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Monday, April 3,2000 dailyneb.com Vol 99, Issue 131 nu women gymnasts wm theii fust
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_ SPORTS, PAGE 16
- ELECTION 2000 -
Senate debate
lacks tension
By Brian Carlson
Staff writer
KEARNEY - Nebraska’s seven
U.S. Senate candidates squeezed,,
together at one table for a forum
here Saturday, but the close quarters
» didn’t lead to much confrontation.
Former Gov. Ben Nelson, the
lone candidate for the Democratic
nomination, joined the six
Republicans, John DeCamp,
George Grogan, David Hergert,
Scott Moore, Elliott Rustad and Don
Stenberg, vying to fill the seat being
vacated by Democratic Sen. Bob
Kerrey.
Although the forum revealed
differences on issues such as school
vouchers and Internet taxation, it
produced few fireworks and little
t real engagement among the candi
^ dates.
The Nebraska Associated Press
Broadcasters Association sponsored
' the forum. Unlike in a debate, the
forum allowed candidates to answer
the same set of question* but sot to
issue rebuttals.
This clearly frustrated Moore,
the secretary of state, whose cam
paign has struggled to gain traction
thus far. With die May 9 primary just
over Five weeks away, he criticized
his GOP opponents’ tactics.
“Some people in this race are
going into a four-comers offense
and stalling,” he said. “That doesn’t
work in May, and it certainly doesn’t
prepare the Republican nominee for
November.”
Moore, who entered the race
after Kerrey’s surprise decision in
January to leave the Senate, has
called on his opponents to partici
pate in more debates.
Neither Attorney General Don
U Some people in
this race are
going into a
four-comers
offense and
stalling. That
doesn’t work in
May, and it
certainly doesn’t
prepare the
Republican
nominee for
November.”
—r' V
Scott Moore
Nebraska secretary of State
Stenberg, nor any other candidate,
responded to Moore’s complaint
during the forum. Stenberg, who
entered the race in early 1999, has
emerged as the front-runner for the
GOP nomination.
A question about school vouch
ers for parents who want to send
their children to private schools
revealed differences among the can
didates.
Rustad, a Lincoln dermatologist,
said he favored tax discounts for
families sending their children to
Please see SENATORS on 3
- REGENTS -
Baseball stadium
clears final hurdle
By Joshua Camenzind
Staff writer
KEARNEY -The waiting game is
finally over for baseball fans in
Lincoln.
The University ofNebraska Board
of Regents unanimously approved five
amendments on Saturday and agreed
to join with the city of Lincoln and
Nebco, Inc. to build a new baseball
and softball stadium complex.
Ground could be broken as early as
next week on the $32.1 million project
that will be located west of Memorial
Stadium and north of the Haymaiket.
Nebraska Athletic Director Bill
Byrne, who gave a short speech to the
regents that included a two-minute
HuskerVision presentation, said the
complex is scheduled to be finished by
spring of next year.
Byrne said die economic impact of
the ballpark on Lincoln will include
many factors. The stadiums will add
2,000 more parking stalls for football
Saturdays and provide NU’s baseball
and softball programs with top-notch
facilities to compete and thus bring
more people to Lincoln.
Byrne said it was also part of an
obligation he had to Baseball Coach
Dave Van Horn, who is in his third sea
son at UNL.
“I told Coach Van Horn that within
three to five years after we hired him,
we’d have a new baseball facility,”
Byrne said. “We reached that faster
than anticipated.”
The university contribution of
$10.6 million has already been raised,
with $8.6 million coming from private
donations and fundraising.
The other $2 million will be paid
through Athletic Department funds,
and no taxpayer dollars will be used,
Please see REGENTS on 3
Nikki Fox/DN
AT A SPRINGTIME viewing show at Behlen Observatory, near Mead, Dr. Martin 6askell speaks to visitors and
answers questions about the 30-Inch telescope In an old World War II silo Friday night. Dr. Edward Sclunldt, asso
ciate dean of the college of arts and sciences, gave a slide show and presentation called "Star Clusters.”
Unfortunately, stargazers were unable to look through the telescope because clouds blocked the stars.
Stargazers flock to UNL observatory
By Kimberly Sweet
Staff writer
Mead resident Victor Humlicek
remembers the first time he tried to
peer at a star up close.
“I started out when I was 8 years
old,” Humlicek said. “My parents
bought me binoculars.”
“I’ve been at it about six and a
half decades since then.”
The gray-haired stargazer is one
of many amateur astronomers across
the state whose obsession is fed by
staking out a piece of minimally lit
land and staring at a star-studded sky.
For those stargazers, UNL’s
Behlen Observatory near Mead,
j ' ' * y . \ ' - -
about 35 miles north of Lincoln, is
the perfect place to get a fix - even
when it’s cloudy.
On Friday night, people still
milled around the building that hous
es a 30-inch, 700-pound automated
telescope, despite the cloudy sky that
foiled stargazing plans.
The observatory’s spring viewing
night drew amateur astronomers of
all ages, even though the only stars in
sight were projected through slides
onto a screen.
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Physics and Astronomy Professor
Edward Schmidt lectured about star
clusters to those who attended the
event, despite the cloudy sky. %
On a clear night when the stars
are out, the observatory can draw
hundreds, said Kevin Lee, coordina
tor of the observatory.
Children and adults take the steps
up through a silo-like structure to
peer at various celestial objects
through the region’s only 30-inch tel
escope.
The telescope has a special opti
cal system that allows students and
faculty to measure the spectrum of
stars and other galactic objects.
“The 30-inch telescope is prima
rily used for variable-star astronomy,
which is the change in the star’s
Please see BEHLEN on 3