News stories from Sunday May 8, 1977

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

The death penalty, despite its backing in public opinion polls, is not being reinstituted by states as quickly as some opponents thought it would after the execution of Gary Gilmore in Utah last January. It was the first execution in this country in nearly a decade. [New York Times] Coffee prices may be leveling off. For the last four weeks prices of green (unroasted) coffee that was deliverable this month dropped 64 cents a pound. Last Friday. the July 1977 contract dropped the limit to close at $2.84 a pound. It will take several months before consumers find any effect that lower futures prices might have on the price they have to pay for processed coffee. If green coffee prices continue to decline, coffee processors are expected to increasingly offer the processed product at concessionary prices to supermarket chains. [New York Times] A deadly virus that produces a rare degenerative brain disorder infected four persons who had undergone surgery. Many neurosurgical centers have changed their procedures to prevent similar accidents. The presumed sources of infection in the four cases were persons who had died of a brain disorder called the Creutzfeld-Jakob disease that results from a slow virus infection. In two of the known cases, the deadly virus appears to have been present when corneas were transplanted. [New York Times] In a tough statement to the various military intelligence agencies, Secretary of Defense Harold Brown said their operations should be conducted "strictly within the law," and that he expected them to report "without hesitation" any abuses, improprieties or illegal acts. The order also affirmed the broad power of the recently established Inspector General Defense Intelligence to investigate all such activities. One purpose of the order was to emphasize the Secretary's support of the Inspector General. Another, according to a military intelligence official, was to prevent the Secretary from being "mired in the intelligence nightmares of past administrations." [New York Times] A controversy about the occupation by Mohawk Indians of a former girls' camp in the Adirondack Mountains in New York state is nearing a climax. The camp is in Eagle Bay, and the Indians are armed. They have been there three years, attempting to recreate a self-sufficient community in the style of their ancestors, the original inhabitants of the upstate area. They are resented by local residents, and the state is negotiating with them to accept an alternate site. [New York Times] A partial rollback of the 7 to 9 percent price increases announced last week by Republic Steel and Youngstown Sheet and Tube is possible. The increases violate the voluntary restraint that the administration has asked of industry to help fight inflation. Charles Schultze, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, in a television interview commented on the Republic and Youngstown increases and said "It's only two companies, and I would hope that as other companies review the situation both from the point of view of the economy as a whole and their own industry that somewhat more moderate increases may be forthcoming." [New York Times] Pratt & Whitney of Hartford and Britain's Rolls-Royce Ltd. will not collaborate, as they had planned, in the production of an engine for the projected new Boeing airliner, the 7X7. The jet engine companies, according to a spokesman for Pratt & Whitney, arrived at "a natural parting of the ways." There were said to be two reasons. Rolls-Royce is reportedly well ahead in the development of its own engine for the new Boeing jet and other new airliners and if it and Pratt & Whitney had gone ahead in developing an engine jointly they could not have met Boeing's timetable for perfecting the engine. [New York Times] Proclaiming their solidarity, the leaders of the major Western industrialized democracies ended then economic conference in London. They asserted their determination to cooperate on a series of measures against unemployment and their trade-deficit difficulties brought about by the high costs of imported oil. President Carter's proposals to halt the spread of nuclear technology were rejected and the issue was turned over to two study groups. [New York Times] A cold shoulder was given at the London meeting to Roy Jenkins, the British Labor politician who heads the European Common Market Commission. Mr. Jenkins, who personifies Europe's hopes of unity and of independence from the United States, was even forbidden to speak at the final news conference. Nevertheless, he may have emerged strengthened from the meeting. He helped develop Common Market policies on trade and relations with poor countries that are influencing America and Japan. [New York Times]