Week of February 8, 1981

Iran deports American writer Cynthia B. Sawyer a day after she was convicted of

spying and sentenced to the 9 months she had served while awaiting trial.

More trouble in Poland as thousand of workers strike 450 factories in the

country’s industrial southeast amid signs that the 5-month-old government of

Stanislaw Kania is about to fall.

The White House lists seven key programs for the needy that will not face budge

cuts and says an Administration consensus has been reached on 90% of the

spending cuts President Reagan will propose. They are: social security, the

Veterans Administration, school lunch and breakfast programs; Medicare (the

$45.4-billion program with 28.6 million beneficiaries). Also - Head Start,

Supplemental Security Income Fund and summer youth jobs program.

Only three months since the deadly MGM Grand fire. It happened again…

Another major hotel fire in Las Vegas, this time at the Hilton. Eight are dead and

242 injured.

Busboy Philip Bruce Cline, who allegedly started

the fire told police he was smoking a marijuana

cigarette and “engaged in homosexual activity”

when the cigarette’s lighted end came into contact

with drapes and touched off the blaze.

Entertainer Andy Williams, who was performing at

the hotel said, “It was a very helpless feeling. I

opened the stage door and the whole side of the

building, all the way up to the 30 th floor, was a

scene of people yelling through broken windows,

holding tied bed sheets together, screaming.

The State Department accuses Moscow of violating

the 1972 U.S.-Soviet code of conduct. The code was intended to prevent either

super power from seeking “unilateral advantage” over the other.

President Reagan places a wreath at the gleaming white memorial to Abraham

Lincoln and said of the nation’s 16 th President: “the memory of his life and death

are greater than any written or spoken tribute could ever be.”

Week of February 8, 1981

In Kentucky - A massive explosion tears through the sewer system beneath an

old Louisville neighborhood, ripping up several blocks of streets, smashing water

and gas lines and interrupting power. The explosion left an eight-foot trench three

blocks long.

Morgan Guaranty Trust Co of New York, lowers is prime rate a half-percent to

19%.

The Reagan Administration forecasts that inflation will be cut in half next year

while the economy will be booming.

Three former American hostages, including tow women released in November

1979, file suit against Iran seeking $30 million each for being held captive t the

American embassy. The three are - Steve Lauterbach of Dayton, Ohio, Lillian

Johnson of Burke, Va, and Elizabeth Montagne of Washington D.C.

Sports - Former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Hollywood

Henderson admits that he had used narcotics for 14 years,

but during the last 5 years, he has developed a

dependency on cocaine. He’s been kicked off one NFL

team, waived by another and released by yet another.

Music news -

Passing - Bill Haley - one of rock ‘n’

roll’s early pioneers. Friends in

Harlingen Texas say Haley had lived quietly in the Rio

Grande retirement area for some time. He was 55.

MCA Records wants to charge $9.98 on an upcoming Tom

Petty album, but Petty himself doesn’t like the idea. Petty’s

album sales accounted for 25% of MCA’s gross last year, so

he has some clout.

After a 20-year recording career, Delbert McClinton finally

has a top-20 record with “Giving It Up For Your Love.” McClinton describes his

younger years as rowdy, but he’s now 40. “I know I’m not a kid any more. I

always lived that way because I thought it was fun. It just stopped being fun. I’

finding out it’s more fun to rest and feel good.” His latest album is ”The Jealous

Kind” and his fans think its his best yet. Full of soul.

Week of February 8, 1981

Television news -

New pay-TV channel - The Public Broadcasting Service unveils a plan to

establish a pay-television network offering a feature artistic presentation every

night and educational programs during the day. The “Public Subscriber Network”

would be created as a partnership between public television stations and the

nation’s top theater, dance and opera companies, orchestras, museums, and

educational institutions.

On NBC’s “Midnight Special” - baseball announcer-humorist

Bob Uecker hosts and he’ll have on Howard Cosell. The

show has a different feel this season.

Max Robinson, a black anchorman on ABC’s “World News

Tonight,” accuses the television network of racial

discrimination in coverage of the presidential inauguration

and of the return of the 52 American hostages. He says he

and all other black journalists were excluded from covering

the stories and said the omissions were representative of his treatment at ABC.

Wednesday night television -

CBS - Enos, Movie

NBC - Real People, Bob Hope Funny Valentine Special, Quincy, Tonight,

Tomorrow

ABC - John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, Nightline

PBS - National Geographic, Sylvia Fine Kaye’s Musical Comedy Tonight II,

Captioned ABC news

CBS Movie (see ad).

Bob Hope Funny Valentine special - With Barbara Mandrell, Phyllis Diller, Cathy

Lee Crosby, Charlene Tilton.

PBS - Captioned ABC News - Rerun of the nightly newscast but captioned for

the hearing impaired. Seen each weeknight.

At the movies -

Altered States

Tess

Stir Crazy

The Competition

Popeye