News stories from Saturday July 25, 1981

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

The inquiry into the business dealings of Edward J. Casey, Director of Central Intelligence, was stepped up by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which is now being assisted by at least 10 agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Vice Chairman of the intelligence panel, said that the committee would ask Mr. Casey to provide information about how much federal income tax he has paid, and if legally possible, would attempt to obtain copies of his income tax returns. [New York Times] 222 inmates in Alabama were freed after Supreme Court Justice Lewis Powell lifted a temporary stay blocking their release to ease overcrowding in state prisons. Justice Powell had issued the temporary stay Thursday evening at the request of the Alabama Attorney General, Charles Graddick, who tried tried to block the mass release ordered by Federal District Court Judge Robert Varner. Justice Powell ruled that Mr. Graddick had no standing in the case, and said that Gov. Bob Jones had control of the prison system. The Governor did not oppose Judge Varner's order. [New York Times] The Northeast's leadership in farming has declined so steeply that it has become dangerously dependent on food from other parts of the nation and abroad, according to food experts and public officials. One of the dangers to this dependency is the infestation of the Mediterranean fruit fly in California, which could cut down shipments of produce from that state. While farms in the region -- taking in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Connecticut, have grown fewer and larger, the region has so far not seen the rise of the large industrial farms because of its hilly and mountainous terrain. [New York Times] Black business districts have declined since federal desegregation laws were passed in the early 1960's. "Desegregation improved social conditions, it just didn't work out economirally," said McKinley Neal, a member of the Missouri legislature who has owned the Regal Pharmacy in Kansas City for 44 years. He had thought that more whites would patronize black businesses. The number of black-owned business ownership is declining in many cities where there is a sizable and growing black population. Birmingham, Ala., has fewer than 500 black businesses as against more than 1,000 in the early 60's. [New York Times] The cease-fire in southern Lebanon appeared to be holding, despite a Pales-inian rocket attack on two towns in southern Lebanon held by Maj. Saad Haddad's Israeli-backed militia. A small but well organized guerrilla faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, said it was responsible for the shelling, and said it would not take part in a "suspect cease-fire." The group's defiance raised the question whether Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, would be able to keep other guerrilla factions from violating the cease-fire. [New York Times] The United States thanked three of the leaders involved in bringing about the cease-fire that ended 16 days of intense shelling on the Lebanese-Israeli bor-der. State Department officials said that Secretary of State Alexander Haig had sent messages of "appreciation and thanks" to President Elias Sarkis of Lebanon, Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel and Crown Prince Fahd of Saudi Arabia. Yasser Arafat of the P.L.O. was omitted, because of a 1975 understanding with Israel that Washington would not deal directly with the P.L.O. [New York Times] A vast catacomb in southern Italy that apparently was a Jewish burial ground in the last centuries of the Roman Empire has been uncovered by American and Italian archeologists. The discovery was made near the town of Venosa. One of the archeologists, Prof. Eric Meyers of Duke University, said that the find was "exceedingly important." [New York Times]