News Digest
Greenspan boosts Bush's plan to cut taxes
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Federal
Reserve Chairman Alan
Greenspan gave a major boost
Thursday to President Bush's plan
for across-the-board cuts in taxes,
and at the same time, he warned
of threats posed by the dramatic
economic slowdown.
He said the U.S. economy's
growth rate at present was “prob
ably very dose to zero.”
Testifying before the Senate
Budget Committee, Greenspan
said rapidly expanding federal
surpluses, which by one estimate
will total $5 trillion over the next
10 years, offered ample room
both to provide tax relief and
eliminate more than $3 trillion in
national debt held by the public.
By endorsing the economic
soundness of cutting taxes,
Greenspan bolstered Bush's
efforts to build support in
Congress for his 10-year, $1.6 tril
lion tax-reduction package.
While there can be various
reasons to adjust taxes, he said, “if
you’re asking strictly on the ques
tion of what is likely to contribute
to maximum economic growth
on average, then clearly tax
reductions, which reflect lower
marginal rates, will in the view of
most economists be the appro
priate direction in which we
ought to go."
Still, Greenspan would not
commit himself on whether the
size of Bush's plan is appropriate
because, he said, that is a political
decision that Congress and the
administration must make.
Democrats contend Bush's tax cut
is too large.
Bush originally suggested die
package as a way to return excess
tax money to Americans. Now,
citing dwindling economic
growth, he has said he may accel
erate the program to ensure that
the country does not slip into
recession.
Greenspan endorsed this
approach, saying while the tax
program would come too late, it
would help ensure a sustainable
recovery.
“Should current economic
weakness spread beyond what
appears likely, having a tax cut in
place may, in fact, do noticeable
good," he said.
Previously, the Fed chairman
had expressed a preference for
using projected surpluses to pay
down the national debt.
Greenspan said he still believed
debt reduction was the best use
for the extra revenue, but govern
ment estimates projected more
than enough surplus funds to pay
off the debt before the end of the
decade and still cut taxes.
“I must say, I never expected
to see the day where I would be
talking about anything other than
reducing the debt," Greenspan
said. “I'm running into the tyran
ny of zero, which is where you
can't reduce (the debt) any more.
“And so, have my views
changed? Yes, they've changed.
They have to change. I see no
alternative to that”
Republicans were quick to
praise Greenspan’s tax-cut sup
port
White House spokesman Ari
Fleischer told reporters: “We’re
very heartened to see that
Alex Wong/Newsmakers
Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, right speaks with Senator Robert Byrd (D-WV) before before giving testimony to the Senate
Budget Committee Thursday on Capitol ffiil in Washington, IXCGreenspan told lawmakers Thursday that he was in favor of reducing mar
ginal tax rates.
Chairman Greenspan has
weighed in on the importance of
cutting taxes to protect the econ
omy.”
House Speaker Dennis
Hastert, R-Ill., said Greenspan's
testimony "confirmed that the
path advocated by President Bush
and die Republican Congress was
the right one. Fiscal discipline
combined with tax relief will keep
our economy growing.”
Clintons receive
gifts of farewell
■ Furniture and china arrived
at the White House for the
former president and his wife.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — Steven
Spielberg and his wife sent china
worth $4,920. New York insurance
magnate Walter Kaye provided
the china cabinet Denise Rich,
whose fugitive ex-husband was
given a presidential pardon,
chipped in two coffee tables and
two chairs.
In the weeks before President
Clinton left die White House and
Hillary Rodham Clinton entered
the Senate, the first couple
received $190,027 worth of furni
ture and other gifts.
As a senator, Mrs. Clinton is
prohibited from accepting most
gifts worth more than $50. But
since the presents arrived while
she still was first lady, no such
limit applied.
“The timing certainly does
look bad,” said Charles Lewis,
head of the Washington-based
Center for Public Integrity. “The
appearance is that she's enriching
herself from public service.”
Mrs. Clinton's spokesman,
Howard Wolfson, did not respond
to die criticism
“The Clintons received many
gifts over the course of their
administration, which they dis
closed like other presidents have,”
Wolfson said. Other presidents
also have accepted lavish gifts, he
said.
When Ronald Reagan left
office in 1989, about 20 wealthy
friends bought him and wife
Nancy a $2.5 million house in Bel
Air, Calif
After more than two decades
in government housing, the
Clintons now have two big homes
with rooms to fill-afive-bedroom
house in Chappaqua, N.Y., and
another five-bedroom home in
the Embassy Row area of
Washington.
They should have littie trou
ble. Financial disclosure docu
ments released last week show the
Clintons accepted gifts of sofas,
easy chairs, rugs, an ottoman,
paintings, lamps, china, flatware
and sculptures.
