News stories from Sunday August 1, 1982
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Navy's aviation future for the rest of this century is being influenced by a Defense Department review of the Navy's five-year plan for spending more than $30 billion for aircraft. The Pentagon has settled on the Grumman F-14 Tomcat as the Navy's premier fighter but has left open the choice of an attack bomber, according to Pentagon and aviation industry officials. This has set off a fierce lobbying campaign for the bomber contract between Grumman and McDonnell Douglas. [New York Times]
- Dismal quarterly profits are being reported by many American companies, the lowest in five years, according to some estimates. A compilation of the earnings of 279 major companies found that 57 percent of them had a loss or a decline in this year's second quarter, compared with the similar period of last year. [New York Times]
- Labor Secretary Raymond Donovan is again the subject of an inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The F.B.I. is acting at the request of Leon Silverman, the special prosecutor who recently completed a six-month investigation into charges that Mr. Donovan had ties to organized crime figures when he was an executive with a New Jersey construction company. Mr. Silverman had concluded that there was "insufficient credible evidence to warrant prosecution." Sources close to the new inquiry said that the F.B.I. had not been able to corroborate any of the new charges, which were said to be similar to those originally made against Mr. Donovan by bureau informers. [New York Times]
- Guaranteed jobs and job training under a national program was proposed by the president of the National Urban League. John Jacob tied the plan, called the Universal Employment and Training System, to the need for a $100 billion-a-year public works effort to rebuild what he called the crumbling infrastructure of the nation's cities. [New York Times]
- Yankee Stadium parking space will guarded more thoroughly by the Kinney Parking System, which operates parking lots and garages for the stadium, following the abduction of a Connecticut couple and three children after they had left the stadium Wednesday night. Kinney is hiring more guards, both uniformed and non-uniformed. [New York Times]
- Israel's fiercest attack on west Beirut continued for 14 hours. Palestinian guerrilla positions and residential areas were bombarded by land, sea and and air. The attack ended when Philip Habib, the United States special envoy, arranged a cease-fire. At least 70 people were reported killed and more than twice that number were wounded. [New York Times]
- President Reagan responded to the latest Israeli attacks in west Beirut with the demand that the "bloodshed must be stopped." He said it was "absolutely imperative" that the new cease-fire remain in place. He said he would be "firm" at meetings with Israel's Foreign Minister, Yitzhak Shamir. [New York Times]
- A cease-fire in west Beirut was demanded by the United Nations Security Council, which convened early this morning after reports of Israeli's latest attack there. The Council asked United Nations military observers to insure that the cease-fire is maintained. It was the first time that the Council has agreed to install even a symbolic United Nations presence in Beirut. Israel has opposed United Nations observers. [New York Times]
- An attempted air force coup in Kenya was blocked by police and army units, President Daniel arap Moi announced. It was the first attempted military takeover in the East African nation. [New York Times]
- West Germany's power and stability -- attributes taken for granted in the post World War II balance of power between East and West -- are now an increasingly uncertain matter. The country's involvement with the future of Western Europe has become more hesitant and Common Market polls show the West Germans of 1982 are the most anxious, the least self-assured people in the 10 member countries. Many West Germans now want a "security partnership" between Bonn and Moscow, and the country's postwar values are being questioned by the Green Party, a new political force. [New York Times]
- Chants of "Free Lech Walesa!" broke out at ceremonies observing the anniversary of the Warsaw uprising in World War II. Thousands of Poles gathered at a Warsaw cemetery for the ceremonies heard a recorded appeal from Zbigniew Bujak, an underground leader of the the Solidarity union. [New York Times]