News stories from Saturday January 10, 1970

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

President Nixon will propose the first major change in federal labor law in more than 20 years -- possibly an overhaul of the Taft-Hartley Act to cover all big labor-management disputes -- Secretary of Labor George Schulz indicated in an interview. Railroads and airlines are currently covered by a separate law, the Railway Labor Act, which would be dispensed with. [New York Times] Almost 80 percent of black and white students enrolled in Mississippi school districts that integrated their classes last week, a Justice Department official said. And since there are reports that sizable numbers of Negro students joined white students who stayed away from school during the week, observers have concluded that school desegregation has not frightened away nearly as many white students as politicians had been predicting. [New York Times] Citing a desire to "devote more time to my family than has been available to me for many years," Governor John Dempsey of Connecticut announced that he would not seek re-election this year. Mr. Dempsey, who is 55 years old and who has served two terms, also said he believed that 10 years is long enough for one man to serve as the state's chief executive. [New York Times] A reliable military source said federal Nigerian troops had captured the vital Biafran town of Owerri and were moving on the Uli airstrip, Biafra's link with the outside. There was no confirmation in Lagos, and Washington officials said their information did not indicate that a Biafran collapse was necessarily imminent. [New York Times] The United States command in Saigon reported that severe casualties had been inflicted on American soldiers at an artillery base 300 miles northeast of Saigon during the night by an enemy mortar attack. The enemy mortarmen, who fired 15 rounds before fleeing, were thought to have come down from a hill and to have set up their tubes a mile northeast of the base. [New York Times] An argument by the Pentagon that the Soviet Union must agree to limit its anti-aircraft defenses before the U.S. stops developing multiple missile warheads has generated a controversy in the administration and the disarmament community. Academic scientists are protesting that the Pentagon's argument is raising a hypothetical "absurdity" to thwart any major move towards an arms-control agreement. [New York Times] Hearsay evidence of South Korean troop atrocities against South Vietnamese civilians was turned up in interviews conducted by American researchers under contract to the U.S. government, a staff member of the Rand Corporation involved in the project said. His statement corroborated an earlier report of abuses by the South Koreans. [New York Times]