News stories from Saturday October 30, 1982

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

33 Senate seats and 433 House seats are at stake in Tuesday's voting, which both Republicans and Democrats believe will be a referendum on President Reagan's economic policies. The Republicans, aware of the political damage the 10.1 percent national unemployment rate is causing them, are resigned to sizable losses in the House. [New York Times] Republicans and Democrats are close as the congressional campaign ends, the New York Times/CBS News Poll has found. The electorate is being tugged sharply in opposite directions, toward the Democrats by rising unemployment and toward the Republicans by a declining inflation rate and President Reagan's popularity. [New York Times] Health insurance benefits have ceased for more than 16 million Americans as a result of unemployment, and many appear to be deferring necessary medical care, according to health officials. [New York Times] Cutting back transit workers' gains in bargaining with unions has been a practice this year of many mass transit agencies in the country, in a poor economy and facing reduced federal assistance. In seeking union concessions, management negotiators have concentrated on cost-of-living provisions, which create regular and sometimes even quarterly or monthly pay increases to keep pace with inflation. [New York Times] Hollywood's reliance on cocaine and other illicit drugs has become so widespread that movie insurance companies are changing the policies to reflect drug-related risks. Some people in the entertainment industry maintain that drug abuse is affecting the quality of movies and television programs. [New York Times] A lawyer's libel suit against the Associated Press has been reinstated by a federal appeals court after the suit was dismissed in Manhattan. The lawyer, Charles Bufalino, who is Borough Solicitor in Pittston Pa., sued the news agency for $400,000, charging that it had defamed by linking him to organized crime figures in a story about political contributions in 1978 to Pennsylvania's then Governor-elect Richard Thornburgh. [New York Times] Opportunities for Middle East peace are regarded by Reagan administration officials as unparalleled in the short run in the aftermath of the war in Lebanon. But they fear that in the long run new power realities are tugging toward impasse. The administration's strategy is to convince Arab moderates and Palestinian leaders that it is "either now or almost never" -- either recognize Israel and give King Hussein of Jordan the green light to negotiate over the West Bank and Gaza, or face the prospect of de facto incorporation of these territories into Israel. [New York Times] Talks in the Middle East between Morris Draper, the special United States envoy, and President Amin Gamayel of Lebanon and Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel led to the first progress reported in the preliminary negotiations aimed at securing the withdrawal of Israeli, Syrian and Palestinian forces from Lebanon. [New York Times] Pope John Paul II will visit Spain, the first by a Pope despite Spain's rich and turbulent Roman Catholic history. The Pope will arrive tomorrow for a 10-day tour, and will find a church full of self-doubt. [New York Times] A robbery of Andrei Sakharov, the dissident Soviet physicist, was reported by him in a letter to the chief of the K.G.B., the security police. He said security agents had apparently stunned him, smashed a window of his car and taken his unpublished memoirs and other papers. [New York Times]