News stories from Sunday December 11, 1977

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

Central bank governors will meet tomorrow in Basle, Switzerland, amid speculation over whether steps will be taken to bolster the sagging United States dollar. The strong German statement that the dollar's fall "is not justified by economic facts" and Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal's talks in Paris last week with European and Japanese finance officials have stirred speculation that the United States and other governments may be planning coordinated measures to halt the dollar's decline. [New York Times] New York City is turning down nearly half of all new welfare applicants -- 48 percent since July 1 compared with 25 to 35 percent before tighter controls went into effect in mid-1976. Complaints of harassment and delays are being raised by client representatives, and after years of efforts to purge welfare rolls of ineligibles, the Federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare has begun a nationwide study to see if people are being kept off unfairly. [New York Times] Organized labor is losing control of the construction industry, which now has thousands of non-union workers. Union workers by the thousands "put their union cards in their pockets or in their shoes and go to work non-union" because it is the only way to find jobs, said Robert Georgine, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. building and construction trades department. Large and complex projects, especially south of Delaware, that once were the preserve of union men, are being built under open or "merit" shop conditions, with union and non-union craftsmen working side by side. High union wages and restrictive work practices are said to have created the new non-union competition. [New York Times] A 1972 directive on pesticides by Congress, giving the Environmental Protection Agency four years, later extended to five, to assess their safety remains unmet and may take another 10 years for completion. The delay points up complaints of many federal advisers, scientists and legislators about ineffective governmental regulation of chemical pesticides. [New York Times] White Rhodesian society appears to be shifting under black political pressure away from the hope of preserving white domination to that of holding together in a unified bloc to protect white privileges in a black-controlled state most consider inevitable. In government advertising, the issue is now presented as preserving the whites' way of life instead of resisting a perceived Communist menace. [New York Times] Oil and gas prospectors have overrun the Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana border. The drilling area is in the "overthrust belt" -- a geologically complex area caused by a subterranean shift of rock which forms the necessary "structure" for oil and gas reservoirs. The belt extends from the Bering Sea to Mexico. The most successful drilling has been done by American Quasar Petroleum of Fort Worth, which found a natural gas well in Utah that is producing more than 100 million cubic feet of natural gas a day. [New York Times] Another record has been set by the tax-exempt bond market, which has raised well over $40 billion for states and cities during 1977. Almost $1.7 billion of new bond issues are scheduled this week, a record for any week, and remarkable for mid-December when the market normally begins to shut down for the holidays. Much of the impetus to borrow comes from the lower interest rates that have prevailed this year. "There's something of a consensus that we're headed toward higher interest rates," an investment banker said. "Some issuers have decided that they might as well get some of the money they need now. That's really the reason for all the volume." [New York Times] An anti-obscenity drive in the Atlanta area, directed by the local prosecutor, has been methodical and relentless and some people believe it might provide guidelines for similar campaigns elsewhere. It has gone beyond the usual attempts to put pornography purveyors out of business, and newsstand dealers and even members of a theatrical group have been arrested. [New York Times] Ethel Roosevelt Derby, a daughter of President Theodore Roosevelt, died at her home in Oyster Bay, Long Island. She was 86 years old. Mrs. Derby, widow of the late Dr. Richard Derby, a physician, led the drive to make Sagamore Hill a shrine. [New York Times] The United States will do all it can to mend the split among the Arab nations over Egypt's peace overtures to Israel, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance said at a joint news conference in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Menachem Begin. Mr. Vance's trip to the Middle East was made to obtain pledges from both Israel and Egypt that they would not seek a separate peace at next week's conference in Cairo and to persuade other Arab nations to attend the meeting. Mr. Begin said, as President Anwar Sadat said Saturday in Cairo, that he would not seek a separate treaty. Later, Mr. Vance said that the United States expected King Hussein of Jordan to join the conference. [New York Times] Thousands of Parisians were given free rides on new sections of their city's subway system and an opportunity to examine the gigantic new main station, Chatelet-Les-Halles, in the city's center, which is said to be the world's largest. The Paris transport authority provided concerts, ballets and other diversions on the new station's five levels. [New York Times]