News stories from Sunday February 7, 1982

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

The Reagan budget was defended by the budget director, who said there are few acceptable or feasible options for cutting the deficits it projects. David Stockman also said Congress would be substantially reponsible if the budget is not approved and the economy stalls. He also agreed with Mr. Reagan's top economic advisers, who said that Wall Street should not be overly worried about the size of the deficits projected in the budget -- $98.6 billion in 1982, $91.5 billion in 1983 and $82.9 billion in 1984. "That clearly is not an intolerable burden on the markets," he said. [New York Times] The end of abortions paid by Medicaid under President Reagan's "new federalism" is feared by supporters of "right-of-choice." The future of Medicaid-financed abortions is among the many issues raised by the President's program. Supporters of abortion say that sweeping realignment of govermental responsibility for health and social services could end the Medicaid abortion program, which has already been sharply reduced. Opponents of abortion contend that the total takeover of Medicaid financing by the federal government would serve as a helpful step toward the abolition of abortion. [New York Times] President Reagan will campaign this week in several Middle Western states on behalf of his theory of federalism and to help raise funds for Republicans running for office this fall. He will go to Minnesota, Iowa and Indiana, starting Tuesday with fundraising events in Bloomington, Minn., and a speech before the state legislature. Each of the states he will visit has a Republican governor and two Republican senators. He will bypass Illinois, Michigan and Ohio, where Democratic hopes are soaring with unemployment rates. [New York Times] A liberal college-entry policy was reversed by Wesleyan University because of cuts in federal educational aid. Since the early 1970's, Wesleyan had admitted students without regard to their financial status, a policy known as "aid-blind" admissions that has been followed by many other private universities. Other universities were also said to be re-examining their aid-blind admissions policy. [New York Times] Soldiers at four atomic tests in 1956 and 1957 were exposed to dangerously high levels of radiation, according to a former Army medic, who broke 25 years of silence. Van Brandon, the former medic, said he was ordered to enter false data to hide the fact that the soldiers had been exposed to radiation at the test site in Yucca Flat, Nev. He said he was told that would be charged with treason if he disclosed information about the tests. [New York Times] Radioactive steam was released into the atmosphere during the recent accident at the Robert A. Ginna nuclear power plant near Rochester, N.Y., because operators turned off emergency pumps too late, a preliminary evaluation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission said. A second release occurred 35 minutes later because the operators restarted the pumps for "unknown" reasons. [New York Times] Poles are "overcome by anger" at events in their country, Archbishop Jozef Glemp, the Roman Catholic primate of Poland, said in a sermon in Rome, where he has been visiting Pope John Paul II. He said Poland was "sick," and that a place must be found for the Solidarity union as well as the Roman Catholic Church through a dialogue with authorities that would avoid force. [New York Times] A pro-Soviet stance was reaffirmed by France's Communist Party, which also reiterated its support for the Polish military crackdown at its 29th annual congress. Georges Marchais, the party's hard-line leader, was re-elected secretary general. [New York Times] The use of military force in the Caribbean region was again not ruled out by Secretary of State Alexander Haig. In an interview he said that it was wrong to draw parallels between American involvement there and Vietnam because Central America was at the heart of American strategic concerns. However, Mr. Haig said that "there are no current plans" for the use of American forces. [New York Times] Human rights conditions are declining in Central America and several African nations, the Reagan administration said in its first report to Congress on human rights worldwide. Rights violations in El Salvador by both left and right continued to be numerous, but "there was a downward trend in political violence," the report said. The Soviet Union's activities in Afghanistan and Poland were sharply criticized. Taiwan, Zaire and South Africa also made a poor showing. [New York Times]