News stories from Saturday January 8, 1977

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

President-elect Carter and his economic advisers decided on a two-year program of economic stimulus, with a total cost estimated at $25 billion to $32 billion, because they believed that a one-year plan, even one costing as much as $20 billion, might not be adequate to put the economy back on a path of solid growth. This and other details of how the program was put together, and why, were disclosed in interviews with Carter aides. [New York Times] The National Football League's Super Bowl championship game tomorrow afternoon is expected to have a television audience of 75 million people when the Minnesota Vikings and Oakland Raiders kick off at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena. In the last 10 years Super Bowl games have become a national institution, but N.F.L. officials are not happy about the tag "super." "It's simply a game, the last game in a long season and people want to see who wins and loses," said Jim Kensil, the N.F.L. executive director. Others are not quite sure it is that simple. The Super Bowl is probably the world's biggest single gambling event. [New York Times] New top editors at the New York Post and New York Magazine were appointed by their new publisher, Rupert Murdoch. Edwin Bolwell, a 44-year-old senior editor of Time Magazine and a former assistant metropolitan editor of the New York Times, was named editor of the Post, a new position second only to that of Mr. Murdoch as publisher and editor in chief. James Brady, 48 years old, was named editor of New York Magazine. [New York Times] Atlanta's decade of expansion has ended, and the city is in the midst of a painful retrenchment. New downtown office space is unrented, three new luxury hotels are in uneasy competition and a fourth is in serious trouble, real estate is sluggish and new construction practically nonexistent. Similar signs of economic trouble prevail in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia, according to a study by Dr. Donald Ratajczak, an economist at Georgia State University. But there are prospects for continued growth, even an acceleration, in several other Southern states, he says. [New York Times] The environmental impact of opening the St. Lawrence River to commercial shipping in winter, which the shipping industry wants, is being studied in a joint venture by several United States government agencies, Canadian groups and New York state colleges. The study will be made over six years at a cost of $17 million. At present, heavy ice in the river from Montreal west to the Thousand Islands, at the eastern end of Lake Ontario, normally halts navigation from mid-December to April, except for a passage from Montreal to the sea. Winter passage to the Great Lakes is technically feasible, the shipping industry says. [New York Times] Federal agencies have "refused to take actions" to help stockholders find the real owners of businesses in the United States, according to the chief aide of a Senate subcommittee. The aide, Vic Reinemer, said that most of the federal regulatory bodies "were tail-wagging watchdogs." He is staff director of the Senate subcommittee on reports, accounting and management. The difficulty in tracing corporate ownership was noticeable in the struggle for control of the New York Magazine Company last week. [New York Times] Puerto Rico's political status is said to be "the single most passionately discussed topic of conversation of the island's 3 million American citizens." President Ford's proposal to consider making Puerto Rico the 51st state has made a largely local concern a national issue. It is an issue that has important economic, political and ideological implications. [New York Times] Vice President-elect Mondale will visit West European and Japanese leaders just after the Carter administration takes office to discuss the new administration's foreign policy objectives. He will also discuss arrangements for an economic summit meeting that Mr. Carter plans to attend in the spring. These intentions were announced in Plains, Ga., by President-elect Carter. He also said that he would telephone the chief executives of West Germany, Britain and France "to talk to them about a need for us to cooperate in dealing with the worldwide economic situation." [New York Times] Foreign freighters waiting off Nigeria's coast for berths in its major harbors are coming under increasing attack from criminals who hide out in a labyrinth of lagoons and swoop down in motorized dugout canoes. Often chanting war songs and brandishing cutlasses and even grappling hooks, the pirates storm the anchored ships, overwhelm the crews and loot the cargoes. Foreign embassies have lodged official protests with the Nigerian government, which says it is prepared to take armed action against the pirate boats. [New York Times]