Lewinsky questioned under oath
Senators have option to summon former intern for live questioning
■Yugoslavia
Kosovo rebels, Serbs
may not attend peace talks
PRISTINA (AP) - U.S. and
European envoys failed Monday to
persuade Kosovo’s rebels to attend
peace talks described as the last
chance for the combatants to
resolve their differences.
In another sign that the talks are
far from a done deal, the govern
ment in Belgrade announced that,
the Serbian parliament - dominat
ed by hard-liners and ultranational
ists - will decide Thursday whether
the Serbs will show up for
Saturday’s conference in Ram
bouillet, France.
■ If Lewinsky is not
called to the floor to testify,
the trial is expected to end
by the Feb. 12 deadline.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A House
prosecutor questioned Monica
Lewinsky under oath Monday in her
first sworn statements since the
impeachment trial began. Presidential
lawyers passed on the opportunity to
pose their own questions.
The deposition of the former
intern took place in private, in the
Mayflower Hotel’s presidential suite,
but was videotaped for senators
weighing the impeachment charges.
Senators can view the tape as
early as today, and excerpts could end
up being shown as part of the trial,
which will resume Thursday. Or sena
tors could vote to bring Lewinsky to
the floor for live testimony about her
relationship with Clinton and
attempts to conceal it, a less likely
development.
Rep. Ed Bryant, R-Tenn., asked
Lewinsky a number of questions on
behalf of the prosecution team during
the deposition session, which took
about six hours including lunch and
other breaks. But the three presiden
tial lawyers who were there asked her
no questions, said two sources famil
iar with the session. The sources
spoke only on condition of anonymi
ty
The proceeding took considerably
less than the eight hours allotted for
questioning. Participants, under strict
secrecy orders from the Senate,
declined to describe the session as
they left.
Lewinsky’s recollection of
Clinton’s actions and words are cru
cial to the Senate’s consideration of
several matters: her affidavit in the
Paula Jones civil lawsuit falsely deny
ing a sexual affair with Clinton, the
job search after she appeared on the
Jones witness list and the retrieval of
presidential gifts by Clinton’s secre
tary.
The House team promised in
advance to shun intimate questions
about the sexual affair.
Clinton’s friend Vernon Jordan
will be questioned today, and White
House aide Sidney Blumenthal on
Wednesday - in depositions in a pri
vate room at the Capitol - before the
trial resumes Thursday. The chances
were slim for any bombshells,
because Lewinsky would risk her
immunity deal with Independent
Counsel Kenneth Starr by saying any
thing that was inconsistent with her
prior testimony.
If senators decide that viewing the
videotapes provides all the informa
tion they need, they can proceed to
closing arguments in the peijury and
obstruction case and meet the goal of
ending the trial by Feb. 12 or soon
er.Meanwhile, some GOP senators
also reacted negatively to a New York
Times story that said Starr had con
cluded a grand jury could indict a sit
ting president.
David Kendall, a private lawyer
representing Clinton, said Monday he
was asking a federal court to require
Starr to show why he and his staff
“should not be held in contempt for
improper violations of grand jury
secrecy” in connection with such
speculation of a possible indictment.
Starr said in a statement that he
was deeply troubled by the news
story, and announced he was launch
ing an internal investigation to deter
mine whether anyone in this office
improperly disclosed the information
to the Times. Republican Sen. Mike
DeWine of Ohio said the speculation
was “unfortunate because it gets in
the way of our focus on what our con
stitutional obligation is.”
Clinton puts forth
budget for 2000
WASHINGTON (AP) -
Ushering in the new millennium
with the promise of huge federal sur
pluses, President Clinton proposed
on Monday a $1.77 trillion budget
for the year 2000 that would buttress
Social Security and bestow billions
on everything from troops to teach
ers.
Republicans who control
Congress immediately vowed to
rework much of it. Staking out this
year’s political battlefield, they
insisted that hundreds of billions of
the $2.41 trillion in surpluses
Clinton envisions over the next
decade should be returned to
Americans in tax-rate cuts, not used
for new spending.
“Basic fairness dictates that
some of this overpayment should go
back to the taxpayers,” said House
Speaker Dennis Hastert of Illinois.
“We don’t want to invent pro
grams to spend the surplus on,” said
Senate Budget Committee
Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M.
Economists caution that a deep,
protracted recession could erase the
projected black ink, which began
abruptly last year with a surplus of
$69 billion.
But Clinton exulted that after
three decades of unremitting
deficits, Washington had a “a special
obligation” to address problems
gnawing at the country. He would
not only brace the government for
the looming retirement of 76 million
baby boomers, but reduce the $5.6
trillion national debt built over
u-—
We don’t
want to invent
programs to spend
the surplus on.”
Pete Domenici
Senate budget committee
chairman
decades of federal borrowing.
“We have a rare opportunity that
comes along once in a blue moon to
any group of Americans,” Clinton
said as he outlined his plan at the
White House.
The partisan positioning under
lined how even in a time of budget
plenty, the two parties are largely
continuing familiar appeals to their
political bases. Democrats are rally
ing behind Social Security and
expanded domestic spending, while
Republicans are raising their twin
banners of tax cuts and smaller gov
ernment
Clinton would spend $39 billion
more, or 2 percent more, than is
planned for fiscal year 1999, which
runs through Sept 30. But thanks to
the humming economy, he antici
pates $77 billion more in federal rev
enue, allowing this year’s* expected
$79 billion surplus to swell to $117
billion in 2000.
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ALL MATERIAL COPYRWHT1999
THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Photographer does his part
to save endangered species
PHOTO from page 1
ing at it,” Sartore said of his goals in
life.
