Lectures by
Gerald Early
Princes Kept the View:
America in the 50s and 60s
7-9 March 2000
7-9 March 2000
7:00 each evening
Great Plains Art
Collection
215 Love Library
University of
Nebraska-Lincoln
Gerald Early will
deliver the annual
Abraham Lincoln
Lectures on March
7, 8, and 9. His
program, “Princes
Kept the View:
America in the 50s
and 60s,” will
feature talks entitled
“Muhammad Ali as
Third World Hero,”
“Sammy Davis Jr. as
Establishment
Rebel,” and “The Rise of Black Philadelphia,” a look at
militant political action in Early’s hometown during the
1960s.
Gerald Early is a professor of English and Afro-American
studies at Washington University in St. Louis. Early also
serves as Washington University’s Director of African and
Afro-American Studies and Director of the American Culture
Studies Program. A frequent commentator for National Public
Radio, Early’s books include The Muhammad Ali Reader and
The Culture of Bruising which won the 1994 National Book
Critics Circle Award for criticism.
The talks are free and open to the public and will commence
at 7:00 each evening in the Great Plains Art Collection, 215
Love Library, on the University of Nebraska campus in
Lincoln. A reception and book signing will immediately
follow Thursday’s lecture.
Begun in 1995, this annual series aims to remind the citizens of
Lincoln and beyond of the principles that Abraham Lincoln
championed: education, justice, tolerance, and union. Each year the
University of Nebraska Press invites a noted scholar to deliver a series
of lectures, co-sponsored with other University of Nebraska depart
ments. In addition, the press publishes each year’s lectures in a single
volume.
If you wish to receive further information about the
Abraham Lincoln Lecture Series, contact:
University of Nebraska Press
402-472-3581 • pressmail@unl.edu
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- LEGISLATURE
Override vote against veto fails
By Jill Zeman
Staff writer
Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha’s
push for an override of Gov. Mike
Johanns’ veto failed Wednesday.
Johanns vetoed a bill that would
haved allowed the attorney general to
be elected on a nonpartisan ballot.
Thirty votes are needed to over
ride a governor’s decision. Chambers’
motion failed by four votes, as the
members of the Legislature voted 26
20 on the measure.
“The bill has been through a lot,”
Chambers said.
LB510 was introduced Jan. 15,
1999, by Chambers and was heard by
the Government, Military and
Veterans Affairs Committee on
March 3, 1999.
The committee voted 5-3 to
advance the bill to the floor for
debate. It was placed on general file
on March 9, 1999, and advanced to
select file on Feb. 3, 2000.
The bill was passed on a 28-19
vote and was submitted on Feb. 23 to
Johanns.
*• I don t believe we need politics in law
enforcement, and in my opinion, the
attorney general is the chief of law
enforcement.”
Jerry Schmitt
Ord state senator
Johanns said the state has struck a
balance between elected partisan offi
cials and the nonpartisan Unicameral.
“Unless there’s a compelling rea
son to disrupt the balance, we should
n’t go there,” he said.
“Hopefully, we can go on to other
things.”
Sen. Jerry Schmitt of Ord said his
vote in favor of overriding the veto
had nothing to do with Johanns or
Attorney General Don Stenberg.
“I don’t believe we need politics
in law enforcement, and in my opin
ion, the attorney general is the chief of
law enforcement,” Schmitt said.
Sen. Gene Tyson of Norfolk voted
against overriding the governor’s
decision.
“Political views do make a differ
ence, and it’s important we under
stand what views people have,” he
said.
Chamber^ said the most important
aspect of the bill is that if party affili
ation were taken away, the number of
individuals eligible for the position of
attorney general would be expanded.
“The two attorney general candi
dates should be put on the ballot
because they receive the most votes,
not because one is a Democrat and the
other a Republican,” he said.
- LEGISLATURE -
Gambling bill fails
to advance to floor
By Jill Zeman
Staff writer
Hopes of legal casino gambling
in Nebraska were shot down
Wednesday.
Members of the Legislature
voted against bringing a resolution
out of committee that would have
allowed Nebraska’s voters to decide
whether casino gambling should be
allowed on Indian reservations.
LR289CA was introduced on
Jan. 10 by Sen. DiAnna Schimek of
Lincoln and was referred to the
General Affairs Committee, which
held a hearing Jan. 24 on the bill.
Members of the eight-person
committee voted 4-4 on the resolu
tion, leaving it deadlocked in com
mittee.
Schimek declared LR289CA her
priority bill and filed a motion Feb.
25 to pull it from committee to the
floor for debate.
