Candidates tackle spending limits
BY GEORGE GREEN
Big bucks from many contrib
utors are covering expensive tele
vision advertising bills in this
year’s Senate race.
These high-priced and nega
tive ads raise questions about
whether the campaign-finance
system needs to be reformed.
Nebraska’s senatorial candi
dates say some type of reform is
necessary to remedy campaign
spending problems.
Attorney General Don
Stenberg, the Republican candi
date, and former Gov. Ben Nelson,
the Democratic candidate, both
support the Kerrey-Hagel bill,
which changes the campaign
finance system.
Nebraska’s senators, Bob
Kerrey, whose seat Nelson and
Stenberg are battling for, and
Chuck Hagel, teamed to propose
the bill
Congress hasn’t acted on it
The bill would increase the
amount of money a candidate can
receive from contributors so peo
ple, instead of special interests,
can influence elections, said
Christine Vanderford, a spokes
woman for Stenberg.
It also places a cap of $60,000
per calendar year on the amount
of soft money a political party or
candidate can accept from con
tributors, making individual con
tributors more important, said
Marcia Cady, a spokeswoman for
Nelson.
Soft-money contributions are
unregulated donations by special
interest groups and other organi
zations that escape current cam
paign-finance laws.
“Stenberg believes that more
individual contributions mean
less need for soft money,”
Vanderford said.
Furthermore, she said, many
of the individual contributor
spending limits are based on old
information and need to be
updated.
Nelson also believes that more
individual contributions and less
money from special-interest
groups will translate into more
equitable elections, Cady said.
Nelson would go a step further
in restricting spending, Cady said,
by banning people who are not
U.S. citizens from making soft
money contributions.
The candidates, though,
maintain that spending soft
money in elections is a First
Amendment right and should not
be abolished.
“(Nelson) would defend the
First Amendment rights of issue
orientated groups to organize
political-action committees and
conduct independent expendi
tures ... as long as the ... groups
followed the letter and spirit of
laws,” Cady said.
Despite their theoretical
agreements about campaign
finance reform, the candidates
have clashed over soft money.
After Republican Sen. John
McCain of Arizona, a major pro
ponent of campaign-finance
reform, recommended stopping
soft money ads, Nelson suggested
both candidates stop running
their television spots paid for with
soft money, Cady said.
Stenberg knew soft money
was an important part of how his
campaign was run, so he didn’t
accept the offer, she said.
“We wanted (Stenberg) to stop
“Stenberg believes
that more individual
contributions mean
less need for soft
money."
Christine Vanderford
Stenberg spokeswoman
talking and do it,” she said.
Stenberg maintains things
happened differently.
When the campaign began,
Nelson didn’t want to stop using
soft money, Vanderford said.
But when Nelson learned how
much of an advantage he had in
soft-money contributions, he
decided to stop the ads because
he already had a big edge over
Stenberg in terms of dollars, she
said.
Stenberg didn’t accept
Nelson’s offer because he would
have been at a disadvantage
because of Nelson’s funding lead,
Vanderford said.
“It was a little late to change
the rules,” she said.
OSHA investigates trench collapse
HB ▼ Ounlr/w i r/>l BBHIHBHBHHHBH^BHBIHBBBBiBUBHBi^^HBBHBHilBBBH^BBHBI
■ iwo construction warners
were killed Monday when the
walls caved in.
BY JOSH FUNK
A trench collapse that killed
two men Monday evening is
under investigation by the
Occupational Safety and Health
Administration.
The construction company
could face penalties if the inves
tigation finds the trench was not
properly supported or the work
site was otherwise unsafe.
The two men were part of a
Skoda Construction company
crew repairing a sewer line near
27th Street and Interstate 80.
Skoda Construction officials
refused to comment Tuesday
while OSHA investigators visit
ed the now-quiet work site just
Louis Burchfield, 45, of
Gresham, and Gregory Matthes,
42, of Lincoln, were directing a
backhoe from inside the 12
foot-deep trench when the walls
collapsed at 5:09 p.m., officials
said.
Burchfield was partially
buried. Co-workers dug him out
within eight minutes, but he had
already had a heart attack,
Lincoln Police Capt. Jon
Sundermeier said.
