Candidates debate agriculture issues
DEBATE from page 1
by a quarter a bushel,” Jacobsen
said.
Bereuter said that while he
supports the expansion of the
ethanol market, he also believes
focusing on foreign markets and
exporting agricultural products
are key facets to reducing the
farming surplus. But, he said he
did not believe the “solution to
all our problems” lies in export
ing.
“Our livestock sector has a
lot to gain,” he said. "There’s no
consensus in what farmers and
farm organizations want to do.”
Both candidates agreed fam
ily is one of the most important
aspects of societal morality.
“I think that the most impor
tant area for concern afiways is
the family,” Bereuter said. "We
need to do everything we can to
enforce family in society.”
Jacobsen agreed, adding that
the government must also focus
on ending teen violence and
helping kids that are "lost, angry
and alone.”
Both candidates cited
Hollywood as a teen aggressor.
“We must address youth vio
lence,” Jacobsen said. "Kids are
getting out of school and going
home to no one.”
The candidates also spoke
on the growing Hispanic com
munity, addressing the need for
better restriction of illegal immi
gration - including easier meth
ods of legal immigration - and
the necessity of teaching English
to Hispanic students.
“With children coming in,
it’s important that we help the
children and youth move into
English as soon as possible,”
Bereuter said.
Both Bereuter and Jacobsen
support Initiative 416, the
Defense of Marriage Act, though
only Jacobsen signed a petition
to declare his support.
“I believe in marriage
between one woman and one
man,” Jacobsen said. “It's wrong
for two people to go to another
state (to get married). It's not
about discrimination.”
The candidates had different
approaches on the issue of
international relations and for
eign aid, with Jacobsen focusing
on more local forms of assis
tance.
“I think that there are things
we can do here locally at home,”
he said, proposing the creation
of federal grants for local
research to end world hunger.
Bereuter said he favored
spreading federal funds to more
countries, rather than giving “40
to 50 percent of aid to two coun
tries.”
"If we are to be a leader in the
world, we need to be able to do
things to assist people abroad,”
Bereuter said.
“We need to... make sure we
work together on drug control,
terrorism,” he said.
The debate will air again on
NETV2 on Wednesday at 9 p.m.,
Thursday at 11 a.m. and 3:30
p.m. and Sunday at 4:30 p.m.
23-year-old embroiled in battle for district seat
ERDMAN from page 1
equipped to deal with agricul
tural issues because of his first
hand farm experience.
"My opponent says I don’t
have a real job,” he said. "I’m a
family farmer. I’m offended by
that.”
Matzke said he made no
such statement
“He doesn’t have too much
respect for the truth,” he said.
Another controversial issue
is the University of Nebraska
Medical Center’s use of fetal tis
sue from elective abortions in
research designed to pursue
cures for Alzheimer’s disease,
Parkinson’s disease and AIDS
related dementia.
When the Legislature voted
to bring a bill banning fetal tis
sue research to the floor, Matzke
abstained.
“I refrained from voting
because I didn’t believe I could
support bringing a bill to the
floor of the Legislature that was
clearly unconstitutional,” he
said.
£ Matzke said the bill violated
the Nebraska State Constitution,
which gives sole governing
authority of the University of
Nebraska to the Board of
Regents. The Regents voted 7-0
to continue the research.
Erdman sharply criticized
Matzke’s vote, saying Matzke
assumed it was unconstitutional
before judges had a chance to
rule on it
“He assumed the bill only
applied to the University of
Nebraska,” he said. “It didn’t. It
applied to the state of Nebraska.
“I’m the only pro-life candi
date in this race. He doesn’t say
he’s pro-life. He says he’s anti
abortion.”
But Matzke, whose son, Jay
Matzke, is seeking election to the
fifth district seat on the Board of
Regents, defended his decision.
“In principle I oppose abor
tion, but it’s up to the Board of
Regents to decide what research
to undertake,” he said.
“(Erdman) has no understand
ing of the constitutional issues.
There’s no way you could have a
constitutional bill where the
Legislature can tell the universi
ty what to do.”
Erdman said Matzke’s
abstention was an example of a
lack of respect for the state’s anti
abortion rights organizations.
