News stories from Sunday August 8, 1982
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A Social Security change proposed by a presidential commission studying the program's future would tie increases in benefits to changes in nationwide wage rates rather than the Consumer Price Index, which has been used to compute cost-of-living adjustments since 1975. Critics say that the formula would erode the recipients' purchasing power. Supporters contend that in the long run it would produce virtually the same results as the current formula. [New York Times]
- The nation's governors will develop their own plan for shifting federal and state responsibilities whether or not the Reagan administration agrees. At its annual meeting in Afton, Okla., the executive committee of the National Governors Association voted unanimously to draw up its own plan and offer it to Congress next year. [New York Times]
- Movie-making in Illinois has added millions of dollars to the state's economy. The state has joined New York, Texas, Florida and Georgia and other states in competition for Hollywood dollars. Ten major films have been shot in Illinois, mostly in Chicago, so far this year, double the number in the comparable period last year, the Illinois Film Office said. [New York Times]
- Uranium mining has been banned in the Catskills despite the insistence of a geologist who was hired by the Atomic Energy Commission in 1970 to look for uranium in the area that there are no significant uranium deposits there and never will be. [New York Times]
- The P.L.O.'s departure from Lebanon might come soon. Prime Minister Menachem Begin said that there were grounds to believe that the besieged P.L.O. guerrillas "will leave shortly and that we will not have to enter west Beirut." This was his first indication that he seriously considered a peaceful withdrawal of the Palestinian guerillas to be likely. Mr. Begin also said that he informed Secretary of State George Shultz that Israel had accepted the proposal for a multinational peacekeeping force to enter Beirut, but only "after most of the terrorists leave Lebanon together with 1,500 Syrians who are besieged there." [New York Times]
- Precise logistical plans for the P.L.O.'s withdrawal from Lebanon were set tentatively at a meeting in Beirut held by the United States special envoy, Philip Habib, with French, Lebanese and American military specialists. In another meeting, Mr. Habib presented the outlines of the tentative plans to Israel's Defense Minister, Ariel Sharon. [New York Times]
- The administration has urged Israel to accept guarantees that Palestinian guerrillas will leave Lebanon if Israel agrees to the plan for their evacuation drawn up by Mr. Habib. The appeal was made in a letter from Secretary of State Shultz to Prime Minister Begin. The letter dealt with the "practical arrangements" of the departure of the Palestinian fighters trapped in west Beirut, administration officials said. [New York Times]
- Withdrawal of all Vietnamese troops from Cambodia and free Cambodian elections under international supervision were demanded by the foreign ministers of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines. Singapore and Thailand at the end of a special meeting in Bangkok. [New York Times]
- Economic chaos in Bolivia forced banks to close recently because they ran out of money. Street sellers with briefcases filled with bills were the only source of pesos. While the police-state atmosphere of a year ago has let up, the dreaded "paramilitares" are still driving La Paz, the capital, in the vans with no license plates that are traditionally used to spirit away government opponents. [New York Times]