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News stories from Monday February 19, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Nixon met with labor leaders at the AFL-CIO convention in Florida. In 1971 when the President spoke at the labor convention he received a hostile reception. But labor refused to support Democratic nominee George McGovern for president in 1972 and Nixon has appointed labor man Peter Brennan as Labor Secretary. His reception today was warm.
Union president George Meany greeted Nixon and Brennan as they arrived at the convention. Nixon and labor leaders talked in closed session. After the labor meeting President Nixon visited Ft. Lauderdale to help Jackie Gleason and others publicize the Boys Club benefit golf tournament. Nixon and Gleason talked with the crowd, and the President stated that the U.S. achieved its Vietnam objective, which was to prevent a Communist takeover of South Vietnam by force. Tomorrow President Nixon goes to Columbia, South Carolina, to thank the state legislature for supporting his Vietnam policy. [CBS]
- Michel Gauven, chairman of the International Control Commission, says that the Vietnam cease-fire is not working. The ICC will go into the field tomorrow. South Vietnam claimed 194 truce violations by the Communists today. [CBS]
- Henry Kissinger left Peking and is visiting Japan. In China, Kissinger met with Premier Chou En-lai, Chairman Mao Tse-tung and other Chinese officials. As result of his visit, the U.S. may withdraw forces from Taiwan, exchange journalists and establish trade bureaus in Washington and Peking.
In Tokyo, Kissinger briefed Japanese leaders on his Chinese talks and spoke about problems with Japanese-American relations. Prime Minister Tanaka and Kissinger discussed trade problems. [CBS]
- The jury in Otto Kerner's trial reached a verdict. Kerner, the former governor of Illinois, is accused of accepting a bribe of racetrack stock in return for favors while he was governor. Kerner was found guilty of bribery, conspiracy, perjury, mail fraud and income tax evasion. Co-defendant Theodore Isaacs was also found guilty. U.S. attorney James Thompson said that Kerner once had a record for integrity and honesty as a public figure; Kerner denies that he ever took advantage of his position while in office. [CBS]
- A New Orleans police committee reported that its investigation indicates that only Mark Essex was involved in the shootout with police last month in which eight people, including Essex, were shot to death. It was originally was believed that at least one other sniper was involved. [CBS]
- A Soviet plane crashed on landing at the Prague, Czechoslovakia, airport; 77 persons were killed, 22 survived. [CBS]
- A light plane crashed on a road while attempting to land at the Brookfield, Wisconsin, airport. The four men on board the plane were killed, and an automobile driver on the road was critically injured. [CBS]
- The body of Philippe Petain, a World War I hero who collaborated with the Nazis during World War II, had been buried in exile off the coast of France. Today his body was stolen from his grave. It is believed that Petain admirers took the body in order to rebury it at Verdun as Petain had wished. [CBS]
- The National Organization for Women is holding its sixth annual conference in Washington, DC. Members passed strong resolutions regarding women's rights. NOW founder Betty Friedan says that women are strong enough now to see men as equals and to regard them as brothers. [CBS]
- The Houston space center was renamed by President Nixon in memory of the late Lyndon Johnson. [CBS]
- Senator Sam Ervin is a very busy man in Washington. With 19 years of seniority, Ervin has an empire on Capitol Hill with an annual payroll of $900,000. He is involved in numerous important committee hearings. As chairman of the Government Operations Committee and senior member of the Judiciary Committee, Ervin is into almost every issue of substance. Ervin has emerged as a great civil libertarian, but as a southerner from North Carolina, Ervin's positions are politically mixed. Ervin says that he is just watching over the Constitution.
Ervin believes in the fundamental principles embodied in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights; he feels that all Americans are entitled to equal protection before the law. ACLU spokesman David Isbell says that Ervin has done more good as a liberal, than harm as a conservative. American Conservative Union spokesman Lawrence Pratt believes that Ervin has greatly aided the conservative cause. [CBS]
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