News stories from Sunday November 27, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Record Christmas shopping is expected by merchants across the nation, with predictions ranging from 7 percent to 15 percent over last year. The bright forecasts are bolstered by a steady, rising sales trend since late summer, a brighter tone in the economy and improved business conditions and employment in many regions. [New York Times]
- Reacting to foreign competition, President Carter ordered last April the improvement of a federal program designed to give financial and other aid to domestic companies and workers affected by imports. But now there are many signs that the administration program is not working as it should. Companies fear that accepting such aid will damage their reputations, and workers regard the few extra dollars they get as little better than increased unemployment compensation. [New York Times]
- Fourteen medical schools have forfeited $11 million in federal funds in a dispute over a new law that requires them to accept as transfer students Americans who began their medical studies in other countries. The law says that the American schools must enroll these students or forfeit subsidies provided as incentives for increasing enrollments. The House has sought to modify the provision, and the Senate has voted to repeal it. The issue will go to a House-Senate conference. [New York Times]
- "Gray power" is growing as a political force, demonstrating the power of the elderly at the polls and in lobbying efforts at all levels. Recently the elderly played an important role in the re-election of Governor Byrne of New Jersey, who signed a law exempting some old people from the state income tax just before the election. [New York Times]
- New strains on marriage have come from women's rising expectations of a career outside as well as in the home, but if, as believed, the American divorce rate has doubled in a decade, statistics show that about 80 percent of those divorced will remarry. The apparent goal is a reconciliation of intimacy and independence. [New York Times]
- Marijuana has gone public after years as largely a private indulgence regarded as a defiant gesture by young people in revolt. Crowds of marijuana smokers recently enjoyed public "smoke-ins" in San Francisco and Cleveland and there was not a single arrest. Explanations offered for the trend are lighter penalties, laissez-faire policing, reluctant prosecution and mounting public acceptance. [New York Times]
- Washington is perplexed over how to react to the proposal Saturday by President Anwar Sadat of Egypt for a preliminary Middle East conference to convene in Cairo next Saturday, administration officials said. As the United States weighed a reply, the Soviet Union, the other co-chairman of the Geneva conference on the Middle East, remained silent. Moscow, like Washington, was apparently caught off guard and was seemingly concerned that plans for a Geneva meeting this year might fail because of Mr. Sadat's overtures. On American TV, Mr. Sadat said he was ready to negotiate in Cairo on procedures for a Geneva conference with Israel alone. [New York Times]
- An Israeli policy statement on the speedily moving Middle East situation will be made tomorrow by Prime Minister Menachem Begin in the Parliament in Jerusalem, he told reporters. The statement will be followed by a full-scale debate among the country's various political factions. [New York Times]
- Egypt extended formal invitations for preparatory talks in Cairo on reconvening the Geneva peace conference, but apparently failed to include the Palestine Liberation Organization, which has already refused to attend. [New York Times]
- Canada's new warmth toward the United States, contrasting with the coolness and tension two years ago, is ascribed primarily to Ottawa's recent severe internal strains, political and economic. Other factors cited include the strong rapport between the government of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the Carter administration, and dimming memory in Canada of the Vietnam War and Watergate. [New York Times]