News stories from Saturday April 14, 1973

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

Most of the nation's big cities appear to be unlikely to meet prescribed federal standards for clean air by the deadline of May 31, 1975. Thirty-eight cities, in 21 states and the District of Columbia, face a special problem because of heavy automobile traffic. Even if all other sources of air pollution are brought into conformity with the standards, which is by no means certain, these cites will be left with excesses of two pollutants generated by automobiles. [New York Times] As meat industry analysts expected, wholesale beef prices climbed back to their ceiling limits for the week after the boycott and stayed there. For consumers, this indicated that supermarket beef cuts would soon be back to the ceilings set two weeks ago by the Nixon administration. But retail pork prices may be lower this week, reflecting a slight decline in wholesale hog prices that brought them to below the ceiling. Prices will also be affected by a spring snowstorm that hit parts of the Middle West on Monday, killing thousands of cattle, hogs and turkeys. [New York Times] Applications for next fall's freshman class at the country's major, state-run four-year colleges have declined sharply this spring for the first time in more than 10 years. Some college administrators have begun to wonder if the absolute drop in college enrollment forecast for the early 1980's is not already here. But applications to Ivy League colleges have shown a healthy increase for the second consecutive year, following a slump in 1971. [New York Times] Major conservative churches in the United States seem to be experiencing the same slowdown in numerical growth that has been evident for some time among their liberal counterparts, according to figures released by the National Council of Churches. The statistics show that during 1971, the last year for which data is available, the Roman Catholic and major Protestant churches either lost members or failed to keep pace with the general population increase of about 1%. [New York Times] Moderate Arab diplomats residing in Cairo are convinced that the Arab world is being swept by a ground swell of hatred for the United States that may lead to a rash of uncontrollable sabotage operations, such as today's attack on a petroleum refinery in Saida, Lebanon. The diplomats, who are frequent travelers among the various Arab capitals, say that the feeling of bitterness is running more deeply than at any time since the Arab-Israeli war in June, 1967, when the United States was accused of bombing the Egyptian air force. The charge was later retracted. [New York Times] American officials in Saigon believe that the Communists secretly moved two truce commission helicopters they shot down last week, in order to back their explanation of the incident. The officials say that the moving of the two helicopters of the International Commission of Control and Supervision would account for why a commission investigative team three days ago found them more than 25 miles from where those who survived say the aircraft crashed on the way to the Laotian border. [New York Times]