This Day In 1970's History: Tuesday April 26, 1977
- President Carter's jobs bill, a key element in his economic stimulus package, won acceptance from House and Senate conferees who agreed to detach the controversial water pollution provisions from the measure. The $4 billion bill to create 280,000 jobs in public works such as schools, hospitals, rail beds and parks is expected to ready for his signature on Friday. [New York Times]
- A first step toward capping the runaway North Sea oil well off Norway was taken when volunteer workmen attached a blowout protector and installed hydraulic rams they hope will pinch off the well. Work stopped at midday after the wind died, permitting the formation of a dangerous concentration of natural gas on the drilling platform. [New York Times]
- Ceilings on doctors' fees are under study by the Carter administration, which as already introduced legislation to contain hospital costs. The proposal's completion is months away, but its introduction could bring sharp controversy with organized medicine. A specialist with links to that group said that after the hospital bill was announced "we knew it would only be a matter of time before they started on us." [New York Times]
- Regional name-calling has begun in several parts of the country, particularly in the South and West, touched off by President Carter's energy proposals. Legislators in Western coal-producing states have pledged protection against the ravages of strip mining, generating plants and coal slurry pipelines, and state officials in the southwest have promised to go all-out to save local oil and gas for the region's growing industry. [New York Times]
- Christopher Boyce, defendant In Los Angeles Federal Court, said his revulsion as a Central Intelligence Agency code clerk on learning of a "deception against the Australians" led eventually to his being blackmailed into becoming a Soviet spy. Government lawyers raised objections when he began explaining details of the alleged deception and were upheld by the judge. Other sources said it had some connection with an American satellite communication readout station located in Australia. [New York Times]
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