More die in search of peace
■ After the death of three
Israelis, Prime Minister Barak
insiststhatthe talks continue.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
TABA, Egypt — Israeli and
Palestinian negotiators made
progress on defining the borders
of a Palestinian state Thursday, as
peace activists and supporters of
hard-line leader Ariel Sharon
yelled at each other from boats
sailing off the coast of this Red Sea
resort
The negotiators resumed their
peace talks after a two-day sus
pension that followed the killing
of two Israelis in the West Bank,
and they kept pushing forward
despite the killing of another
Israeli, a motorist
The motorist was shot and
killed in an ambush outside
Jerusalem in the West Bank a few
hours after the talks had resumed
Israeli negotiators broke off a ses
sion with Palestinians and went
into a side room, where Prime
Minister Ehud Barak instructed
them by telephone to continue,
his office said
Barak denounced the killing
as “a despicable murder." In a
leaflet circulated in die West Bank,
a branch of Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat’s Fatah group took
responsibility for the ambush. The
group named itself the “Thabet
Thabet Brigade,” after a Fatah
leader killed Dec. 31 in an appar
ent Israeli assassination opera
tion. The leaflet said the shooting
was revenge for Thabet’s death.
Two Palestinians were killed in
an overnight gunbattle with Israeli
soldiers in the West Bank. Since
violence erupted on Sept 28,375
people have been killed, including
318 Palestinians, 13 Israeli Arabs,
43 Israeli Jews and one German
doctor.
In an interlude in the talks, the
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators
watched a green ship with a ban
ner reading “Yes to Peace” sail
down the coast from the neigh
boring Israeli dty of Eilat
Dozens of Israelis on the ves
sel, sailed by the Israeli Peace Now
group, shouted “We want peace!”
in Hebrew and Arabic toward the
shore ofTaba.
“People are coming here to tell
us we need to finish the job,” said
Palestinian negotiator Yasser
Abed Rabbo as he stood alongside
his Israeli negotiator Yossi Beilin
on a dock. The two laughed and
waved at the ship.
At one point, three smaller
boats circled the Peace Now ves
sel, carrying banners boosting
Sharon, the hard-line candidate
for prime minister in Israel’s Feb. 6
election. The crews of the oppos
ing sides shouted at each other as
Egyptian coast guard dinghies cir
cled nearby.
Negotiators said they were
near agreement on the borders for
a Palestinian state. Palestinian
officials, insisting on anonymity,
said the differences had been nar
rowed to about one percent of the
West Bank.
Palestinian negotiator Nabil
Shaath said the two sides were
close to agreeing on allowing
Israel to keep about 4 percent of
the West Bank, to include main
Jewish settlements, in exchange
for some Israeli territory.
In public up to now, the
Palestinians have been demand
ing a state in all of the West Bank
and Gaza Strip and removal of all
the settlements.
However, another negotiator,
requesting anonymity, said there
were still disagreements over the
settlements. He said the
Palestinians were demanding the
evacuation of Maaleh Adumim, a
city in the desert east of Jerusalem
where more than 25,000 Israelis
live. Barak has said that Maaleh
Adumim would be annexed to
Israel
Negotiators said serious talks
were in progress about Palestinian
refugees, but no detailed talks had
begun about Jerusalem.
£>a//vNebraskan
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Education Bush's first concern
■The president devoted his first
week in office to the issue, unveiling
his plan of action.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
WASHINGTON — President Bush
promoted a cornerstone of his educa
tion package Thursday, telling teachers
and parents at a school in a poor section
of town that mandatory annual testing of
students is “not a tool to punish, but a
tool to reward."
Taking along his wife, Laura, and a
few members of Congress, Bush went to
Merritt Elementary Extended School, a
flat, beige building in a predominantly
black part of northeast Washington. One
school wall contained a mural and the
Weather
TODAY
Snow showers
high 32, low 10
TOMORROW
Sunny
high 33, low 17
slogan, "Education - don’t leave school
without it”
Inside, Bush and the first lady, a for
mer librarian, watched third- and
fourth-graders in green-and-white uni
forms plow through their assignments.
"You’re doing English? How’s it going?”
Bush asked one boy.
Bush turned aside questions about
whether federal vouchers that would
allow students to transfer out of bad
schools are a negotiable part of his edu
cation agenda.
“I'm sending up a bill that I think is
really important,” he said.
Bush devoted his first week in office
to focusing on schools.
Besides unveiling his education
plan, he playedhostto education experts
at the White House on Monday and
talked about his education agenda dur
ing several meetings with lawmakers.
