SPORTS
Super Sandra
Sandra Noetzel shoulders the pressure as the No.
1 singles players of the Nebraska women’s tennis
team. PAGE 9
A & E
Art rock
American Indian Colleen Flores is determined to
carve a life out of solid rock ... by being a suc
cessful sculptor. PAGE 7
April 13, 1999
Am!
Mostly cloudy, high 70. Rain ]
: tonight, low 40.
Nature calls
Matt MiLLER/DN
MANDY GUERNSEY, a sophomore biochemistry major, takes a break on the greenspace south of Andrews Hail on
Monday afternoon. Guernsey was taking a break from teaching in the chemistry resource room.
Legislature
Tax credit
could benefit
new farmers
By Jessica Fargen
Senior staff writer
Legislators are calling it the
“Young Farmer Bill.”
Senators hope LB630, which
advanced 29-1 from the first round
of debate Monday, will revitalize
small farms by making it easier for
beginning farmers to get their
hands on a large family-owned
farm without having to shell out
loads of cash.
LB630 would give refirfng
farmers a 5 percent income tax
credit if they leased their land to a
beginning farmer for three years.
The bill would exclude farmers
who lease their land to relatives
from being eligible for the credit.
The resulting tax credit from
the three-year lease could cost the
state an estimated $2 million to $3
million in lost revenue.
“Family agriculture has been
the backbone of the country for 200
years,” Plattsmouth Sen. Roger
Wehrbein said. “I’d like to see that
ii
Family agriculture
has been the
backbone of the
country for 200
years.”
Roger Wehrbein
,Plattsmouth senator
continue.”
But a lot stands in the way of
the family-farm tradition, said
Wehrbein, the bill’s sponsor. The
cost of purchasing land, buying
equipment and staying afloat in the
competitive market is tough for
beginning farmers.
That is compounded by compe
tition from large corporate farms
and the unpredictability of the first
Please see TAX on 2
Seat belt bill
held until 2000
■ A proposal that would
legalize seat-belt-only
traffic stops is delayed
amid heavy debate.
The bill would have made failure
to wear a seat belt a primary offense
accompanied by a $25 fine and loss of
a point on a drivers license.
Chambers objected to the bill, as
he did during February’s debate,
because of the potential for racial dis
crimination.
Union computer Lab officially opens
By Tasha E. Kelter
Senior editor
Monday in the Nebraska Union
Unions Director Daryl Swanson cut the
ribbon that made official die opening ol
the 24-hour computer lab.
Although the lab will still follow the
union’s building hours for now, Swansor
said he guaranteed students that by fall
1999, the lab would be open 24 hours.
The computer lab currently is oper
from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through
Friday, Saturday from 9 a.m. to 11 p.m
and Sunday from noon to 11 p.m
Students will be able to gain access to the
lab after building hours by swiping their
IDs through a scanner, but the technolo
gy will not be installed until fall.
But Swanson said, an arrangement
may be made with UNL Police to have a
security guard stationed after hours to
check IDs as early as dead week. The
plans, however, are not definite.
At the ribbon-cutting ceremony,
Swanson welcomed UNL students back
to the computer lab. He thanked
Information Services for the work its
staff members had done in partnership
with the Nebraska Union in getting the
lab up and running.
Kent Hendrickson, associate vice
chancellor for information services, said
the lab and its new technology were an
integral part of students’ education going
into the next century.
“It’s unfortunate in a way that we
have to ask students for a technology fee,
but if students are going to be prepared
for the job field, we must upgrade our
services,” he said
Hendrickson thanked the students he
had worked with who had supported the
idea of the fee-sponsored lab.
“It was students we talked to in focus
Please see LAB on 2
By Jessica t argen
Senior staff writer
Seat belts, round two.
Four hours of debate two months
ago and about three more hours
Monday ended in the knockout of a
bill that would have allowed motorists
to be pulled over solely for not wear
ing their seat belts.
Senators voted unanimously to
take LB356 off the agenda until
January 2000. The bill was originally
debated in February, but further
debate was delayed until Monday.
Roadblocks such as Omaha Sen.
Ernie Chambers’ threats to stretch out
debate and clog up the remaining
Legislative session led to the bill’s
temporary demise.
He pointed to statistics from
Maryland, where black people make
up 14 percent of the population but 73
percent of the people pulled over by
police officers.Chambers elongated
debate by introducing an amendment
that would have eliminated the one
point license loss.
The bill’s sponsor, Beatrice Sen.
Dennis Byars, said he took the 27-3
vote on Chambers amendment as a
sign that senators were ready to dis
mantle his bill, rather than pass it
Byars said he planned to intro
duce an amendment that would bar
searches and seizures based solely on
a violation of the proposed law, but he
Please see BELT on 2
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