News stories from Sunday June 22, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- No evidence of bugging was found in the office of Mary Crisp, co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, at the committee's Washington headquarters, the District of Columbia Police Department said. Mrs. Crisp had suspected that her office had been bugged. A spokesman for the local police, who took over the investigation from private security consultants, said that the investigation did not conclusively eliminate the possiblity that the office had once been under electronic surveillance, however. [New York Times]
- A gunman entered a Texas church during a service and opened fire, killing four persons and wounding 12, the authorities said. The shooting occurred in the First Baptist Church of Daingerfield in northeast Texas. The gunman was forced out of the church by members of the congregation, two of whom were killed. The gunman, identified as Alvin Lee King, a former mathematics teacher in Daingerfield, shot himself in the head, but survived. [New York Times]
- Lutherans and Roman Catholics affirmed their common faith at an ecumenical celebration at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York of a document that laid the groundwork in the 16th century for the Protestant Reformation and the rift between the two churches. The celebration was among the largest in a series of similar events in the United States and abroad that are being held this year to commemorate the giant strides that have been taken in the effort to end the rift. [New York Times]
- Radioactive wastes buried in orchards in upstate New York on the Niagara Frontier during World War II are causing concern among the residents of Lewiston, where the Army established a dumping ground for the wastes from the first atomic bombs produced by the United States. Some of it is leaking, and local people believe it is the cause of sickness in the area despite state and federal assurances that there is no cause for alarm. [New York Times]
- The allied leaders responded gingerly to Moscow's announcement of the withdrawal of some Soviet troops from Afghanistan, saying that it would not end the crisis in East-West relations unless it signaled the beginning of a complete pullout. But they did not entirely dismiss the possibility that the partial withdrawal, disclosed to the French on Friday and announced Saturday by the Soviet press agency Tass, might indicate a shift in Moscow's policy. [New York Times]
- Private talks in Venice between President Carter and President Giscard d'Estaing of France and Chancellor Helmut Schmidt of West Germany is where the real business of the Atlantic alliance's economic meeting is being carried out, an American official said. Mr. Carter's meeting with France's President "could not have gone any better," he told reporters. [New York Times]
- The Japanese ruling party won a crushing victory in elections for Parliament. The Liberal Demperats won 272 seats out of a total of 965 seats in the key lower house of Parliament. "The party will definitely get more than 270 seats," said Yoshio Sakurauchi, secretary general of the Liberal Democrats. Voters supported the bid by the governing party for a "stable majority." [New York Times]
- Israeli government offices will be moved to East Jerusalem to symbolize the city's unity under Israeli rule, a government official said. The transfer of offices, including the Prime Minister's, to the largely Arab sector captured by Israel in the 1967 war is expected to take place in the next few months following the completion of an office building. [New York Times]
- Pilot errors cause or contribute to 60 percent of commercial airline accidents, according to an estimate by the National Transportation Safety Board. The figure for commuter airlines is about 75 percent, and 90 percent for private planes. The pilots' role in accidents has led to "human factors" research among private and federal safety specialists. [New York Times]
- The Pew Memorial Trust issued its first public report since its founding in Philadelphia 32 years ago, disclosing assets of $890.2 million. It is the nation's second richest foundation, surpassed only by the Ford Foundation, which recently reported assets of $2.4 billion. The main Pew beneficiaries last year were colleges and hospitals in the Philadelphia area. [New York Times]