News stories from Sunday September 13, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Congress wants larger military cuts than the $13 billion in outlays announced by the White House Saturday, Senator Pete Domenici, the Republican chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, said. Following several weeks of intense negotiations between Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and the David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget, the White House said that President Reagan had decided on a reduction of $13 billion in projected military spending in the fiscal years 1982-84. Mr. Stockman and other principal White House aides had proposed cuts of $20 to $30 billion. [New York Times]
- U.S. military programs will not suffer from the cut in proposed military spending announced by the Reagan administration, according to Defense Department officials and military officers. The military men said the Army, Navy and Air Force would recommend some reductions in new weapons and the establishment of new forces, but they would resist a reduction in munitions and supplies needed in war and a cutback in troops. [New York Times]
- Opposition to oil and gas exploration seems to be unanimous among militant conservationists and Chamber of Commerce businessmen in a Wyoming town, despite the policies of the Interior Secretary, James Watt, who wants to open as much land as possible to exploration. And last week, a company that wanted to drill for oil and gas in Cache Creek Canyon, near Jackson Hole, suddenly withdrew its application. [New York Times]
- William Loeb, the publisher of New Hampshire newspapers, died of cancer at the Leahy Clinic in Burlington, Mass., at the age of 75. Publisher of The Manchester Union Leader and The New Hampshire Sunday News, Mr. Loeb often used the papers to express his sharp opposition to views that differed from his deeply conservative position. His opinions earned him quadrennial notoriety because of the presidential primaries in New Hampshire, the first test for the candidates. [New York Times]
- A controversial clean air program for the New York City region has been approved by the Reagan administrtation, which rejected a position taken by the Carter administration, and said that New York state is responsible for meeting mass transit needs. As a result, New York is fully in compliance with the Clean Air Act for the first time since it was passed by Congress more than a decade ago. The law's intent is the reduction of carbon monoxide levels in the New York region to federal standards by the end of 1987. Various requirements of the Clean Air Act have been met over the years, but whether the state was making appropriate mass transit improvements to discourage the use of cars in New York City and in adjoining counties was the main sticking point. The issue is now resolved. [New York Times]
- The city council is hard at work preparing its defense of a districting plan for New York City that is being attacked by blacks and Hispanic groups as discriminatory. Their tests led to the enjoinment of the Sept. 10 primary by a federal court, but the council has no intention of redrawing the lines, its officers said. [New York Times]
- John McEnroe won the U.S. Open, defeating Bjorn Borg at the National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, New York, for his third consecutive singles title. The scores were 4-6, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3. [New York Times]
- Defeat of Norway's Labor Party, which has governed for eight years, is expected in the general election. Every recent public opinion poll indicates that Prime Minister Gro Harlem Bruntland, who took office in February, had been unable to reverse her party's decline in popularity. Labor is expected to win the largest share of the vote in the balloting, which ends tomorrow night, but not enough to govern. The new Prime Minister is expected to be Kare Willoch, who leads the Conservative Party, which has its largest public support since the 1920's. [New York Times]
- The use of poisonous chemicals in Southeast Asian conflicts is demonstrated by evidence in the possession of the United States, Secretary of State Alexander Haig said in a speech in West Berlin intended to boost West European morale and invigorate the Western alliance. He said the acquisition of the evidence followed "continuing reports" that the Soviet Union and its allies had been using "lethal chemical agents" in Southeast Asia and Afghanistan. [New York Times]
- Mr. Haig's visit to West Berlin set off demonstrations by thousands of people protesting United States foreign policies. The police estimated that as many as 30,000 demonstrators turned out; the protest organizers said 80,000 had taken part. It was probably the biggest street demonstration in West Berlin since the Vietnam War, the police said. [New York Times]
- A hunt for $90 million in gold ingots lost when a British battleship was crippled in a German U-boat attack in World War II has been started by British divers. [New York Times]