Wednesday
November 1,2000
Volume 100
Issue 51
dailyneb.com
Since 1901
,
The Daly Nebraskan shares la
picks for House, regents soots
In Opinion/4
Ifs tournament time for
the soccer team. NU
hopes it’s championship
time.
In SportsWednesday/10
An inexperienced cast
cuts its teeth in the
Theatrix performance of
“Bad Girts”
In Arts/8
Truly coming home
Alumni visit alma mater for week's activities
BYJULZEMAN
The meaning of
Homecoming - to come home -
can sometimes get pushed aside
in the frenzy of die display-build
ing, banner-making and Husker
celebrating activities of the week.
But those alumni who do
choose to make the trek to
Lincoln often center their events
on another home of sorts -
Memorial Stadium.
• Ed Paquette, executive direc
tor of die University of Nebraska
Lincoln Alumni Association, said
many former Huskers who come
to Lincoln are the ones who usu
ally attend the home football
games throughout the season
anyway.
But for the Husker faithful
who come to Lincoln specifically
for Homecoming Week, the
Alumni Association targets them
with a plethora of events.
“Homecoming is a big,
important time,” Paquette said.
“We see a lot of alums coming
bade as early as Wednesday.”
“We work in lots of different ways to bring a
community on campus, and that can’t be done
in just one week.”
James Griesen
vice chancellor for student affairs
Paquette said alumni support
during Homecoming has been
“tremendous,” and UNUs festivi
ties are as good as anywhere in the
country.
James Griesen, vice chancel
lor for student affairs, said it may
not seem like a lot of alumni come
to their alma mater because most
people would rather come back
to spend time with a group of
their college friends.
Fbr example, reunions tend to
draw large crowds because alum
ni can see people they knew, as
opposed to Homecoming where
an alumnus may not see anyone
he or she knows.
Emily Millard, assistant direc
tor of alumni relations, said this
year, 12 players from the 1941
r
Husker football team who played
in the Rose Bowl will be reunited
Friday at the Wick Alumni Center.
AU hope is not lost for alumni
who can’t make the sojourn to
Lincoln: the Alumni Association
has something in store for them,
too.
This year marks the debut of a
Web site, www.zhuskers.com,
filled with university news and
history, along with information
about the Homecoming royalty
candidates.
And even though they won’t
be able to stroll Greek Row to
observe the Homecoming floats,
absent alumni can vote via the
Internet for their favorite dis
Please see EVENTS on 3
Professors
brother hurt
in fighting
■Andrew Wedeman learned Tuesday that his
brother had been shot while covering the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict for CNN.
BYJOSHFUNK
When UNL professor Andrew Wedeman
learned his brother had been shot Tuesday while
reporting on conflicts in the Middle East, he sim
ply called his brother’s cell phone.
Ben Wedeman, CNN bureau chief in Cairo,
answered the phone from his Gaza Strip hospital
room where he was already up and walking a few
hour& after a bullet entered his lower back and
exited his side.
“Actually talking to him, you’d hardly know he’d
been shot," said the University of Nebraska
Lincoln political science assistant professor.
Tuesday morning, Ben Wedeman was covering
the fighting between Palestinians and Israelis near
the Kami crossing point between Gaza and Israel
when he was shot
In an interview Ben Wedeman gave to CNN
from his hospital room Tuesday afternoon, he said
he and his crew had just set up near an olive grove
before the shooting started.
“It was relatively quiet,” Ben Wedeman told
CNN. "I didn't see anyone throwing stones. Clearly
there had been some sort of exchange earlier.”
Ben Wedeman, 41, told his older brother that
two CNN crews were caught in the crossfire when
the fighting started, and Israeli tanks were firing in
the reporters’ direction.
Pinned down by gunfire, Ben Wedeman waited
for a break in the firing to grab his tripod and with
draw, he told CNN. When the firing diminished,
Ben Wedeman stood up and was shot in the back.
“I felt as if someone had just hit me in the lower
right-hand side of my back with a sledgehammer,”
Ben Wedeman told his network.
Andrew Wedeman said his brother's global cell
phone came in handy during the confusion.
“When he was shot, the other (CNN crew) did
n’t know what happened, so they called him (Ben
Wedeman) on his cell phone,” Andrew Wedeman
said. “That's how they found out he was shot”
Mideast
LMelee
tsunng continued i
between Israelis and
Palestinians in the Gaza
Strip Tuesday, CNN
correspondent Ben Wedemann was shot in the back,
through not fatally. Wedeman’s brother Andrew is a
UNL political science assistant professor.
Melanie Falk/DN
Ben Wedeman, who was wearing a helmet and
bullet-proof vest when he was shot, was taken to a
Gaza City hospital.
Andrew Wedeman said his brother was sup
posed to be transferred to an Israeli hospital
Wednesday and then to London later this week.
Ben Wedeman probably won't know how long
he will be away from work until doctors in London
examine the wounds, hfe brother Andrew said, but
“if it was up to him, he’d be back in Gaza.”
Intense fighting at the Kami border crossing
left four Palestinians dead and another critically
injured, Gaza hospital officials said. Thirty-four
days of fighting have left 147 people dead, most of
them Palestinians.
