Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 23, 1999)
LES budget approved The City Council voted 6-0 Monday to approve the Lincoln Electric System’s budget after LES cut $54,000 worth of billboard advertis ing. The council had decided to move voting from Nov. 8 to Monday because it questioned the LES advertising bud get LES is a public utility. “My problem has been the feel good (ads) that don’t talk about what LES does,” said Councilman Jonathan Cook. “Overall, die LES board does a fantastic job. I hate to see controversy.” Council Chairwoman Coleen Seng said a lot of people called the City Council office about an LES commercial they said was stereotypi cal. It featured two women baking pies during a storm for male LES workers. Marilyn Borchardt, vice chair woman of the LES administrative board, said die commercial was taken from a real-life situation. The women had made the pies because they were glad the power was coming back on. “I had no objection to OK’ing and agreeing with that ad,” Borchardt said. The commercial is no longer run ning. Council asked to examine conservation area drainage About eight Lancaster County residents asked the council not to approve a conservation area near S.W. 40th and West Van Dorn streets because they were worried about sewage drainage. ' “We’re requesting that the EPA get involved,” said Jeanne Gaston, a fourth-grade teacher at Belmont Elementary Schools The 82.5-acre area would be part of a 50-home development by Long View Estates Inc. LongView Estates gets to build 20 more homes because it is setting aside acreage for woodlands, prairie, open space and wetlands, said Nicole Fleck-Tooze, a Lincoln-Lancaster County planner. However, neighbors were worried that sewage from the new homes would overflow into the wetland area if it rained a lot. They asked the coun cil to drive out and look at the land. “The soil does not perk,” Gaston said. “It’s all clay; it doesn’t drain.” Council members decided to delay voting on the agreement until Dec. 8. Garage-hotel skywalks OK’d When it is completed, visitors at the Embassy Suites Hotel won’t have to walk in the rain to a parking garage. The council voted 6-0 Monday to approve an operating permit to build two skywalks to two parking garages from Embassy Suites. The permit is between the city of Lincoln and John Q. Hammons Revocable Trust, which manages the Embassy Suites. The two skywalks will go over North 10th Street and North 11th Street. They will cost $1.27 million together, said Linda Hershberger, parking manager for the city of Lincoln. At the council meeting, Richard Halvorsen of Lincoln told the council he didn’t like the idea. “I do not see why we should use taxpayer money to pay for the sky walk and the garage,” Halvorsen said. Hershberger said the $1.27 mil lion is coming from downtown rede velopment bond money. Compiled by staff writer Sarah Fox ■ London British minister to suspend new province administration LONDON (AP) - Seeking to build Protestant support for the latest compromise plan, Britain’s minister for Northern Ireland pledged Monday to suspend a new Protestant-Catholic administration for the province if the Irish - Republican Army refuses to begin disarming. Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson appealed to the Ulster Unionists, the major Protestant party, to back leader David Trimble in a crucial vote Saturday. The vote will determine whether plans mediated by American diplo mat George Mitchell - to establish the new provincial government next week, and for the IRA to gradually disarm in response - can proceed. The Cabinet would include two members of the IRA-linked Sinn Fein party. Mandelson said if the IRA didn’t cooperate folly with a disarmament commission, “the two governments, British and Irish, will take the steps necessary to cease immediately the operation of foe institutions.” ■ Washington Report shows decline of crime in first half of 1999 WASHINGTON (AP) - Serious reported crime showed an unusually large 10 percent decline during the first half of 1999, prompting one expert to conclude that lawfulness is becoming contagious. Led by drops of 13 percent in murders, 14 percent in burglaries and 12 percent in auto thefts, the I— FBI’s preliminary report released Sunday extended the nationwide crime decline to years.' The report surprised experts used to seeing single-digit declines during the 1990s. The overall crime figure had declined by only 5 per cent, 4 