News Digest
Search to fill Cabinet positions continues
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON - President-elect Bush
moved quiddy on Wednesday in search of a
new candidate for labor secretary after the
abrupt withdrawal of his first choice. Bush’s
team also mounted a vigorous defense of
another contentious nomination, that of
former Sen. John Ashcroft for attorney gen
eral
A day after Linda Chavez withdrew her
name from consideration for the labor post,
Bush summoned Eloise Anderson, former
social services director in Wisconsin and
California, to Washington to be inter
viewed.
Top Bush officials said Anderson is a
leading candidate for die job, perhaps even
die front-runner - though they said that is
sometimes hard to gauge with Bush.
Republicans also mentioned for the
post indude Elaine L Qiao, former deputy
transportation secretary and the wife of
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., Stephen
Goldsmith, former Indianapolis mayor,
and former Rep. JimThlent, just defeated for
Missouri governor.
The Bush transition team, meanwhile,
expressed annoyance that special interest
groups opposed to Ashcroft had gained
access to oppositioiriesearch on him done
by the late Gov. Mel Carnahan’s Missouri
Senate campaign. The material - boxes of
news clippings, speeches and voting
records - was gathered for use against
Ashcroft in his unsuccessful Senate re-elec
tion campaign.
“I just think the whole notion of people
finishing their campaigns and providing
opposition research on people who have
been named to the (Cabinet) is disappoint
ing. It is not sending the signal of biparti
sanship and that’s disappointing,” said
Bush spokesman An Fleischer.
“I’m not in the vote-counting business.
But we’re very confident that Senator
Ashcroft will be confirmed,” Fleischer said.
In the nation’s capital for two days, Bush
and his national security team received a
top-secret Pentagon briefing on military
challenges around the world. He also met
with budget advisers and posed for the
presidential portrait that will replace pho
tos of President Clinton now hanging in the
nation’s federal buildings and post offices.
Bush’s team at the military briefing had
even more Pentagon experience than those
doing die presentation. Bush brought with
him Secretary-designate Donald Rumsfeld
and Vice President-elect Dick Cheney, both
former defense secretaries. He also brought
along Colin Powell, a former chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff himself, and his
national security adviser, Condoleezza
Rice.
Meanwhile, Bush, reaching back yet
again to the administration of his father,
selected Margaret Tutwiler, who served in
both the Reagan and elder Bush White
Houses, as adviser and special consultant
for communications.
Hitwiler, a close associate of former
Secretary of State James A. Baker III, will
serve as an unpaid consultant for 90 days to
advise the new administration on commu
nications planning and strategy, a transi
tion announcement said.
Fleischer did not rule out an announce
ment by Bush before he returns to Texas on
Thursday on a replacement for Chavez, or
names for several other top posts yet to be
filled, including that of U.N. ambassador,
U.S. trade representative and CIA director.
On the labor post, Fleischer said, “In
some sense, we are bade to square one. But,
in another sense, there are a lot of people
that he knows, knows well and is looking at
I'm not in the vote-counting
business. But we’re very
confident that Senator
Ashcroft will be confirmed
Ari Fleischer
Bush spokesman
- a number of people.”
Bush aides said he may take his time
making a decision, concerned that
announcing a replacement for Chavez too
soon would open him to criticism that he
was rushing the review process that failed
him in her case.
Anderson, who had met with Bush pre
viously, is best known for her work on wel
fare reform. She served under Wisconsin
Gov. Tommy Thompson, Bush's pick to
head the Department of Health and
Human Services.
Anderson, who is black, opposes affir
mative action, said Brian Kennedy, vice
president of Claremont Institute in
Sacramento, Calif., where Anderson is a
scholar.
American flies
friendly skies;
purchases TWA
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DALLAS - American Airlines is buying most of
troubled Trans World Airlines Inc. in a $500 million
deal that will retire one of the most famous names in
aviation history and greatly expand American’s reach
in the U.S. and abroad.
The agreement with TWA, along with a separate
pact under which American would buy some of US
Airways’ assets from United Airlines, would reshape
the nation’s air travel market
American diairman and chief executive Donald J.
Carty said his company jumped at the chance to
scoop up TWA parts of US Airways and a large stake
in a new startup carrier for $1.8 billion in cash and
$3.5 billion in lease obligations.
Carty said the complex acquisitions greatly
expand American’s route network and give the airline
“a level of growth that would otherwise take us years
to achieve.” He said the deals will add strongly to
company earnings “two or three years out”
Analysts said the buying spree at American, the
nation’s No. 2 carrier, was motivated by is desire to
keep up with United, the world's largest carrier.
