[OCT. 13, 2000]  As you may have noticed at yesterday’s market close, the Dow Jones industrials average was down almost 400 points, and the Nasdaq was down almost 100 points. By mid-morning today, the markets were bouncing back, but the trend for the past two months has been downward. Tech stocks are being hardest hit. Election year uncertainty, moderate to poor future performance predictions, as well as some third-quarter profit statements that failed to meet estimates are causes for a jittery market. Headlines like yesterday’s announcement of a terrorist attack against an American battleship, the USS Cole, in the port of Yemen, further shock the market. Yesterday’s violence and the breakdown of the peace process in the Middle East caused oil process to fly upward, and the market got hammered until the final bell.

Here at home in Logan County, fluctuations in the stock market are no longer the concern of only the wealthy. Retirement dreams, college tuition funds and life savings all take a hit when the market drops. That’s why local investment advisers have become such an important anchor to community life.

According to Dana Sydney, CFA Asset Management in Lincoln, yesterday’s market reacted to

Home Depot’s warning that their profits for the third quarter would be lower than expected. That set off a downturn for retail stocks. The events in Yemen contributed to the selling frenzy.

Usually current events don’t scare fund managers as much as changes in the predicted profit potential of businesses. World events, unless long term, may cause temporary fluctuations, but the market usually corrects itself. Sydney says that his investors are in it for the long haul and expect fluctuation in stock prices. He educates them to stay calm, and they usually do. Yesterday produced no extra phone calls from or to clients.

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Bob Neal, investment adviser for Edward Jones in Lincoln, echoes Sydney’s observations. "Our investors are conservative, and we typically get more buyers than sellers in a down market. Since the market has drifted down over the past few months, we have contacted our clients and met with them to review their asset allocation. But that is the same advice we always give."

No one is "getting out of the market," according to Neal. "We have counseled them well, and the best service we provide is to keep clients from going with their instincts. We often encourage them not to buy or sell. You can’t react to every item of news these days. Financial channels on television put out news from morning to night. It is easy for investors to overreact."

Mike Abbott is an adviser for Pacesetter Financial, which manages portfolios for investors with at least $250,000 to invest. "We don’t look at the current events," says Abbott. "The fall of the Soviet Union was an important long-term event that makes a difference to the course of business. But short-term events are not cause for a reaction in investment decisions."

[Sam Redding]

[OCT. 13, 2000]  On Thursday evening 40 to 50 people made a candlelight walk from Washington Monroe School to the Logan County Courthouse to demonstrate their concern for the prevalence of domestic violence in our communities. Domestic violence is a pattern of assaultive and coercive behaviors, including physical, sexual and psychological attacks, as well as economic coercion, that adults or adolescents use against their intimate partners to gain or maintain power and control.

In 1999 there were 153 reported cases of domestic battery in Lincoln, according to a summary report complied by Officer Diana Short of the Lincoln Police Department. This translates to an act of domestic battery every 2.38 days in Lincoln. Approximately 90 to 95 percent of domestic violence victims are women.

The Thursday event was hosted and sponsored by the Domestic Abuse and Violence Task Force of the Healthy Communities Partnership. Sojourn Shelter and Service Inc. and the Family Violence Coordinating Council provided the speaker for the evening as well as informational displays at the school.

Curtis Sutterfield, coordinator for the event, said he was pleased with the turnout and really appreciated the presentation by Judge Don Behle at the courthouse.

Sojourn provides services for the victims of domestic abuse and their children, offering assistance for emergency shelter, employment, financial situations, legal and medical situations, clothing and food, child care, counseling and advocacy in the legal system, substance abuse therapy, planning for the future, as well as individual and group counseling.

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At their presentation Sojourn presented a wish list of items that can be donated any time during the year. These items not only help Sojourn operate efficiently but provide for a comfortable stay for their clients and their children during a difficult time. Some of these items include:

• Toilet paper
• Tampons and maxi pads
• Toothbrushes
• Toothpaste
• Fingernail clippers
• Alarm clocks
• Umbrellas
• Kleenex
• Soap
• Hair dryers
• House slippers
• Bath towels
• Washcloths
• Baby wipes
• Baby formula
• Diapers
• Laundry soap
• Paper towels
• Deodorant

• Monetary donations

For more information about the mission or gifts to Sojourn, please call their hotline at (217) 726-5200

For more information about stemming the tide of domestic violence, please call Curtis Sutterfield, Domestic Abuse and Violence Task Force chairman, at (217) 732-7890.

[LDN]

[OCT. 12, 2000]  Lincoln Christian College and Seminary welcomed a brave warrior this morning. For over a year, Jill Stanek has been lobbying to stop live birth abortions at Christ’s Hospital in Chicago where she is a registered nurse.

Stanek began in the cardiac division of the hospital, and later moved to the birthing unit. This fulfilled a dream, because she really wanted to work with mothers and their new babies. Stanek’s dream quickly changed to a nightmare, as she discovered that Christ’s Hospital was quietly performing 10 to 20 live abortions every year!

