News stories from Saturday November 7, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Medicaid and Medicare benefits would be placed under strict new limits under a plan proposed by Reagan administration officials. Medicare premiums would be increased and a new payroll tax on federal employees would raise money for the Medicare trust fund under in a federal fund-cutting program outlined by Richard Schweiker, Secretary of Health and Human Services. [New York Times]
- The long-predicted recession is here unmistakably, according to basic economic indicators. The Reagan economic recovery program's success is in question, according to leading private economists, who have revised their economic projections for the next year sharply downward. [New York Times]
- Space shuttle Columbia's second trip into orbit has been rescheduled for 7:30 A.M. Thursday. The announcement was made at Cape Canaveral, Fla., after engineers determined that the craft needed only a change of oil and filters instead of the replacement of power units that scientists had feared would be necessary. [New York Times]
- Expertise acquired in the C.I.A. was used by Edwin P. Wilson, the former American intelligence agent now working for Libya, in establishing his multimillion-dollar business empire, which is based on clandestine operations, according to former associates and corporate documents. For the last five years he has continued to practice, in a civilian profit-making capacity, the business of intelligence and covert operations for such unfriendly governments as Libya, where he is a fugitive. For many government officials, Mr. Wilson's career illustrates a growing problem: the re-entry of special trained intelligence and military employees into civilian life with skills that are not marketable, or often illegal, in the United States but are welcomed abroad. [New York Times]
- The recount of the vote for Governor in New Jersey has expanded to include the State Supreme Court. Associate Justice Morris Pashman said that he and his colleagues would meet today to determine whether to count a number of emergency ballots that were collected last Tuesday in Essex County when voting machines in some areas broke down. [New York Times]
- A Democratic official demanded that the Justice Department investigate whether the Voting Rights Act was violated by intimidation of black voters in New Jersey's election for Governor. Charles Manatt, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said that the activities of "vigilantes" hired by the National Ballot Security Task Force with funds provided by the Republican National Commmittee were "according to the reports we get, all in black precincts." [New York Times]
- The West and China were rebuked in Moscow at the observance of the Soviet Union's 69th anniversary, whose key element was the traditional display of Soviet military power on Red Square. In a speech from atop the Lenin Mausoleum, Defense Minister Dmitri Ustinov said the Soviet Union would never allow another country to achieve military superiority. He accused the West and China of "lunatic imperialist reaction" and said Russia gave "unremitting attention to its defenses." [New York Times]