News stories from Saturday September 6, 1980

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

A hearing on the hostage issue in Iran's Parliament might be near. Parliament's Foreign Affairs Commission is expected to recommend shortly that the the assembly begin debating the issue of the American hostages, according to sources close to the commission. [New York Times] New York's Liberal Party leaders endorsed John Anderson, an independent, for President, virtually assuring that he will be the party's nominee. It was the first time that the party had rejected a Democratic presidential candidate since it was established 36 years ago. The endorsement is expected to switch thousands of votes from President Carter and could deprive him of New York and its 91 electoral votes. The state provided the President's margin of victory in 1976. [New York Times] California's Proposition 13 has had little effect on spending by local governments since it took effect in July 1978, slashing property taxes by almost 60 percent amid warnings that public services would be grind to a halt. Most local governments and school systems are spending more money than ever, partly because property tax collections have increased much faster under Proposition 13 than state and local officials had expected. [New York Times] Detroit's fiscal troubles are growing. In a budget-cutting move, the city laid off 690 police officers, totaling 18 percent of its patrol force. This was a major setback to an affirmative action program that had placed more blacks and women on the police force than in any major city, substantially improving community-police relations. [New York Times] Top national secrets are to be designated as "Royal" under a wholesale revision by the Carter administration of the intelligence classification system. The change is attributed to growing official concern over foreign espionage and leaks to the press. [New York Times] Poland's new leader, Stanislaw Kania, said the Polish Communist Party would honor the agreement it made last week with the strikers but he also warned against "anti-socialist elements" seeking to turn the country's troubles "to their own purposes." In his carefully balanced speech to the party's Central Committee, read over national television, Mr. Kania pledged that Poland would "strenghten our position in the Warsaw Treaty, overcome the "difficulties our party has had in its everday activities" and seek a return to "calm and work." These assertions were regarded as attempts to soothe anxieties in the Soviet Union over Poland's liberal turn. [New York Times] Leonid Brezhnev congratulated Stanislaw Kania. Addressing him as "Dear Comrade Kania," the Soviet leader expressed confidence in the ability of Poland's new leader to "consolidate the positions" of Communist control, indicating that there was no doubt of Moscow's warm support for Edward Gierek's successor. [New York Times] Edward Gierek's dismissal as chief of the Polish Communist Party was interpreted by Western diplomats and Polish commentators as a blow to the European network of detente that West Germany and France have attempted to maintain. [New York Times]