i .
Abel Residence Had room
catches fire; sprinkler turns on
A Monday morning fire in an
Abel Residence Hall room caused
extensive damage before the
automatic sprinkler system
extinguished the flames.
University Police and city fire
investigators were still investigat
ing the fire’s cause Monday and a
damage estimate was unavail
able, police Assistant Chief Mylo
Bushing said.
No one was in the fourth
. floor room at the time of the fire.
One of the room’s occupants was
staying next door, and her room
mate bad not returned to Lincoln
from a weekend trip.
Two freshmen cited for MIP
in Harper Residence Hall
Two UNL freshman were
ticketed for possessing alcohpl as
minors after police spotted
liquor bottles in their Harper
Residence Hall room early
Monday.
A University Police officer
was called to the fifth floor of
Harper shortly after 1 a.m. to
investigate the liquor bottles,
Bushing said.
The officer asked the room’s
two 19-year-old residents if he
could come in and then spotted
the bottles still with traces of
alcohol.
The men denied having any
other alcohol in the room until
the officer asked to search,
Bushing said. Then they opened
the fridge to reveal a 1.75-liter
bottle of vodka and two bottles of
Mike’s Hard Lemonade.
Bradley Osborne and Wesley
Hanson were cited for minor in
possession of alcohol.
Junior-high students
charged with assault on bus
TWo teen-agers were caught
on tape body-slamming an older
boy on a Hickman school bus
Friday morning.
Bill Jarrett, chief deputy for
the Lancaster County Sheriff’s
office, said the 14- and 13-year
old boys were cited for third
degree assault after the bus’s
camera recorded their attack on a
15-year-old boy.
The three boys were on their
way to junior high school.
Compiled by Josh Funk
Rosie to say goodbye
to show in two years
■The talk show host told
Today's Katie Couric she would
stop at the end of her contract.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — Rosie
O'Donnell may be gaining a mag
azine, but losing her talk show.
The daytime talk show host,
during a "Today" show appear
ance to promote her new associa
tion with McCall’s magazine,
hedged at first but then indicated
she would end “The Rosie
O’Donnell Show" when her con
tract expires in spring2002.
A sensation upon its debut in
1996, O’Donnell’s show has
sagged in die ratings this year, and
the one-time Queen of Nice has
been in a few political dustups.
She is committed to her show
through the next season.
She told NBC’s Katie Couric
on Friday that she was “leaning
toward” not continuing
“Why don't you just say, ‘I’m
not going to do if?” Couric said.
“Then you’d really make news this
morning”
O'Donnell replied: “All right,
Fm not going to do it”
Couric gave O’Donnell a
chance to escape, saying she did
n't want to pressure her into mak
ing a decision too early. O’Donnell
didn't bade down, and said that an
announcement is expected in
January.
“Warner Brothers has been
wonderful to me,” she said. “They,
of course, would love for me to
continue.
“Ifs beneficial to me, as it is to
them. But at some point you have
to make those decisions in your
life.”
Scott Rowe, spokesman for
show syndicators Warner
Brothers Television, said that the
company never discusses con
tract negotiations, “but we’re
hopeful that Rosie will return.”
Laura Mandel, a spokeswoman
for the show, said, “Our stance is
that nothing’s been decided.”
O’Donnell was a dear third in
the talk show ratings pecking
order behind Oprah Winfrey and
Jerry Springer as recently as this
spring. But this fall, her ratings
have dropped by 19 percent, and
she has slipped behind Regis
Philbin and Maury Povich into a
tie for fifth with Montel Williams.
"The show is aging and it’s los
ing steam,” said Marc Berman, an
analyst for Media Week Online.
It's always possible O’Donnell
could be threatening to leave in
order to negotiate a better deal,
said Bill Carroll, an expert on TV
syndication for the Katz Television
Group.
But while many TV station
owners once considered
O’Donnell an heir apparent to
Winfrey, now most expect Winfrey
to outlast her, he said. Winfrey
recently signed a new contract
that will keep her on the air
through at least 2004.