percent and 3 percent in the preceding three first-half-year reports. And criminologists said the lone discordant note - a 1 percent rise in murders among cities of more than a million residents - did not foreshad ow a future rise in crime, but rather that there probably is some irre ducible minimum level of crime. ■ Washington Government proposes aids to repetitive motion WASHINGTON (AP) - Employers would have to correct injury-causing workplace conditions that require repetitive motion, overexertion or awkward posture under proposed regulations, the Labor Department announced Monday. The proposal would affect about 1.9 million work sites and more than 27 million workers. The department estimated the cost to employers at $4.2 billion a year. Each year, 1.8 million workers have musculoskeletal injuries relat ed to ergonomic factors, and 600,000 people miss some work because of them, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. ■ New York Survey finds more teens reject ‘drugs are cool’ notion NEW YORK (AP) - The latest survey from the Partnership for a Drug-Free America finds that drug use among teen-agers is leveling off, with more teens rejecting the notion that drugs are cool. . “This trend means we have to keep up our efforts,” said Barry McCaffrey, director of the White House drug control policy office. “The teen-age notion that everyone is doing drugs and that there must be something wrong with me has to be dispelled.” The 12th annual survey, released Monday, shows that 40 percent of teens questioned felt “really cool” kids did not use drugs. By compari son, 35 percent of those surveyed in 1998 agreed with that statement, indicating more kids are turned off by drugs now than before. Among 13- to 15-year-olds, 8 percent believed marijuana smokers were popular, down from 13 percent last year and 17 percent in 1997, the survey found. ■ Russia Russian forces surround Chechnya, continues bombs SLEPTSOVSKAYA, Russia (AP) - Russian forces are moving steadily to encircle Chechnya’s capi tal and believe civilians wifi encour age Chechen militants to abandon the city rather than wage an all-out battle, Russia’s top army officer said Monday. Russia pounded parts of Chechnya from the air and ground, with warplanes running about 50 combat missions in a 24-hour period, the Interfax news agency said. Fearful civilians kept up their exodus from Chechnya. So far, Russia’s march across Chechnya, which began two months ago, has not produced major battles reminiscent of the 1994-96 war in the breakaway territory. The out gunned Chechens have regularly retreated rather than confront the larger and more heavily armed Russian formations. — " .— .. 1 Editor: Josh Funk Managing Editor: Sarah Baker Associate News Editor: Lindsay Young Associate News Editor: Jessica Fargen Opinion Editor: Mark Baldridge - Sports Editor: Sam McKewon A&E Editor: Liza Holtmeier Copy Desk Chief: Diane Broderick Photo Chief: Lane Hickenbottom Design Chief: Melanie Falk Art Director: Matt Haney Web Editor: Gregg Steams Asst Web Editor: Jennifer Walker General Manager: Daniel Shattil Publications Board Jessica Hofmann, Chairwoman: (402)477-0527 Professional Adviser: Don Walton, (402)473-7248 Advertising Manager: Nick Partsch, (402)472-2589 Asst Ad Manager: Jamie Yeager ClassHWid Ad Manager: Mary Johnson Student arrested on f sexual assault charge From staff reports University police arrested a 19 year-old male student Friday on a sexual assault charge, University Police Sgt. Mylo Bushing said. The student, who lives in Cather Residence Hall, was arrested on first degree sexual assault charges for being sexually involved with a 14 year-old girl he met over the Internet, Bushing said. “He’s charged with first-degree sexual assault, but I think he’ll eqd up getting charged with sexual assault on a child,” Bushing said. The student and the girl met on the Internet, and the student invited the girl to come to his residence hall room. They watched television in the room and eventually had consensual sexual contact, Bushing said. On a different occasion, the stu dent picked up the girl at her home in I-7-7-1 Lincoln around 2 or 3 a.m., took her to his room and had sexual contaoL again, Bushing said. The girl’s mother found out about. the sexual activity and called Lincoln Police, who performed an initial investigation before turning the case over to University Police, Bushing): said. “We don’t know the actual dates that this happened,” Bushing