As July 7th’s go, this one offered few surprises, at least at the time.
From Washington – President Carter, in a marathon reassessment of administration domestic policies 2½ years after taking office, called a group of private citizens to Camp David on Saturday following extensive economic and energy talks with eight governors. But White House aides cautioned against expecting any miracles from what they had billed earlier as “almost a domestic summit.’ A senior White House official, who asked not to be named. said Carter’s deliberations at his secluded mountain retreat may well produce new methods for dealing specifically with the energy issue. But the official also said the president should not be expected to find a magic wand atop the Catoctin Mountains. This official reported that Carter has cleared his schedule through Wednesday.
And he acknowledged that the president also is taking a fresh look at the organization and internal workings of the government. The informant declined to speculate about any personnel shakeups that might result. In Louisville, Ky., where the nation’s governors are meeting, eight governors who met earlier with Carter said he was preparing an agenda of executive actions and legislative recommendations to help release the nation from the “stranglehold” of foreign oil producers. They gave no specifics. Invited to join the president at Camp David on Saturday afternoon was a small group that included Washington attorney Clark Clifford, former Common Cause chief John W.
Gardner, black activist Jesse Jackson and Robert Keefe, a key figure in the unsuccessful 1976 presidential campaign of Sen. Henry M. Jackson, DWash. White House press secretary Jody Powell said that James T. McIntyre, director of the Office of Management and Budget also conferred with Carter on Saturday.
Powell reported that Energy Secretary James R. Schlesinger and Treasury Secretary W. Michael Blumenthal, conspicuous by their absence from the early Camp David meetings, would be going there “in the next day or so.’ A White House source said Schlesinger would join the president and a group of private oil experts, including industry representatives, at a session on Sunday. The source said key members of Congress would travel to Camp David early this week.
And from Nicaragua – Despite Washington’s apparent success in persuading President Anastasio Somoza to agree to resign, his departure from Nicaragua is being delayed by a lack of progress in separate negotiations with a rebel-backed provisional junta, diplomatic sources said Saturday. As fighting continues in many parts of Nicaragua, negotiations for a government to replace Somoza’s have been slowed by faulty communication, widespread misunderstandings and little apparent inclination to compromise. The junta said Saturday it had received no direct communication seeking change in its membership from the Nicaraguan opposition, the United States or other Latin American governments with which the State Department has said it is coordinating its efforts. THE UNITED States reportedly wants to broaden 1 the junta to include at least two additional moderate figures before Somoza goes into exile, presumably in his mansion in Miami. The junta, based in Costa Rica, met twice last week with a special, U.S.
William D. Bowdler, but it has envoy,o contact with United States officials in the last seven days. (New York Times News Service) Meanwhile, the e head of the national guard board of inquiry said Saturday a 17-year-old national guard auxiliary soldier had confessed to the killing of ABC television newsman Bill Stewart.
From Cairo – Robert Strauss, the U.S. Mideast trouble-shooter, said Friday he had unknotted a snarl in the Egyptian-Israeli negotiations on Palestinian autonomy, ending the procedural wrangle that threatened to paralyze the talks. Strauss, who heads for Jordan and Saudi Arabia on Saturday, said the outcome of the fourth round of talks on autonomy for 1.2 million Palestinian Arabs living in Israeli-occupied territories would “lower the decibel level of negativism” in the Arab world. But with substantive issues yet to be tackled. Strauss said the progress made here was unlikely to lure Jordan or the Palestinians into the peace process at this point.
After two days of roundtable talks in this Mediterranean resort city, the heads of the three delegations announced their agreement in a joint communique at a news conference. The statement said two working groups would be established, one to study ways of holding Palestinian elections in the West Bank of the Jordan River and the Gaza Strip. The second would define the “powers and responsibilities,” presumably including those of the Palestinian self-rule council, provided for in the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement.
And Skylab – Heralded by psychics, bookies, bumper stickers, T-shirts and emergency crews around the world, Skylab isn’t exactly coming back to earth quietly. Now more than 200 kilometres above our earth, U.S. space station Skylab is orbiting slowly and falling fast. When the workshop re-enters our atmosphere, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) officials predict that will happen Wednesday, it will be reduced 1 to 76 metric tons and $294 million of burning rubbish. Skylab is expected to break into hundreds of pieces soon after reentry, most of which will burn up and disintegrate.
But at least 500 pieces, weighing anywhere from 11 to 2,250 kg, will survive re-entry and eventually fall to earth. Where they will fall is still unknown. Even a few hours before reentry, NASA will not be able to determine where Skylab fragments will land. Skylab orbits the earth 16 times a day, but has 71 different orbits covering territory between 50 degrees north, on a level with Winnipeg, and 50 degrees south, or southern Chile. The space station overflies the world’s most populous areas, but NASA statistics indicate there’s a 75 per cent chance most of the fragments will plunge into the oceans.
All populated areas have been dubbed “danger zones.” but officials say that is just a precaution. NASA says there is one chance in 150 that one person will be hurt by a Skylab fragment. That means if 150 Skylabs fell, one person would probably be injured. Since the space station was launched in 1973, five pieces, of Skylab have fallen. Four in water and a fifth on the coast of Africa.
No injuries were reported.
And that’s a sample of what went on, this July 7, 1979 as reported by The CBS World News Roundup.
