May 21, 1980

VANCOUVER, Wash., May 20--Officials said today that about 50,000 people living in Washington cities along the lower Columbia River were threatened by a flash flood that might develop in the aftermath of the eruption of Mount St. Helens.

George Bush checked Ronald Reagan's march to a delegate majority yesterday, defeating the former California Governor in the Michigan Republican primary and postponing Mr. Reagan's amassing the 998 convention votes needed for nomination.

Saturday Review, the financially unsteady but remarkably durable literary magazine, changed hands again yesterday when it was bought by Financial World, a small 78-year-old investment magazine.

WASHINGTON, May 20--House and Senate budget conferees reached a tentative agreement to resolve a "guns versus butter" dispute this evening but it quickly collapsed when five liberal House Democrats balked at accepting $154 billion in military spending for the fiscal year 1981.

WASHINGTON, May 20--The United States criticized France today for failing to consult before the French-Soviet meeting in Warsaw and criticized Britain for reneging on a Common Market commitment to block exports to Iran under contracts made since the takeover of the American Embassy.