State-employed couples
reap insurance benefits
■ No premiums are paid
on health plans for some
state employees who are
married.
ByJoshKnaub
Staff writer
State employees married to other
state employees have been getting a
break on health insurance premiums
courtesy of Nebraska taxpayers and
against state law, state officials said.
Married couples who both work for
the state pay no health insurance premi
ums.
A state statute requires all employ
ees to contribute 21 percent of premi
ums to health insurance plans.
Lori McClurg, the director of the
state department of administrative ser
vices, said on Wednesday some couples
have not paid premiums for about 20
years.
She said her department was
researching how and why the practice
began but that she believed the practice
actually saved the state money.
“We have told our employees we
would look into this,” McClurg said.
“Right now we are on that course.”
Currently, McClurg said, the state
pays more in cases where both the hus
band and wife are employed by the state
than it would for two single employees.
In a conference call Wednesday,
Gov. Mike Johanns said he did not
understand where the practice had
come from.
“State employees shouldn’t have
substantially better (health insurance)
plans than private citizens can afford,”
Johanns said.
He said he may ask for an attorney
general’s opinion about the practice.
Greg Clayton, University of
Nebraska-Lincoln director of benefits
and risk management, said he did not
know if the university was covered by
the state statute.
He said university operations are
sometimes exempt from certain labor
policies.
Linda Leake, benefits coordinator,
said couples employed by UNL do pay
insurance premiums.
Leake said premiums for couples
were lower than for individual employ
ees but that the university’s contribution
per person was the same.
Chris Peterson, press secretary in
the governor’s office, said 699 couples,
or 1,398 state employees, are in a posi
tion to benefit from free premiums.
Of those, 80 couples include one
spouse working for a state department
and one working for the university.
Charlyne Berens, UNL assistant
journalism professor, and her husband,
Denny Berens, who works for health
and human services, said as far as she
knows, in the past they haven’t paid
premiums.
But Robert Sittig, a retired UNL
political science professor, and his
wife, Bonnie Sittig, a Nebraska legisla
tive aide, paid a portion of their premi
ums during the time both were
employed by the state.
“I’m perplexed,” he said. “This is
news to me.”
Political science Professor Jeff
Spinner-Halev said he and his wife,
Elyza Richmon Halev, a former health
department employee, also paid during
the time both were employed by the
state.
“We never looked at the option (of
free premiums),” Jeff Spinner-Halev
said. “I wasn’t even aware this existed.”
Post columnist
to speak at Joslyn
By Kimberly Sweet
Senior staff writer
Washington Post columnist and
author David Broder disseminates
his opinion weekly in local newspa
pers such as the Omaha World
Herald and the Lincoln Journal
Star.
But tonight, Nebraskans have
the opportunity to get Broder’s wis
dom firsthand instead of reading it
on the printed page.
Broder will give the 4th annual
Governor’s Lecture in the
Humanities tonight at the Joslyn Art
Museum Witherspoon auditorium
in Omaha.
The columnist, who has given
political commentary on the shows
“Meet the Press,” “Inside Politics”
and “Washington Week in Review,”
will give a speech titled “The Press,
Politics and Citizenship.”
Broder will be of interest to
Nebraskans because many are edu
cated on political issues, said John
Wunder, University of Nebraska
Lincoln history professor and mem
ber of the Nebraska Humanities
Council, which is co-sponsoring the
event.
Because Nebraska is neighbor
to Iowa, which has one of the first
presidential primaries, and
Nebraska has many high-profile
national leaders, Broder will
address many issues relevant to the
state, Wunder said.
The Governor’s lecture is co
sponsored by the Nebraska
Humanities Council and the John
C. Kenefick Endowed Chair in the
Humanities at Creighton
University.
The purpose of the lecture is to
bring in scholars and national
speakers who have a special knowl
edge of culture, history or the polit
ical climate, said Tom Inek, public
relations assistant to the council.
The mission of the lecture coin
cides with the mission of the
humanities council, which is to pro
mote a better understanding in
humanities-based disciplines.
