News stories from Saturday August 22, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The safety of American air traffic in the flight controllers' strike is being investigated at a meeting in the Netherlands of an international air controllers' organization. The group reviewed data that members of the American union said indicated that the United States air traffic safety system was functioning ineffectively and posed a danger to air travelers. In Washington, meantime, the F.A.A. issued guidelines to all airlines to allow them to set flight schedules for the coming six months. [New York Times]
- A modified MX missile program, a smaller version than that proposed by the Carter administration, is being considered by President Reagan, administration officials said, despite the strong objections he had to the Carter proposal. They said that the President instructed Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger to reduce the original plan for shuttling 200 MX missiles among 4,000 shelters in Utah and Nevada. [New York Times]
- A fugitive American spy for Russia was arrested in the Seattle area after a 19-month search. Investigators believe he may have committed as many 16 bank robberies in the Pacific Northwest in recent months. He is Christopher John Boyce, 28 years old, who escaped on Jan. 21, 1980 from the federal prison in Lompoc, Calif., where he had been serving a 40-year sentence for selling information about C.I.A. espionage satellites. [New York Times]
- California Is replacing New York as the nation's principal ethnic melting pot, according to data from the 1980 census. California has become the choice of residence for tens of thousands of refugees from economic and political troubles abroad. [New York Times]
- A new study of homosexuals by the Kinsey Institute for Sex Research has found little or no support for most of the traditional theories about the causes of homosexuality. One of the study's principal conclusions is that a homosexual orientation seems to grow from a deep-seated predisposition that first appears as a failure to conform to society's stereotype of what it means to be a boy or a girl. [New York Times]
- Terms of college student loans granted under the federally guaranteed student loan program will be tightened beginning Oct. 1, reflecting cuts in the program signed into law earlier this month by President Reagan. [New York Times]
- Fewer fuel-related inreases in electric rates are expected in New Jersey now that the state's third nuclear power plant, the second unit of the Salem Generating Plant on the Delaware River in Salem County, has reached full generating capacity. Among the principal beneficiaries are expected to be the 1.7 million customers of the Public Service Electric and Gas Company in Newark, builder and operator of the new plant. [New York Times]
- If the U.S. sells surveillance planes to Saudi Arabia it could not prevent them from being used against Israel, according to American officials. They said that under the proposal by President Reagan to sell the Airborne Warning and Control System planes, known as Awacs, there would be no future American control over the planes. In addition, they said, the Saudi government has not agreed to operational restrictions on the planes or on the high-performance fighter planes that are also being sold to the Saudi air force. [New York Times]