News stories from Sunday September 16, 1979

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

Allegedly secret hydrogen bomb data was published in a letter appearing in a special Sunday edition of the Madison Press Connection, a relatively new Wisconsin newspaper. The newspaper published the special edition after learning that a federal judge had issued a temporary restraining order prohibiting the Daily Californian, a paper in Berkeley, Calif., from publishing a copy of the letter. [New York Times] President Carter was in good health after nearly collapsing from heat exhaustion Saturday in a foot race, his physician, Rear Adm. William Lukash, said. He gave the President a thorough examination and found that his "full strength has returned." Mr. Carter was expected to resume his schedule tomorrow. [New York Times] Thurman Munson's mistakes as a pilot will be cited in a report as the cause of the jet crash that killed him, according to the chief of the federal team investigating the Aug. 2 crash. The investigator, Edward McAvoy of the National Transportation Safety Board, said lax licensing procedures permitted by the Federal Aviation Administration may have contributed to the accident, and he expressed astonishment that the 32-year-old Yankees catcher had been permitted to fly as a fully qualified pilot in an aircraft that he apparently had not mastered. [New York Times] Pope John Paul II's visit to six cities next month is making civil libertarians In those cities wonder how far local governments can legally go under the constitutional requirement for the separation of church and state in welcoming a religious leader. Legal action appears likely in Philadelphia to prevent the city from spending $75,000 to build a platform on which the Pope is to offer a mass. Plans to build a similar platform in Boston also might run into a court fight. [New York Times] Fishermen want a sanctuary made of the Georges Bank to prevent the Atlantic fishing grounds off New England from being drilled for oil and gas. The government plans a lease sale Oct. 20 for exploration and drilling rights to 22,000 acres of the bank. Meanwhile, a division of the Commerce Department is considering whether to recommend that President Carter declare the area a marine sanctuary, and is expected to announce its decision in a few days. [New York Times] Cross burnings and defacement of property of black and Jewish families on Long Island has led the United States Attorney for the Eastern District to investigate possible civil rights violations under the Fair Housing Act. A cross was burned early this morning at the home of a black couple in Baldwin. It was the sixth cross burning on Long Island in the last month. [New York Times] Gasohol is gaining supporters among motorists in the New York metropolitan region, but the blend of gasoline and alcohol is fading in importance among public officials, who during the recent fuel shortage believed it would become an alternative to gasoline. Nevertheless, gasohol accounts for at least 20 percent of the sales of the 50 service stations selling it in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Dealers expect to double the volume soon, and Texaco plans to sell lead-free gasohol in New York City, Boston and Indianapolis this fall. [New York Times] The chance of major nuclear accidents should be a major consideration when the government decides where atomic power plants should be built, the staff of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has concluded in a report that proposes stricter guidelines on population density permissible in areas near nuclear plants. The commission's adoption of the staff recommendations would reverse government policy, which has presumed that a major nuclear accident was so unlikely that it need not be considered in choosing sites. [New York Times] Ian Smith will fight for the maintenance of white constitutional privileges in Zimbabwe Rhodesia at the risk of splitting the delegation of whites and blacks from the Salisbury government to the British-sponsored peace conference in London. This became apparent following Prime Minister Abel Muzorewa's message to whites at home that their privileges "were not really that important after all." [New York Times] Israel lifted a ban on land purchases in the West Bank and Gaza Strip by Israeli citizens and businesses, a move that will strengthen Israel's presence in the occupied Arab territories. Israelis have been barred from buying land there since the territories were captured in the 1967 war. [New York Times] Sweden's elections were narrowly won by the Socialist-Communist opposition coalition, which held a one-seat margin in parliament. However, the result could be reversed by the governing non-Socialist coalition when postal ballots are counted this week. [New York Times] Afghanistan's President resigned, the state radio said, and gave up his leadership of the pro-Communist Khalq, or People's Party. President Noor Mohammad Taraki reportedly stepped aside in favor of Prime Minister Hafizullah Amin, considered a more radical Communist than Mr. Taraki. [New York Times]