News stories from Saturday May 27, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Bettors jammed Atlantic City's new gambling casino on the day after its opening. Players tried to beat the house at blackjack, baccarat, craps, roulette, lottery wheels and at 893 slot machines. When the casino ended its first day at 6 A.M. today there were still 5,000 people in the gaming rooms. When it reopened at 10:30 A.M., 1,000 people were waiting to get in. [New York Times]
- Former prisoners of the Vietnam War met in Los Angeles for the first time since 1973. Most of them expressed wonder at how little their lives had been scarred by their captivity. [New York Times]
- Supporters of Head Start and two other major programs are trying to keep them out of the Department of Education proposed by President Carter. Head Start, a $625 million program for preschool children, has a high degree of involvement by parents and is largely run by community groups. In addition, members of the Senate Agriculture Committee oppose the transfer of the school lunch program to the proposed department, and Indian leaders do not want Indian education aid transferred from the Interior Department. [New York Times]
- President Carter and Andrei Gromyko reported some progress toward a new strategic arms limitation agreement after a meeting at the White House. Mr. Carter, White House aides stressed, complained to the Soviet Foreign Minister about Soviet military activity in Africa and Moscow's tough treatment of dissidents at home. [New York Times]
- When Zbigniew Brzezinski was in Peking, he and his aides gave Chinese leaders the fullest exposition ever given the Chinese about American policies, administration officials said. One of the points made was that the United States shared major interests with China in rebuffing the Soviet Union. The Chinese also got a detailed briefing on the status of Soviet-American strategic arms talks and a description of the contents of secret White House memorandums on United States security goals.
Peking Is sending ships to Vietnam to evacuate Chinese it says are being persecuted. The Chinese press agency, Hsinhua, did not say where or when the ships would go. It was another indication that relations between the two countries are worsening.
[New York Times] - Greece's Prime Minister said that only a "fair" Cyprus settlement would restore the strength of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's southern flank. This will be his message at a meeting of NATO leaders in Washington this week. [New York Times]