News stories from Saturday October 6, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Federal Reserve discount rate was raised to a record of 12 percent in a new series of anti-inflation measures announced by Paul Volcker, the Federal Reserve Board's chairman. The rate at which banks borrow from the nation's central bank will go up a full percentage point. [New York Times]
- President Carter welcomed the Pope to the White House, where government political and judicial leaders were assembled. John Paul II said he was a "messenger of peace and brotherhood" and that his purpose in coming to confer with the President was to "serve the cause of world peace, international understanding and the promotion of full respect for human rights everywhere." This was the first papal visit to the White House. [New York Times]
- David Frost canceled a television interview with Henry Kissinger. He said that NBC News had agreed to let Mr. Kissinger review and modify responses to Mr. Frost in a taped session devoted mainly to the Nixon administration's Cambodian policies. [New York Times]
- Presidential candidates will include Lyndon Larouche, an economic theorist who heads the U.S Labor Party, a cult-like organization he has created over the last decade, turning it from Marxism to the extreme right and anti-semitiism, despite the party's many Jewish members. He opened his campaign last month in New Hampshire. Some of his critics say the party is a menace and that Mr. Larouche should be prevented from achieving his latest goal -- matching federal funds for his presidential campaign. [New York Times]
- Gov. Jerry Brown's campaign for the presidency will start in earnest tomorrow in New Hampshire and the Northeast. His goal is to use the region in eliminating President Carter as a competitor, leaving the field open for a challenge to Senator Edward Kennedy. Mr. Brown's campaign manager, Tom Quinn, conceded that California's Governor was in third place, after the President and Mr. Kennedy, but he said that Mr. Carter "could be out of the contest" by April. [New York Times]
- Chiropractors are seeking acceptance as members of the general health-care system, including participation in any tax-supported national health insurance program. Despite their recognition by government as licensed professionals, chiropractors are shunned by the medical establishment. Chiropractors are fighting back in a series of legal challenges. [New York Times]
- Governor Carey called for federal action to insure that this winter there will be sufficient supplies of home heating oil and kerosene in New York state. In a letter to Secretary of Energy Charles Duncan, Mr. Carey asked him to immediately assign federal staff members to work with the state to alleviate fuel supply deficiencies. Distributors across the state report that their supplies are from 10 percent to 20 percent below a year ago. [New York Times]
- Thousands of Soviet troops and tanks will be withdrawn from East Germany, Leonid Brezhnev announced in an address in East Berlin observing the 30th anniversary of the founding of East Germany as a Communist state. He said the Soviet Union would withdraw up to 20,000 troops and a 1,000 tanks over the next 12 months. The Soviet leader also offered to reduce the number of medium-range missiles aimed at Western Europe if no new similar weapons are installed by the North Atlantic alliance.
Administration officials hoped that Mr. Brezhnev's announcement about with-drawing Soviet troops from East Germany was a harbinger of more meaningful future negotiations on the reduction of armed forces in Central Europe. They also said that the Soviet leader's speech seemed part of a concerted Soviet effort to persuade Western European countries not to go along with allied plans to deploy 572 new nuclear-armed missiles on the continent. The new missiles, a State Department official said, are being planned as a response to an "accelerated nuclear buildup" by the Soviet Union.
[New York Times]