I
Tuesday
October 3,2000
Volume 100
Issue 32
dailyneb.com
Since 1901
ZM/ifMebraskan
Columnist Karen Brown has been
called a hippie, whatever that
means, and Tony Bock thinks
bicyclists should be banned
In Opinion/4
UNL’s literary
magazine a forum
for undergraduate
creativity
In Arts/8
Dave Story pulls
himself up the
dimbingwallin
the Campus
Recreation
Center on
Monday. Story, a
junior news-edi
torial major, b
going to
Antarctica for
six months to
work for
Raytheon,a
company that
specializes in
electronics and
radar equip
ment
On latest adventure,
UNL student ventures
to coldest continent
for six-month stint
David Qasen/DN
BY GEORGE GREEN
v
Later this month, Dave Story
will leave Lincoln for the coldest,
windiest and driest continent in
the world: Antarctica.
No one is forcing Story to
leave Lincoln's comfortable fall
weather for the sub-zero tem
peratures of the world’s most
southern continent.
I
Story, a junior news-editorial
major, applied to work on the
continent for six months.
He will work for Raytheon, a
research company that special
izes in electronics and radar
equipment.
The Antarctic research cen
ter is funded by the company
and the National Science
Foundation’s Office of Polar
Programs. The goal of the pro
gram is to advance polar science
research.
Story will be a manual labor
er for the company, fixing equip
ment and digging holes for con
struction.
“It’s a gopher job with manu
al laborer attached,” he said.
Story said he enjoys the out
doors and wanted to do some
thing that would take him to a
new place, as well as put some
money in his pocket.
He will work near McMurdo
Station, where the mean annual
temperature is zero degrees.
To reach McMurdo, Story will
spend eight hours flying from
New Zealand in a cargo plane.
Please see ANTARCTICA on5
Med Center cuts
abortion doctor
from its faculty
BYJILLZEMAN
The University of Nebraska
Medical Center’s College of
Medicine has trimmed down
its list of volunteer faculty, and
one of the unpaid helpers get- *
ting cut is LeRoy Carhart.
Carhart, a Bellevue abor
tion provider, told the Omaha
World-Herald he received a let
ter from UNMC seeking to
remove him from its volunteer
faculty.
Carhart declined to com
ment on the issue Monday.
His attorneys at the Center
for Reproductive Law and
Policy in New York also would
not comment on Carhart’s
potential removal.
Carhart has worked as a
volunteer since 1997 in
UNMC’s microbiology and
pathology department.
He also has provided
aborted fetal tissue to the
Medical Center to use for
research in treatments of
Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s
diseases.
UNMC’s research sparked
debate across the state last fall,
and particularly strong oppo
sition has come from anti
abortion rights groups.
Tom O’Connor, UNMC
spokesman, would not com
ment about whether Carhart
was asked to step down as a
volunteer for the Medical
Center.
“It’s a confidentiality situa
tion," he said.
Despite the controversy
surrounding Carhart,
O’Connor said that more than
200 volun- ‘
teers are
being cut
because sev
eral people
on the list no
longer par
ticipate, have
retired or
have moved
out of the
area.
B u t
O’Connor
said the col
lege is focus
ing more on
recognizing
outstanding
volunteers
rather than
just cutting
inactive
helpers. 1
The col
lege, which
‘The
timing of
this
makes it
appear
as just a
... ploy to
try to get
the
regents
reelect
ed:"
Bob Blank
Metro Right
to Life
president
has more than 1,100 volunteer
faculty members in 18 depart
ments, is the largest at UNMC.
The recommendations,
announced by James
Armitage, dean of the College
of Medicine, are the result of a
Please see MED CENTER on 5
Abortion-pill
reactions mixed
BY VERONICA DAEHN
Reaction on Monday to the
FDA’s approval of the so-called
abortion pill was mixed - three
days after the federal agency
approved RU-486 for use in
the United States.
John Keller, director of
patient services at Lincoln’s
Planned Parenthood, said the
organization had been hoping
for the decision for a long
time.
