News stories from Sunday November 6, 1977

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

Federal aid to cities would be revised under a series of recommendations by government officials charged with developing a national urban strategy. The officials in a preliminary report recommended that aid programs be made more sensitive to "cities and people" in distress. The report was prepared by the staff of the Urban and Regional Policy Group headed by Patricia Roberts Harris, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. [New York Times] Going broke in the next decade is a potential danger for the nation's railroad retirement system. The railroad retirement plan and the Social Security System are both subsidized by the federal government and, like Social Security, the rail plan is running up increasing deficits. The principal problem is the erosion of the rail system's $3.7 billion reserve fund, "If the reserve fund runs out, we'll have to go to a pay-as-you-go plan that will result in large contributions for everybody," said Robert Larson, an actuary for the rail retirement board. [New York Times] Reservations on the conduct of monetary policy were expressed by Secretary of the Treasury Michael Blumenthal. But he hinted in a television interview, in which he discussed the controversial issue of the way short-term interest rates have been pushed up by the Federal Reserve under the direction of Arthur Burns, that Dr. Burns might win reappointment by President Carter. [New York Times] A dam collapsed on the outskirts of the northern Georgia town of Toccoa, killing at least 37 persons as a wall of water submerged a trailer park on the campus of Toccoa Falls Bible College. Torrential rains eroded the earthen dam built 35 years ago in the Appalachian foothills around a 30-acre lake. Rosalynn Carter flew from Washington to express the President's and her concern. [New York Times] A jury in Phoenix returned a verdict of guilty in the trial of Max Dunlap, a contractor, and James Robison, a plumber, in the death of Don Bolles, an investigative reporter for the Arizona Republic who was killed last year when his car was blown up by a bomb. The defendants were also found guilty of plotting to kill the Arizona Attorney General, Bruce Babbitt, and Al (King Alfonso) Lizanetz, a former advertising man. [New York Times] Academically elite high schools in New York City strongly oppose a federal investigation into possible discrimination by the schools against members of minority groups. Administrators, alumni, teachers, students and parents fear that the inquiry could lead to lowered entrance requirements and academic standards. The investigation is underway at the Bronx High School of Science, Stuyvesant High School and Brooklyn Technical High School. [New York Times] Threatened missile attacks on airliners by terrorists has led to increased security measures at West German airports. Lufthansa, the West German airline, and news organizations received letters warning that urban guerrillas were preparing to blow up planes in midair. "There is no possibility of preventing this," the messages said. Security experts in Bonn have found that terrorists in West Germany and elsewhere have been able to put mobile or fixed missile launchers in position, but actual use of the weapons has failed in several instances. [New York Times] Talks between Prime Minister Ian Smith and the British official designated as administrator during the transition to black rule in Rhodesia ended without agreement on the key issue of the composition of the security forces during the transition period. There was also no agreement on other key issues. Field Marshal Lord Carver, the British-designated administrator, sought to minimize the disagreements at an airport news conference before he left for Botswana. He said he had found "a very wide measure of agreement on the basic principles" of the British and American proposals on the black-rule issue. [New York Times] Israel commuted the 12-year prison sentence of Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, who was convicted of smuggling arms into the Israeli-occupied West Bank for Palestinian guerrillas. The Israeli government said it was releasing the Archbishop in response to a request from the Vatican. He was put on an airplane bound for Rome. The Archbishop had been spiritual leader of a community of 4,500 mostly Arab Christians. [New York Times]