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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 14, 1999)
I SrOBTS A ft E See You Sooners Intimidation Factor With the help of a strong offensive attack, the The Sheldon seeks ways to reach out to students Nebraska volleyball team swept Oklahoma and tell them, “Art doesn’t have to be intimidat Wednesday night at the NU Coliseum. PAGE 14 ing.”. PAGE 11 VOL. 99 COVERING THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA-LINCOLN SINCE 1901 NO. 39 Senate rejects test ban treaty By Josh Knaub Staff writer The Senate on Wednesday voted down a treaty that would have banned all nuclear testing. U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel voted against the ratification of the treaty, and Sen. Bob Kerrey voted for ratification. The final vote was 48 to 51, far short of the 67 votes - or two-thirds of the Senate - needed for ratification. As expected, the final vote closely fol lowed party lines, with only four Republicans voting for it and one Democrat abstaining. Hagel said he had voted against the treaty because the Senate had not taken enough time to consider the treaty’s effects on national security. In a press release Wednesday, Hagel said he had been left with no choice but to vote against the treaty. “I am gravely disappointed that members of the Senate in both parties and the president were unable to find a way to do the right thing and set this treaty aside for farther hearings,” Hagel said. Hagel said the defeat of the treaty damaged the credibility of the United States. “The effects will ripple around the « (The treaty) will resurface when we have the technology to enforce it.” Andrew Faltin senior philosophy major globe,” he said. Kerrey said national security was his reason for voting for the treaty. “Senate ratification would enhance our existing national detection assets,” Kerrey said. “Our ability to monitor the treaty will be enhanced by access to the more than 300 monitoring stations that will make up the... monitoring system Supporters got a parliamentary rul ing that the rejection did not kill the treaty. Instead, the vote returned the document to the clerk’s desk in the front of the Senate - where it will sit unless called up again. Democrats vowed to make the rejection a prime 2000 campaign issue, Please see TREATY on 10 State area codes may see changes By Veronica Daehn Staff writer Within the next year and a half, Nebraskans may be dialing more num bers than usual when making a local phone call. Experts predict that by the end of the year 2000, the 402 area code will be full. When this happens, the code will not be able to service any more phone num bers. Gene Hand, director of telecommu nications for the Public Service Commission, said two options are being looked at to solve the problem. One type of relief, he said, is called a split. A split would divide the area of eastern Nebraska that the 402 area code services. One part of the area would keep the 402 area code, and the other part would be given an entirely new code. There would then be three area codes servicing Nebraska. The other type of relief, Hand said, is called an overlay. Once the state runs out of numbers in the 402 area code, a different “layer,” or area code, would be placed on top of it This would mean that two area codes would exist in one city or section of the state. “Consumer education comes into play here,” Hand said. “People would have to include an area code to make a local call.” Hand said people would have to get used to dialing different digits when making a local call. The public service commission is still doing research on the best option. Hand said. Public hearings will be held at the end of the year and data requests have been sent out to gather input from con sumers. Hand said the 308 area code that ser vices western Nebraska is not a concern. “308 will not exhaust for another 30 years or so until 2031,” he said. Another option Hand said his com mission has looked at is moving the 308 area code further east to take over some of the towns now serviced by 402. That would cause a problem for some towns, though, he said, because they might also have to change the three digit prefix of their phone numbers. Please see CODE on 10 _ 'r - Mike Warren/DN PILL-SOON SONG, a UNL chemistry professor, holds one of the plants he has used to research the rate of plant growth. Song changed one amino acid to alter the rate of growth and hopes to apply this finding to other types of plants. New genetic engineering tool could improve quality of plants By Michelle Starr Staff writer Something as simple as a protein could hold the key to healthier plants, larger grains and shorter, healthier lawns. “It’s possible to fool the plant by genetically engineering it,” said Pill Soon Song, Dow Chemical Co. pro fessor of chemistry at the University ofNebraska-Lincoln. Song is researching a growing technique that, wheh research is completed, could be used to produce larger quantities of food compared to current methods, produce stronger plants and reduce fungal infections in lawns. Because a plant would be able to access and use light more efficiently and require less fertilizer, water and pesticides, the research could help improve the quality of plants and crops. The new technique could be likened to the strengthening effect that vitamins have on people. Until this research, the connec tion between the light signal sent to the plant and a plant’s responses to the signal had not been well under stood, Song said. For their experiments, the researchers used a tiny plant called Arabidopsis, which grows flowers and seeds very quickly, Song said. The experiments have worked on the plant. The researchers’ next step is to find how the protein works as a DNA binding protein, which is uncharac teristic of most proteins not involved with DNA. The breakthrough in the tech nique is the link that UNL and Korean researchers found between a plant’s detection of light and its Please see PLANT on 10 Read the Daily Nebraskan on the World Wide Web at dailyneb.com