News stories from Sunday June 18, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A cut in federal spending was demanded by a number of the nation's mayors. At a meeting in Atlanta, where experts advised the mayors on coping with tax revolts, the shock that followed California's recent vote to slash property taxes was clearly present. The mayors were attending the meeting of the United States Conference of Mayors. [New York Times]
- A conference on families at the White House has been postponed from December 1979 to 1981, Joseph Califano, the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, announced. The conference, promised by President Carter during his campaign, has been controversial, and further difficulties have followed the resignations of the conference chairman, Wilbur Cohen, and of Patsy Fleming, Mr. Califano's choice for executive secretary. [New York Times]
- Broad reform of the funeral industry has been urged on the Federal Trade Commission by its staff, which issued proposed regulations in a report based on five years of research. The F.T.C. is expected to act on the proposals by early next year. If they become law, they might be challenged by the National Funeral Directors Association, whose president, Royal Keith, said the report was "shrill, unfair and lopsided." [New York Times]
- The 30 million handicapped Americans, emboldened by new anti-discrimination regulations, are demanding more fundamental changes in the way society treats them. They want physical access to all areas of life, but above all they want to change other Americans' attitudes toward the disabled. [New York Times]
- A tornado overturned a paddle wheel excursion steamboat on Lake Pomona in Ottawa, Kan., hurling its 59 passengers and crew into the lake and killing 14 persons. Divers searched the lake for six more persons believed to have drowned. [New York Times]
- A bitter debate in Alaska has focused on a bill passed last month by the House that would determine what use is made of more than half of the state's 375 million acres. If enacted, the bill would place 170 million acres owned by the federal government in national park and wildlife preserves. The bill would decide where Alaskans can hunt, fish, mine, drive and live. [New York Times]
- A new Atlantic City elite are the dealers at the new Resorts International casino. The dealers, 600 of them, were chosen from 3,000 applicants for jobs that pay so far about $300 a week -- but it is a 10-hour-day, six-day week at the gambling tables. [New York Times]
- Israel sidestepped American pressure to commit itself to decide the permanent status of the occupied Arab territories. The cabinet announced it would negotiate "the nature of future relations" after five years of limited Palestinian self-rule. The vaguely worded statement appeared to leave open the possibility that Prime Minister Menachem Begin's self-rule plan for the West Bank and the Gaza Strip might continue indefinitely.
Israel's response to the United States seemed to fall short of what Washington had hoped would provide a breakthrough in the stalled Middle East peace negotiations. The Carter administration declined to characterize publicly the statement from the Israeli cabinet.
[New York Times] - Joshua Nkomo predicted victory in six to 10 months for the Patriotic Front's guerrilla war against Rhodesia's white-majority government. He strongly denied in a television interview that his guerrillas were receiving training from Cuban forces in Zambia, where they are based. [New York Times]
- Chinese instructors are helping Zaire train its navy, according to Zairian newspapers and diplomatic sources. They said the instructors arrived Saturday, a week before a Chinese military delegation is due for talks, prompting speculation that Peking might send other aid. [New York Times]
- The House foreign aid debate has been complicated by California's tax-cutting Proposition 13, and the administration may get a rebuff that will have international repercussions. [New York Times]
- Hanoi's Communist leadership has remained remarkably cohesive, analysts believe, and they say that this ability to maintain unity is perhaps Hanoi's major asset in dealing with its troubles. Unlike China, where factional conflict has impaired the running of the country, Hanoi has preserved government by consensus. [New York Times]