News Digest
Page 2 Daily Nebraskan Monday, September 11,2000
Congress
burdened
by bills
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - So little time, so many
bills. And so many, many disputes.
With just 19 working days left until
Congress’ scheduled Oct. 6 adjournment,
lawmakers must complete 11 spending
bills for the coming fiscal year before they
can go home for the elections.
Roughly $20 billion separates
Republicans from President Clinton. But in
this era of federal surpluses, fierce policy
disputes over hiring teachers, standards for
“We think
that
there’s a
lot of
work
that
needs to
be done,
partly
because
so little
has hap
pened in
this Con
gress
John
Podesta
White House
chief of staff
drunken driving ana
other issues probably
will prove to be the
toughest hurdles.
Republicans find
themselves in a haunt
ingly familiar box,
yearning to cut quick
deals on the bills with
Clinton but with pre
cious little leverage.
Republican bargaining
power is shackled by
Clinton’s ability to veto
bills, the GOP’s inability
to override the vetoes
and lawmakers’ craving
for an early dash home
for the elections.
Hoping to get this
year's final round of bar
gaining off to a harmo
nious start, GOP leaders
will meet with Clinton
Tuesday at the White
House, along with top
congressional
Democrats. The session
seems likelv to produce
• little if any substantive
progress, leaving the two sides even less
time to resolve differences.
“We think that there's a lot of work that
needs to be done, partly because so little
has happened in this Congress,” the White
House chief of staff, John Podesta, said on
“Fox News Sunday.”
On CNN's “Late Edition,” Senate
Majority Leader Trent Lott, R:Miss., cited
“all kinds of efforts to stop us passing
appropriation bills."
The 13 spending bills for fiscal 2001,
which begins Oct. 1, directly control about
one-third of the $1.8 trillion budget, or
more than $600 billion. Clinton has already
signed the two covering most defense pro
grams at a cost of about $300 billion.
The 11 other bills cover 13 Cabinet-level
departments and dozens of smaller agen
cies, plus foreign aid and the District of
Columbia’s budget, with a total price tag of
about $300 billion. Clinton wants about
$20 billion more - leaving the two sides bat
tling over about 1 percent of the budget.
Eight of the 11 face veto threats.
Democrats are not the only ones clam
oring for higher spending. Facing election
year demands from their members, GOP
written spending bills so far have sur
passed by at least $7 billion the $600 billion
limit their own budget clamped on.
Even so, the most contentious disputes
are partisan. And among the most furious
is a battle over education, one of the top
issues in this year's campaign.
After initially falling about $7 billion
short, Republicans have written a bill that
equals the amount Clinton wants for edu
cation, health and welfare programs.
Weather
TODAY
Partly sunny
high 89, low 59
TOMORROW
Partly cloudy
high 75, low 55
Firestone recall deters purchases
■ Ford Motor Co.and other inde
pendent dealers say customers have
become leery of the tire brand.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS__
DETROIT - The auto industry has a
small graveyard of mistakes bearing names
such as Pinto, Corvair and Edsel. Is
Firestone next?
The recall of 6.5 million tires linked to
88 deaths and the resulting attention has
strained Bridgestone/Firestone Inc.’s rela
tions with car owners and its largest buyer,
Ford Motor Co.
Auto dealers say customers are leery of
Firestones, even on vehicles not affected by
the recall. Independent tire dealers also
report slower Firestone sales.
Firestone spokesman Dan Adomitis
said that the company had not had a
chance to assess how the recall is affecting
the rest of its business and understood that
customers might have some concerns
because of the recall.
“But the basic perspective is that
Firestone has been a staple brand for 100
years and we expect it to continue,”
Adomitis said.
The Firestone name dates back to the
early days of the American auto industry
and twines around the roots of Ford. The
Model T rode on Firestones, and Henry
Ford’s great-grandson, who is chairman of
his company today, is also Harvey
Firestone's great-grandson.
But Ford President and CEO Jacques
Nasser has said the recall threatens the
company’s business with Firestone. Ford
said last week that it was-in talks with
Goodyear to supply tires for the 2002 Ford
Explorer and Mercury Mountaineer sport
utility vehicles, which until now have worn
only Firestones.
Nasser said the relationship with
Firestone would be taken “a day at a time,”
and that if Ford customers weren’t happy
with Firestone tires, Ford would do what it
takes to make them happy.