O’Donnell has become more
politically active in Democratic
causes and last year engaged in a
tense on-air debate on gun con
trol with Tom Selleck. A day before
the election this month, she gave
Barbra Streisand a platform to
promote Gore's candidacy.
Streisand said O’Donnell’s syndi
cators didn't like the idea.
Some stations have been con
cerned about O’Donnell's politi
cal activism, Carroll said. “No one
wants her to not express her feel
ings, but at the same time, that’s
not necessarily the best format for
it,” he said.
O’Donnell told Couric that
she began doing the show
because it was a convenient
schedule for her young children.
Now, she said she is concerned
that it’s hindering her ability to be
a good parent, since strangers
often approach them in public.
“The main impetus for doing
the show was my children,” she
said. “And if I did stop doing the
show, that would be the impetus,
as well, because I enjoy it very
much. It’s been more fulfilling
than I ever thought.”
I New Jersey mobster turns witness
■ Boss Ralph Natale testified about
alleged governmental corruption in a trial
against the mayor of Camden, N J.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CAMDEN, N.J. - Mob boss Ralph Natale
used code names when he talked on the tele
phone. Whenever he discussed Mafia busi
ness at his apartment, he would crank up the
TV or the radio.
At his “office” - a restaurant at a racetrack
- he would whisper or take associates for a
walk down the hall.
Natale said he was "paranoid” about
being bugged.
“And I was right because I’m sitting here,”
he said earlier this month, eliciting chuckles
from a standing-room-only crowd in the
federal courtroom where he testified for the
government in the corruption trial of
Camden Mayor Milton Milan.
The former boss of the Philadelphia
South Jersey mob is believed to be the high
est-ranking American Mafia figure ever to
turn government witness. Salvatore “Sammy
the Bull” Gravano helped prosecutors jail 36
mobsters, including Gambino boss John
Gotti, but he was an underboss.
Natale began cooperating with prosecu
tors in 1999 after being charged with run
ning a methamphetamine ring.
Apparently, Natale wasn’t paranoid
enough - his telephone had been tapped, his
kitchen, TV room and balcony were bugged,
and, worst of all, a top associate had worn a
wire and recorded hundreds of conversa
tions with Natale and other mob figures.
Milan’s trial is the first in which Natale
testified. He is expected to take the stand in a
series of trials that could put organized
crime figures from Philadelphia to Boston
behind bars.
During four days on thestand, Natale, 65,
pleasantly explained the workings of the
underworld to jurors and a gallery that
included mob wives and girlfriends, FBI
agents and attorneys of former associates.
Natale was a mix of braggadocio and
charm - full of hubris one moment, contri
tion the next - as he detailed his efforts to
tuck the mayor of New Jersey's poorest city
into his pocket.
A fit-looking figure with a shaved head, a
gray goatee and crisp, tailored suits, Natale
sometimes bragged about his prestige and
position, and told of how his underlings
needed his approval before acting.
In a 1996 conversation recorded by the
FBI at his apartment in Pennsauken, a city
across the Delaware River from
Philadelphia, Natale talked about beating up
some guy “cause he answered me in a tone
that he wasn’t supposed to be doing.”
Natale told of how friends and associates
would keep their distance from him to avoid
overhearing any conversations.
“When I always talk to anyone, being the
boss of the Mafia, they would never stand
too close to me,” he said. “They would
always stand 5 or 6 feet away.”
Natale detailed for jurors how, through
an intermediary, he gave $30,000 to $50,000
to Milan to steer city contracts to mob
backed businesses. The bagman, Daniel
Daidone, allegedly gave the money to Milan
in $100 bills in white envelopes.
“I wouldn’t insult the man by giving him
20s,” Natale said.
Natale said he wanted Milan to be
beholden to him.
"I wanted him to feel he had to rely on me
and nobody else,” Natale said. “If he had a
headache, I would send him an aspirin.”
