News In Brief

Mondale, Ferraro seek votes in 11th-hour campaigning

Walter Mondale, telling his supporters ''don't despair, don't give up'' in the face of discouraging polls, called on blacks Sunday to vote in record numbers to end the Reagan administration's unjust social policies. Standing in the pulpit of a black Baptist church, he accused President Reagan of slashing social programs in ways that were ''vicious'' and ''cruel.''

Meanwhile in Chicago, Geraldine Ferraro said the Democrats may be ''devastated'' by up to 40 points in some states, but she predicted they will still eke out enough victories to patch together an Electoral College win. She scheduled stops Sunday at Michigan State University, a community college in Warwick, R.I., and a school in Waterbury, Conn. - the town where John F. Kennedy wound up his 1960 presidential campaign.