News stories from Saturday August 19, 1978

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

President Carter's personal popularity has suffered a dramatic decline in the last 10 months, according to the Gallup Poll. Accompanying the drop in popularity has been a major decline of confidence in the President's ability as a leader. Among those polled, regard for Carter's "decisiveness" and self-assurance slipped from 61% to 38% from last September to the present, and faith in his ability as a leader declined from 62% to 36%. [Los Angeles Times] Dallas police marksmen were to fire shots from the Texas School Book Depository building into sand traps tomorrow as acoustics experts recorded the sounds to try to determine whether more than three shots had been fired in Dealey Plaza when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963. The test was ordered by the House Assassinations Committee because a police radio recording of the assassination indicates to some persons that four shots were fired. [Los Angeles Times] New Yorkers were beginning another week without their three major daily newspapers and without much hope of reading them soon, Talks aimed at ending an 11-day-old pressmen's strike were adjourned indefinitely and a federal mediator reported no progress toward a settlement. A second interim newspaper, the New York Daily Metro, was to begin publication Monday. Another strike paper, City News, appeared a few days ago. [Los Angeles Times] Labor Secretary Ray Marshall has written to singer Crystal Gayle, thanking her for recording radio and television safety messages for broadcast in mining areas. Miss Gayle's father was a miner. Her sister, singer Loretta Lynn, has written an autobiography, "Coal Miner's Daughter." [Los Angeles Times] The Georgia board that licenses doctors has authorized an investigation of Dr. Peter Bourne, the White House aide forced to resign because of a questionable drug prescription. Cecil Clifton, director of the Composite Board of Medical Examiners in Atlanta. said the board's investigative division had been told to look into the Bourne case to determine if further action was necessary in Georgia, where Bourne holds a medical license. Bourne, former chief drug adviser to President Carter, faces possible criminal charges in Virginia because he used a fictitious patient's name on a prescription for Quaalude. [Los Angeles Times] Howard Jarvis was shouted down for 20 minutes by a dozen demonstrators in Boston who charged that his tax reform proposals were racist and would benefit property owners at the expense of low-income and minority groups. Jarvis, who led the fight for Proposition 13 in California, is on a 12-city tour to stir up support for a national tax reform plan. Jarvis said 40% of California's minorities supported Proposition 13 because it would ensure lower rents and utility rates. [Los Angeles Times] Sen. Herman Talmadge (D-Ga.), insisting that his integrity remained unblemished, announced that he would seek re-election in 1980. Talmadge, who has been attacked for his financial dealings, said, "Where there have been errors of reporting or oversights in bookkeeping in the affairs of my office, they are being corrected." A spokesman for the Senate Ethics Committee in Washington said that Talmadge would repay the Senate $37,125 in improperly claimed expenses, and that the bill could go even higher if more irregularities are uncovered. Most of the $37,125 in expenses was said to have been obtained by filing vouchers for outlays associated with the Senator's rent-free office space in Atlanta. Talmadge has blamed the overpayments on "errors of judgment" on the part of some of his aides. [Los Angeles Times] A tidal wave slammed into Acajutla, El Salvador's main port, carrying away 10 persons and leaving 2,000 homeless, the Red Cross reported. The wave, set off by an earthquake off the Pacific coast of Guatemala, struck the resort town Friday and swept away the huts of 50 fishing families. Thousands fled ahead of the wall of water, which tore loose a fishing pier and overturned boats. Red Cross spokesman Francisco Javier Mendez said the area is on the alert for a second tidal wave expected to result from the Guatemalan quake, which was measured at 5.5 on the Richter scale. [Los Angeles Times] Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan said the Camp David summit will deal with specifics and not just a declaration of principles guiding an Israeli-Egyptian accord. Speaking to supporters on the eve of the first in a series of cabinet sessions to plan Israel's conference strategy, Dayan said government negotiators should be very forthcoming and willing to seek areas of compatibility with the Arab stance. [Los Angeles Times] A prominent Egyptian novelist and newspaper columnist said he has been suspended from his job after criticizing members of parliament who have joined President Anwar Sadat's new political party. Mustapha Amin, 64-year-old cofounder of the mass circulation Al Akhbar, said he was told he could report to work but that he could not write. Associates at the paper said the order came through the office of the minister of information. [Los Angeles Times] Moslem religious fanatics in Iran opposed to banks, liquor stores and nightclubs set fire to a movie house, burning three employees to death, an Iranian news agency said. The zealots, opposed to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi's attempts to modernize Iran, slipped into the cinema through a back door in Mashad in eastern Iran, doused the theater with gasoline and then ignited it. Meanwhile, on the 25th anniversary of the Shah's return to power, officially-endorsed mass rallies were held in major towns to demonstrate loyalty to the Shah. [Los Angeles Times] Two renegade Lebanese army officers have offered to call off their mutiny if the government "rids itself of Syrian influence and protects the south against the Palestinians," the independent daily newspaper An Nahar reported. The Beirut paper quoted Maj. Sami Chidiac as saying he and his chief, Maj. Saad Haddad, would "resign from the army and confine ourselves to our homes only if we knew the government would solve Lebanon's problems." [Los Angeles Times] A tent city sprung up in fields near Carnsore Point, Ireland, as about 6,000 people gathered to stage a protest against government plans to build a nuclear powered generator at the coastal site. A festive atmosphere prevailed as the crowd listened to speeches by antinuclear activists from France, West Germany and the Netherlands. The power plant is awaiting final approval, but an official discussion paper published last week indicates the government favors the plan as a practical way to reduce Ireland's dependence on imported oil to produce electricity. [Los Angeles Times] China and Vietnam held a third round of talks in Hanoi on the status of ethnic Chinese in Vietnam. China urged Vietnam to take back those Chinese who recently left Vietnam but now want to return, and to try to persuade about 3,500 Chinese stranded at the border to return to their homes in Vietnam. Hanoi has indicated it might comply on the latter point. Peking's representative also said Vietnam should stop persecuting Chinese living there. [Los Angeles Times]