News stories from Saturday February 9, 1980

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

The United States will oppose the participation of an American Olympic team in Olympic Games held in the capital of an invading nation, Secretary of State Cyrus Vance said. In an address prepared for delivery at the opening of the 82nd session of the International Olympic Committee in Lake Placid, N.Y., Mr. Vance stressed that the administration was firm on an American boycott of the Games in Moscow to protest the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. [New York Times] Crucial tests in New England face Senator Edward Kennedy and Ronald Reagan as they enter regional races tomorrow that may determine the fate of their campaigns. At stake in the Maine caucuses and the primaries in New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts are 164 national convention delegates for the Democrats and 104 for the Republicans, about 5 percent of the total in each party. [New York Times] Secret Service protection has been rejected by some presidential candidates. John Connally has told his aides "I don't like the idea of having agents around." George Bush preferred to do without the Secret Service, because, he said, he wanted "roll up his sleeves and talk with the people." The agency's efforts to protect the presidential candidates have the side effect of reducing politicians' access to the public and have prompted some complaints that its agents have been high-handed. [New York Times] A bribery investigation in the Southwest has implicated 3 senior political figures, a leader of organized crime and an ex-immigration official, according to federal officials. The officials said that evidence obtained in the undercover operation would be presented to grand juries in Louisiana and Texas. [New York Times] Maine appears ready to settle a suit brought by two Indian tribes, the Penobscot and the Passamaquoddy, which claimed title to nearly two-thirds of the state. The state reportedly has reached an agreement in which it would provide a $27 million federal trust fund for the 9,000 members of the two tribes and give them 300,000 acres of forest in the northern and eastern parts of the state. [New York Times] Washington criticized France for its rapid shifts in policy toward the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. A high State Department official, reflecting the administration's irritation over the French government's decision not to attend a foreign ministers' meeting in Bonn to coordinate Western reponse to the intervention issue, said "I would characterize the reaction of the highest levels of the administration as one of "puzzlement." [New York Times] A new generation of laser weapons is being developed in deep secrecy by the the United States and the Soviet Union. Their work has progressed so rapidly in recent years that many experts believe that warfare, on the ground and in outer space, could be transformed in the next decade. [New York Times]