News stories from Sunday August 31, 1980

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

The Polish strikes were called off by the new independent union leadership after it won more concessions from the government, including a pledge to restrain censorship and to open the government-controlled media to a wide variety of opinion. These were in addition to the strikers' major victory: the right to self-governing unions free of Communist Party control.News of the strikes' end in Poland was not carried by the Soviet press. Instead, the press agency Tass transmitted an article sharply attacking the strike leaders. The article, which was to appear in Pravda on Monday, did not mention that the strikes had been settled. [New York Times] The presidential campaign will enter its final weeks with traditional events in three cities: Tuscumbia, Ala., Calumet City, Ill., and Jersey City. Their combined population of 280,300 is less than the attendance at some single opening-day events of recent campaigns, but each locale fills a special need for the candidate who chose to appear there. [New York Times] California is challenging offshore drilling in the first dispute to test the power of a coastal state to block the sinking of a well on a federal offshore lease. It is an environmental dispute involving the Santa Barbara Channel, where an underwater oil well blowout in 1969 led to damage suits totaling more than $1 billion. Chevron U.S.A. wants to drill a new exploratory well nine miles offshore under a lease bought from the government in 1969. [New York Times] More women in Congress than ever before is a likely prospect for 1981, according to political observers in both major parties, because of the local and state victories of the 1970's. "The caliber of women running this year is light years ahead of previous years," said Rosalie Whelan, director of the National Women's Educational Fund. "There is now a career ladder in politics for women," she said. This ladder, enabling women to work up from a county or city office to national office, has been the biggest change affecting women in politics, campaign analysts say. [New York Times] The nation's largest judicial circuit may soon be split in two by Congress, a proposal introduced 16 years ago. The plan involves the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, which encompasses Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and the Panama Canal Zone. The circuit, which has the largest number of judges and the biggest caseload in the country, has had an important role in the development of civil rights in the South. The plan to divide the circuit has been approved by the Senate and awaits action by the House. [New York Times] Pope John Paul II will visit Britain in the summer of 1982. The Vatican's announcement that the Pope had accepted an invitation from the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster was welcomed by senior churchmen of all faiths but was scorned by militant Protestants. One of the most outspoken critics was the Rev. Ian Paisley, the moderator of the Free Presbyterian Church in Northern Ireland, who said that Queen Elizabeth I was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church and that the excommunication, extending to her heirs and successors, has never been revoked. [New York Times] A cabinet was announced in Iran by Prime Minister Mohammed Ali Rajai, but President Abolhassan Bani-Sadr immediately voiced disapproval of many of the 20 nominees, who included at least five people who were political prisoners during the Shah's regime. Mr. Bani-Sadr, warning of a government in conflict, said that he approved of several of the prospective cabinet members but not of the others. Parliament will vote on the nominees this week. [New York Times] Sol Linowitz arrived in Jerusalem in another attempt as the special American envoy to the Middle East to get the Israeli-Egyptian talks on Palestinian autonomy going again. He will remain in Israel until Wednesday, when he will go on to Egypt. Israel's chief negotiator, Interior Minister Yosef Burg, said Israel wanted to resume the talks with Cairo. [New York Times]