Twenty-five senators must vote
for a bill in order to pull it from com
mittee to general file, and the sena
tors voted 23-24, leaving the motion
dead for the session.
A similar bill was debated in
1993, and Schimek said she voted
against it.
She changed her mind when she
realized the issue was about econom
ic development and sovereignty of
American-Indian tribes, not the
morality of gambling, she said.
Sen. LaVon Crosby of Lincoln
said she supported the resolution
because it is a fairness issue.
“Normally, 1 don’t vote for gam
bling bills or anything that advances
gambling, but the state is already in
the gambling business because we
have a lottery,” she said.
Sen. Jim Jensen of Omaha said
he opposed the bill, because to him,
the issue was about gambling, not
sovereignty.
Senators discussed whether por
tions of casino revenue could go to a
fund that would aid compulsive gam
blers, but Jensen disagreed with the
idea.
“Giving money (from casino rev
enue) to help compulsive gamblers is
like giving them a disease and then
giving them a cure later,” Jensen
said.
If the resolution had been pulled
from committee, it would have been
debated on the floor of the
Legislature. If approved, it would
have appeared on the ballot in the
November election, Schimek said.
The resolution wouldn’t have
needed the approval of Gov. Mike
Johanns, but he voiced his opinion
on the issue Wednesday.
Johanns said he opposes the
expansion of gambling, and if the
issue would have been placed on the
ballot, he would have voted against
it.
“Building an economy on casino
gambling is not very helpful in the
long run to anyone,” he said.
“We will work with tribes on
their social and education develop
ments.”
Johanns
backs China
in WTO
By Veronica Daehn
Staff writer
Gov. Mike Johanns voiced his
support for three national issues on
Wednesday.
Johanns said he supports China’s
entry into the World Trade
Organization. , .j
Members of the WTO will decide
soon if China should join. Its entry
would lower the tariffs on exports to
China, Johanns said.
Because Nebraska is the fifth
largest exporter of agricultural goods
in the United States, the lower taxes
would benefit Nebraska residents, he ,
said.
“This agreement would be good \
for agriculture,” Johanns said. “My
hope is that this will be approved, and
we will get the benefit of trade with
China.”
Johanns said he also supports
efforts to use ethanol as an alternative
to gas. There are seven ethanol plants
in Nebraska, Johanns said, and five in
Iowa.
“I continue to be optimistic that
there will be a place for ethanol in the
clean air effort,” he said.
Johanns also said Wednesday he
has joined the Governor’s
Biotechnology Partnership, an
alliance of state governors who want
to get information to citizens about
biotechnology.
Johanns is particularly concerned
with circulating good scientific infor
mation about food safety issues, he
said.
i Lotter’s lawyer files for a stay of execution
By Michelle Starr
Staff writer
Though it has not become an argu
ment, a difference of opinion exists
about John Lotter’s motion for a stay of
execution.
On Feb. 24, the state’s high court
set April 26 as an execution date for
Lotter, but he is scheduled for a post
conviction hearing May 2 in Richards
County.
In Monday’s motion for a stay of
execution, Jerry Soucie, Lotter’s attor
ney, addressed two issues.
First, Soucie said a stay of execu
tion should be granted because of the
pending post-conviction hearing.
Second, he questioned the Nebraska
Supreme Court’s jurisdiction in setting
a date for the execution.
Lotter and Marvin Nissen were
convicted for the 1993 murders of
Teena Brandon, 21, Lisa Lambert, 24,
and Philip DeVine, 22, in a rural farm
house near Humboldt.
Nissen received life in prison, and
Lotter was sentenced to death for
Brandon’s murder.
Assistant Attorney General Kirk
Brown did not dispute the argument for
a stay based on the May 2 hearing, but
he did not understand why Soucie
questioned the court’s jurisdiction.
Brown submitted a response
Tuesday to the court stating opinions
and concerns about Monday’s motion,
he said.
The Attorney General’s office sub
mitted the response not to create a fight
,but to allow the co'irt to know what it
thought, Brown said.
“We didn’t dispute his right to a
stay,” Brown said. “But (the defense)
got off into other legal issues.”
Soucie asked the court if the date
should have been decided by the
District Court instead of the Nebraska
Supreme Court.
Brown responded to the motion
and said a state statute allows the
Nebraska Supreme Court to set a date;
it was in its jurisdiction to make the
decision, he said.
The decision is left to the court, and
he didn’t know why the date was
scheduled when litigation is pending,
Brown said.
It is unknown if the court knew
about the May hearing, Brown said.
“We don’t know what level of
knowledge the court had,” he said.
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