Burchfield was taken to a
Lincoln hospital where he was
later pronounced dead.
Matthes remained buried
under five feet of dirt, and it took
45 minutes to free him,
Sundermeier said. Matthes was
pronounced dead at the scene.
Fears of another collapse
slowed rescue efforts.
OSHA Area Director Ben
“We have not maae any determination oft
violations. It will take several weeks to complete
the investigation
Ben Bare
OSHA area director
Bare said his investigators will
interview everyone who was at
the work site Monday.
“We have not made any
determination of violations,”
Bare said. “It will take several
weeks to complete the investi
gation."
OSHA guidelines require
trenches deeper than five feet to
have cave-in protections such
as shoring or sloping, Bare said.
Lincoln Fire Capt. Dustin
Morton said the walls of the
trench that collapsed Monday
had not been supported before
the accident.
Bare said construction com
panies must also make sure a
competent person, who knows
OSHA regulations, is at the job
site to inspect the trench daily
and ensure worker safety.
Employees also must be
trained, Bare said, and all of the
dirt removed from the trench
must be piled away from the
opening.
The Associated Press con
tributed to this report.
Grants fund youth education, health
BY JILL ZEMAN which brines troubled families
The University of Nebraska
Lincoln’s Center for Children,
Families and Law was given a $1
million boost through two
grants from the federal
Department of Health and
Human Services.
One grant will establish the
Midwest Child Care Policy
Research Partnership, which
will be based at the center.
The partnership will receive
$300,000 this year and $200,000
for each of the next two years,
pending congressional
approval.
The second grant will fund
the Adoption Opportunities
Demonstration Project, which
will focus on getting children
into permanent placements
more quickly.
The project will receive more
than $570,000 over three years.
The grant also will focus on
Family Group Conferencing,
together to find ways to protect
children, said Vicky Weisz,
research associate professor at
the center.
The conferences will include
family members, teachers,
counselors, social workers, cler
gy, doctors and state mediators
from the Department of Health
and Human Services, she said.
The conferences have
already been piloted in parts of
rural Nebraska, she said.
Douglas, Lancaster and
Sarpy counties will be targeted
by the project. More than 80 per
cent of the children in the state
who have been out of their
homes for more than 15 of the
previous 22 months are from
these counties.
The two grants are part of
more than $10 million awarded
federally for child care research.
"Increasing our knowledge
of what child care systems work
best and disseminating that
“It will be enjoyable. It’s needed in the state, and
it’s useful
Vicky Weisz
Center for Children, Families and Law associate professor
knowledge throughout the
country are important steps in
improving the quality of child
care,” said Donna Shalala, sec
retary of the U.S. Department of
Health and Human Services, in a
statement.
The center, at 121 S. 13^ St.,
was established in 1987 to han
dle interdisciplinary research,
teaching and public service on
child and family policy and
services.
The center, which is located
within the College of Arts and
Sciences, employs 43 full-time,
part-time and student workers.
Weisz said she was excited
about the opportunities the
grants fostered.
“It will be enjoyable,” she
said. “It’s needed in the state,
and it’s useful.”
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SENIORS
We’re offering you the opportunity to get your senior portrait taken by a professional
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For more information call us at 472-6248 or e-mail yearbook@unl.edu.
Speaker: Kosovo needed NATO
■MaurizioCremasco spoke
Tuesday at UNL, justifying force
under international law.
BY GWEN TIETGEN
With an Italian accent and a
powerful voice, Maurizio
Cremasco spoke to UNL stu
dents Tuesday about NATO’s
management of the 1998 Kosovo
crisis.
Cremasco is a scientific
adviser for security studies to the
Institute of International Affairs
in Rome, and he served as a
Fulbright professor for the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln
during the 1997 spring semester.
Cremasco said he wanted to
focus on answering two ques
tions: Why did the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization decide on
military intervention, and could
military intervention be legiti
mate under international law?
Cremasco said on March 23,
1999, there was thought to be
260.000 internally displaced per
sons within Kosovo, more than
100.000 internally displaced per
sons or refugees in the region and
more than 100,000 refugees and
asylum seekers outside of the
region.
