News stories from Saturday August 23, 1980

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

An evaluation of the hostage rescue attempt concluded that the operation was feasible but that its execution was flawed in several respects. Prominent among the faults described were an insufficient number of helicopters assigned to the mission; preparation for the mission and its execution were hampered by the preoccupation of its planners with the need for secrecy, and insufficient allowance for the possibility of bad weather. The report was prepared for the Pentagon by six senior active and retired officers. It is considered the definitive evaluation by its sponsors. [New York Times] The thorny issue of Taiwan appears to have been restored to the forefront of Chinese-American relations by Ronald Reagan, discomfiting the United States, China and even Taiwan. For three days, George Bush, Mr. Reagan's running mate, attempted to convince Chinese leaders in Peking that Mr. Reagan's repeated calls for renewed "official" United States relations with Taiwan really meant "unofficial." The New China News Agency scornfully termed Mr. Reagan's remarks "absolutely not a slip of the tongue" and said he had "insulted one billion Chinese people." [New York Times] A strike at The Times of London prevented publication of today's issue, and the management, anticipating losses of $20 million this year, said it was a "a savage blow." Members of the paper's editorial staff are demanding a 21 percent pay raise and rejected by a 2-to-1 margin what management said was its final offer of 18 percent. The paper resumed publication last November after suspension of operations for nearly a year in a dispute with craft unions over new printing technology. [New York Times] City populations sharply declined since 1970, even if liberal allowances were made for an undercount, according to all but final census figures. Suburbs close to city centers also lost residents during the 1970's as much of the middle-class moved farther away to newer suburbs and smaller cities or rural areas. Urban and population experts said the preliminary census figures, with some allowances for an undercount, were substantially in line with their estimates and projections and were supported by other data. [New York Times] More and more cities are requiring builders to price some new homes within the means of middle-income families, and frequently they are forbidding buyers to make excessive profits when they eventually sell such homes. In Orange County in California, south of Los Angeles, where the median price of a new house exceeds $138,000, "inclusionary zoning," a new concept, requires builders to make 25 percent of their homes affordable by middle-income families, which in Orange County means incomes ranging from $18,000 to $25,000 annually. [New York Times] Haitian refugees are working on Maryland vegetable farms from about dawn to dusk for 35 to 40 cents a bucket, while housed in squalor. Some migrant-worker protection groups believe that they are being exploited. The workers were brought from Miami, where they were awaiting a decision from Washington clarifying their status as aliens or political refugees. [New York Times] Polish strikers won a major concession from the government, which agreed to negotiate directly with their chosen representatives. It was a turnabout for the Communist leadership, which had refused to undertake such talks, apparently for fear of undermining its authority. [New York Times] Cheese and pizza enterprises in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania are under increasingly tighter control by organized crime, according to investigators in those states. They say that the mob is attempting to run the lucrative industry nationally. [New York Times] Governor Carey of New York explained his backing of Bess Myerson for the Democratic Senate nomination by saying that he thought the post was a "Jewish seat." He said in an interview that, as a "matter of historical reference that I regard this as a Jewish seat." Miss Myerson and three other Democrats are seeking the nomination. [New York Times]