News stories from Saturday September 11, 1982

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

Enforcement of civil rights has weakened under the Reagan administration, according to the chairmen of 33 state agencies affiliated with the United States Commission on Civil Rights, an independent bipartisan panel established by Congress. The 33 chairmen signed a letter to President Reagan that said he was reponsible for a "dangerous deterioration in the federal enforcement of civil rights." Clarence Pendleton, the chairman of the federal commission, did not agree. He said the charge was unfounded. The 33 chairmen asked for a meeting with Mr. Reagan, but the White House said the President could not grant the request because of "the heavy demands on his time." [New York Times] A cost-sharing plan for water projects in the West proposes that the states gaining them pay about a third of the cost. The plan has been under review by President Reagan since June, when it was sent to his cabinet Council on Natural Resources and the Environment. Western governors and water officials, who bitterly attacked President Carter when he proposed that they share 10 percent of the cost of such water projects as dams and reservoirs, now seem prepared to accept the higher share of the costs. They see this as the unavoidable price of getting started again on the water projects that the Carter administration refused to finance on the ground that they were a waste of federal tax money. [New York Times] Chrysler and the auto workers stepped up contract talks as the Tuesday midnight expiration of the old pact approached. Douglas Fraser, president of the United Automobile Workers Union said the union had proposed a one-year contract on money issues, foregoing the three-year agreement that has been customary in recent years. [New York Times] Preference for the U.S. peace plan for the Middle East was indicated by President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, who expressed skepticism over how the Arab peace plan proposed last week would be implemented. At a news conference in Paris, he said the Arab plan set good goals, but it "lacks the mechanism of how to achieve its goals," and that he thinks "it is better to give the Reagan initiative as much support as we can and to encourage the United States to go ahead with the peace process." [New York Times] 44 people were reported killed in the crash of a United States Army helicopter in Mannheim, West Germany, which was carrying them there to participate in an international airshow. This includes five American crew members aboard the helicopter and two others who were parachutists. [New York Times] Mao Tse-tung's fanaticism was discarded officially at China's first party congress in five years and a new era of ideological pragmatism will be started. The party's new leadership is expected to be announced tomorrow, after the first plenum of the new Central Committee. [New York Times]