News stories from Sunday August 10, 1980

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

While thousands of delegates gathered in New York for the Democratic Party's 38th convention, Carter and Kennedy forces headed for a showdown tomorrow over the convention rules despite a concession by President Carter on the platform that was aimed at reunifying the party when the floor battles are over.Politics took over New York City on the eve of the convention, and every effort was made to entertain the delegates. Even native New Yorkers were impressed by the whirlwind raised by dinners, disco dances, running in Central Park, entertainment at Radio City Music Hall and services at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. Mayor Koch will attempt to link New York City's efforts to close its projected budget gap to the urban policies set forth in the Democrats' platform at the party's national convention at Madison Square Garden. The mayor will call on the Carter administration to help the city with its fiscal needs by having the federal government assume a bigger share of the city's $1 billion-a-year Medicaid and welfare burden. [New York Times] Democratic margins are so large that the party's control of the other political institutions besides the Presidency is likely to be maintained, though diminished, if President Carter is not re-elected. In addition to the White House, the Democrats now have 59 of 100 senators, 276 of 435 representatives, 31 of 50 governors, nearly two-thirds of the state legislators and 30 of the 40 largest city halls. [New York Times] Carter loyalists seemed in control of the key procedural issue that the convention will decide Monday night, despite mounting pressure by Senator Kennedy's backers and others to free delegates from their presidential commitments. At issue is whether delegates will be required to vote Wednesday for the presidential candidate under whose banner they ran in the primaries and caucuses or face removal on the ground of disloyalty. President Carter's supporters are strongly in favor of such a rule. The Kennedy camp and others strongly oppose it. [New York Times] Hurricane Allen spared coastal areas as it crossed the Texas Gulf Coast. Its strongest winds struck instead the sparsely developed and and largely uninhabited areas between Corpus Christi and South Padre Island. One death ashore was attributed to the hurricane, and property damage was far less than had been expected despite widespread destruction, particularly in the Corpus Christi area. [New York Times] Early census figures foreshadow major losses of federal aid and legislative representation not just in New York City but also in the other aging industrial cities in the tristate area. However, municipal officials in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut say that the actual population decline has been exaggerated by the Census Bureau's counting techniques. [New York Times] The allies were reassured by the administration about President Carter's new nuclear arms strategy. Secretary of Defense Harold Brown told Western European defense ministers that the United States has "no desire to fight a nuclear war." He said in a message sent through diplomatic channels that the administration's new strategy was an "evolutionary development" and not "a major break with past policies." The strategy, he said, is "designed to enhance deterrence of any Soviet action that could lead to a nuclear war by making clear that we have both the capabilities and plans for use of our forces, if deterrence fails." [New York Times]