News stories from Sunday June 14, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Reagan budget is likely to face a tough time from members of the Demo-ratic-controlled House following the swift passage of the initial budget resolution through the House and Senate Budget Committees, because of the sweeping changes it would make in social progams. The House must decide whether to accept the repeal or modification of scores of such programs as child nutrition, job training, student loans and aid to school districts near federal installations. [New York Times]
- Support for the Reagan budget cuts among the nation's mayors was sought by Republican leaders at the 49th Conference of Mayors in Louisville. Some small successes were achieved, but the Democratic-dominated conference continued to withhold an all-out endorsement.
The impact of the Reagan budget cuts on New York City and state will not be so severe as had been anticipated, the heads of the city and state offices in Washington said. The losses have been significantly diminished, the city and state representatives said, by congressional budget processes since March.
[New York Times] - A boy's rescue from a septic tank in Lancaster, Pa., ended in the death of three rescuers. Methane gas overcame 8-year-old Benjamin Walker, who crawled into a 14-inch pipe leading to the buried tank to retrieve a lawn mower's grass catcher. Two members of a hospital emergency crew and a teenaged volunteer firefighter who went in after him died from the effects of methane gas, apparently because they got a bigger dose. [New York Times]
- Reorganization of strip mine monitors will take effect immediately, at least on paper, under an order by Secretary of the Interior James Watt. The federal Office of Surface Mining was to have shut down five regional offices over a period of a year. The order was reportedly issued because Mr. Watt was angered by congressional attempts to trim his proposed realignment and staff reduction for the strip-mining control agency. [New York Times]
- France's Socialist Party won by a landslide in the first round of voting for the National Assembly, and barring an unexpected upset it should gain a majority in the second-round elections next Sunday. The party's victory confirmed the shift to the left that began with the election as President last month of Francois Mitterrand, the Socialist leader. The vote appears to guarantee that President Mitterrand will be able to introduce the economic and social changes he has promised without serious opposition. [New York Times]
- China seemed receptive to U.S. efforts to bring about closer strategic cooperation between the two countries to counter Soviet expansionism. The American position is being presented in Peking by Secretary of State Alexander Haig, who believes that closer ties with China are a "strategic imperative." After a meeting between Mr. Haig and Foreign Minister Huang Hua, an aide to the Secretary said there was "a great deal of unanimity" that the main problem in the world today is "Soviet hegemonism." [New York Times]
- A hospital sanctuary in Lebanon that had been the pride of the Middle East has finally come under fire in the war that has ravaged the country. The American University Hospital of Beirut, founded in the 19th century by Protestant missionairies, had impartially treated the injured from all sides in the internecine conflict, with Lebanese Christians, Moslems and Palestinians working together. Last week the hospital's emergency room was invaded by rival gangs of gunmen who fired wildly at patients and hospital employees, and a grenade hit the hospital's main gas line. [New York Times]