December 12, 1980

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11--Presidentelect Ronald Reagan announced his first eight Cabinet-level appointments today, declaring that together they constituted "the exact combination to create the new beginning the American people expect and deserve."

IN terms of the attention they are paid, the care they are given, the rights they are assumed to have and the social visibility they are accorded in modern societies, children have come a long, long way. The history of childhood is itself a modern discipline, unknown to the ancient world, ...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11--A final round of pretrial briefs in the Government's antitrust suit against the American Telephone and Telegraph Company showed today that the Justice Department had narrowed its ...

Donald T. Regan, the newly designated Secretary of the Treasury, is not the only Wall Street leader to prove adept at squeezing profits out of soggy markets, to attract blue chip companies as investment banking clients or to meld sickly firms into his own organization's healthier operations.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 11--The Justice Department, with the approval of a Federal judge, today formally dropped the criminal case against L. Patrick Gray 3d, former Acting Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In an effort to ease the severe financial strain on the smallest businesses, the Chemical Bank announced yesterday that it had begun providing them with cut-rate loans.

The lawyer assigned to defend Mark David Chapman, the man accused of killing John Lennon last Monday night, was removed from the case at his own request yesterday and given police protection for part of the day.

BRUSSELS, Dec. 11--European members of the Atlantic alliance signaled their readiness today to join the United States in economic, political and military measures if the Soviet Union moves on Poland.