said. “It’s hard to get straightened out> because we picked it up mid-stream from LPD.” Bushing said he thought the events could have happened some time last month, but the belated reporting of the event makes the sex ual contact hard to prove. “It’s kind of a he-said-she-said type of thing because we have no physical evidence,” he said. “Once we have more time to sort things out, we’ll have a better understanding of what went on.” -1-1-f-1 3-year-old fires gun; no injuries sustained A 3-year-old boy discharged a handgun at his baby sitter’s home on Sunday, Ofc. Katherine Finnell said. Police were called to 3635 Cleveland St. at 7:25 p.m. to investi gate the circumstances surrounding the gunshot. The bullet lodged in the wall. The boy’s mother left him at a house of two 22-year-old adults while she went to work, police said. While the boy and the adults were watching television, the boy stood up, and the adults assumed he was going to the bathroom, Finnell said. Instead, the boy went into a bed room and found a loaded gun on the nightstand. The boy picked up the Colt .380 semi-automatic handgun and fired the shot, Finnell said. The slide of the gun pinched and tore the boy’s finger. The adults took him to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, where the boy was treated and released. No tickets were issued, but the case is being forwarded to the county attorney for further review, Finnell said. Young girl taken to hospital, treated for drugs in system An 18-month-old girl was taken to BryanLGH West by her mother on Saturday night because she had lost control of her muscles. Initial testing revealed that the child had cocaine and benzodiazap ine in her system, Finnell said. No arrests have been made, but the mother of the child has been cooperating to help Lincoln Police determine how the child ingested drugs, Finnell said. The mother indicated that the child had been at a baby sitter’s resi dence earlier in the day and may have found the drugs in a closet, Finnell said. The child was taken into protec tive custody by the state. As of Monday afternoon, the girl’s condi tion was unknown. Intoxicated student found v - by police in Sandoz lot University police were called to the northwest corner of the Sandoz Residence Hall parking lot at 6:40 a.m. on Saturday to attend to an intoxicated student, University Police Sgt. Mylo Bushing said. A community service officer reported an unconscious person sit ting in a car in the lot. When police arrived, the student was conscious, and his car smelled heavily of alco hol, Bushing said. The student said he had been drinking beer all night, and he wanted to see his girlfriend, who lived in Sandoz. The student lost his balance and had slowed speech, police said, so Ik was taken to the detoxification cen ter, where his blood alcohol level was found to be .145. Compiled by staff writer Dane Stickney Texas universities honor accident victims • ' / AUSTIN, Texas (AP) - The usual pre-Thanksgiving frenzy of school spir it and football mania that sweeps the University of Texas was put aside Monday as the mourning continued for foe 12 people killed in foe bonfire col lapse at archrival Texas A&M. Across Texas, thousands of mourn ers crowded into one church after anoth er, many wearing the maroon-and white colors of the Aggies, to bid farewell to five of those who died. At UT, a candlelight vigil Monday night took foe place of the annual “hex rally,” when Longhorns traditionally put a curse on the Aggies’ football team before the annual day-after Thanksgiving game. * Traditions were put on hold at Texas A&M, too. Officials postponed today’s annual Elephant Walk - when seniors turn over school-spint leadership duties to juniors in a slow, symbolic walk around campus - to Nov. 30. In the Fort Worth suburb <ff Watauga, about 2,200 people gathered at Harvest Baptist Church to mourp Chad Anthony Powell, 19, a high school valedictorian and Eagle Scout who^ casket was draped with a Texas A&M flag. “I personally believe that God was looking for a leader, and after searching far and wide, he found Chad,” said, Cody Austin, among 100 uniformed Boy Scouts. In Carrollton, outside Dallas, more than 1,100 people overflowed St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church to mourn 19-year-old Michael Stephen Ebanks, whose desire to attend the uni versity was magnified after his older brother, a Texas A&M graduate, died in a traffic accident in 1994.