United set in motion Wednesdays events when its
parent, UAL Corp., agreed last year to buy most of US
Airways for $43 billion plus $7.3 billion in debt If reg
ulators approve both the United and American deals,
the two carriers would control slightly more than half
the U.S. travel market, with No. 3 Delta far behind at
about a 15 percent market share.
American still faces plenty of obstacles to sealing
the deals. TWA the eighth-largest U.S. carrier, filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection early Wednesday,
and its purchase by American could be challenged by
creditors or another bidder. Regulators must approve
each of the transactions. And American’s labor unions
could make it harder to absorb employees from TWA
or US Airways.
Weather
TODAY
Partly cloudy
high 46, low 31
TOMORROW
Partly cloudy
high 55, low 39
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DAILY NEBRASKAN
David Sitverman/Newsmakers
Ariel Sharon, head of Israel's rightist Likud Party, waves to supporters during the official opening of his campaign for the leadership of Israel in a
Jerusalem conference hall Wednesday.
Israeli candidate neglects talks
■ Prime minister candidate Ariel
Sharon shrugs off previous peace talks
and considers them nonexistent.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM - Ariel Sharon, the
leading contender in Israel’s race for
prime minister, declared in an inter
view published Wednesday that he
considers the Israeli-Palestinian
accords of recent years null and void.
He accused Palestinians of killing
the current peacemaking effort in
more than 100 days of violence.
Meanwhile, a last-ditch mediation
drive was thrown into doubt, with
President Clinton's envoy postponing a
Mideast trip and a top Palestinian
negotiator denouncing Israel’s leaders
as war criminals.
Senior Israeli and Palestinian offi
cials met late Wednesday to discuss
security matters, the second high-level
meeting in as many days. The Israeli
team, with army commanders and
security officials, was headed by
Cabinet minister Amnon Lipkin
Shahak. Palestinian negotiator Saeb
Erekat led a Palestinian team of securi
ty chiefs.
In the interview with Kfar Habad,
, an ultra-Orthodox weekly, Sharon
indicated he would not consider him
self bound by the landmark interim
peace accords signed after secret talks
in Oslo, Norway in 1993. The interim
accords have guided peacemaking
ever since.
“The Oslo agreement exists no
more - period,” Sharon was quoted as
saying. The interview, to be published
in the magazine this week, Was widely
excerpted in Israeli newspapers
Wednesday.
Sharon holds a double-digit lead in
the polls over Prime Minister Ehud
Barak ahead of the Feb. 6 election.
Sharon formally kicked off his cam
paign Wednesday night with a rally in
Jerusalem.
Sharon’s campaign has sought to
portray him as a moderate, distancing
him from his long history of operations
against the Palestinians and a disas
trous invasion of Lebanon in 1982 that
led to his ouster as defense minister. A
preview of his television campaign ads
Wednesday showed a grandmotherly
Sharon, 72, holding a small child and
walking through pastoral scenery.
At the rally, he said that as premier,
he would not negotiate with the
Palestinians before the violence sub
sides. But he added: “There is no peace
without concessions. The peace we will
reach will be based on a compromise.”
In the Kfar Habad interview, Sharon
was quoted as saying that merely allow
ing the Palestinians to keep the areas
Israel ceded to date was a “painful con
cession” because “all those places are
the birthplace of the Jewish people.”
He did not advocate retaking areas
now under Palestinian control - about
40 percent of the West Bank and two
thirds of Gaza. But he indicated that the
Palestinians would get no more territo
ry from him if he is elected.
He also promised not to give up
control of any of Jerusalem - including
a key disputed holy site, where the A1
Aqsa Mosque is built atop the ruins of
the ancient Jewish Temples - and said
Israel must retain all its settlements in
the West Bank and Gaza Strip for secu
rity reasons.
Barak has offered the Palestinians
a state in more than 90 percent of the
West Bank and Gaza.
Cruel punishment: Strip search victims ask why
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK - Tens of thousands of
people who claimed they were illegally
strip-searched after being arrested for
minor offenses could get up to $22,500
each under a $50 million settlement
from the city.
The searches were conducted by jail
guards over 10 months in 1996 and 1997.
They were often performed on first-time
offenders arrested for minor infractions
like loitering and disorderly conduct as
part of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's crack
down on “quality of life” violations.
“Strip searches are a barbaric ana
degrading law enforcement tool mat
people accused of minor offenses
should not suffer,” Richard D. Emery, a
lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Wednesday.
Strip searches of people charged
with minor offenses are prohibited
unless there is reason to believe they are
concealing weapons or other contra
band.
The money will &o to as many as
60,000 people in amounts ranging from
$250 to $22,500.
The settlement is subject to approval
by a federal judge.
