News stories from Saturday May 2, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Senator Robert Byrd has doubts about the Reagan administration's budget proposals for the fiscal year 1982, but he will vote for them, the minority leader said. "The people want the President to be given a chance with his budget," he said. He criticized the budget on the ground that it was based on "rather tenuous and questionable assumptions." and said that he did not believe it would achieve a balanced budget in 1984. [New York Times]
- About 100 foreign businessmen are exepected to attend, at a cost of $3,000 each, a three-day conference on the Reagan administration's policies toward foreign investment. Many of the sessions will be held in government buildings, several officials are to participate and one was paid a fee for helping arrange the conference. But the actual organizer and host is a research organization and its weekly publication, The National Journal, raising questions about the distinction between public and private activities as well as questions about news organizations' methods of seeking access and influence in government. [New York Times]
- A switch to the Republican Party is growing among Americans, but they are moving toward conservatism selectively, according to a New York Times/CBS News Poll. Democrats still outnumber Republicans, but the poll indicates that the changes within the electorate offer Republicans an opportunity to effect a political realignment comparable to that gained by the Democrats in the 1930's. [New York Times]
- About 1,000 convicts in Michigan will be freed from overcrowded prisons by Gov. William Milliken starting this week if the state Supreme Court consents. The Governor is seeking court approval of a new law that reduces the sentences of almost all inmates by 90 days when the prison population exceeds a court-ordered ceiling of 12,874 for more than 30 days. [New York Times]
- Harrison Williams' future in the Senate will be considered by the Ethics Committee. The panel announced that it would meet Monday or Tuesday to decide what action to take because of Mr. Williams's conviction Friday on bribery and conspiracy charges that followed an Abscam investigation of political corruption. A committee staff lawyer was an observer at the monthlong trial in federal court in Brooklyn. [New York Times]
- NATO foreign ministers are pressing Secretary of State Haig to agree to an early reopening of talks with the Soviet Union on reducing nuclear weapons based in Europe. They presented the issue to Mr. Haig on his arrival in Rome to attend a meeting of the allied foreign ministers on Monday and Tuesday. [New York Times]
- An intelligence report on terrorism, begun after Secretary of State Alexander Haig accused the Soviet Union of "training, funding and equipping" international terrorists, has been able to support some, but not all, of the Secretary's sweeping charges, which surprised American intelligence agencies. [New York Times]
- Political repression in Guatemala is increasing. Leftist and moderate groups are bearing the brunt of it as the Reagan administration tries to repair relations with the military regime of Gen. Romeo Lucas Garcia, which hopes that American military aid cut off in 1977 will be resumed. Guatemala's leaders are fighting a guerrilla movement that is increasingly successful in the countryside, and are attempting to eliminate centrist politicians with whom Washington could be expected to deal. [New York Times]
- The United States will back China and other Asian countries in efforts to put together a more unified resistance against Cambodia's Vietnamese-backed government, administration officials said. [New York Times]