To answer his two questions,
Cremasco said why he thought it
was vital that NATO decided to
intervene in Kosovo.
There was a human factor
involved, he said, and if some
thing was to be done to stop
President Slobodon Milosevic’s
ethnic cleansing, NATO military
action was the only option.The
United Nations Security Council
was ruled out because its hands
were tied with the veto power of
China and Russia, which were
against military action.
“With the NATO air strikes, 19
countries, 19 different govern
ments said they would agree to
the use of military force,”
Cremasco said.
"All 19 countries were
responsible to public opinion for
their decision, and they were able
to stick with their decision,” he
said.
Though Cremasco recog
nized the NATO air campaign
was not formally justified in
terms of international law, he
said because the rights of the
Kosovo Albanian population
were being violated, military
action can be seen as legitimate.
Shawna Muldoon, a sopho
more political science major, said
Cremasco was good at explaining
the opinion of the European
Union on NATO’s intervention.
“He was really concise about
his views and didn’t leave ques
“With the NATO air
strikes, 19 countries,
19 different
governments said
they would agree to
the use of military
force."
Maurizio Cremasco
Institute of International Affairs
tions unanswered,” Muldoon
said.
David Forsythe, political sci
ence professor, said Cremasco
was popular with his students
when he taught at UNL and
proved that, with his credentials,
“he knows his stuff.”
“I thought his speech was a
good overview. It was solid, ana
lytical and presented with great
interest and enthusiasm,"
Forsythe said.
Though Cremasco found the
Kosovo crisis very sad, he said
using force can sometimes be
seen as legitimate.
“NATO decided to make this
decision,” he said, “and in the
end, 1 million refugees returned
to their homes and were able to
start a normal life.”
Forum to address
national security
BYJILLZEMAN
The former director of the
Central Intelligence Agency will
appear on campus today to
speak about national security at
the onset of the 21st Century.
James Woolsey will be the
first lecturer to speak in the
2000-01 E.N. Thompson Forum
on World Issues at the University
of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Woolsey will speak at 3:30
p.m. at the Lied Center for
Performing Arts. The event will
be free and open to the public.
The lecture will also be
broadcast live on Channel 21 on
Lincoln cable television and on
the campus radio station, KRNU
(90.3 FM).
Woolsey has served in mat
ters related to national defense
for every president since Richard
Nixon, said Bob Nefsky,
Thompson foundation member.
Woolsey will speak about
Persian Gulf and Middle East
political issues, as well as alter
native sources of fuel, including
ethanol, he said.
“He’s probably as good of a
speaker as anyone who’s ever
spoken at the Thompson
Forum,” Nefsky said.
“This is a great opportunity
for people, especially students,
to learn more about important
issues."
Wayne Babchuk, member of
the Thompson Forum planning
committee, said Woolsey will
also speak to a political science
honors class today.
“He’s a very important per
son in the political arena in the
United States,” Babchuk said.
“We’re very excited he’s coming.”
The forum is funded prima
rily by the Cooper Foundation,
which was founded in 1934. It
was renamed in 1990 in honor of
E.N. Thompson, former chair
man of the foundation. UNL co
sponsors the series.
Four speakers are scheduled
to appear on campus for the
Thompson Forum this year. Last
year, the forum had six speakers,
and Babchuk said he hoped one
or two more people could be
scheduled to come to campus
this academic year.
David Forsythe, UNL Charles
J. Mach Distinguished Professor
of Political Science, will deliver a
lecture Nov. 28 entitled, "Justice
After Injustice: What Response
After Atrocities?”
On March 5, Sarah Blaffer
Hrdy, University of California at
Davis anthropology professor
will speak about how maternal
instincts shaped the human
species.
Rick Foster, vice president
for programs at the W.K. Kellogg
Foundation, will speak April 3 on
international food systems.
The speakers are selected by
the planning committee.
Sometimes, committee mem
bers will suggest a topic rather
than a speaker, and other times,
someone from outside the com
mittee will suggest a speaker,
Babchuk said.
Babchuk said he thought the
Thompson series was the best
lecture series at UNL
" We’re really proud of it,” he
said.
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