Under cross-examination by one of
Milan’s lawyers, Natale admitted involve
ment in nearly a dozen murders committed
as retaliation, during battles for control or
simply to save face.
"Failure to pay homage to you was a
death sentence, correct?” asked Carlos A.
Martirjr.
“Correct,” Natale answered.
The defense failed to rattle him. When
pressed to remember a date, he said with a
shrug and a grin: “If I thought I was going to
be up here, I would have marked it down.”
Milan, 38, is accused of taking payoffs
from mob figures and others seeking con
“It’s theater. The government
has dressed him up, taught
him to enunciate, glossed over
his criminal background and
his propensity for violence
Edwin Jacobs Jr.
defense lawyer
tracts or favorable treatment, and launder
ing drug money. Prosecutors are still pre
senting their case.
The mayor has denied the allegations
and has said all along that the government
“made a deal with the devil.”
After Natale took the stand, Milan said:
“The devil himself came up to testify.”
Natale pleaded guilty in May to murder,
attempted murder, extortion, gambling and
drug trafficking. Prosecutors have said he
would be spared the death penalty. He could
get up to life in prison instead.
He is expected to testify next year against
his reputed hand-picked successor as mob
boss, Joseph “Skinny Joey" Merlino, whose
lawyer, Edwin Jacobs Jr., was unimpressed
with Natale as a witness.
Jacobs gave the government credit for
“cleaning up” Natale, but called his testimo
ny “fiction."
“It’s theater," he said. “The government
has dressed him up, taught him to enunci
ate, glossed over his criminal background
and his propensity for violence. None of that
means he's telling the truth.”
Natale said it was the looks on his family
members’ faces when he went to court on
the methamphetamine charges a few years
ago that made him decide to give up his life
of crime.
“I found out, truly, what I did to them,
and right then and there, I did enough for La
Cosa Nostra,” he said. “No more. I said: ‘If
there’s any life left for me, I’ll give it to that
family. No more La Cosa Nostra.”’
European Union pledges military help
■The EU wants to step out of
the shadow of the United States
by beefing up its military dout
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
BRUSSELS, Belgium — The
European Union went into the
defense business Monday,
pledging tens of thousands of
troops and hundreds of war
planes and ships to a new
European rapid reaction force
that is still more a dream than
reality
The 15-nation EU is seeking
to give itself military clout to
back up its economic and politi
cal power and to step out of the
shadow of the United States,
which dominates Europe’s prin
cipal defense organization —
NATO.
Whether they are called
European or NATO, however,
defense and foreign ministers
who met here were talking about
the same forces. No new units
were created, and, for the
moment, no appreciable
amount of new money will be
spent Many of the troops desig
nated for the EU are also pledged
to NATO.
The force was being assem
bled a year after the 15 EU lead
ers decided in Helsinki, Finland,
to create a corps of60,000 troops
capable by 2003 of deploying
within 60 days and remaining on
the ground for up to a year.
In practical terms, this
means creating a pool of forces
of 100,000-120,000 to give com
manders a choice of capabilities
for a wide variety of missions.
Taking into account a rota
tion of troops every six months,
that means a pool of 200,000
250,000 troops for a yearlong
mission.
“We are now entering into a
major commitment in the
European Union,” said Defense
Minister Alain Richard of France,
which holds the EU presidency.
Richard said about 100,000
troops, 400 combat aircraft and
100 ships were pledged to the EU
on Monday. The next step is to
transform this paper army into a
real, deployable force capable of
fulfilling the limited missions set
out for it — humanitarian,
peacekeeping and peacemaking
duties.
Despite meeting its goal in
terms of numbers, large gaps
remained in air and sea trans
port, precision-guided weapons,
all-weather flying capability,
satellite intelligence, communi
cations and command and con
trol systems.
The priority now, Javier
Solana, the EU’s chief of foreign
and security policy, said, is to
close the gaps. He said the EU
has much of what it needs and is
determined to come up with the
rest before the 2003 deadline.
