News stories from Monday January 2, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A decline in steel imports, the target of a reference price system to be outlined tomorrow by the Treasury Department, has taken place in recent months. Some major foreign producers have cut their exports to the United States, apparently anticipating the new price mechanism. They may also be preparing for anti-dumping suits brought by the domestic industry and the possibility of protectionist legislation. [New York Times]
- A survey of purchasing agents who face a number of uncertainties says most of them believe government action will affect their future. It concludes that capital investment will be held down until the government acts on energy, labor and foreign policy questions. [New York Times]
- Federal employees who have defaulted on government-backed student loans may soon be called to account by a new computer-matching program. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare has already used the computer check to identify 316 current or former H.E.W. employees who had defaulted on such loans. Now the government's central personnel data file will be matched with the list of 390,000 persons in default under the student loan program. [New York Times]
- Seattle has moved to desegregate its schools, apparently becoming the first major American city to take such an action without a court order or other federal pressure. Under the so-called Seattle Plan, adopted last month with apparent widespread support, about half the city's elementary school districts will be linked for mandatory pupil exchanges based on race. [New York Times]
- Mayor Koch of New York City said he would issue an executive order aimed at protecting the rights of homosexuals, including their right to be hired as policemen and firemen. The new mayor made the announcement during an informal moving-in day at City Hall. Such an executive order would apply only to the municipal government and could not be as broad as bills, repeatedly rejected by the City Council, to ban discrimination against homosexuals in private jobs, housing and public accommodations. [New York Times]
- President Carter disclosed in India that he and Prime Minister Morarji Desai had disagreed sharply over United States demands that India accept safeguards aimed at insuring the peaceful use of American-supplied nuclear fuel for Indian power reactors. Nevertheless, in a speech to the Indian Parliament, Mr. Carter said that "shipments of nuclear fuel" would be made to India under longstanding commitments. [New York Times]
- Indira Gandhi and her supporters in the Congress Party moved toward the formation of a third Indian party opposed to both Congress Party regulars and the ruling Janata Party. The move came when several thousand of the former Prime Minister's supporters in the Congress Party adopted a resolution calling themselves "the truly representative convention" of the party and naming Mrs. Gandhi as its president. The action was denounced by the party's regular leadership. [New York Times]
- King Hussein of Jordan expressed disappointment in the peace proposal offered to Egypt by Israel and said he doubted it could form the basis of a negotiated settlement of the Arab-Israeli dispute. In an interview, the King said successful peace negotiations would depend on full Israeli acceptance of the basic Arab demands for Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories coupled with full self-determination for the Palestinians. A more hopeful view of the prospects for an Israeli-Egyptian agreement has been offered by American officials who say they have detected the outlines of a possible compromise. This could come, the officials say, if Israel can be persuaded to modify its plan for granting the Palestinians internal self-rule by allowing the possibility of eventual full self-determination.
Egyptian officials, meanwhile, completed the counterproposals that President Anwar Sadat will present to President Carter during their scheduled meeting in Aswan on Wednesday.
[New York Times]