The amounts will be based on the
circumstances of the individual search
es, and will take into account the emo
tional effect on the victims.
“I was in tears, asking why was it nec
essary, and was told that this was not the
place to be asking questions,” said Danni
Tyson, whose disorderly conduct
charges were dropped after her arrest
Police Chief Bernard Kerik, who was
a first deputy at the Correction
Department during the period that the
strip searches took place, defended the
searches as a way to keep weapons out of
'Holding cells.
“Personally, I would tend to disagree
and say anybody that you take off the
streets of the city, and you're going to put
those people into a confined and seclud
ed area with other people that have been
arrested for crimes, they should be strip
searched for the safety of the people who
7 was in tears, asking
why was it necessary, and
was told that this was not
the place to be asking
questions. ”
Danni Tyson
strip searched for disorderly conduct
are in there,” he said.
The mayor said the searches began
after a shift in jobfunctions between
police officers and jail guards. The
guards, accustomed to conducting such
searches of inmates, did not realize it
was illegal to strip-search people who
have not been arraigned, Giuliani said.
Carlos Morales said he was subject
ed to a group strip search after he was
arrested for driving with a suspended
license and a broken tail light
World/Nation
The Associated Press
■ Washington, D.C
Officials work to solve
electricity problem
California officials, utilities
and power generators agreed to
meet again this weekend in hopes
of working out some possible
solutions to bring stability to the
state’s troubled electricity system.
After seven hours of talks
under the direction of Clinton
administration officials, the par
ticipants agreed early Wednesday
that cooperation was needed to
keep two of California’s biggest
utilities from going broke.
“We can see light at the end of
the tunnel,” California Gov. Gray
Davis told reporters shortly after
midnight when the talksconclud
ed for die night
The participants agreed to
meet again tnis weekend
High-level administration
officials and all the major figures
in the California electricity wars
met behind dosed doors to try to
fashion a framework for resolving
the problems facing the state’s
electricity supply system.
Afterward, a brief statement
was issued saying; “The partici
pants agreed on the need for
cooperation to maintain stability
and avoid bankruptcy of
California utilities.”
■ Washington, D.C
Statue dedication unveils
a new Roosevelt
Four-year-old Hannah
McFadden, an Albanian immi
grant bom with a leg deformity,
didn’t need her mother to explain
the significance of Wednesday’s
unveiling of a statue depicting
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in
a wheelchair.
“It means people on crutches
and in a wheelchair can do any
thing,” said McFadden, sporting
hot-pink crutches for the ceremo
ny in which President Clinton
dedicated die statue.
The bronze sculpture, depict
mg Kooseveit m ms seu-aesignea
combination kitchen stool-com
mercial wheelchair, sits at the
park’s entrance as a prologue to
the chronological story of the
Roosevelt years.
Advocates for the disabled
objected strongly when the
memorial opened 31/2 years ago
with its centerpiece FDR statue
only hinting at Roosevelt’s polio
affliction. It shows a cape-covered
Roosevelt in a straight chair with
two tiny wheels on the back.
■ Washington, D.C.
Ginton leaves options open
for another kind of candidacy
After insisting for months that
his days as a candidate are over,
President Clinton said
Wednesday that he has his eye on
one more office.
"I may run for president of the
Senate Spouses' Club,” Clinton
joked during a luncheon for Sen.
Max Baucus, D-Mont
He based his possible “candi
dacy" on his affection for the
Senate’s freshman class, which
includes his wife Hillary,
Democrat from New York.
“I kind of am partial to this
new crowd of senators. It got me
in the Senate Spouses’ Club, that’s
true, where I intend to be a very
vigorous member,” Clinton said.
The presidency is currently
held by Tipper Gore, whose hus
band serves as president of the
Senate. When the Bush adminis
tration takes over Jan. 20, Mrs.
Gore cedes the designation to
Lynne Cheney, wife of Vice
President-elect Dick Cheney.
■ Chile
Pinochet takes medical tests
to avoid charges
SANTIAGO - Gen. Augusto
Pinochet entered a Santiago mili
tary hospital early Wednesday to
undergo neurological and mental
tests that may be his final hope to
avoid trial on human rights
charges.
Pinochet arrived at the hospi
tal hours before the 10 a.m. time
set by Juan Guzman for the tests,
which are to determine if the
aging former strongman is fit to
stand trial. Pinochet has diabetes,
arthritis, uses a pacemaker and
has suffered three mild strokes
since late 1998.
Guzman is seeking to indict
him on homicide and kidnapping
charges related to the “Caravan of
Death,” a military commando
raid that executed 55 political
prisoners shortly after a coup in
1973.