News stories from Saturday April 8, 1978

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

Hancho Kim was convicted of conspiring to bribe Congressmen and lying about it under oath. The Korean-born businessman will be sentenced May 19. Each charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $10,000. The trial was the first resulting from the Korean influence buying inquiry in Washington. [New York Times] Leaders of the nine Common Market countries in Western Europe announced in Copenhagen that they would go ahead with their own plans for economic recovery independently of the United States. They propose a higher rate of economic growth and closer coordination of the European currencies to protect them against the dollar's fluctuations. [New York Times] Chile deported a suspect in the 1976 assassination of Orlando Letelier, a Chilean exile leader. Under pressure from Washington, the government sent Michael Townley, an American, back to the United States. Chile was reluctant to expel Mr. Townley, who has lived in Chile 21 years. The United States was reportedly ready to recall its Ambassador. [New York Times] Alien workers in Guam complain that they are underpaid and physically abused and are threatened with deportation if they resist. There is general public awareness and official acknowledgment on the island of the abuses, but local officers of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service seem to be indifferent to them, and the complicity of American officials is alleged. Local members of the American Civil Liberties Union support the allegations of the workers, who are mostly Filipinos and South Koreans. An official of the Immigration Service in Washington said the department was aware of the workers' complaints and that they had been referred to the F.B.I. [New York Times] Tip O'Neill, the Speaker of the House, has recently been the center of controversy and questions about the propriety of his private business affairs. The questions have been sustained largely by a Boston newspaper, television station and a political opponent. An inquiry into Mr. O'Neill's affairs found no evidence of illegality, but it did find understatements of holdings and conflicting information in financial documents and it raised questions about Mr. O'Neill's role in certain transactions. [New York Times] Vouchers for nearly $800,000 in Yankee Stadium's maintenance costs in 1976 were not examined by any New York City agency, according to investigators for City Comptroller Harrison Goldin. One of the bills showed that part of the cost of a television commercial by Catfish Hunter, the Yankee pitcher, was charged to maintenance. It was because of these upkeep costs that the Yankees, instead of paying the city $800,000 in rent in 1976, received about $10,000 from the city. Last year, when the Yankees won the major league championship, the club paid $171,000 instead of about $1 million in rent. Maintenance costs, which are deductible from rent, make the difference. [New York Times]