News stories from Saturday October 13, 1979

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

President Carter held a strong lead over Senator Edward Kennedy's partisans in Florida's statewide Democratic caucuses. The caucuses will choose the 879 delegates to a state Democratic convention next month, where a presidential straw poll will be taken. The President showed surprising strength in the Miami area. Early results gave 264 delegates to the Carter forces and 127 to the Kennedy movement. [New York Times] Conservation is the keystone of the United States energy policy, President Carter said in a radio broadcast of a telephone call-in to the White House, the second he has participated since he became President. Mr. Carter said that conservation was the "No. 1 reliance" of the national energy policy, and that the United States was being forced to turn to increased production of domestic energy sources as "a last resort." Mr. Carter emphasized solar and other "renewable" energy sources, rather than synthetic fuels, which were frequently mentioned in his previous talks on energy matters. [New York Times] The government was censured by a House investigative subcommittee for "totally inadequate" measures against dangerous wastes being dumped by industry around the country. The report, whose strongest criticism was directed at the Environmental Protection Agency, said that the wastes were "an imminent hazard to man and the environment" that "cannot be overstated." It also said that "industry has shown laxity, not infrequently to point of criminal negligence in soiling the land and adulterating the waters." [New York Times] Criticism for black leaders who made overtures to the Palestine Liberation Organization was leveled by Vernon Jordan, president of the National Urban League, in a speech scheduled for delivery on Monday in Kansas City, Mo. Mr. Jordan is expected to insist that "black-Jewish relations should not be endangered by ill-considered flirtations with terrorist groups devoted to the extermination of Israel." [New York Times] Home fuel oil's retail price rose nearly twice as fast as the price of crude oil from January 1977 to May 1979, according to the federal Department of Energy. Increasing refinery and dealer profit margins are continuing to add substantially to prices, according to industry analysts. [New York Times] Billions in fuel-cost aid to the poor are stalled in Congress. Both Democrats and Republicans want to give $25 billion to $30 billion of government money to a worthy cause but cannot figure out how to do it before winter is over. The money, everyone agrees, should help the poor to heat their homes. [New York Times] Cuba wants better relations with the U.S., according to two Congressmen who had a two-and-a-half hour meeting with President Fidel Castro at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York. Ron Dellums, Democrat of California, and Mickey Leland, Democrat of Texas, said that Mr. Castro did not suggest any specific initiatives except the establishment of diplomatic relations. [New York Times] The mass resignation of South Korea's parliamentary opposition "reflected the will of the majority of Koreans," the opposition leader, Kim Young Sam, said. The 70 opposition members in the National Assembly resigned following Mr. Kim's ouster nine days ago by supporters of President Park Chung Hee. The government is expected to rule and pass essential legislation despite the resignations. [New York Times] Libya's ties to the West are strong despite its Soviet-made arsenal and its vaguely Marxist ideology. This seemingly staunchest of Moscow's Arab allies still leans economically toward the West. Libya's efforts to balance its amity with the Soviet Union with ties to the United States were said to have been rebuffed by Washington, according to Libyan officials and some Western sources. [New York Times]