McCook prison construction delayed
By Jessica Fargen
Senior staff writer
During the first day of budget debate Tuesday,
lawmakers voted to delay construction on a
McCook prison work camp.
A study will be done during the delay to deter
mine the best place for the prison camp.
The scales tipped against the small southwest
ern town’s favor despite concerns that the state
would be further alienating western Nebraska.
Before the first-round vote of 29-5 to delay
construction on the work camp, lawmakers debat
ed the possibility of using the work camp funds to
improve dilapidated youth detention centers in
Kearney and Geneva.
McCook was in contention for a $74 million
prison last year. The prison was awarded to the
eastern city ofTecumseh, resulting in East vs. West
tension within the state. McCook later received a
prison work camp.
Trenton Sen. Tom Baker, who represents
McCook, said the state should not back out on its
promise to build the prison.
“I don’t know what our credibility is going to
be,” Baker said. “I can imagine the turmoil that’s
going on out there as we discuss this.”
Plattsmouth Sen. Roger Wehrbein, who heads
the Appropriations Committee, agreed.
“I do think it’s a terrible mistake to break faith
with the word that we have started progress at
McCook,” Wehrbein said. “I think it’s atrocious the
way we are dealing with this community.”
McCook prison supporters wanted the camp
because of the jobs and economic development
that come with die work camp. Under state law, the
work camp is to be completed by 2005.
Omaha Sen. Ernie Chambers claimed the
move to give the work camp to McCook was a case
of political maneuvering on the part of former Gov.
Ben Nelson, a McCook native. He said the
Legislature is not bound to a governor’s decision.
Senators debate public school testing
By Shane Anthony
Staff writer
State senators sought an answer Tuesday to a
multiple-choice question about testing public
school students in the name of accountability.
After 2'A hours of debate, they still did not
have the answer. The major ideas were split
between multiple tests with no district-to-dis
trict comparison and one test for the whole state.
Sen. Ardyce Bohlke of Hastings introduced
an amendment that became LB 144. The amend
ment, advanced unanimously by the Education
Committee, would require any school that was
selected to participate in the National
Assessment of Education Progress test. That
test, she said, would cover 48 percent of acade
mic standards approved by the state Board of
Education. School districts would develop their
own tests to cover the other 52 percent.
“We will be leading the country,” she said.
“We will be the only state going in this direc
tion,” Bohlke said.
Current law requires a single test be devel
oped by 2000.
The Department of Education and the
Education Committee oppose one statewide test
that would allow comparisons among school
districts.
But Lincoln Sen. Chris Beutler said the
competition could be healthy. The public wants
to know how schools are doing, he said.
“They want assessment,” he said. “You can’t
make things better unless you know how to
compare,” he said.
Norfolk Sen. Gene Tyson agreed. Students
need to know the benefits of competition, he
said.
“It is important that they be able to compete
with people,” he said. “If they can’t compete,
they can’t do business. They can’t survive.”
Beutler tried through two different amend
ments to call for one test based on state stan
dards to be in place by the 2007-2008 school
year. The first amendment he offered failed. The
Legislature recessed before senators could vote
on the second.
Another provision of the pending amend
ment would remove the NAEP test requirement
- an idea first pitched by Sen. Jim Jones of
Eddyville.
“This is a mandate, and I’d like to see that
taken out of it,” Jones said.
He and other senators questioned using the
NAEP test. They said the test has been used to
teach values to children. Sen. Pam Redfield
gave an example of a story she said could give
kids the impression the American way was
wrong.
Bohlke said the NAEP tests are given every
two years and cover two subjects each time.
Nebraska schools have participated through the
1990s, except 1998. Costs became a sticking
point then, she said. But LB 144, as amended,
would make the state pay for the tests instead of
local districts.
Bohlke said the tests have changed and no
longer cover morals.
“None of this tests values,” she said. “This
bill has enough problems without talking about
testing any values.”
“It was one of those hair-brained political
moves by a governor leaving office,” Chambers
said.
Omaha Sen. Pam Brown proposed an amend
ment, which she later withdrew, that would have
halted construction on the camp. She withdrew her
amendment after Wehrbein said he would add
$4.7 million to the capital construction budget to
renovate the Geneva center.
Brown said the state’s need for a work camp
has dwindled with the construction of the state
prison. She also said the work camp would not be
as cost-effective as anticipated
The money would better be used to improve
the overcrowded, outdated youth detention centers
in Kearney and Geneva, Brown said.
Papillion Sen. Nancy Thompson, who is spon
soring juvenile justice reform measures this ses
sion, said the youth detention facilities in Kearney
and Geneva were deplorable and overcrowded.
The center in Geneva is designed to hold 83
juveniles, but averages about 100 a day. Kearney
has room for 147, but averages about 320.
Lincoln Sen. LaVonn Crosby said she can
attest to the desperate situation of the Kearney
youth detention center dormitories.
“That’s no dorm,” she said. “I’m not sure what
it is, it’s not even a Boy Scout camp. It looked like
that orphanage scene out of (the movie) ‘Annie.’”
Discussion over the work camp came about as
the Legislature opened up debate on the
Appropriations Committee’s proposed budget,
which was released last week.
The Associated Press contributed to this
report.
^ •• .
Red Cross team allowed to visit American soldiers
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) - A
Red Cross team, including a doctor,
was allowed to visit three captive
American soldiers Tuesday, leaving
with letters for their families. NATO
jets pounded Serb forces in round-the
clock attacks, and one struck a civilian
community in southern Serbia.
