VOL. 98 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 142
SP0BT8
Spelling relief
The Nebraska baseball team relies on a pitch-by
committee system that helped the team to a fast
start this season. PAGE 10
A & E
Collective groan
The newest Top 40 “alternative” act to entertain
Lincoln audiences, Collective Soul, comes to
Pershing Auditorium tonight. PAGE 13
TUESDAY
April 20, 1999
Warm am
Partly sunny, high 72. low 45.
WRIGHT TOSSES BACK one of his first shots. One of
Wright'S worst drinks was cognac, he said. “It tasted like
shit. That one took me four drinks to go down. All the rest
were one gulp. I only did a few shots after that because it
was so bad," Wright said.
TIME
Story by Sarah Baker ■ Photos by Matt Miller
ONE OF DAMIEN WRIGHT’S FRIENDS holds a bucket
and his head up. The only time Wright vomited was
in the car - but he doesn’t remember.
Bar owners, experts
attest to problem
of binge drinking
Editor s note: This is the fifth day of an eight-part
series on college students’ high-risk behaviors and
the movements to curb them.
The force that draws students to O
Street once the sun goes down is
a strong one.
It’s almost primitive.
The lure of a $2 draught, the sound of rock
’n’ roll blasting out of a jukebox, the dark,
smoke-filled air that holds the prospect of
meeting someone at the most unexpected
moment who seems perfect for at least those
few hours - it’s like nothing else.
Most University ofNebraska-Lincoln students don’t
associate their Thursday (or Friday, or Saturday) night
activities with the often misunderstood term of “binge
drinking.”
By definition, binge drinking is having four or more
drinks in a row for women and five or more drinks for
men.
A frequent binge drinker is qualified as someone
who consumes the required amount of drinks three or
more times in a span of two weeks, according to a study
at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
Many students often partake in this much drinking in
Please see BINGE on 7
Cigarette
tax debate
set for May
By Jessica Fargen
Senior staff writer
For the second time this year, debate on a bill that
would boost the cost of a pack of cigarettes to more than
$4 a pack was delayed.
Sen. David Landis, who sponsored LB505, said he
needed time to better assess the varying degrees of sup
i- port for the
bill. Debate on
the bill, which
would in
crease die cig
arette tax from
Senators
were split in
‘-;———777“ debate last
JonFsank/DN weekonhow
much the tax increase should be or whether education, not
taxation, is the answer to reducing the number of smokers.
An amendment that would increase the tax by 30
cents a pack fell one vote short of advancing last week
during debate.
Lobbying groups on both sides of the issue have been
spending a lot of time trying to sway senators’ votes.
“It’s probably one of die more heavily lobbied bills
this session,” said Rich Lombardi, a lobbyist for Citizens
for Healthy Nebraska, a coalition of health care profes
sionals. '
Please see SMOKES on 3
StarTran
fares well
regionally
By JoshKnaub
Staffwriter
StarTran officials are asking riders to grade the ser
vice this week using a report card-style survey.
But StarTran service, free to University of Nebraska
Lincoln students, is already ahead of the curve when com
pared with bus services offered to other Midwest univer
sity students, said StarTran administrative aide Debbie
Sovereign.
“We’ve rated very well in previous years,” Sovereign
said. “Riders mainly want more service routes and later
hours.”
StarTran operates 18 regular neighborhood bus
routes, six express morning and evening shuttle routes
and two downtown circular routes.
Please see BUS on 3
t
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