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I SportsM nday/10
Grasshopper Takeover
returns from LA to do a
live show at W.C.S tonight
biAfta/B
Off-campus booze patrol funded by NU Directions
HY-MI yPMAfcl_
For many UNL partygoers,
the sight of blazing blue uni
forms, shiny badges and flash
ing blue and red lights can seem
disastrous.
But cops on the prowl for a
rowdy party aren’t always that
obvious.
Undercover police officers
permeate many of Lincoln's out
of-hand parties, and now, some
of the officers’ overtime wages
are being paid by NU Directions.
The group, aimed at lower
ing high-risk drinking among
UNL students, is allocating
$10,000 to the Lincoln Police
Department, said Linda Major,
NU Directions project coordina
tor.
The money for the party
patrol is taken from a $700,000
grant NU Directions received
from the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation.
Half of the $10,000 will go to
party enforcement, and the
other half will be used to check
whether establishments in
Lincoln are serving alcohol to
minors, she said.
Major said she thought the
decision would not be popular
with students.
“It’s definitely not our pri
mary strategy,” she said. “It’s just
a small percentage of the
money”
Vice Chancellor for Student
Affairs James Griesen empha
sized that the group’s support of
the Lincoln Police is just a small
aspect of NU Directions’ overall
goal to reduce high-risk drink
ing.
“We don’t want to worry
about every student who gets an
MIP or public urination ticket”
Griesen said.
“We want to watch students
who are preying on underage
students to make their money
from alcohol sales,” he said.
Griesen also said when the
university applied for the grant,
it specifically said money would
be used for law enforcement to
target wild parties.
Schools that receive Robert
Wood Johnson Foundation
grants utilize them in many dif
ferent ways, said program
spokeswoman Lisa Erk.
For example, the University
of Iowa in Iowa City uses a por
tion of its grant money for law
*This is certainly not about spoiling people’s
fun... We just want to reduce the stress on the
neighborhoods.”
I li^H
NU Directions coordinator
enforcement, she said.
“If there are a number of out
of control parties, then (paying
officers overtime) could be an
appropriate use of funds,” Erk
said.
Both Griesen and Major said
an important goal of NU
Directions is to respect the per
manfent occupants of neighbor
hoods inhabited by students.
“This is certainly not about
spoiling people’s fun, and it’s not
about prohibition ” Major said.
“We just want to reduce the
stress on the neighborhoods.”
Please see BOOZE on 3
High-flying
Master Sgt
Larry Blair of the
ItS4 fighter
Whig from Sioux
Gty, iowa (left)
SllOWS J06
floral, 87, of Fort
Calwim around
the Nebraska
Stale Fob
grounds inaA-7
ahplaiie model
caron
rode hi a parade
with Blair in the
A-7 carter in the
||g
was waiting to
see his grandson
play in the Fort
Calhoun High
School Marching
Band. "He's got
to be the oldest
participant in
the fair so far
this year,'Blair
said.
NateWagner/DN
m* - mm m m
state rair is sweaty, sticKy tun
RYflEORfiFfiRFFN
The sun was so hot that it
turned the asphalt roads into
sticky strips of slime, which
stuck to standing shoes.
The simmering tempera
tures at the Nebraska State Fair,
though, did not bother 87-year
old Joe Foral
Foral, of Fort Calhoun, is a
fair expert. He has been to at
least 20 fairs.
Wednesday’s fair found
Foral buzzing around the
grounds waving at bystanders in
a motorized, miniature air
plane.
The novice pilot came to the
fair with his daughter, Anita
Kusek, to watch his grandson,
Jim, perform with the Fort
Calhoun High School Marching
Band.
“I wanted to go this year,
because I might not make it
back next year,” Foral said.
Foral’s broad smile shone
through his aged face as he rest
ed under the shade of a tree
watching his grandson march
by beating a snare drum.
Kusek said that her grandfa
ther told her that he would go to
the fair alone if she did not want
to attend.
“He really loves coming to
these things,” she said.
When Kusek and Foral
entered the fair grounds, Master
Sgt. Larry Blair asked Foral if he
would like to participate in a
small parade.
Even though he wasn’t a ldd,
Blair chose Foral to ride around
in the miniature plane because
he seemed like a nice man and
he wore an army veterans cap,
Blair said.
"I bet he is the oldest person
in these parades,” Blair said.
Blair, a member of the 185th
Fighter Wing in the Iowa Air
National Guard, provided free
rides to children in his model A
7, F-16 and F-4 airplanes.
The airplanes were the size
of small cars and used a minia
ture engine to propel them
around on three wheels.
The 185th Fighter Wing also
Please see FAIR on 3
NateWagner/DN
Sweating in the sun, Tumbleweed and Bobo the down brave the heat and the
sparse crowd Wednesday afternoon at the Nebraska State Fair. Tumbleweed said
he has been working fairs such as Nebraska^ for the past 14 years. When asked
what his job description was, he said, *1 help people dunk Bobo, the mouthy
down.'
