VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 129
SPOUTS
Fearsome foursome
The Nebraska women’s 4x400 relay team is among the best in the
nation, making the NCAA Indoor Championships, and it looks to
improve in the outdoor season. PAGE 7
A&E
Play acting
Four student playwrights premiere their original
plays this weekend at the Howell Theatre in this
year’s Masquers’ One Acts. PAGE 9
m» 11 tfiotv AV
1 uUKul/Al
April 1, 1999
-
I
Pleasantvule|
Partly sunny, high 75. CloycmilMUght, low 53.
New ASUN senate installed
u
Surprise me,
surprise the
university, and lets
surprise ourselves
with what we do.”
t
Rachelle Winkle
first vice president
i
By Kim Sweet
Staffwriter
The new 1999-2000 student sena
tors were handed their nameplates on
Wednesday night while the new execu
tive officers took the oath of office at
the ASUN inauguration Wednesday
night.
Along with executives and sena
tors, the UNL Student Court,
Committee for Fees Allocation and
ASUN Appointments Board took the
oath to serve the student body during
the next school year.
While welcoming in the new sen
ate, James Griesen, vice chancellor for
student affairs, took the opportunity to
make remarks to the old senate.
“I’m looking forward to working
with the new senate,” Griesen said, “I
hope we can have as productive year as
we did this year.”
Being the first to take the oath of
office, first vice president Rachelle
Winkle promised the senate and the
student body that she would stand up
for students and lead with integrity.
She challenged the senate to unite after
what was a potentially dividing student
election.
i^m
“Surprise me, surprise the univer
sity, and let’s surprise ourselves with
what we do,” Winkle said.
After administering the oath to sec
ond vice president Trisha Meuret, out
going second vice president Eddie
Brown talked about an experience he
and Meuret have in common - coming
into office without their running
mates.
Please see ASUN on 3
Me and my shadow
UNL SOPHOMORE FRANNY HIGH reads “Stone Butch Blues” while reclining on a retaining wall north of the Nebraska Union. High was reading the
book for her 20th Century Women Writers class.
Chambers attacks interstate bill
■ A bill that would increase interstate
speeding fines and impound drunken
divers’ vehicles meets opposition.
By Brian Carlson and Jessica Fargen
Senior staff writers
A bill that would secure Nebraska some $9.6 mil
lion in federal highway funds by enacting tougher
restrictions on drunken driving will have to overcome
intense scrutiny from Sen. Ernie Chambers.
The Omaha senator said Wednesday he objected
to several portions of LB585, a large and complex bill
containing provisions including tougher penalties for
drunken driving and increased fines for interstate
speeding.
Under recent federal legislation, the state would
lose federal highway funds if it did not enact a ban on
open alcohol containers in vehicles and allow the
impoundment of repeat drunken-driving offenders’
vehicles. LB585 seeks to meet these mandates.
LB585 sponsor Sen. Curt Bromm of Wahoo said
he sought to produce clean legislation that met the
federal mandates. The federal funds would be used
for highway construction and highway safety pro
grams.
“Virtually everyone stands to benefit from good
roads and safe transportation,” Bromm said.
But just two days after fighting a bill allowing
concealed-weapons permits to its apparent demise,
Chambers let his colleagues know he planned to use
some of the same delaying tactics to block LB585.
Chambers objected most strenuously to amend
ments that would increase fines for interstate speed
ing.
He said he would use all available debate time to
argue against objectionable components, forcing bill
supporters to gamer 33 votes to force a vote. In a sim
ilar situation Monday, supporters of LB476, the con
cealed-weapons bill, failed to force an end to debate,
damaging die bill’s prospects for passage.
As originally proposed, LB585 wquld have
allowed exemptions on the open container ban for
rented vehicles such as taxis, buses and limousines.
Chambers introduced an amendment removing
the exemptions. It passed.
“All I am asking is everybody in the vehicle is
treated the same way under the law;” he said.
Chambers and Bromm reached a compromise on
Please see BILL on 6
Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at dailyneb.com
Reeves’
attorney
files brief
■ The motion filed
to State Supreme Court
says that Reeves’ rights
were violated.
By Josh Funk
Senior staff writer
Randy Reeves should not die for
the 1980 murders of two women, his
attorney argued in a brief filed with
the State Supreme Court earlier this
week.
The state has until April 22 to
file its brief on the appeal that
prompted the Court to stay Reeves’
scheduled January execution.
Reeves’ attorney, Paula
Hutchinson, appealed in January
after die district court refused to hear
the motion for posf-coftviction
«. 'm ■■
relief.
In the motion, Hutchinson
argues that, among other things, exe
cuting Reeves would violate his
right to equal protection under the
law.
Assistant Attorney Ueneral Kirk
Brown, who is handling the state’s
case, said the district court had a
legitimate basis to deny the motion,
and he plans to argue to uphold that
ruling.
“There is nothing that would
have prevented many of these claims
from being raised earlier,” Brown
said.
If the claims could have been
raised earlier, by law, they would be
excluded from consideration now.
Hutchinson disagrees about the
validity of these claims.
“The events which give rise to
these claims did not even occur until
years after the defendant’s direct
appeal and the filing of his (first)
post-conviction motion,”
Hutchinson wrote.
Many of Reeves’ claims are
based on the State Supreme Court’s
resentencing done in Reeves’ 1984
appeal. y\
The Court found error in how
the trial court had weighed the
aggravating and mitigating factors
in the case.
Then, instead of sending the
case back to the trial court for resen
tencing as it had with all other capi
tal cases where similar error was
found, the Nebraska Supreme Court
resentenced Reeves itself.
In Nebraska, death sentences are
automatically reviewed by the State
Supreme Court, but because of how
Reeves was resentenced, his case
could not be reviewed under that
provision.
“There is no reason that
Randolph Reeves should be denied
Please see REEVES on 6