Past speakers include Ted
Sorenson, former special counsel to
John F. Kennedy and NU alumnus,
and Stephen Ambrose, historian and
author.
Tickets are still available for the
lecture, which begins at 8 p.m. The
cost is $ 10 for adults and is free for
students with a student ID.
Sally Ride recounts
NASA experiences
By Cara Pesek
Staff writer
NEAR ASHLAND - A mission
to encourage students to take math
and science courses led Sally Ride,
America’s first woman in space, to
the Strategic Air Command Museum
on Wednesday.
During a 45-minute presentation,
Ride spoke to 230 middle school stu
dents from Omaha and Ashland
about her experiences as a NASA
astronaut.
“I try to transmit the importance
of the space program and the value of
math and science in this field,” Ride
told reporters before the presentation.
“It is really important to speak
with kids in elementary and middle
school because that’s the point when
they’re naturally curious about
things,” she said.
Because of this, Scott Hazelrigg,
SAC museum director, said the
museum wanted to give as many stu
dents as possible the chance to see
Ride.
Ride told the students about her
experiences during her two missions
on the shuttle Challenger.
Slide depictions of images from
the missions gave students an idea of
what astronauts are able to see from
space.
According to the game trivial
Pursuit, the only man-made structure
you can see from space is the Great
Wall of China,” Ride said.
A picture taken from Challenger
of a space center popped onto the
screen.
“Well, they’re wrong,” she said as
she pointed out the runway and vari
ous buildings.
She also explained how industries
use information collected during a
space mission.
The fishing industry, Ride said,
uses pictures from space to see where
there are high concentrations of phy
toplankton, single-celled organisms
that fish feed on. Fish are abundant
where there are many phytoplankton.
“Even though NASA gets a lot of
publicity for sending probes to Mars
and the moon, we can also learn a lot
about our own planet,” Ride said.
After she told the students about
her Challenger missions, Ride turned
the program over to the students.
Ride answered questions about
how astronauts eat, sleep and dress
during missions, about height
requirements for astronauts and
about how it feels to be weightless.
“Weightlessness is really fun,”
Ride said. “There’s really no other
way to explain it. There’s no way to
simulate it on earth. It’s just pure
fun.”
And of course, she was asked
what it was like to be the first woman
in space.
“I wanted to go into space for the
same reasons as all other astronauts,”
Ride said.
“It didn’t matter that I was the
first woman to do it; it was important
that I was able to do it.”
After speaking to the students,
Ride met with ConAgra representa
tives.
ConAgra sponsored Ride’s visit
to the SAC museum.
Ride became the first woman in
space during the shuttle Challenger’s
1983 mission, and followed up with
an eight-day mission in 1984, again
on Challenger.
She accumulated more than 343
hours in space and was preparing for
her third mission when Challenger
exploded in 1986.
Ride retired from NASA in 1987
and is now director of the California
Space Institute and professor of
physics at the University of
California, San Diego.
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We'll provide free
food to the first 5,000
people through the
doors, drawings for
door prizes and lots
of fun.
The event is a joint
effort of the
Homecoming Steering
Committee and the
Athletic Department.
MSS
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Faculty/Staff spouse and family may attend. Spouse - $5.00; Children - $3.00 per. Advanced tickets sales ONLY! No
walk ups will be allowed. Ticket does not guarantee food. For reservations call the “Tailgate on the Turf Reservations
Line" at 472-2593.
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• Theme and Party Wear
• Hip—huggers and flairs
• Vinyl, Leather and Lace
• Platforms and Knee Boots
• Jewelry and Body Jewelry
• Always a Sale Rack:
4
8
3
2
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6
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6^reer 3erVtC£5 Snapshot
...see what’s developing next week in Career Services
tfMSINIII 1
MONDAY - FRIDAY 10 am - 4 pm ^
Come in for free 20 minute session
with a counselor to discuss job search
possibilities, critique your resume, or
ask any job-related questions.
UNL Career Services — 230 i