News stories from Sunday July 26, 1981

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

William J. Casey asked for a hearing by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence "as soon as possible." Mr. Casey, President Reagan's appointee as Director of Central Intelligence, promised in a statement issued by the C.I.A. to cooperate fully "on any matters into which the committee members may wish to inquire" concerning his business affairs. [New York Times] The federal sewerage aid program might not go ahead, at least in the near future. The program is one of the few on which President Reagan and environmentalists agree, but there is no federal money authorized for the fiscal year starting Oct. 1 for the construction of plants to treat municipal and industrial sewage. The President asked Congress not to provide funding for the program in the new fiscal year and urged that the entire program be reformed. He said would seek $2.4 billion next year if acceptable changes were made. [New York Times] A human heart was transplanted in surgery on a 36-year-old man from the Netherlands who had been kept alive for three days by an artificial one at the Texas Heart Institute in Houston. The patient's own heart failed after a bypass operation. The human heart was given by the family of a 29-year-old man through the Regional Donor Center in Nashville, which is affiliated with Vanderbilt University. [New York Times] Revenue from New Jersey's casinos has helped balance the state's record $5.7 billion 1982 budget. The Byrne administration transferred $63 million for general budget purposes from the Casino Revenue Fund, despite a provision in the 1976 legislation establishing the casinos that restricted the state's share to reducing property taxes, rentals or utility bills paid by the aged and the disabled. The transfer, upheld by the state Attorney General as technically legal, was used to pay for an existing program for the elderly, utlimately freeing other money -- through a chain of transfers -- for the general budget. [New York Times] Civic improvements in Minneapolis and its sister city St. Paul, virtually all paid for without subsidies by corporations which have headquarters there, are being studied by urban experts. As cities around the country face cutbacks in federal aid, the Twin Cities have become the focus of national attention because so much has been accomplished with so little government money. [New York Times] Fuel prices were raised by two more companies in response to the new state tax imposed on oil companies to help finance the New York state transit-aid program. A rise of 2.7 cents a gallon for gasoline, diesel fuel and home heating oil, effective Saturday, was announced by the Getty Refining and Marketing Company. The Shell Oil Company raised the price of gasoline and jet fuel by 1 cent a gallon, effective Tuesday. Mobil Oil was the first to raise prices after the tax bill was signed on July 11. [New York Times] Palestinian guerrilla leaders censured a radical guerrilla faction that has refused to honor the shaky cease-fire along the Israeli border in southern Lebanon. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command was described in a broadcast statement by the Voice of Palestine radio as "irresponsible" and "heedless of Lebanese and Palestinian blood." Except for three brief incidents of firing by the defiant faction, the cease-fire has not been violated. [New York Times] Philip Habib arrived in Washington and was expected to discuss with President Reagan and Secretary of State Alexander Haig the cease-fire he helped negotiate as the United States' special envoy to the Middle East. Meanwhile, Senator Henry Jackson, senior Democratic member of the Armed Services Committee, said there was no question that the United States would resume delivery of the F-16 planes to Israel. [New York Times] Moscow will refrain from stepping up the level of confrontation with the Reagan administration it appeared to be preparing for six months ago, diplomats in Washington said. However, Soviet officials continue to tell diplomats in Washington and private visitors to Moscow of "real dangers" and "possible confrontations" if President Reagan does not alter his hard-line policies, while hoping that domestic economic problems and pressure from American allies will force the administraion to alter its stance. [New York Times] Nigeria might use its "oil weapon" against the United States in response to the Reagan administration's South African policies, a senior Nigerian official said. He added that Nigeria would regard it as a "step in the right direction" if American athletes were barred from international meets because of the United States tour of a South African rugby team. [New York Times]