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News stories from Saturday August 26, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Albino Luciani, the 65-year-old patriarch of Venice and described as a moderate conservative, was elected Pope today on the first day of balloting by his fellow cardinals. His selection and the speed with which it was accomplished were both unexpected.
The new Pope, who was cheered by hundreds of thousands in St. Peter's Square when he made his first public appearance after his election, will reign as the spiritual leader of the world's 600 million Roman Catholics under the name of John Paul I. [Washington Post]
- U.S. District Court Judge John Pratt issued a temporary order barring a nationwide postal strike that has been threatened for early next week. Union leaders were noncommittal about whether they will obey the order, and knowledgeable sources said wildcat disruptions are possible even if an official strike is not called. [Washington Post]
- With absentee ballots in Alaska finally counted in Tuesday's Republican primary, former Interior Secretary Walter Hickel has a tiny lead over Gov. Jay Hammond. But almost 5,000 ballots are still under challenge because of irregularities, while Hickel only leads Hammond by 446 votes -- less than half of one percent -- following a record turnout in the Aug. 22 primary election. The Democratic primary was even closer. [Washington Post]
- School officials in Dayton, Ohio, say their city isn't guilty of racial discrimination and the federal government can keep its $2.3 million in desegregation aid. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare has accused Dayton of discriminatory hiring and promotion practices. Losing the federal money could cost "a couple hundred teaching jobs", said school board president William Goodwin, but "we're not guilty of discrimination and we're not going to admit it to them." [Washington Post]
- Former Gov. James "Big Jim" Folsom, 69, officially withdrew as a Democratic candidate for Governor of Alabama, endorsing Opelika businessman Fob James. He cited age and deteriorating sight. Folsom was elected Governor in 1946 and again in 1954. He was defeated for a third term by George Wallace in 1962. [Washington Post]
- Blacks have made considerable headway in America society since the August 28, 1963, "March on Washington". The latest Gallup Poll survey reveals a new high in the proportion of people who say they would be willing vote for a qualified black for president (77 percent, up 30 points since 1963) and in the proportion who would not object to blacks as neighbors. [Washington Post]
- Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), the Dixiecrat candidate for president in 1948, until no has opposed virtually every civil rights bill in his 23 years as a Senator. But faced with a stiff re-election battle in a state where winning black votes has become important, Thurmond last week joined 11 other Senators from the Old Confederacy in supporting a constitutional amendment that would give full voting rights in Congress to residents of the District of Columbia.
The support of the southern Senators provided one of the most vivid illustrations to date of the new reality of politics in the South, where the number of black voters has doubled in the past 13 years since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The votes of the 12 southern Senators were crucial to the amendment's one-vote 67-32 victory (it needed two-thirds of voting Senators to pass). [Washington Post]
- Faced with mounting anti-government violence in Iran, Prime Minister Jamshid Amouzegar and his cabinet are to announce their resignations Sunday in a move seen as an attempt to pacify religious and political opposition to Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. [Washington Post]
- China charged that more than 200 Vietnamese troops occupied a ridge in Chinese territory Friday after attacking border guards in a skirmish that left at least six persons dead and dozens injured. Both sides traded official protests and conflicting charges over the incident, each accusing the other of starting it. [Washington Post]
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