News stories from Saturday March 3, 1979

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

President Carter's campaign for re-election is being prepared. He has authorized the formation of a fundraising campaign committee that will also start to build a Carter organization around the country. The committee will be headed by Evan Dobelle, treasurer of the Democratic National Committee. [New York Times] The Rev. Jesse Jackson has become an influential figure in American education, mainly because of his calls to blacks to apply themselves rigorously to education, stressed repeatedly in his preaching around the country. His "Push for Excellence" program has been given an unsolicited federal grant of $425,000. [New York Times] Photographs of the moons of Jupiter reveal for the first time long dark streaks that could be fault lines on Europa and what appears to be a huge bull's-eye on Io, which mystifies scientists. The best views ever of the Jovian system are being sent by the Voyager 1 spacecraft to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. [New York Times] New Orleans policemen voted to continue their two-week old strike, turning down by a vote of 447 to 173 what the city had termed its final contract offer. Earlier union officials had recommended approval, but at the meeting, Vincent Bruno, president of the union, withdrew his support because the city had backed down on a promise of amnesty. [New York Times] The signing into law of the controversial federal strip-mine control regulations by Secretary of the Interior Cecil Andrus is expected on Monday, and lawsuits will probably follow. [New York Times] Perhaps the last living American soldier in Vietnam, a Marine, will be brought home soon, but he might face an inquiry into charges that he defected to the enemy while a prisoner of war. Marine Corps officials said they will bring Pfc. Robert Garwood, who has been listed as a prisoner of war since he was captured by the Viet Cong in 1965, back from Hanoi, as he has requested. [New York Times] China was said to be near a cease-fire in Vietnam and a withdrawal of its forces, according to a report from a Japanese news agency from Peking. Reuters said it could not confirm the decision reportedly made by the Chinese Central Committee's Military Committee. [New York Times] Another attempt to settle the issues holding up an Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty was made at the White House by President Carter and Prime Minister Menachem Begin. The atmosphere was not encouraging. [New York Times] The role of Ayatollah Khomeini's armed followers in Iran since the revolution would be sharply reduced if efforts to ease the tension between the government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan and the parallel religious government of the Ayatollah are successful. [New York Times]