“The short-term impact is devastating,
particularly for Firestone,” Nasser said a
week ago. “How they recover and what
their long-term outlook is, is something
that Firestone will need to evaluate very,
very carefully.”
Ford dealers say some customers are
rejecting Firestone tires on new vehicles.
Ford said about 10 percent of Explorer sales
in August involved tire swaps.
Mike Miles, general manager of Banner
Ford in Decatur, Ga., says the dealership
tries to reassure buyers that Firestone tires
on new vehicles are safe.
“But if a customer says to me ‘I’ll buy,
but not with those tires,’ if I don’t change
them the next dealer will,” he said. “I don't
want to lose the sale.”
General Motors Corp. has given its
dealers a letter assuring buyers that GM
vehicles with Firestone Wilderness tires
have different engineering standards than
the tires used on Ford SUVs, different rec
ommended pressures and are not affected
by the recall. v
Matthew Stockman/Newsmakers
The taste of victory: Russia's Marat Safin kisses his trophy on Sunday after the defeating United States' Pete Sampras 6-4,6-3,6-3 in the men's singles final at
the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York. Please see stories on page 13.
Common activities observed by cameras
Britain uses 'Big Brother'type surveillance to catch criminals, monitor city
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON - One of
Britain’s favorite summer TV
shows has been “Big
Brother,” featuring people
living under the constant
gaze of surveillance cameras.
That’s not so far from
reality in modern-day
Britain, whose 60 million
people are tracked by an esti
mated 1.5 million closed-cir
cuit TV cameras.
Going to the bank or the
supermarket, walking down
the street, using a payphone,
waiting for a train, slipping
out for a pint at the pub,
you’re likely to be on camera.
“It’s a mania," says Simon
Davies of the civil liberties
group Privacy International,
which came up with the fig
ure of 1.5 million. “The cam
eras are out of control.”
The latest innovation is a
roving surveillance “super
van” unveiled this week by
Westminster City Council,
which oversees London’s
entertainment - and crime -
hot spots of Soho and the
West End. The $185,000 vehi
cle sports a retractable mast
and nine CCTV cameras, and
this month will start prowling
the streets looking for trou
ble.
“If we have reports of an
outbreak of anti-social
behavior, we can deploy the
van,” said Westminster
Council spokeswoman
Suzanna White. “We may also
want to use it in a covert
manner, for example to col
lect evidence for legal pro
ceedings."
The British government
has poured millions of
pounds into helping police
forces and local authorities
get the video technology.
Proponents of the cam
eras say they deter criminals
and aid investigations. Their
images, police say, were cru
cial in catching David
Copeland, the bomber who
targeted black, Asian and gay
Londoners last year.
Surveillance is getting
smarter and its reach greater.
The throngs of shoppers on
Oxford Street in London are
tracked by 16 cameras linked
to nearby Marylebone police
station.
Sally Humphreys, direc
tor of the Oxford Street
Association, says the system
has helped curb street crime
and theft.
According to Inspector
Allan Thompson of
Marylebone police, the sys
tem's record is mixed. In its
first six months after being
introduced in 1998, pick
pocketing fell by 44 percent,
street crime by 20 percent
and burglary by 11 percent.
But pickpocketing is back
to its pre-1998 level, while
street crime stands slightly
above the 1997 figure.
Thompson attributes the
change to criminals being
unaware of the cameras, and
to having fewer police on the
beat.
Davies traces Britain’s
embrace of CCTV to the
1980s, when cameras were
installed at soccer stadiums
to combat hooliganism.
From there, they spread to
surrounding areas and city
centers.
Davies argues that cam
eras don’t reduce crime, but
merely displace it, and do lit
tle to deter professional or
drug-fueled criminals.
Opponents of the tech
nology also argue the cam
eras are anything but neutral,
all-seeing eyes.
A study published in 1997
by researchers at Hull
University’s Center for
Criminology and Criminal
Justice found that camera
operators often selected their
targets based on racial preju
dice and voyeurism.
Local governments in the
United States have been
slower to adopt camera sur
veillance, says Robert Ellis
Smith of the Rhode Island
based newsletter Privacy
Journal.
He estimates that fewer
than 50 U.S. municipalities
have set up video surveil
lance in downtown areas.