“Since it's a public university
funded by public money, if the
public opposes the morality of
what’s going on there, he should
speak against it,” he said. “You’re
either for us, or you’re against
us.”
Matzke said the most impor
tant issue in the race was the
candidates’ differences on phi
losophy of taxation.
He fiercely criticized a state
ment Erdman made during a
recent debate.
According to a Nebraska
Public Radio transcript, Erdman
said the federal income tax was
“probably unconstitutional”
because it violated the Fifth
Amendment's protection
against self-incrimination. He
continued:
“I would favor more a
national sales tax with a total
abolishment of the income tax.”
Matzke condemned
Erdman’s statement as a radical
argument rejected numerous
times by courts. He said such a
policy would also force the abol
ishment of the state income tax.
“The effect of that tax policy
would be to virtually emasculate
the state tax support system,” he
said.
Erdman said his comments
were taken out of context. He
said he was arguing abstractly
about the Founding Fathers’
original intentions, and he said
such a tax policy would not be
practical today.
He said he would have no
control over those issues as a
state senator, and he said he did
not favor the abolishment of the
state income tax.
“I’ve got an opponent who’s
got a seven-year record,"
Erdman said. "The only thing he
can bring against me is that I
may have misspoken sometime.
I think this campaign is on the
issues and solutions. I have yet
to hear him come up with a solu
tion for anything."
But Matzke said voters
should consider Erdman’s "pre
posterous” proposal when vot
ing.
“He’s not accepting responsi
bility for what he said,” Matzke
said. “It shows a very reckless,
radical approach to govern
ment.”
Matzke, who was appointed
in 1993 and re-elected in 1994
and 1996, said his constituents
should value his experience and
fair-mindedness.
“I think the issue is who has
the experience to understand
what the issues really are and
how they're going to affect peo
ple in our area,” he said.
But Erdman said he would
bring new energy to the seat.
"My political baptism, if you
will, has been outstanding,” he
said. “We need solutions to
problems, not rhetoric. I’ll be
accessible to my constituents. I
won’t tell them just what they
want to hear. I’ll be honest with
them. They see my age, enthusi
asm and grasp of the issues as a
huge asset.”
Privacy goes global with computer tracking
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK—Imagine walk
ing by aStarbucks in an unfamiliar
city. Your cell phone rings, and a
coupon for coffee pops up on its
screen, good only at that location.
How did your phone know
you were even near that particular
Starbucks? What else does it know
about you?
Enter location tracking, com
ing to a mobile device near you.
Features that one day can pin
point your whereabouts to within
the length of a football field raise
enormous privacy concerns, but
they also offer enormous benefits.
The challenge will be deter
mining where to draw the line.
Consider a technology to be
unveiled today. Called Digital
Angel, a microchip worn close to
the body promises to record a per
son’s biological parameters and
send distress signals during med
ical emergencies.
But misused, these types of
capabilities could amount to vir
tual stalking.
Cell phones, handheld
devices, even car navigation sys
tems will soon have detailed
tracking abilities, if they do not
already. Services could begin
appearing within a year or so.
Much of the drive will come
from a federal law that requires
cell phones to identify callers’
locations to speed 911 emergency
responses. If the industry has to
install expensive equipment any
way, why not also use it to make
money?
“There's going to be a dramat
ic increase in the amount of track
ing that’s made possible, in part by
services they don’t know they
have,” said Daniel J. Weitzner of
the World Wide Web Consortium,
which sets technical standards for
the Web.
Such tracking will let someone
visit a Web site and automatically
get weather, movie showings or
neighborhood restaurants, based
on their current location. If they're
lost, they will be able to ask for
turn-by-turn directions. Those
short of cash can be pointed to die
nearest bank machine.
But if the information is
stored, location tracking could
result in a 24-hour-a-day record of
a person’s whereabouts.
So what if a divorce lawyer
wants to check if someone's been
cheating, or if a social service
agent wants to know how many
times a person has visited a candy
store with his child?
“You have to ask, ‘Who gets
how much information?”’ said
Jason Catlett, chief executive of
Junkbusters Corp., a non-profit
privacy monitoring group in
Green Brook, N.J.
