P -Wed A 4982h M a Di egan ready t extend benefits for unemployed WASHINGTON (AP) - The Reagan administration in an about-face, is negotiating with congressional Republicans on compromise legislation that would provide extended unem- ployment benefits for jobless Americans, administration officials saidyesterday. Even as budget director David Stockman was telling Congress that the administration remained opposed to extending benefits, deputy White House Press Secretary Larry Speakes con- firned that the administration was now prepared to support an extension if the legislation is in a form acceptable to. President Reagan. DESPITE THE highest national, unemployment rate since World War II, the administration had been taking. a hard line against congressional proposals to provide an additional 13 weeks of jobless insurance, which would cost up to $1 billion. One administration official, asking that his name not be used, said that negotiations on a low-cost extention plan were underway with Sen. Finance Committee Chairman Bob Dole, (R- Kan.), and Rep. Barber Conable, (R- N.Y.), the ranking Republican on the tax writing committee in the House. In Hartford, Conn., where Reagan was traveling yesterday, Speakes said the administration has made no com- mitment to support an extension of benefits, but is working with congressional committees. ANOTHER official said one proposal under active consideration involves spending $700 million for a maximum extension of 10 weeks. Under this plan, up to 500,000 workers would be eligible for as many as 49 weeks of unem- ployment benefits. Under current law, the federal government provides funds for states to distribute up to 39 weeks of benefits - 26 weeks of regular unemployment in- surance and up to 13 weeks of extended benefits in states with high unem- ployment rates. Currently, nearly 4.6 million people are receiving jobless benefits, in- cluding 508,500 on extended benefits. Altogether, 1.4 million people were listed as unemployed in June for an unemployment rate of 9.5 percent. IN MAY, 33 states were paying ex- tended benefits, but because of tightened rules Reagan won from Congress last year, the number of states able to offer extended benefits is falling even though their jobless rates remain very high. Currently, only 24 states are providing extended benefits, and the number could drop to 15 by late September. In testimony before the Senate Budget Committee yesterday, Stock- man said the administration may want to seek changes that would prevent states from losing the 13-week exten- sion now allowed under the law. However, when asked about an ad- ditional 13-week extension that would provide a total of 52 weeks of benefits, he said, "Our position at the present time is it would not be a wise idea." Last week, John Cogan, an assistant labor secretary, told the Senate Finan- ce Committee that "extending benefits is inequitable, ill-timed and costly." "We believe that 39 weeks of unem- ployment benefits is the maximum that should be provided based on the worker's previous job," Cogan said. In Brief Compiled from Associated Press and United Press International reports Company asks FAA to ground planes in 'wind shear' conditions WASHINGTON- The manufacturer of the device that warned of hazar- dous wind shifts before the crash of a Boeing 727 near New Orleans is urging the government to ground planes under such conditions. Federal investigators have not pinpointed why Pan American World Air- ways flight 759 crashed, killing 154 people, after taking off in a driving rain- storm July 9. But they have acknowledged two warnings of severe "wind shear" in the area were given minutes before takeoff. The warnings, sounded in the airport control tower, came from a device manufactured by Sangamo-Weston Systems Inc., which has installed similar equipment in 58 U.S. airports. In a letter to FAA Administrator J. Lynn Helms after the New Orleans crash, company officials complained about "a fearful lack of understan- ding" of the severity of the wind shear problem "and of the. . . methods of measuring and warning against it." "We suggest .., that no aircraft lands or takes off within 15 minutes of an alert," K.S. Morgan urged in the July 29 letter. NAACP to boycott film studio HOLLYWOOD- The NAACP, complaining that the movie and TV in- dustries have turned deaf ears to pleas for increased minority hiring, said yesterday it will select a major film studio as a target for possible boycotts and extend its equal employment campaign to the networks. