News stories from Saturday June 21, 1980

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

Possible bugging of Republican offices in Washington was investigated by private security consultants. The investigation was ordered by Bill Brock, the Republican national chairman, after Mary Crisp, a deputy, became suspicious that her office had been bugged. Mrs. Crisp hired a security consultant, who reported that he had found a magnetic field emanating from another building and an unexplained wire in the ceiling that could have been used for eavesdropping. [New York Times] President Carter and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany said on their arrival in Venice for a seven-nation economic meeting that they agreed on the Atlantic alliance's plans to modernize its nuclear forces in Western Europe. Both seemed eager to put at rest reports of friction between them arising from Mr. Schmidt's upcoming visit to Moscow and his stated interest in negotiating a halt in deployment of the medium-range nuclear missiles. [New York Times] The Western alliance has two goals when its leaders meet in Venice todmorrow: the restoration of a semblance of unity among its nations, which has eroded in the last year, and the development of policies dealing with Soviet expansion and the instablility in the Middle East. The meeting provides President Carter with an opportunity to rebuild Western unity and to restore his diminished standing as the Alliance's leader, but he faces widespread skepticism among its members. [New York Times] Tension increased between South Korea and North Korea following the sinking by South Korea of a Communist boat attempting to land agents in the south, the Defense Ministry in Seoul said. The ministry said 12 MiG-21 fighters and five warships had been sent by the North to try to prevent capture of the ship. [New York Times] A $46.9 billion housing bill was approved 63 to 4 by the Senate, which stripped it of a provision that would have diverted some money for low-income housing to a new rental program for the middle class. The funding authorization will provide guarantees of long-term funding of federally assisted low and moderate income housing, and special grants for the worst of the urban blight areas. [New York Times] Environmental laws are bypassed by hundreds of strip mine operators in Virginia's Appalachian mountains who are using a loophole in federal law in collaboration with county governments. By using mountainside excavations of less than two acres, a practice that is abetted under local laws in three of the six coal counties, between 250 and 300 strip miners are immune to either state or federal environmental regulation. [New York Times] Close calls in air lanes have continued since the collision of two planes over San Diego in 1978, an accident that killed 144 people. Safety experts say that remedial efforts to prevent such collisions have been offset by air traffic growth and inadequate financing. In addition, the long term timetable for new and safer automated air control equipment is threatened with delays of up to five years because of more cuts in the 1981 federal budget. [New York Times]