Sartore said he became interested
in endangered species after National
Geographic assigned him to photo
graph stories on federal land use
issues.
The stories dealt with logging,
mining, grazing and other uses of
federal parks and forests that are
encroaching on the habitats of endan
gered species.
Last year Sartore created a Web
site, http://www. endan
gered america.com,
where his pictures of
endangered species can
be viewed and purchased.
UNL Photojourn
alism Professor George
Tuck said that many of
his students have wanted
to work for National
Geographic, but Sartore
is the only one who has
done it.
“You hope you have
students like Joel around
often, but you know it is
only once in a lifetime,”
luck said. •
Being published in
National Geographic is the culmina
tion of a lifelong goal, Sartore said,
and nothing else in photography can
match that.
Sartore said that after taking
Tuck’s beginning photojournalism
class he knew that was what he want
ed to do.
“Nothing else mattered,” Sartore
said. “I’d do photography whether I
got paid or starved.”
For Sartore, the worst part about
his job with National Geographic is
that it often takes him away from his
family in Lincoln for long periods of
time.
“I came home late one night and
the dog pinned me to the door,”
Sartore said. “The kids don’t even
know me and won’t let me hold them
when I get back.”
Sartore’s wife, Kathy, had to fax
him a map of how to get to the house
she bought while he was on assign
ment.
But when asked what he is most
proud of Sartore immediately points
to his 5-year-old son, Cole, and
almost 2-year-old daughter, Kathy.
“My family makes everything
else take a back seat,” Sartore said.
Last fall, Sartore contracted a
chronic disease from an insect bite in
the jungles of Bolivia.
Sartore did not know he had been
infected until the insect bite grew to a
silver-dollar sized sore on his calf
that would not heal.
He underwent several months of
treatment in Lincoln for the disease,
which could have claimed his life.
And in the past, Sartore has had
close calls with wildlife including
being surrounded by a pack of hun
gry wolves in Yellowstone National
Park.
But good pictures keep Sartore
going, he said.
“Right now I think (the Bolivian
trip) was worth it because I got some
great macaw pictures out of it,”
Sartore said, “and because I beat the
illness.
“But no picture is worth dying
u
You hope you
have students like
Joel around often,
but you know it is
only once in a
lifetime”
George Tuck
NU photojournalism professor
for.”
As a fresh
man at the
University of
Nebraska
Line o 1 n ,
Sartore lived in
Abel Hall,
where he used
to take pictures
of beer bottles
he piled on top
of his room
mates when
they were hung
over.
While at
- UNL from
1981 to 1985,
Sartore also studied with social docu
mentary photographer Julia Dean,
who was a graduate assistant at the
time.
“Joel was a dream student,” Dean
said. “His sense of humor and
tremendous eye for light and compo
sition make him special.”
„ After graduation Sartore worked
at The Wichita Eagle in Wichita,
Kan., for five years before moving to
National Geographic in 1990.
Sartore jokes that he was hired in
Wichita because his boss needed
someone to go fishing with.
But even with his accomplish
ments, Sartore remains modest and
willing to help others.
“Joel is still down-to-earth and
goofy as heck,” Tuck said.
Sartore never turns down photog
raphers who ask him to review their
work, and he always speaks to Tuck’s
photojournalism classes.
“I always try to improve because I
don’t think I know much,” Sartore
said.
Dean said Sartore makes things
happen with his hard work, dedica
tion and belief that he can do it
But Sartore said he just tries to
put himself in a position where the
pictures come easy.
“I’m not any better at this stuff -1
am just obsessive-compulsive,” he
said.
“I try to be in a situation where
my mother could take a good pic
ture.”
; • .
■ Gaza Strip
Security agent killed
in shootout against Hamas
RAFAH (AP) - A Palestinian
security agent died Monday in a
shootout with three fugitives from
the Islamic militant group Hamas.
The fugitives, who had been
under police surveillance, then
sped away in a car and ran over an
8-year-old girl who died of her
injuries, a Palestinian security offi
cial said.
The three were arrested several
hours later in the Shati refugee
camp in the northern Gaza Strip
after another gun battle with securi
ty forces.
■ Somalia
Famine victims attacked
by lions in refugee camp
MOGADISHU (AP) - Lions
attacked a refugee camp for famine
victims in western Somalia, killing
at least four people and wounding
several others, an elder said
Monday.
The attack occurred Sunday in
the village of El-Bardeh near the
border with Ethiopia, Ugas Abdi
Ugas Hussein Ugas Khalif said by
radio from the village.
He identified the victims as a
woman, her daughter and two
elderly men. He did not know
exactly how many people were
wounded.
■ Colombia
Prisoners’-rights advocates
slain on way to meeting
BOGOTA (AP) - Gunmen
forced two prisoners’-rights advo
cates from a bus and shot and killed
them, the rights group reported.
The men were headed from
Medellin to a human rights meet
ing in Bogota on Sunday when their
bus was stopped by two men and a
woman in the town of San Luis, the
Committee for Solidarity with
Political Prisoners said.
Everardo de Jesus and Julio
Ernesto Gonzalez were shot to
death immediately after being
taken from the bus, the group said
in a statement.
■ Russia
Boris Yeltsin turns 68
in quiet celebration
MOSCOW (AP) - Boris Yeltsin
celebrated his 68th birthday at a
secluded government sanitarium
Monday, visited by just a few digni
taries and largely ignored by the
opposition, ordinary Russians and
the press.
The ailing president’s wife,
Naina, said she was planning to
cook Yeltsin’s favorite treats - cab
bage pie and walnut cakes - for his
birthday.
Yeltsin has been abandoned by
many of his former allies, who have
recently started calling for his res
ignation, saying that his frequent
illnesses have eroded his ability to
govern.