The hospital aborted babies as late as 28 weeks (the second trimester) for handicaps such as spina bifida and Down syndrome and for the life or health of the mother. To perform a live abortion a doctor chemically relaxes the cervix, which causes the baby to fall out. A number of these babies live anywhere from one to eight hours. For these unfortunate children, the hospital supplies "comfort care." Stanek defined comfort care as wrapping a baby in a blanket until it dies. If the parents want to hold their child till it dies, they may. For obvious reasons, most parents relegate this responsibility to a nurse. If the nurses are too busy, the baby in a blanket is left in the soiled-utility room to die.

This is where Stanek first had an experience with a live aborted baby. She could not stand the thought of a baby dying alone. Stanek broke down as she recounted holding a 1½-pound, 10-inch long baby in the soiled-utility room. As time slipped away, he grew too weak to move. The only way Stanek could tell if he was still alive was to hold him up to the light and look at his heart through his transparent skin. She said that she "never dreamed a hospital with the name Christ would be involved in something so against God’s law."

Stanek knew she had two choices. The easier choice was to move to a hospital that did not commit abortions. The more difficult choice was to stay where she was and try to change things. During her Bible study, she read a passage in which God reminds righteous men not to abandon those who are dying. Stanek decided to stay at Christ’s Hospital and change their policies.

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Stanek’s first course of action was to write a private letter to the board of the hospital requesting that they cease performing abortions in a hospital named after her Lord. The board invited her in and suggested that although they appreciated her help, she might be more comfortable working elsewhere. Stanek had already determined to stay and try to change things, so she told them that she wanted to stay where she was.

Next she contacted a Cardinal in the Chicago area and Dr. C. Everett Koop, the former U.S. surgeon general. Both of these men wrote Christ’s Hospital, asking them to cease the abortions also.

Since that time, Stanek and the others who are trying to save lives have been in newspapers, on radio talk shows from Dallas to Chicago, and on news stations such as CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, CNBC, Cspan and more. Jill Stanek and her friend and co-worker Allison Baker have appeared before Congress to testify.

Stanek spoke of a baby that was killed because it was believed to have spina bifida. When the baby emerged, the spine was fine—a pointless death. She also told of how a baby was set on a counter in a disposable towel and accidentally thrown away. When the nurses searched through the garbage for the baby, he fell on the floor. Baker testified that she has seen more than one live baby naked on a cold metal counter. They did not even receive the "comfort care."

As Congress debates whether or not a live child has the right to live, Stanek is still laboring at Christ’s Hospital. She admits that she is afraid often. Her strength comes from reading Isaiah.

[Jean Ann Carnley]

[OCT. 11, 2000]  Beginning Monday, Oct. 16, the Lincoln City Landfill will be open extended hours to allow residents to dispose of leaves and yard waste, according to Donnie Osborne, street superintendent. The landfill will open at 8 a.m. and remain open until 4 p.m. seven days a week, probably until mid-December, he said. Residents may bring in leaves any way they like — in bags, boxes or pickup trucks — but they must take the leaves out of the containers and take the containers back home with them.

[OCT. 10, 2000]  The office of the city clerk in Lincoln will be open for filing petitions for nomination for the Feb. 27, 2001, consolidated primary election, with petitions accepted from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the following dates: Dec. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 and 18.

Petitions will be accepted for the following city offices:

• Mayor
• City treasurer
• City clerk
• Alderman Ward 1
• Alderman Ward 2
• Alderman Ward 3
• Alderman Ward 4

• Alderman Ward 5

[Juanita Josserand, city clerk]

[OCT. 9, 2000]  Registered voters expecting to be absent from the county on the Nov. 7 election day may vote in person at the Logan County Clerk’s Office, second floor, Courthouse, Room 20, Lincoln, from now until Nov. 6.

Election Authority

[OCT. 7, 2000]  Following is a list of budget requests that were heard by the Logan County Board Finance Committee on Aug. 11, 16 and 17. These requests will be compiled by the auditor and matched with the anticipated revenue for the 2001 fiscal year (Dec. 1). The finance committee will then review these numbers, make necessary adjustments and prepare a recommendation to the entire County Board in the next month. There will be a public meeting entirely devoted to budget matters in the future.

Rod White, finance chairman, 732-4793

* Paramedics: new ambulance, $90,000

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* Superintendent of schools: if office is moved, the county will have to provide all of the rental money, $20,000

* Animal control: to replace old animal-transport unit on truck, $10,000

County Board committee meeting dates for October 2000

Committee	Location	Date	Time
Board of Whole	Courthouse	Thursday, Oct. 12	7 p.m.
Finance	Courthouse	Friday, Oct. 13	8 a.m.
Adjourned Board	Courthouse	Tuesday, Oct. 17	7 p.m.
Joint Solid Waste	City Hall	Wednesday, Oct. 18	7 p.m.
Special Adjourned Board	Courthouse	Thursday, Oct. 19	7 p.m.

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