Ben Wedeman has been with CNN since 1994
and has been covering the struggling peace
process and conflicts between Israelis and
Palestinians extensively since fighting renewed in
October.
Some people may question the wisdom of
walking into an area where fighting is ongoing, but
Ben Wedeman told CNN that he takes every cau
tion he can. For Ben Wedeman, the danger is
sometimes part of the job.
"If you’re not a journalist, you would think to go
anywhere near these places you’ve got to be not
Please see WEDEMAN on 3
David dasen/DN
YUM, YUM: Erin Rke, 6, readies for a cookie Tuesday night while trick-or-treating with her mom, Samantha Rice, at Love Memorial
Hall on East Campus Tuesday night Rke took her children to the hall because she thought it would be a safe environment.
Weird weather baffles state
■The National Weather Service says though
Nebraskans may have found Tuesday's tornado
warnings odd,they must remember: It's Nebraska.
BY BRADLEY DAVIS
Tornado warnings on Halloween?
The seemingly weird weather-patterns that
moved through the area Tuesday were expected to
continue through most of today, the National
Weather Service reported.
But even though storm sirens in October might
seem bizarre, it’s not all that odd to have severe
weather this time of the year, a National Weather
Service meteorologist said.
After all, this is Nebraska: tornado warnings
one day and snow plows the next.
“Since we’re in a transition (of seasons,) you
can get almost anything,” said Dave Fobert, a
meteorologist at the National Weather Service in
Valley.
Fobert said Tuesday’s weird weather was
caused by warm, moist air and a strong upper
level system traveling over the southwest part of
the state. The tipper-level system destabilized the
atmosphere, which produced severe weather.
Though tornado warnings were issued for
parts ofWestem Kansas and Southwest Nebraska,
no tornadoes were reported to have actually
touched down.
There were reports of severe thunderstorms
with heavy rain also throughout the state.
Today’s weather probably won’t be as spooky
as yesterday’s Halloween storms, Fobert said,
though rain is possible at least until the evening.
Even though tornado warnings aren't seasonal
commonplace, Fobert said people should always
be on their guard when it comes to storms.
“Usually, you don't expect it at this time of the
year, but they still need to watch out for the severe
weather, he said.
Lincoln’s high Tuesday was 77 degrees, which
was unseasonably warmer than the normal Oct. 31
high of 59.
Despite the looming thunderstorm threat, rain
measured at Lincoln’s airport reached only .02 of
an inch. > '
Though it’s nearing winter, most sweaters will
stay packed in drawers with today’s temperature
expected to reach 65 to 70 degrees.
'A trail of two cities'to connect Omaha, Lincoln
■ A new bridge linking hiker and biker
paths will be built over the Platte.
BY GEORGE GREEN
Nebraska's two largest cities will be
only a bike ride apart thanks to the woric of
local government agencies and trail
groups.
The final steps were taken Oct. 25 in
building the Platte River Connection, a
nearly half-mile-long hiker and biker
bridge across the Platte River.
The plans were solidified when the
Lower Platte South Natural Resource
District Board approved a $2.3 million bid
to build the bridge, said Glenn Johnson,
general manager of the Lower Platte South
NRD.
The Lower Platte South NRD teamed
with the Papio-Missouri NRD, the state
Game and Parks Commission, the
Nebraska Trails Foundation and the Great
Plains Trails Network to plan and pay for
the bridge, he said.
Located near South Bend, the connec
tion will eventually link hiker and biker
trails from Omaha and Lincoln.
"It’s the trail of two cities,” said Rich
Rodenbuigf president of the Great Plains
Tails Network, a not-for-profit trail advo
cacy group.a
Construction workers won’t actually
build a new bridge to link the two cities,
Johnson said.
Instead, he said, they will renovate an
old Rock Island Railroad bridge, which
was last used for trains in 1981.
Steve Oltmans, general manager of
the Papio-Missouri NRD, said work to ren- v
ovate the tracks will begin in mid
November. He said it would open to the
public in the summer of2002.
Currently, the MoPac East trail, which
begins in Lincoln, extends to Elmwood,
has a further extension to Wabash under
construction, Johnson said. A 7-mile sec
tion from Wabash to South Bend is not
developed yet, so bikers will use designat
ed county roads until the trail is complete,
he said.
On the other side of the river, develop
ers are working to secure area for the trail
and to raise money for construction,
Oltmans said.
Fortunately, he said, most of the
money for the bridge and part of the trail
project has already been raised.
To pay for the project, Oltmans said,
each NRD received a $500,000 grant from
the Department of Roads.
Each agency will also hand over an
additional $300,000 for the project, he
said.
The remaining money will be raised
by the Great Plains 'frail Network and the
Nebraska Trails Foundation, groups that
work to raise money for hiker and biker
trails, Rodenburg said.
Rodenburg said his group is talking to
businesses and foundations to solicit
donations, but is taking donations from
individuals, too.
The Nebraska TYails Foundation is also
looking for all the money it can get, said
Ross Greathouse, president of the group.
“We are looking for any spare change,”
he said.
Greathouse said his group is also plan
ning and raising money to extend the
MoPac trail to City Campus.
The extension will connect both UNL
campuses, as well bring Lincoln and
Please see BRIDGE on 3
