News stories from Sunday February 15, 1981

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

Support for the budget proposals that President Reagan plans to present to Congress was urged by Vice President Bush and some key members of Congress, while representatives of groups fearing that they could be hurt urged caution in reducing government spending. Senator Pete Domenici, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said that the reduction proposals would bring inflation down to "a reasonable level" in 1984. [New York Times] Conservatives and liberals accuse the Federal Election Commission of violations of the First Amendment. Two publishers and other critics of the commission, which monitors campaign financing and spending, have cited several recent instances in which the agency allegedly violated First Amendment guarantees of free speech and free press. [New York Times] Boston's financial troubles are growing rapidly since the sweeping property tax cut approved by voters last fall. City officials and leaders of the financial community believe that bankruptcy is approaching. [New York Times] The biggest dairy surplus in 20 years, built up by the government through the federal price-support system, is growing so fast that government officials worry. that before the end of the year there will not be enough storage space in the country to hold it. The system, which has long been criticized by consumer groups, has recently come under attack from corporations, especially food processors and restaurant chain operators, who say they must pay more for their provisions because of the program. Several proposals pending in Congress would reduce or eliminate the supports. [New York Times] A major policy change has been made by the nation's largest private health care philanthropy, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation of Princeton, N.J. Concluding that finding a doctor is no longer a problem for most Americans, but that the cost of medical care is, the foundation announced that it plans to encourage researchers to develop "imaginative experiments" to cut the costs of medical care. [New York Times] An oil boom in Giddings, Tex., is turning a formerly tranquil farming community on the edge of the Hill Country into a classic Texas boomtown. The oil is coming from the Austin Chalk, a limestone formation that runs 8,000 to 10,000 feet underground across Texas. The formation's oil deposits had long been ignored because oilmen believed it could not be exploited economically. New technology, however, has made the oil, said to be unusually pure, available. It is believed to be almost as potentially productive as Alaska's North Slope. [New York Times] The failure of the guerrilla offensive in El Salvador has led several governments and political parties in Latin America to reconsider their unconditional support for the Marxist-led Democratic Revolutionary Front. The front for the first time has come under strong pressure from its traditional allies to to seek a political solution to its conflict with El Salvador's civilian-military junta. [New York Times] More factional fighting in Zimbabwe between former guerrillas loyal to the political parties in Prime Minister Robert Mugabe's government seemed less likely. The guerrilla force known as the Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army, which is tied to Mr. Mugabe's party, was disarmed and trucked out of Entumbane Township, near Bulawayo, where fighting broke out last week, taking about 300 lives. [New York Times] Talks were held in Prague between Stanislaw Kania, Poland's Communist Party leader, and his counterpart in Czechoslovakia, Gustav Husak, who has warned that Poland faces the same dangers that his country faced 12 years ago. Poland's state television reported Mr. Kania's visit at about the same time that negotiators in Lodz apparently reached a compromise to avert a nationwide students' strike. [New York Times]