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H *
Blockade removal allows refills
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PARIS - Blockades at
France’s oil refineries and
depots were lifted Sunday
and tankers began refilling
service stations after six
days of protests against
high taxes paralyzed fuel
distribution and stalled
planes, trains and
motorists.
The Interior Ministry
said that truckers and
farmers in western France
had removed their seven
holdout blockades by early
Sunday afternoon.
“Fuel tankers can
begin making deliveries,”
said Pierre Navaro, a min
istry spokesman. “We can
begin restocking immedi
v
ately.”
The removal of block
ades and the onset of fuel
distribution, however, was
not expected to immedi
ately ease the plight of
motorists.
LCI television reported
that in the southern city of
Marseille, 60 percent of
service stations remained
dry Sunday.
The news came as
OPEC members meeting
in Vienna, Austria, agreed
Sunday to boost the
group’s official oil output
by 800,000 barrels a day.
The decision came amid
mounting international
pressure on OPEC to
pump more oil to stem
surging fuel prices.
But as protests wound
down in France, unrest in
neighboring European
countries appeared to gain
momentum.
In Brussels, thousands
of truckers, taxi drivers
and tour bus operators
took to the streets to push
the government to recon
sider a lowering of fuel
taxes or a tax exemption
for the transportation
industry.
British truckers
blocked several refineries
and gas stations, causing
nationwide shortages.
About 100 Shell stations
ran out of fuel because of
the protest at a huge Shell
refinery in northeast
England.
v
World/Nation
The Associated Press
■New Mexico
Scientist to plead guilty
on nuclear charges
ALBUQUERQUE - Los
Alamos scientist Weir Ho Lee,
who was fired and jailed on
charges of mishandling nuclear
weapons secrets, has reached a
plea bargain in which he will
plead guilty to one charge and
cooperate with federal investi
gators, Justice Department
sources said.
Lee will plead guilty to one
felony count of unlawfully
retaining nuclear weapon
secrets, be sentenced to time
already served and be immedi
ately freed following a hearing,
according to two senior offi
cials, who spoke on condition of
anonymity.
The officials said Lee, who
has been jailed for nine months,
has agreed to provide informa
tion on seven missing computer
tapes with data on nuclear
weapons design and testing.
Three other tapes with informa
tion Lee allegedly downloaded
have been recovered.
■Siena Leone
British hostages freed
after repeated threats
FREETOWN - Launching a
dawn strike on a swampy base
belonging to a maverick army
gang, British troops ended a
two-week hostage drama
Sunday and freed all six British
officers and a Sierra Leonean
soldier held captive. One British
paratrooper was killed.
The rescue mission, author
ized by British Prime Minister
Tony Blair and Sierra Leone
President Ahmed Tejan Kabbah,
was carried out after the captors
"threatened repeatedly to kill
the hostages” in this war-rav
aged West African country,
British Defense Secretary Geoff
Hoon said.
Helicopter-borne British
paratroopers exchanged heavy
fire with the Sierra Leone rene
gades, the West Side Boys, at
their creekside base surround
ed by mangrove swamps and
jungle, British Chief of the
Defense Staff General Sir
Charles Guthrie said.
■Gaza Strip
Declaration of statehood
stalled by peace talks
GAZA CITY - The top
Palestinian policy-making body
on Sunday put off a declaration
of statehood for at least two
months, in a bid to give faltering
peace talks a chance, and called
for concrete measures to start
preparing for statehood.
The Palestinian Central
Council’s decision came after
two days of long-awaited
debate, although it was clear
that the current deadline of
Sept. 13 would be put off.
Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat had been under intense
international pressure not to
take a unilateral move that
could provoke violent conflict
with Israel.
Council chairman Salim
Zanoun said the body now
expects a progress report on
statehood by Nov. 15, the 12th
anniversary of a symbolic dec
laration of statehood-in-exile.
■Florida
Spacewalk to take place
after Atlantis return
CAPE CANAVERAL - Space
shuttle Atlantis cruised to a
smooth docking with the inter
national space station on
Sunday, setting the stage for the
next big event: a long-distance
spacewalk.
An American astronaut and
Russian cosmonaut were paired
up for the grueling climb up the
140-foot space station today to
lay cable and install a boom for
a navigation unit.
Edward Lu and Yuri
Malenchenko planned to ven
ture 110 feet from Atlantis’
cargo bay.
That’s more than twice as far
as the top of the Hubble Space
Telescope, where othei space
walking astronauts have
worked.