“I would hope we would
have some limited initial capa
bility next year,” said Geoff
Hoon, Britain's defense minister.
Hoon said: “What is being
done is going to make NATO
stronger, not weaker.”
German Foreign Minister
Joschka Fischer agreed.
“We need a strong European
pillar (in NATO),” he said. “This
is part of the European integra
tion process.” He added there is
no longer a division between the
civilian and military aspects of
crisis management.
EU forces will not be
involved in territorial defense,
which is essentially NATO’s job.
The plan is for them to be used in
humanitarian, peacekeeping
and peacemaking roles when
NATO as a whole — or the
United States—declines a role.
“The EU is determined that it
should play a more complete
role in tackling crises,” said
Solana, calling Monday's pledg
ing session “a serious firet step.”
The United States has cau
tiously backed the EU’s military
efforts, after some initial hesita
tion, calculating that anything
improving European defense is
good for NATO. Washington
wants to make sure that NATO is
still the defense arm of first
choice and that European efforts
don't lead to unnecessary dupli
cation.
Still, some people both in the
United States and Europe fear
the EU force is the first step
down the road to disintegration
of the 19-nation NATO.
Lord Robertson, the NATO
secretary-general, was to dine
with EU ministers Monday
evening to discuss the alliance's
concerns.
“There is no will in Europe to
use its collective capabilities
against NATO,” said Richard of
France.
London calls off New Year's Eve celebrations
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LONDON — Last year, London pulled
out all the stops for its New Year’s Eve spec
tacular. This year, it’s putting the brakes on
its planned bash.
London Mayor Ken Livingstone said
Monday that concerns about transportation
and crowd control had forced him to call off
celebrations that were to have been capped
with a fireworks extravaganza over the River
Thames in the heart of London.
The metropolitan subway system, the
London Underground, had said it could not
cope with more than 1 million revelers who
were expected to converge on the city center
on Dec. 31. The city’s emergency services
had also complained, saying lack of coordi
nation had made it too hard to finalize their
safety plans.
Trying to salvage the celebrations,
authorities rescheduled the fireworks show
for early evening, but by then the event's
sponsors were getting cold feet, Livingstone
said.
The cancellation drew a storm of
protests from the event’s backers.
“It is scandalous that London will not
have a New Year’s Eve celebration," said rock
star Bob Geldof, one of the organizers.
“It is extraordinary that every other
major city in the world can successfully and
safely celebrate New Year, except for
London,” said Bob Neill of the sponsoring
GLA Conservative Group.
Organizers said they would try to come
up with ways to spend a $2.2 million govern
ment grant earmarked for the festivities, but
warned it would be hard to pull anything
together with less than six weeks to go.
Last year, Britain threw a spectacular
New Year's party, with celebrations at the
futuristic Millennium Dome attended by
Queen Elizabeth n and Prime Minister Tony
Blair. The dome soon fell on hard times,
derided as a failure after lackluster atten
dance and expenses that were much higher
than projected.
^BBk| m 0m m (402)472-2588 $5.25/15 words
0 A FAX: (402) 472-1761 $3.50/15 words (students)
■ — B .^^B B B IfcM B^^^. dn@unl.edu $0.15 each additional word
B $0.75 billing charge
™ - $0.75/lineheadline
Deadline: 4 p.m. weekday prior
200s Hrads
Brand new Gateway EV700 complete with
speakers, 17 inch monitor, very fast Awesome
computer for a reasonable price. Try it out.
476-6741 or 310-9197.
IBM, Dell, Compaq, Toshiba Laptops. Prices
from $295. 30-Day Warranty visit
www.usedtaptops.com.
Edn@unl.edu
dailyneb.com
e: 472-2588
Dresser for Sale. Four drawers with hutch. Ex
celtent condition. $75 0B0. Call 328-8202.
Full and Queen size mattress sets. New and in
plastic. Never used. 10 years warranty. Retail for
$439 and $639. Sell for $165 for the Full, Queen
$195,477-1225.
