The new traffic system will help
make City Campus a contained unit,
which the university is planning to take
advantage of with projects in its
Master Plan.
At the same time, downtown
Lincoln will undergo major changes
sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln
Association and the city to attract pri
vate investment, which will diversify
and strengthen downtown.
One of the most visible of these
ongoing projects is the $42 million
Embassy Suites Hotel at 12th and P
streets.
“Success breeds success,”
McMullen said. “The momentum is
growing downtown, and people want
to be where the action is.”
That momentum is built upon
other projects just completed, and
some to be finished in the next few
...
A 16-screen multiplex Douglas
Theatre Co. movie theater is also being
planned for an undetermined place
downtown.
Recently P Street has become the
center of the city’s plans to develop a
marketplace area similar to Omaha’s
Old Market
Though die city’s efforts to change
the direction of traffic on P Street to
two-way were vetoed by public outcry,
the city remains committed to the mar
ketplace concept
Dallas McGee, with the city’s
Urban Development Department said
die goal is to create a place with a vari
ety of different businesses where peo
ple will want to hang out.
The city has worked to improve the
streetscape along P Street with trees,
benches and new pavement.
Within the past year, the Star City
Dinner Theater and Arturo’s
Restaurants and Cantina opened in the
Haymarket.
All of these new business invest
ments are part of what the city wants to
attract to downtown.
McGee said the goal is to diversify
downtown with many different busi
nesses as well as more residential
housing.
In an investment plan for down
town done by Leland Consulting
Group, planners cite residential areas
as important to vibrant downtown
areas.
“We want to encourage a mixed
..use of downtown and develop the ser
vices of a neighborhood,” McGee said.
Another major project that will
change the look of the downtown area
is the Centennial Mall redesign.
The entire mall will be unearthed
and redesigned block-by-block over
seven years. Planners hope to start
construction within die next two years.
Tale of two plans
The million-dollar revitalization of
downtown and academia will involve a •
careful blending of time frames, goals
and coordinating construction to mini
m « frucfrotiAn o m An a /^Axi/nf Aiim
pedestrians and students.
"The city, the university and down
town have the strongest partnership
they’ve had in 25 years,” McMullen
said.
The huge pedestrian population on
campus as well as downtown may be
interacting more than they ever have in
the past, she said.
Many of the downtown develop
ments such as the marketplace are
geared toward attracting die campus
audience.
The two major forces in downtown
Lincoln are working toward the same
goal of fostering a pedestrian-friendly
atmosphere where students will enjoy
strolling downtown after class without
even realizing that they have left cam
pus, university and city planners said. .
“The campus plan sounds like a
great complement to the things we are
doing,” McMullen said. “Our fates are
very intertwined.”