News stories from Saturday February 7, 1981

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

Senator Edward Kennedy and others have asked the FBI to reopen its investigation of the alleged relationship between organized crime and the Schiavone Construction Company which is owned by Labor Secretary nominee Raymond Donovan. The initial charges were made by FBI informant Ralph Picardo but were dismissed as unconfirmable. However, a newspaper article in the Bergen County (New Jersey) Record by reporter Bruce Locklin confirmed the FBI reports in interviews with New Jersey organized crime figures Bernard Moscato and Al Cecchi. [CBS] President Reagan signed the bill which increases the national debt ceiling, and hailed it as a step towards getting inflation under control. However today's edition of the Washington Post reported some conflict regarding expectations in that area. Two weeks ago Murray Weidenbaum, the President's nominee for chairman of the Council of Economic Advisors, refused to predict any reduction in inflation over the next four years. Republican Senator Pete Domenici has described as "optimistic" figures attributed to the Reagan adminstration for next year's inflation rate. Democrats are delighted by the situation. [NBC] Vice President George Bush announced that the Justice Department is increasing its technical assistance to the Atlanta police department regarding the numerous kidnap-murder cases of black children which have taken place over the past two years. The National Black Police Association, meeting in Washington, asked that the Reagan administration provide more aid, especially financial. [CBS] New Jersey extended water rationing from 114 to 202 communities, and all of them were ordered by Governor Byrne to begin drafting emergency preparation plans for a "possible failure of water supply systems." [New York Times] Bus drivers in San Francisco are wearing black arm bands following the killings of two of their colleagues. Some drivers are reportedly carrying guns for protection. Bay Area plainclothes police are now riding buses in an attempt to stop the attacks. [CBS] Going to tear gas class has become widespread in California, where changes in state laws have made it easier to obtain a license to carry tear gas in self-defense. A heavily publicized murder and assault in Los Angeles last fall touched off a demand for tear gas and a proliferation of schools where people are taught how to use it. State justice officials estimate that this year as many as 1 million Californians, mostly women, will attend two-hour instruction classes that are a necessary requirement to getting a permit to carry tear gas. [New York Times] Labor turmoil in Poland grew with a call by independent trade union officials for a general strike in southwestern Poland on Monday. Workers in other parts of the country were asked to stage one-hour work stoppages. Solidarity union officials said the general strike in Jelenia Gora and five neighboring provinces, including the copper-mining center of Legnica, would be called off only if the government sent a delegation to negotiate grievances. [New York Times] Food is scarce in Moscow and in some provincial centers the shortage, especially of meat, is worse than it has been for several years. It is not clear whether shortages are worse on a national basis than a year ago, or the year before that. The food distribution system is so chaotic that while there are shortages in some regions, there are surpluses in others, but nowhere is food plentiful. [New York Times] Expulsion of a Ghanian diplomat's son who allegedly has been implicated in at least two rapes on Manhattan's Upper East Side was requested of the United Nations by the United States. The suspect, identified as Manual Aryee, was taken into custody on Friday, but released after claiming diplomatic immunity. He was then placed in the custody of the Ghanian mission to the United Nations at the State Department's request. [New York Times] The entirety of Anne Frank's diary is now available for the first time because her father Otto, who chose not to publish the more personal sections of the journal, left the diary to Holland's War Documents Institution in Amsterdam upon his death last year. The Institution will publish passages that previously were censored. Anne Frank died at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in Nazi Germany in 1945. [CBS]