News stories from Saturday July 8, 1972

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

Senator George McGovern arrived in Miami Beach for the Democratic National Convention tantalizingly close to, but still disturbingly short of, a controlling majority of the convention's delegates. He was up against an increasingly open alliance of all his rivals, and the stop-McGovern coalition appeared to have stalled the front-runner just 40 to 50 votes from an absolute convention majority. [New York Times] Elaborate security measures are being established in Miami Beach as the Democratic convention approaches its opening Monday night. Memories of the riots at the last convention in Chicago and rumors that up to 250,000 demonstrators are preparing for action have put the emphasis on strict security. [New York Times] The federal government has taken 205 families out of the worst slums of Kansas City, Mo., handed them rent money and told them to find better housing of their own choice. This experiment has been going on since August, 1970, and officials say it's a successful alternative to public housing. A similar, but much bigger experiment, is planned this fall in Pittsburgh. [New York Times] Henry Kissinger, the President's assistant for national security affairs, said he had some reason to believe that the government of North Vietnam was ready for serious negotiations for the end of the Vietnam war. But he said that the United States could not be sure of this "until we've heard from them" when the peace talks resume in Paris on Thursday. [New York Times] An estimated 200,000 youths, from as far away as California and Florida, jammed the resort town of Long Pond in eastern Pennsylvania to attend a rock music festival, the biggest youth gathering in the East since the Woodstock festival of 1969. The concert began on schedule, but a downpour turned the Pocono International Raceway, where a huge stage had been set up, into a sea of mud. Rain disrupted the performance, and by evening, when the music resumed, about a third of the crowd had left for home. [New York Times] President Nixon today announced a trade agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union under which this country will sell the Soviet Union $750 million worth of wheat, corn and other grains over a three-year period. Administration officials said the agreement was the biggest grain deal in history between two nations. As a result of the agreement, the United States will increase its total agricultural exports by 17% over the three-year period. [New York Times]