News stories from Saturday September 17, 1977

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

Bert Lance was more on the defensive under aggressive questioning by Republican members of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in the third day of hearings on his financial affairs. The questions were frequently intended to draw out comments on Mr. Lance's ethical standards rather than possible illegal activity. As he ended his testimony before the committee, he said he was "satisfied" that he had had a "full opportunity to reply to the allegations against him and that "the American people know me much better." The hearings will resume Monday.President Carter, speaking at a meeting of newspaper editors and broadcast news executives at the White House, said that he believed Bert Lance had "enhanced his position" at a Senate hearing. [New York Times] The economic erosion of major cities in the United States has been confirmed by a major new study prepared for the Department of Housing and Urban Development. At the same time, the study rebuts claims based on isolated success stories that major downtown areas are going through a renaissance. It says that the shift of people and business to the suburbs shows no signs of letting up and that the "back-to-the-city movement" is "small" but symbolic. [New York Times] Fire Island's [New York] cookie case crumbled with the dismissal of charges in Ocean Beach's village court against Lawrence Wallick, who had been accused of violating the community's anti-littering laws when he ate a chocolate chip cookie in public. A friend of his had been accused of eating a piece of crumb cake. Judge Benjamin Mehlman granted a dismissal when the prosecutor agreed with the defense lawyer that the anti-littering law was being applied indiscriminately, with the police enforcing it against cookie eaters but not against ice-cream lickers. [New York Times] "Heads may roll" in the South African police force because of the death last week while in police detention of Steven Biko, a young black leader, Justice Minister James Kruger said. Acknowledging for the first time that there might have been irregularities in the way the police dealt with Mr. Biko, Mr. Kruger conceded that a wider inquiry than previously contemplated might have to be ordered when the results of an autopsy are made known. [New York Times] Executives have gone underground to escape terrorists in West Germany. Secret security arrangements have replaced the pomp and circumstance that once surrounded them. In addition to disappearing from public view, there is a blackout of information about them and requests for interviews are turned down by their representatives. A company executive said that his directors no longer tell him anything about their personal movements. [New York Times]