Next week, Bush intends to detail his
plan to provide federal funds for states to
set up stopgap prescription drug pro
grams for the poor while he sorts out a
long-term plan for Medicare prescrip
tion drug coverage, said White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer. That idea is
opposed by many Democrats.
Thursday's visit to Merritt gave Bush
his first chance to promote his education
plan away from the White House.
Beyond getting out of the house, Bush
said he stopped by the school “to herald
what happens inside the walls here.”
“What happens here is there is a
“What happens here is
there is a strong sense of
accountability, which
means there is a strong
sense of the possible.”
George W. Bush
United States president
strong sense of accountability, which
means there is a strong sense of the pos
sible,” Bush said. “And by accountability,
I mean testing children... I believe it's the
cornerstone of reform.”
He was joined by Sen. Edward
Kennedy, D-Mass., Sen. James Jeffords,
R-Vt., Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. and
Rep. John Boehner, R-Ohio, chairman of
the House Education Committee.
Standing in the school’s driveway,
Kennedy said it was good that officials at
Merritt work hard to help students. "In
that kind of context, I think there’s a good
deal of sense to it,” Kennedy said. "But
we are a long way from, you know, from
looking at the legislation.”
After returning to the White House,
the Bushes lingered in their limousine
for several minutes, talking with Miller
and Boehner. Later, Bush was meeting in
the White House with 14 congressional
education leaders, four of them
Democrats, the latest of his gatherings
with lawmakers.
World/Nation
The Associated Press
■ Italy
Court rules pat on bottom
not sexual harassment
ROME—You must remem
ber this, a kiss is just a kiss. Now,
an Italian court says a pat, even on
the bottom, is just that-not sexu
al harassment
The Court of Cassation, in
agreeing with an appeals court
ruling overturning a man’s con
viction, said it found no evidence
he intended “an act of libido” and
die pat appeared to be an “isolat
ed” incident and “impulsive.”
The case involved the manag
er of a public health agency in
northern Italy and a woman
employee who claimed the man
ager threatened to hurt her career
if she reported the 1994 incident
The man was found guilty by a
lower court, which sentenced
him to 18 months in prison and a
fine of $3,800, but the conviction
was overturned on appeal.
The decision Wednesday by
Italy's highest appeals court- the
court that provoked an outcry in
1999 when it ruled that it was
impossible to rape a woman
wearing tight jeans - brought
swift reaction.
■ Florida
13-year-old boy convicted of
murdering 7-year-old girl
FORT LAUDERDALE — A
teen who said he accidentally
killed a 6-year-old family friend
while imitating pro wrestlers was
convicted Thursday of first
degree murden
In three hours of delibera
tions, the Broward Circuit court
jurors accepted the prosecution’s
contention that 13-year-old
Lionel Tate intentionally
stomped, punched and kicked
Tiffany Eunick, which constituted
child abuse.
Under Florida law, the jurors
did not have to conclude Lionel
meant the giri's July 1999 death to
convict him, but that his actions
were intentional and abusive.
Thte faces life without parole,
although that could be commut
ed by the governor after hearing
from the prosecutor. The teen
does not face the death penalty
because he is younger than 16.
■ Washington, D.C.
Secret Service protection of
Gore, Chelsea extended.
The day before former
President Clinton left office, he
signed two directives ordering
Secret Service protection tem
porarily extended for his daugh
ter, Chelsea, and former Vice
President A1 Gore.
Clinton signed the directives
on Jan. 19, his last full day in office,
authorizing the extensions for
several months, Secret Service
spokesman Jim Mackin said
Ihursday.
He would not say for how
many months the protection
would be offered, how much it
would cost or how many agents
would be assigned to Gore and
the former president's daughter.
■ New York
'Puffy'and Lopez still
together despite rumors
NEW YORK—Despite pub
lished reports to the contrary, the
romance between Jennifer Lopez
and Sean “Puffy" Combs is still
going strong, according to people
in both camps.
Reports in New York tabloids
on Wednesday and Thursday said
the power couple had split up.
“They have not broken up.
They are absolutely together,”
Lopez spokesman Alan Nierob
said in a statement Wednesday. A
Combs source declined to com
ment on the record, but insisted
the pair had not split up.
Combs was arrested in
December 1999 on weapons
charges after police stopped a
vehicle carrying the rap star and
Lopez. Jury selection in the trial
begins this week; it is possible that
Lopez could be called to testify.
Correction
Because of a reporting error,
quotations in a Thursday Daily
Nebraskan story about black his
tory month were misattributed.
Venita Kelley, assistant professor
of communication studies,
African and African American
studies and ethnic studies,
relayed historical information
about the month, which was
started by Carter G. Woodson in
1926.