News stories from Sunday August 7, 1977

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

Increases in the discount rate and continued upward pressure on short-term rates are "a lively possibility," said Leon Gould, financial market economist at the Commercial Credit Company in Baltimore. He is one of several credit market economists who expect the Federal Reserve to push short-term rates higher in order to slow down what is regarded as the excessively fast growth in the money supply. [New York Times] A new form of inflation has developed in this country, according to a Washington-based economic research group, which says that the Carter administration's "conventional economic policies" cannot curb it. This new kind of inflation, according to the Exploratory Project for Economic Alternatives, is being generated by factors such as world weather conditions, energy price increases and waste, all affecting the basic necessities -- food, housing, health and energy. It would not be affected, the research group says, from tightening the money supply or restraining federal spending. [New York Times] President Carter resolved the sticky question of which of two feuding churches to attend in his hometown of Plains, Ga., by going to both. The President said, "I think it's a healthy thing for the community to have two strong churches," after worshiping in the Maranatha Baptist Church, a small congregation that recently broke away from the Plains Baptist Church. He took on the role of conciliator in both churches. [New York Times] The chairman of the House Republican Conference, John Anderson of Illinois, said that he agreed with the general concept of President Carter's welfare reform plan, but that he was not prepared to say whether he could support it all. He and Joseph Califano, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, spoke about the proposed welfare reforms in television interviews. Mr. Califano, who helped draft the system's revisions, said "Congress is ready to move. This is the day in which we're finally to reform the welfare system." [New York Times] The Freedom of Information Act, now 10 years old, has provided a powerful lever with which the news media and private citizens have successfully pried hitherto secret facts and figures from the government. Disclosures concerning the mind control attempts by the Central Intelligence Agency and the infiltration of the Civil Liberties Union by the Federal Bureau of Investigation are among the most recent results of the information law. [New York Times] Law and order is the issue in the New York City mayoral election, according to Mario Cuomo, who is seeking the Democratic nomination, but he called Mayor Beame's call for capital punishment a "political cop-out" with "a great element of fraud." He would appoint tougher judges and monitor the performance of the courts if elected, he said. [New York Times] Railroads broke profit records in the second quarter of this year, but their outlook for the second half is not optimistic. Prospects for the rest of the year have been clouded by a strike in the iron ore mines, labor trouble in the coal industry and a weakness in grain prices, all combining to work against railroad profits even if the economy avoids a marked slowdown. [New York Times] Talks that King Hussein of Jordan had in Amman with Secretary of State Cyrus Vance seemed to lessen his skepticism about the prospects for a Middle East settlement. He told reporters he was now "cautiously optimistic," because "we think our friends mean business." Mr. Vance left Amman for Taif, Saudi Arabia's summer capital, where he will report to the Saudi leaders on his Middle East mission. [New York Times] Canada's air traffic controllers went on strike in a wage dispute with the government and paralyzed the country's regular airline service, forcing 40,000 travelers to change their plans. Air Canada and the privately owned CP Air canceled most flights and some flights were being rerouted through United States cities. The government called a special session of Parliament for Tuesday to debate legislation requiring the controllers to return to work pending a settlement. [New York Times] Crowds of destitute Mexican migrants estimated by the police to number 200,000 to 250,000, have jammed the border city of Tijuana, determined to reach the United States before Congress acts on an amnesty plan for illegal aliens that President Carter proposed last week. They are prepared to pay professional smugglers $250 to guide them across the border to Los Angeles. For an additional $300 or $400, the smugglers offer to obtain bogus, back-dated documents, such as rent receipts, utility bills, Social Security cards and American work permits, to qualify the illegal immigrants "for temporary residence." [New York Times]