Local authorities in Surdulica, 200
miles south of Belgrade, said at least 17
people were killed and 11 wounded
when NATO missiles struck the agri
cultural community Tuesday after
noon. The dead and injured included
women and children. Officials said
about 50 houses were destroyed and
600 others were damaged.
An Associated Press reporter, taken
to the scene by Serb police, saw dazed
rescuers trying to retrieve body parts
from the wreckage as bulldozers
cleared huge mounds of concrete rub
ble searching for more victims.
“I did not hear approaching
planes,” said Andrija Cvetanovic, 42.
“Only an explosion. Splinters were fly
ing all over the place. The sky was com
pletely dark.”
Most of the dead had been blown
apart, and rescuers were trying to
assemble body parts for identification.
At one shattered house, police said
they believed up to 11 people, includ
ing five children, had been in the base
ment during the attack. So little
remained of the bodies, however, that
police were unsure of the number of
victims.
NATO issued a statement saying its
aircraft carried out a “successful attack
against an army barracks in Surdulica.”
U.S. Defense Department officials
could not be reached for comment, and
the NATO statement did not mention
casualties in Surdulica.
However, the statement did say,
“NATO does not target civilians, but
we cannot exclude harm to civilians or
civilian property during our air opera
tions over Yugoslavia.”
Residents said a military garrison
about 500 yards away has been aban
doned since a NATO attack early this
month.
Serbian state television, itself the
target of an attack last week that killed
at least nine station employees, accused
NATO of a “barbaric and destructive
bombing” on the town of 15,000.
The private Beta news agency said
NATO jets attacked a military barracks
in Belgrade’s Topcider residential dis
trict, on the capital’s southern edge.
Residents of the nearby Dedinje dis
trict, where Yugoslav President
Slobodan Milosevic and other senior
officials live, said the explosions shat
tered windows in their homes.
Chernomyrdin said Belgrade
would accept an “international pres
ence” in Kosovo with Russia’s partici
pation, but acknowledged that such a
group, which would be unarmed or
only lightly armed, fell far short of what
NATO is demanding.
Allied terms include the key
demand of international peacekeeping
troops in Kosovo, an end to atrocities
against ethnic Albanian civilians,
autonomy for the majority Albanian
province and the return of all refugees.
The American soldiers, when seen
on Serbian television after their March
31 capture in Macedonia’s border area,
had cuts and bruises on their faces.
After Tuesday’s private meeting in
Belgrade, officials of the International
Committee of the Red Cross refused to
discuss their conditions.
ICRC chief Comelio Sommaruga
said only that the men were examined
by a physician and allowed to hand over
letters to their families.
Sommaruga also saw the three
briefly on Monday. The visit Tuesday
was the first “official” contact as pro
vided for under the Geneva
Conventions for prisoners of war.
The ICRC also conducted a second
visit with a Yugoslav officer captured
by Kosovo Albanian rebels and held at
a U.S. military base in Mannheim,
Germany.
The Americans - Christopher J.
Stone, 25, of Smiths Creek, Mich.;
Andrew A. Ramirez, 24, of Los
Angeles; and Steven M. Gonzales, 21,
of Huntsville, Texas - were seized in
disputed circumstances along the
Yugoslav-Macedonian border on
March 31, seven days after NATO
launched its bombing campaign.
Chris Bowers of the ICRC said the
Red Cross was promised regular access
to the prisoners.
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THE DAILY NEBRASKAN
Reinhard files claim against COJMC
By Lindsay Young
Senior editor
An associate anthropology pro
fessor has filed a claim with the State
Claims Board, stating the UNL
College of Journalism and Mass
Communications laboratory newspa
per, The Journalist, defamed him.
If the board denies Karl
Reinhard’s claim for $200,000 in
general damages, his lawyer, Thom
Cope, said he would file a suit in dis
trict court against the university.
Cope said he doubted the univer
sity would agree to the claim, and so a
suit is possible.
According to the claim, a story
published April 21, 1998, in the
Journalist, about the university’s han
dling of American Indian remains,
destroyed Reinhard’s reputation as a
forensic scientist and “distorted his
work” in repatriating remains.
The claim was filed April 21,
exactly a year after the story was pub
lished.
Reinhard did not ask the college
to print a retraction or correction for
the story, Cope said. He said that if
the college did print a retraction or
correction, and apologize, it would
help to rectify the situation.
Linda Shipley, associate dean of
the college, said the college had been
working with NU attorney John
Wiltse to gather information related
to the claim.
Shipley said she had not seen a
copy of the claim.
The story appeared in the print
and Internet versions of the paper.
According to the claim, the story
stated Reinhard committed criminal
acts, and the paper used his picture
without his knowledge or permission.
The claim also said the story
unfairly stated Reinhard retained
Omaha skeletal remains after repatri
ation, stored trash with American
Indian bones and threatened the life
of an unspecified staff member.
A report released last week as the
result of an independent investigation
exonerated Reinhard from many of
these allegations, but did state that
Reinhard may have done illegal or
unauthorized testing on remains
before 1993.
Some American Indian activists
have said they don’t trust that report,
which was done by a university-hired
attorney.
Reinhard also filed a suit against
a research assistant in the anthropolo
gy department last semester, claim
ing he made defamatory statements
to the media.