“Telephone records are rou
tinely subpoenaed. They can be
very intrusive, but far more intru
sive is a complete logofyourphys
ical movement”
But companies looking to gain
business from location tracking
insist that the worst-case scenar
ios presented are impractical to
implement in reality.
“There’s no way a database is
large enough or cost effective for
Starbucks to monitor everyone’s
location on the offchance they can
acquire a customer,” said Jason
Devitt chief executive ofVindigo,
which offers 11 city guides
through Palm organizers.
Lee Hancock, founder and
chief executive of go2 Systems
Inc., said any short-term gains
from such tactics would be offset
by losses if they alienate cus
tomers.
Leading wireless and adverbs
There’s going to be a dramatic increase in the
amount of tracking that’s made possible, in part
by services they don’t know they have.”
Daniel J. Weitzner
World Wide Web Consortium
ing companies agree that they
must tread carefully because
mobile devices are inherently
more personal than desktop com
puters.
Jonathan Fox, director of busi
ness development at advertising
company Engage Inc., says loca
tion-based profiles would not
carry names and other personal
information.
In many ways, a person’s
whereabouts are already being
tracked.
Employee security cards
record when people enter build
ings. Discount grocery programs
track what people buy, where and
when. Electronic toll-payment
systems know when someone
traverses a tunnel or bridge.
Current phones can pinpoint
callers to a few miles by determin
ing the location of the cell tower
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used to handle the call.
PalmVII organizers use simi
lar techniques to narrow a user to
a particular zip code, and an
optional global-positioning
receiver can pinpoint that person
even further.
Marketers can also get clues
from the items people search for
or the sites they visit - a city guide,
for instance, tells in what city a
person is likely located or where
they plan to visit
UNL professor finds
'sword'size matters
FISH from page 1
specially sectioned tank and
monitored by a remote video
camera.
While in the observation
tank, the female is shown a
series of images that feature a
prerecorded male displaying
courting behavior. During the
video-watching session, the
female is shown the same male
fish. But each time she sees him,
he is sporting a different digital
ly altered sword.
With computer imaging,
Basolo and her research team
can change portions of the
sword and use these altered
images to test female behavior.
In the next room, the
researchers watch a remote
monitor and measure the
amount of time the female
spends attending to each por
tion of the video.
Specifically, Basolo looks at
how altering the length and
color of the sword affects female
response.
“Female swordtails prefer
males with longer swords,"
Basolo said.
The female fish is more like
ly to respond to the video of a
male with a long sword versus
an intermediate or short sword,
Basolo said.
But size isn’t all that matters,
she said. Basolo also has investi
gated the influence of color. Her
work shows that females prefer
males with black striped swords
versus swords without any
stripes.
In examining the evolution
of this sexual preference, Basolo
has investigated species related
to swordtails but lacking
swords. In three related species,
Basolo has found that when
artificial swords are attached to
these non-sworded species, the
females prefer the males with
swords over fish that do not
have swords.
Prior to the use of computer
imaging, these artificial swords
had to be surgically attached to
male fish. But with the video
playback method, Basolo and
her research team can digitally
alter the image of a male fish
and play it back for a watching
female.
“There are a number of pos
sibilities for why females prefer
long swords,” Basolo said. “It
may be that the longer sword
simply makes the male easier to
detect in the environment.”
In a twist to the bigger is bet
ter phenomenon, Basolo'said
she has found that female pref
erence changes when a predator
is involved.
jerry jonnson, a post-doc
torate biologist who assists
Basolo, said that when a female
who has previously preferred
males with long swords is
shown a video where such a
male is being pursued by a pred
ator, the female has a change of
preference.
The research has shown that
after seeing the long-sworded
male being chased, the females
then prefer short-sworded
males.
When doing predator-ori
ented research, video playback
has some definite advantages,
Johnson said. The pretaped
sequence enables the
researchers to give a consistent
presentation.
Also, with some creative
video editing, Johnson said, the
predator isn't shown eating the
male prey. After the swordtail
and predator exit the screen, the
predator returns, this time
alone - and chewing.
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