“Because the majority of
the free world has been using
this for awhile, it’s always been
surprising that the U.S. has
been so far behind,” Keller
said.
RU-486, or mifepristone,
has been in use in Europe for
the last 10 years. Clinical trials
of the pill began in the United
States five years ago.
The pill is 95 percent effec
tive in terminating a pregnan
cy if taken within the first nine
weeks.
The FDA approval of the
pill means mifepristone, sold
by New York's Danco
Laboratories as Mifeprex,
could be available to doctors
by the end of the month.
Keller said approval of the
pill marked a historic moment
for women’s health care.
“It’s another option for
women and their families,”
Keller said. “This means
women can terminate preg
nancies safely and effectively
earlier.”
Bob Blank, president of
Metro Right to Life, said his
group was disappointed that
the pill was approved.
“It will cause more abor- -
tions and make abortions
available in places they’re not
available in now,” Blank said.
Surgical abortions are typi
cally done during or after the
sixth week of pregnancy, Keller
said. With RU-486, a woman
can abort the fetus as soon as
she realizes she is pregnant, he
said.
According to the Food and
Drug Administration’s Web
site, mifepristone blocks prog
esterone, a hormone neces
sary for pregnancy. Without
*that hormone, the embryo
cannot stay attached to the
uterine wall, and it is aborted.
Keller said a pill-induced
abortion would likely cost
more than a surgical one
because it requires more time
and more staff.
Please see PILL on 5
Nebraska law may nullify Lincoln's sexual-contact ordinance
■A federal judge heard
arguments on the Mataya's
Babydolls owner's assertion
the city rule is too vague.
BYJOSH FUNK
Under state law, Lincoln’s
two sexual-contact bans could
be voided if a federal judge
decides the city was regulating
an obscene performance.
Only the state can regulate
obscene material and live per
formances, and counsel for
Mataya’s Babydolls argued
Monday that state law should
nullify the city's ordinances.
Chief City Prosecutor John
McQuinn countered that the
state law does not apply because
the city’s sexual-contact ordi
nances restrict specific conduct,
not obscenity.
In Monday’s trial, the city’s
first ordinance restricting sexual
contact was challenged as overly
broad and vague by the majority
owner of Mataya’s Babydolls
Gentlemen’s Theatre Club.
After hearing evidence from
both sides, U.S. District Court
Judge Warren Urbom said he
would consider the matter and
issue a ruling later.
Urbom issued a preliminary
injunction in March that pro
hibited the city from enforcing
the first ordinance.
In April the city repealed the
first sexual-contact ordinance
and passed a revised version in
its place. That revised law is
being challenged on similar
grounds in a separate lawsuit,
but the court has not blocked
the enforcement of that law.
Urbom did not allow
Mataya's attorney, Bill Chapin,
to argue for monetary damages
in this case, even though Chapin
offered evidence that, a David
City man, Steven Dvorak, had
offered $1.3 million for the club.
The offer was withdrawn after
the city mounted its regulatory
campaign.
Only two witnesses,
Mataya’s owner John Ways Jr.
and Lincoln Police Chief Tom
Casady, took the stand during
the trial. Urbom agreed to con
sider all of the evidence present
ed when Ways first petitioned
for the preliminary injunction.
On the stand, Ways said he
didn’t know what the ordinance
banned.
“Yes (the law would prohibit
lap dancing), for the same rea
son it would prohibit a child sit
ting on his grandpa’s lap in
McDonald’s,” Ways said.
Ways then rattled off a long
list of activities he thought the
law would apply to including
ballet, kissing in public,
Nebraska football, gynecologi
cal exams and others.
During cross-examination,
McQuinn challenged Ways’
understanding of the law and
said the law applies only to con
tact that “can reasonably be
construed as being for the pur
pose of sexual arousal or sexual
gratification of either party or
any observer.”
Casady’s testimony rein
forced the city’s position that the
sexual-contact ban applies only
Please see ORDINANCE on 5
