The Lincoln Star from Lincoln, Nebraska • 1

ufescape Sports No. 2 Alabama denies Miami another title No. 2 Alabama beat No. 1 Miami 1 I Weather 'L ii High Low rO 2921 'Jr' Cloudy today, -4T winds 15-25, chance- of light rain tonight. Page 19 I State news iA A-r Cabins filling fast in state parks Winter has barely begun, yet Tfr-.

cabins are filling fast for a stay at Nebraska's state parks In the Page 16 Year disappoints women activists It was pegged as the year of the woman. Although 1992 didn't turn out like some had hoped, 1 992 did bring some gains for women. Page 14 34-13 In the Sugar Bowl, denying MMr: the Hurricanes 93 their fifth college football title In a decade, Page 9 imcoln lounial-Star WLW DELIVERED NEWSSTAND 26 PAGES SATURDAY, JANUARY 2, 1993 3 SECTIONS 1893 Joumd-Sur Priming Lincoln. Nab. ITD MM But Bush, for the most part, emphasized the achievements of the U.S.-led military intervention.

"IT'S A BEAUTIFUL wonderful mission," Bush said in remarks to reporters at the orphanage, which he visited after spending time with Marines based at the airport and viewing captured Somali weapons. They're restoring hope, they're restoring life, literally." Wearing camouflage desert fatigues, Bush said U.S. troops will leave Baidoa and other cities in Somalia as soon as their mission is complete, but he offered no details on when that might be. He added, however, "I don't think there will be any leaving of the Somalian people to suffer the fate they had been suffering We're not going to leave these good Somalis in the lurch." Bush said he is "confident" that other countries will pledge sufficient peacekeeping forces to prevent chaos from returning once U.S. combat forces leave.

National security adviser Brent ScowcroftJ who accompanied Bush, said in an interview Please turn to: Bush, Page 6 Despite U.S. relief operation, Somalis remain desperate. From The Washington Post BAIDOA, Somalia Two hours before President Bush arrived at the orphanage Friday morning, Isaak died. He was little more than 4 years old. Four months ago, Isaak had' staggered naked into the orphanage courtyard, a starving, sickly child without parents or siblings and a history known only to himself.

Friday, Isaak's body lay under a shroud in the orphanage medical center, just a few feet from hundreds of mostly healthy-looking children who welcomed Bush to the heart of Somalia's famine zone with songs, a gift of ceremonial weapons and a wreath of brightly colored flowers. The sharp contrast between Isaak's lonely death and the festive splash of color that greeted the president and his entourage seemed to capture both faces of his visit here. ON THE ONE HAND, Bush's New Year's Day tour of Baidoa was a personal triumph, a chance to show the world that U.S. forces under his command had purged Baidoa of the looters and clan warriors who only a few weeks ago were robbing food convoys at will and gunning each other down here at the rate of up to 50 casualties per day. Children are getting their daily mix of cornmeal, soybeans and sugar.

But Bush's visit also showed how far Baidoa has yet to go. Bush arrived Friday in a ruined city where two or three children at the central orphanage still die each week of disease or starvation, security remains a relative term, and many people would like the Marines to stay forever. Wary after a brief bout of sniper fire at a U.S. checkpoint Thursday night, Marines staged a formidable show of force throughout Bush's visit, securing intersections along his convoy route with sandbagged machine-gun posts pnd cross-hatching the skies with Cobra helicopter gunships. The president himself made the 1.25-mile trip from the airport to the orphanage in a Marine light armored vehicle.

4fYtrfcf, 1 i XL Associated Prttt Children in Baidoa's orphanage welcome President Bush on Friday. Wily Ward Transplant was their only option 'i if it- 'CI iff: 4 Man, woman were first in state to receive lung transplants. By JoAnne Young Lincoln Journal-Star Cowage is for people who have choices. That's what Ronnie Cox and Helen t. Davison-Labenz would tell you.

Courage was not an issue when they signed informed consent papers to allow doctors at Bryan Memorial Hospital to open their chests and perform a delicate operation each giving up an old, damaged lung for a healthy lung. It wasn't a courageous decision, they say, because they had no choices at least not ones they wanted to consider. It was a lung transplant or death. "When you get down so bad that you need a transplant, what have you got to lose?" said Davison-Labenz. Cox, 49, and Davison-Labenz, 43, were the first to have lung transplants at Bryan Memorial Hospital, both on Nov.

1. And Bryan was the first hospital in the state to do lung transplants. Since November, Bryan surgeons have performed a third transplant a double-lung exchange on Dec. 30 for Steve Bussinger, 44, of Bassett FOR DAVISON-LABENZ, being the first at something was nothing new. When she was 24 years old, she became the first female to join the state Department of Roads' Maintenance Department She was an emergency courtesy driver, traveling up and down the interstate assisting stranded motorists.

When that job ended, she became a highway maintenance worker, mowing rights-of-way, sanding highways, plowing snow and doing concrete and asphalt work. She worked there until three years ago, when she had to quit for health reasons. The Cox family said they have had other big firsts in their lives, too. The transplant is the family's second miracle. When their 20-year-old son, Craig, was 5, he was diagnosed with an inoperable tumor in the middle of his brain.

