News stories from Saturday June 26, 1976

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

President Ford, on arrival in Puerto Rico where he will be host at an economic summit meeting of major industrial nations, warned Cuba sharply against meddling in the relations between the United States and Puerto Rico. He said that interference will be considered an intrusion in the domestic affairs of Puerto Rico and the United States and that "it will be an unfriendly act which will be resisted by appropriate means." The economic meeting, a continuation of a conference last November in France, will be attended by the heads of the governments of Canada, Italy, Japan, West Germany, Britain and France. [New York Times] Ronald Reagan appeared to have swept 41 delegates to the Republican National Convention in New Mexico and Montana. Earlier, President Ford won 17 of Minnesota's 18 at-large delegates, but the effect of the voting in the three Western state conventions was to trim Mr. Ford's lead over Mr. Reagan. Assuming no change in the trend that had developed in New Mexico and Montana, Mr. Reagan trails Mr. Ford in the New York Times count by only 59 delegates? Mr. Reagan's supporters in Montana and New Mexico demonstrated their control as soon as the conventions opened. [New York Times] The first of the tall ships that are to visit New York Harbor, where they will participate in a Bicentennial celebration July 4, arrived in Newport, R.I., from Bermuda. They had been becalmed for two days. The ships were participating in an international race, but the Sail Training Association, the British sponsor, declared the race over at 6 P.M. Thursday and instructed the ships' captains to proceed under motor power so that they would arrive this weekend in Newport, where thousands of visitors had gathered to greet them. The British race officials insisted that they had not canceled the race, but were merely "moving the finish line forward." West Germany's Gorch Fock was declared the winner of the shortened race of the tall ships. [New York Times] The urban financial crisis does not affect only large cities; it is national in scope and it includes small and large cities as well as central suburban and Sunbelt region cities. according to a report by the United States Conference of Mayors. The report was issued as the organization opened with its 44th annual meeting in Milwaukee. Not even some of the wealthiest communities, the report said, have been able to withstand the hardships brought on by high inflation and widespread unemployment. [New York Times] To his associates, Sidney Korshak is a highly successful labor lawyer, an astute business adviser to major corporations, a multimillionaire with immense influence and many connections and a friend of Hollywood stars and executives. But Mr. Korshak lives a double life. To scores of federal, state and local law enforcement officials, he is the most important link between organized crime and legitimate business. They described him as a behind-the-scenes "fixer" who has been instrumental in helping criminal elements gain power in union affairs and infiltrate the leisure and entertainment industries. [New York Times] Scientists at the Brookhaven National Laboratories on Long Island investigated the reasons why Long Island's beaches were fouled by sewage and debris last week. They decided that anything floating into an ocean area 45 miles wide and 100 miles long just south of New York Harbor between June 6 and June 21 had to be destined for one of Long Island's beaches because of highly unusual wind and current patterns. Using computer and wind data for the month of June, Brookhaven staff members found that the pollution that washed up on 70 miles of beaches was probably a combination of raw sewage from New York Harbor, the New Jersey shoreline and ships in three major shipping lanes as well as charred wood from two recent pier fires and the contents from sewage tanks that recently exploded near Island Park, Long Island. [New York Times] The Canadian cabinet was called into an emergency meeting by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to deal with the strike by airline pilots who are fighting the government's proposal to use French as well as English in air traffic control at Quebec's airports. Most commercial airline service was stopped throughout Canada last week, and American pilots and pilots of a number of other foreign airlines have refused to fly into Canada, saying that Canadian airspace has been made unsafe by the dispute. Canadian pilots and controllers' representatives met with the Transport Minister, but the head of the Canadian Air Line Pilots Association said he could see "no early end" to the shutdown. [New York Times] Polish television reported factories and shops in two towns had been looted before the government backed down late last week on plans to increase food prices. The proposed increase was withdrawn after a sporadic series of strikes in which workers tore up railroad tracks on the outskirts of Warsaw. Workers over the weekend were reported to be rallying in support of the government's withdrawal of the proposed price hikes. [New York Times]