Officers may be in stands on game day
BY MARGARET BEHM_
Students heading to the
Nebraska and San Jose State
game might want to think twice
before bringing in a booze-filled
bottle of Mountain Dew.
Bill Manning, assistant chief
of the University Police, con
firmed that there may be under
cover officers inside or outside
the stadium on game day
Saturday.
“We do use plain-clothes offi
cers as need dictates,” he said.
"There are games we may not
have any, and there are games
where well have multiple.”
Undercover officers are used
for a variety of reasons at the
games, Manning said.
For example, at last year’s
game against Texas A&M, an
undercover officer arrested Roger
"Doc” Baskerville, a superin ten
dent of schools from Washington,
Kan., who also worked as a ticket
taker. He let ticketless people into
games for cash.
The biggest problem officers
covering the games have to face is
responding to medical problems,
but alcohol is still a problem,
Manning said.
“Over the years, we’ve taken a
number of students to detox
because of overindulgence of
alcohol” he said.
Butch Hug, director of events
for the athletic department, said
that drinking is not limited to the
student section.
“I would not say it’s a major
problem,” he said. “It happens in
the student section, but it hap
pens in other sections as well”
Alcohol is not permitted any
where inside the stadium, Hug
said.
“Any alcohol that is brought
in is smuggled in,” he said. "No
one is authorized to have it”
If students are caught with
alcohol, they can receive cita
tions from the police, such as
minor in possession. Students
can also face sanctions from the
university, Manning said.
"Anyone we eject from the
stadium, for whatever reason, we
do confiscate their ticket,” he
said. "And we turn their seat
number into the athletic depart
ment and the student’s name into
judicial affairs.”
Tonda Humphress, assistant
to the director for Student
Judicial Affairs, said there are a
variety of consequences a stu
dent could receive.
If Student Judicial Affairs
receives a report of an alcohol
violation from the University
Police, it is a violation of the stu
dent code of conduct
m r
Though Memorial Stadium has no major changes for the
year, stadium staff are stressing several reminders to ensure
an orderly game day, which indude:
“► Cfiatps open 00 miiitflps hpfoup kirfcnff J
-4 Stadium Me is dosed on game days
->C Mo smoking or drinking alcohol in the stadkmn 3
-k Video cameras, glass, cans, large coolers, backpacks and
umbrellas are prohibited JSStf. ' 3
Cpadting Infs juipipspnipri for RnrKtPrfinhmpmhprs )
Afl four lanes of 1-dOwNi be open in the Lincoln area
r v
k A Big Red Express w81 shuttle fans to and from various
dtps far $2: for information, ohone 476-1234_,
Source: Athletic Department
Melanie Mk/DN
State plan
to widen
1-80 OK'd
BYJQSHRJMK
The most heavily used road in
Nebraska will be getting wider,
and business leaders in Lincoln
and Omaha are looking forward
to the benefits of better trans
portation.
The increasing volume of
vehicles traversing Interstate 80
between the stated two largest
cities prompted state officials to
approve an extra lane in each
direction.
“Essentially, Omaha and
Lincoln are growing together
more every year,* said Vicki
Krecek, vice president of commu
nications for the Greater Omaha
Chamber of Commerce. “This will
certainly be an advantage for both
dtiea"
In 1960, an average of 5,000
cars drove between the cities each
day. Tbday there are 34,000 cars
on the same road, and that num
ber is expected to double by 2020,
said Eric Dixpn, intenetate design
unit leader for the Nebraska
Department of Roads.
Construction on the 44-mile
stretch of road could begin as
soon as the fall of2002, and die
project is expected to take eight to
ten years to complete, Dixnn said.
Lincoln officials said the
avenue between the two cities is a
must
"There are times of the day
when traffic is heavy, and it feds
like a rush hour,” said Mark
Bowen, chief of staff for Lincoln
Mayor DonWesety.
The project is still in die pre
liminary stages, but the cost is
estimated at $300 million. Those
costs are expected to increase by
the time the project starts.
The design study for the proj
ect is expected to be complete
within the next two to three
months, Dixon-said. Then an
environmental impact study will
be done.
All of the plans thus far are
subject to changes from the envi
ronmental study and public com
ments, Dixon said.
Many of those cars are driven
by commuters who live in one dty
and work in the other
"From our standpoint, the
increased traffic from Lincoln will
help us,” said Dennis Wilson, eco
nomic development director for
Omaha Mayor Hal Dauh
Businesses considering a
move to the area often consider
Lincoln and Omaha as one metro
area, Charles Lamphear director
of the University of Nebraska
Lincoln’s Bureau of Business
Research, said earlier this month.
This widening of the corridor
between the two cities may help
narrow the gap between than.
"If you have a great trans
portation network, businesses
will be attracted to that,” Wilson
said.
The construction will widen
the Interstate from the Highway
370 interchange outside Omaha
to 56th Street in Lincoln. A sepa
rate project, which has already
started, will widen the road from
Omaha to Highway370.
In addition to the traffic flow;
I Please see INTERSTATE on 3