"The doctors told us to just take, him home and enjoy Christmas with him. They gave him six months to live," said Mary Cox, Ronnie Cox's wife. BUT THE COXES WEREN'T ready to give up. They took their son Please turn to: Lung, Page 6 f. it.

a mmmx a rr.T mi 4 lt' V'i iS It KlrkLlncoin Journal-Star DWI law enforced at stroke of midnight Nebraska's Trev Alberts (34) tries to bring down Florida State Anderson moves in Friday in the Orange Bowl at Miami. Ward quarteroacK unarne ward (i by ms jersey as NU Mike led the Seminoles to a 27-14 victory, stones, pages i z. COLOR. Treasured collection awaits auction block By Bruce Weibie Lincoln Journal-Star Local law officers clarified the grace period drunken drivers can expect before enforcement of Nebraska's new automatic license revocation law begins. None.

The controversial law, hailed by advocates as a significant tool for deterring drunken driving and reducing alcohol-related traffic deaths, became effective at midnight Friday. Officials of the Nebraska State Patrol, the Lincoln Police Department and the Lancaster County Sheriffs office said officers from all three agen cies had utiliized the automatic license revocation (ALR) law before the end of the day. Under the terms of ALR, law officers can take a motorist's drivers license at the scene of a traffic stop if the motorist fails a chemical sobriety test or refuses to take one. THE MOTORISTS are given a temporary license, good for 30 days, during which time they can appeal the revocation to the Department of Motor Vehicles. If the revocation is not appealed, Please turn to: DWI, Page 6 1 1 4 Index a Astrology Puzzles Bridge 18 Record book Classifieds 20 Religion Comics 25 Sports Dear ........14 State, Local Deaths ....................................19 Today's Editorials ................................4 TV Programs Lifescape 14 Weather World 15 .....1 7 M3 .....18 ,....14 15 17 .2,3,5 Roovnn TvivtrLlncoln Jauma4-Star Alfred Bongers shows off one of his uncle's old tractors.

By Robynn Tysver Lincoln Journal-Star DAVID CITY A security guard stands watch outside the estate of the late Leo Bongers, one mile south of David City on Highway 15. The guard protects about a dozen modest-looking buildings, including four steel Quonset huts. The buildings themselves are hardly' valuable. But packed inside are Bongers' treasures the end result of his lifelong fling with the art of collecting. A well-known lover of the old, Bongers collected everything from wooden egg cases to rare Harley Davidson motorcycles.

He loved to buy. "Like they sold the barber shop out, and he bought the three barber chairs," his nephew Alfred Bongers said. "It just got to the point he couldnt resist anything old." Bongers, 90, died in his sleep on Oct 8. "First of all, he never threw anything away," his nephew said. "He kind of treasured everything he owned." SO MUCH SO, HE NEVER got around to drafting a will or deciding on the future of his massive collection.

His fondest hope was that the collection would stay in David City and be stored in a museum. In 1988, former State Sen. Loran Schmit successfully persuaded the Legislature to budget $38,000 for a feasibility study to build and operate a museum to house Bongers' collection. But it never went any further. So now his estate is being sold.

''Everybody hates to see it disbursed like this, but who else can afford it," Alfred Bongers said, noting that it is costing the estate about $250 a day to safeguard the collection. It will take eight days to auction off Bongers' estate. Some collectibles and miscellaneous items were sold Dec. 4 and 5. His most beloved items include 125 antique cars, some steam engines and more than 100 old tractors.

They will be sold at auctions Jaa 30 and April 3. BONGERS BOUGHT AND restored 25 vintage cars built from 1900 to 1915, including a 1918 Douglas, one of eight cars manufactured by the Douglas Motor Co. in Omaha, and a 1909 Stoddard Dayton, valued at about $100,000. "That's a very rare car," Bongers said of the Dayton. Bongers had a "mechanical mind," and loved to get an old car running, his nephew said.

"One thing about Leo, if you start all these cars, they run," Bongers said. The estate is videotaping each of the cars in running condition. The estate also has 18 motorcycles on the auction block, including one of the earUest Harley Davidsons, built in the 1900s. An executive with the prestigious bike company approached Leo Bongers several years ago to buy the motorcycle, but Bongers refused to selL Now a rumor has been sweeping town that late-night talk show host Jay Leno, who is a bike aficionado, plans to bid on the motorcycle. "THEY'RE VERY RARE, these onercyclinder Harley Davidsons," Alfred Bongers said.

The elder Bongers began his collection in about 1924, after he married and opened Bongers Auto and Tractor Parts. Although his first love was automobiles, he loved anything old. His collection includes 100 antique butter churns and dozens of lamps and lanterns. He acquired much of his collection through classified ads in trader and collector magazines. He and his cousin, Delores Kuhl of Rising City, are acting as personal representatives of the estate, which will be divided among seven nieces and nephews.

Bongers had no children. HIS COLLECTION MANIA led him to buy about six old safes used in banks and businesses. After his death, a safe -cracker was hired to open some of the safes, and inside they found buckets of old coins that were part of Bongers' coin collection. The coins, which are in a safety deposit box in the local bank, have not yet been inventoried. They will be sold later this year.

The auctions will be held at Bongers' Sky Ranch, one mile south of David City. The dates of the sales are as follows: Jan. 9 antique collectibles, including furniture, tools and miscellaneous items. Jan. 30 antique cars, motorcycles and classic cars.

Feb. 20 and 21 car parts. April 3 antique tractors, steam engines and gas engines. Read it Sunday in the Lincoln Journal-Star Farmers plugged into computers and satellite dishes have come a long way from the days they kept their records in shoeboxes and listened to the radio for market news. The Legislature convenes on Wednesday amid budget problems for state government.

Lawmakers will have to cut programs or raise taxes. Legislature '93. Special section with stories, senator roster and other useful information to help Nebraskans participate in their state government. NFL playoffs begin with Washington at Minnesota and Kansas City at San Diego. The Nebraska basketball team comes home after an 1 1-day road trip to face Eastern Illinois..