News stories from Sunday July 8, 1979

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

Alternative fuels must be developed in programs as ambitious as those that put Americans on the moon, Vice President Mondale said at the National Governors Association meeting in Louisville, Ky. In a speech based partly on the televised energy address that President Carter canceled last week, Mr. Mondale gave the audience an outline of some of the proposals Mr. Carter is expected to announce soon. [New York Times] The Camp David meetings continued as President Carter conferred with a wide variety of experts and national leaders, including three Governors, on the energy crisis and other domestic issues. [New York Times] The most far-reaching energy laws in the nation may be those being drafted in Portland, Ore. The conservation proposals include mandatory "weatherization" within five years of all privately owned buildings, which energy experts say could qualify Portland for cheaper hydroelectric power and energy cost savings. [New York Times] Skylab's descent has been caused by a series of events over the last decade extending from the White House to the sun. Among the reasons are political moves in the early 1970's to cut outlays for space exploration, which helped delay the first space shuttle flights, and miscalculations by space agency scientists of future sunspot activity, which can affect a spacecraft. [New York Times] How to dispose of radioactive waste is still puzzling engineers and scientists more than 30 years after the start of the nuclear age. A 1959 report to Congress from the Atomic Energy Commission said that "there is no reason to believe that the proliferation of wastes will become a limiting factor on future development of atomic energy for peaceful purposes." Nevertheless, the unresolved problem has now become a an obstacle in the further development of reactors at home and abroad. [New York Times] A last-ditch fight against busing is being considered by the Board of Education in Columbus, Ohio, following the Supreme Court's affirmation of a sweeping federal busing order affecting the 157 schools in the city. The board's president said its members were divided 5 to 7 primarily along racial lines about whether to continue its resistance to the order. [New York Times] President Carter's renomination was endorsed by most of the Democratic Governors attending the meeting of the National Governors' Association in Louisville. [New York Times] An Islamic leader In Iran was shot to death in the doorway of his home in Teheran, the third killing of an associate of Ayatollah Khomeini attributed to the anti-clerical Forghan group. He was Taghi Haj Tarkani, founder of a major theological center In Teheran. [New York Times] Senate hearings on the arms pact begin Monday with a growing likelihood that some conditions will be attached to it. Senator Robert Byrd, the majority leader, who recently returned from Moscow, said the Soviet leaders would probably object strongly to major changes in the treaty's text, but he said he would support several minor qualifications as part of the Senate's resolution of ratification. [New York Times] The U.S. has backing in Latin America in its efforts to persuade Nicaragua's radical guerrilla-backed provisional government to admit political moderates. The Rev. Miguel Descoto, the junta's foreign minister, said that several Latin American countries were pressing the junta to make major concessions in exchange for the resignation of President Anastasio Somoza and had warned that they would withdraw their support if the rebels did not agree. [New York Times] Talks were concluded in Vienna by Chancellor Bruno Kreisky of Austria, former Chancellor Willy Brandt of West Germany and Yasser Arafat, leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization. The three men, in a communique, expressed "extreme concern" over Israel's "settlement activities in the occupied territories." They also agreed that the Palestinian issue was "the central problem of the Middle East conflict." [New York Times]