♦BROTHER WHISPER WRITER WORD PRO
CESSOR. Bought for $500 two years ago, will
sell for $69. Woms great!
♦WOMEN'S CLOTHS for sale (slips, dresses,
blouses, T-shirts...), size 10-14, in great condi
tion, for cheap.
♦DRIP COFFEE MAKER (new-still packed;
10-cup, green color). Bought for $46, will sell for
♦Please call 325-9643
DEADLINE 4PM
WEEKDAY PRIOR
2year old, white dorm-size fridge, stands about
2-3 feet. Tall with multiple shelves and a mini
freezer inside, great condition! $100 OBO.
Burton Snowboards
Boots, bindings and clothing. 27th & Vine.
475- BIKE. _
Get the results you deserve! Live a healthy
lifestyle with a new proven herbal supplement.
100% money back guarantee. 525-8572.
Surplus City
Scooters, camoflauge, airsoft pistols, jeans and
much more. 3241 South 13th. 420-5151.
2 NU vs. CO student tickets for sale. $50 each
none-validated, or $70 each validated. Call
476- 5173 or 420-6560.
2 NU/CU tickets to get rid of!!! Real cheap! $35
non-validated each, obo. Call 438-8705.
HUSKER FOOTBALL
2 NU vs. CU tickets for sale. Please call
436-8417, voice mail *3 or 308-390-8923, can
leave message.
One Nebraska/Colorado ticket for sale.
$95-validated, $75-non-validated or best offer.
436-0415.
OpenSeats.com
For NU season and bowl game tickets. Buy or
sell your tickets on 0pen5eats.com. It's fans
helping fans on the net.
Selling six Colorado vs. Nebraska football tick
ets South Stadium, Section 19, Row 59, Seats
3-8. Will sell all as block or as doubles or as a
quad. Best offer taken. Please call (303)
770-1330 x.114 if interested. Will overnight tick
ets on shortnotice.
Two Nebraska vs. Colorado football tickets for
sale $75 each. Section 40, Row 57, Seats 9 and
10. Call (402) 794-4012.
We’re now buying
Big 12 Championship
Tickets!
Ace Sports & Tickets
Oak Park Mall,Overland Park, KS
1-800-223-6024
Mon.-Sat. 9am-9pm, Sunday 11 am-6pm
1
92 Ford Taurus LX station wagon. New trans
mission and tires. Excellent condition, $3995
OBO. 327-9684.
1970 Dodge Coronette 440. Clean, strong, fac
tory 318. Custom wheels. Good project car!
$2500 obo. Call 327-8797, ask for Chrissy,
leave a message.
1973 Honda CB200 Motorcycle. It was running
when parked. Call Jon at 4384)804.
1991 Dodge Stealth R/T. 62K. Beautiful. Must
Sell! Come see and make offer. Call Evenings.
465-0057.
1992 VK Corrado For Sale! Very Sporty Car in
Excellent Condition! VR6, sunroof, only 60K!
Asking $9200 / OBO. Call OC at 467-4088, or
Kathy at 464-0879.
‘72 Cutlass. New Engine! It needs a front end
clip! $1,700 OBO. Call (402) 665-2338 or (402)
443-8426.
‘89 Dodge Spirit, 4 door, auto $1500 or best of
fer. Call or email Tara at 742-7238,
tguretzl Obigred.unl.edu.
1991 White GEO Traker convertable, 51,000 mi
les. $4,000. Call 770.5637.
‘93 Ford Escort GT 5 speed. 2 doorr 74k. Excel
lent car. Spoiler-custom wheels. Color Irls-it’s
never been smoked ini It Runs GREAT! Blue
book price $3,500. Call (402) 665-2338 or (402)
443-8426. _
Sell your CAR or TRUCK with pictures FREE on
the internet at www.ezcartocator.com.
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Auto Accidents & DWI
Other criminal matters, call Sanford Pollack,
476-7474.
Automobile Accidents
Call Dean Law Office, 17 years insurance claims
experience, 435-2424.