News stories from Saturday April 23, 1977

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

Spilling 49,000 gallons an hour, a 180-foot geyser of oil burst from a broken pipe in a well in the North Sea, forming a 20-square-mile slick that was drifting toward Norway's southern coast and the southern part of Denmark's Jutland coast. The blowout occurred on a Phillips Petroleum rig. The 112-man crew was evacuated and Phillips summoned specialists from Texas who will try to cap the burst pipe. The repair work may take up to several months. [New York Times] The process through which President Carter devised the energy program he outlined last week reflected a detached, almost apolitical attitude that is regarded as alien to a capital in which self-interest is a fundamental precept of leadership. Soon before his inauguration, the President told a visitor that he was determined to reform the nation's energy habits "even if it costs me another term." There are Democrats in Congress who sense that it could, and some who fear that it might alter their political prospects. [New York Times] Dramatically expanding the debate over President Carter's energy program, liberals arguing for the urban poor, Republicans denouncing big government and environmentalists trying to ward off industry pressures have joined oil companies and individual Congressmen whose voices so far have dominated the arguments. Common Cause, one of the largest of the public-affairs lobbying groups, asked its 253,000 members to support President Carter's call for a joint congressional resolution setting energy goals for the nation. [New York Times] Extending their authority and causing a constitutional controversy, federal and state courts have taken over the day-to-day operation of many jails, prisons, state hospitals and at least one school district. This is considered to be the biggest extension of judicial authority since 1803, when Chief Justice John Marshall enunciated the principle of judicial review. The courts also have moved into legislative areas, virtually directing, for example, the New Jersey legislature to enact an income tax. This intervention is being debated by judges, lawyers, legal scholars and public officials. Some say it is "judicial activism", others call it "judicial encroachment." [New York Times] A windfall of as much as $100 million for New York City and a like amount for the state may be forthcoming in the next year or so from the federal government. The Carter administration has informed Mayor Beame and Governor Carey that it is prepared to settle long disputed reimbursement claims dating from 1972. The claims are part of more than $2 billion that New York and other states have been seeking from Washington since President Richard Nixon imposed a ceiling in 1972 on the amount of money the federal government could pay to the states under Social Security provisions. [New York Times] The Ethiopian government closed down an American military mission and several other United States offices, ordering their personnel to leave in four days. The government said there was no longer any need for the military advisory group since the United States government had announced that it had stopped military assistance to Ethiopia. The Embassy was not mentioned in the announcement by the ruling Military Council. [New York Times] Mozambique, which harbors guerrillas making forays into Rhodesia, is receiving sizable additional Soviet shipments of antiaircraft weapons and artillery, according to United States intelligence analysts. They said the shipments were part of a "major upgrading of Mozambique's defense capabilities," which have been skimpy. Rhodesia's air-strike power against the guerrillas now could potentially be neutralized, the analysts believe. Soviet arms began moving into Mozambique about three months ago. [New York Times]