News stories from Saturday September 8, 1979

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

The extent of the hurricane damage in the Dominican Republic is still not known. People have found refuge in caves in the mountains around the southern city of San Cristobal, and thousands of others have had only tree branches to shelter them from relentless rains. The city's wrecked hospital has been without power for days, and there are unofficial reports of surgery without anesthesia. Nevertheless, the survival efforts being made by the city's residents have surprised relief worker. [New York Times] Efforts to eradicate illiteracy among Americans have been grossly inadequate, a Ford Foundation study said. New aid varied approaches are needed to help the adults who lack the skills to perform basic tasks, the study said in asserting that "publicly proclaimed goals and actual achievements are far apart." Among the weaknesses of government-financed educational programs, according to the study, is Congress' little knowledge about "its educationally and economically marginal constituents," and the irrelevance of the programs to most illiterate people's lives. The report estimates that 40 percent of the adult population has less than a high school education and that they make up only 13 percent of the participants in adult education programs. [New York Times] Florida vegetable growers seek curbs on their Mexican competitors, who are making big inroads in the domestic source of winter vegetables. The American vegetable market is a vital one far the Mexicans, who face both a huge, chronic balance of payments deficit and a desperate need to provide jobs for their soaring population. But the Florida growers feel imperiled. Their number has diminished by nearly half over the last 10 years to about 300. They want protection, one of them said, from "the OPEC-style control" of a foreign supplier. [New York Times] Mayor Koch moved to better relations with the black community. He had a breakfast meeting with Representative Charles Rangel, whose district covers Harlem and the West Side, and promised to meet regularly with Mr. Rangel and five black members of the New York City Council. Mr. Koch said the first meeting would be held this week. His standing among black leaders was shaken again last week when he was quoted in a New Yorker profile from a tape he made in 1975 and 1976 as saying that he felt blacks were "anti-Semitic." "I'll be sure to make certain that my language is not used for exacerbating tensions, the Mayor said following the meeting. [New York Times] President Carter said the arms treaty with the Soviet Union should be approved by the Senate "on its own merits" without being tied to Soviet activity in Cuba or in other countries. In an interview with out-of-town editors at the White House, Mr. Carter took issue with the Senators who would link the treaty's approval to the removal of the 2,000 to 3,000 Soviet troops in Cuba. Meanwhile, Robert Byrd, the Senate majority leader, said the treaty would be defeated if it came up for a vote now, but it should not, he said, be held hostage to the troop issue. He said the treaty could be considered on its own when it voted on late in November when "the dust should have settled." [New York Times] Reaffirmation of nonalignment appeared to be near at the conference of leaders of the third world in Havana, but the leaders remained deeply divided on many specific issues. The delegates sidestepped the fundamental question of whether Cuba would succeed in bringing them closer to the Soviet bloc. [New York Times] Brazilians in exile are going home under an amnesty granted by Brazil's leaders in the political "opening" they have charted for the country. The liberalized government has ended political imprisonment and torture, lifted press censorship, relaxed anti-strike laws and withdrawn an 11-year-old executive order that gave Brazilian military presidents absolute power over Congress and the courts. [New York Times]