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People plans to select the target studio within the next week and present a list of hiring demands to be met within a certain time period before resorting to boycotts or other means of pressure, said NAACP Executive Director Benjamin Hooks. "During the past eight months we have been meeting and negotiating with the movie industry with varying results," Hooks said in a prepared statement at a Los Angeles Press Club news conference. "We found that the problems are serious and deeply entrenched. Now that we have the structure set up for dealing with racial problems within the movie industry, and among TV networks, we will act." He said that if the target studio remains "non-responsive, we may call on our chapters ... to use whatever non-violent means" necessary to achieve the goals of the NAACP's Fair Share Program. Such tactics would include informational picketing at theaters and picketing at film production facilities, Hooks said. Double-digit interest rates will persist, economists predict WASHINGTON- Stubbornly high interest rates are at last declining because, say the experts, the economy has grown so weak. But how long and how far the rates will drop remains an enigma. Those willing to hazard a guess suggest that further, modest declines in the cost of borrowing are likely this year. But just about every forecaster believes Americans will have to endure interest rates in double digits for years to come. "Any economist who tries to tell you with certainty what interest rates will do in the short term is a fool," says Barry Bosworth, a leading economist in the Carter administration and now a researcher for the Brookings In- stitution. "For the long run, though, one can be comfortable in saying the basic story is that interest rates are going to stay high." Bosworth and numerous other economists contend high interest rates will be a fact of life so long as the Reagan administration pursues record budget deficits and the Federal Reserve Board embraces a tight-money policy to keep inflation down. Huge government borrowing needs, plus tight credit, equals high rates for everyope else who needs money, Bosworth said. Inland oil spill cleanup begins BYRON, Wyo. - Siphon trucks sucked up some of the 250,000 gallons of oil pouring through a Wyoming wildlife preserve yesterday in what officials said was one of the nation's largest inland oil spills. A break late Sunday or early Monday ina 12-inch Platte Pipe Line Co. line north of Byron released the oil into an irrigation ditch on private property, which drained into Whistle Creek, the Shoshone River and ended up a quar- ter-mile into Yellowtail Rservoir according to a spokesman for the state Department of Environmental Quality. Department spokesman Jake Strohman assessed the spill at 6,000 barrels - 252,000 gallons - although Bill Ryder of Mrathon Oil Co., Platte's parent company said neither the volume of the spill nor the reason for the break could be determined immediately. Officials said no drinking water supplies had been threatened yet, and Bob Gurney of the Wyoming Fish and Game Department, said there had been no reports of damage to wildlife. :However, Gurney said inspectors had not finished their walking tour of the spill area in north-central Wyoming, including the Shoshone's route through the 19,000-acre Yellowtail Habitat Unit, a mixture of state and federal lands preserved for wildlife. U.N. prepares to deploy truce observers in Beirut (Continued trorPage1) dments in the heaviest shelling since the latest cease-fire went into effect. Huge fires raged out of control in .several areas of west Beirut. LEBANESE military observers in east Beirut said much of the Israeli shelling was by heavy guns near the Beirut airport that is now under Israeli control. The firing continued into the earfy morning hours. In Washington, state department deputy chairman Alan Romberg said a genuine cease-fire is "essential to our effort" to produce a peace settlement. Romberg said that "the United States does not want an attack against Beirut." "At the same time, regardless of what we want, while we can influence events, we cannot, ultimately, control them." Romberg said. "W are doing everything we can do" to stop the violence in Lebanon, Romberg said. HE SAID food, water and electricity remain cut off in west Beirut and that the situation there is "grim." He renewed President Reagan's call for a rs ttratioiiof essential services. Romberg would not predict whether the United States would end the diplomatic peace mission of U.S. envoy Philip Habib if Israel does enter west Beirut to crush the Palestine Liberation Organization guerrillas in that predominantly Moslem section of the Lebanese capital. Romberg said the latest of a series of cease-fires "is holding, although some sporadic artillery firing continues." "WE CONTINUE to urge a complete cessation of firing by all parties," he said. In response to questions, Romberg said Israeli officials are ignoring Reagan's pleas for a cease-fire and the restoratlionof services in west Beirut. "That doesn't mean the problems are being resolved," he said. "They are very difficult issues and we are working on it." On Monday, Reagan rejected as a "propagandistic exercise" the release in Moscow of a letter to him from Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev which charged tt hat -United, tates,,ha4 failed to restrain Israel in Lebanon.