News stories from Saturday December 5, 1970

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

President Nixon attacked the Senate's rejection of the supersonic transport, stating that the aircraft industry has been hurt and 150,000 jobs lost. Opponents are still confident that the House won't pass the SST bill. [CBS] Senator Mike Mansfield said that if President Nixon doesn't set wage and price controls, the economy will be a major campaign issue. Speaking in New York City, the President declared that inflation has been decreasing during 1970 and the worst is over, but we must do more to help the employment situation without war. [CBS] The trade bill may die in Congress. Senator Charles Percy believes that the U.S. must adjust to foreign competition, but Senator Strom Thurmond says that the government must protect Americans. Textile plants have been closing and 100,000 textile workers are unemployed. But soybean farmers would be hurt by a protectionist bill; 80% of the U.S. soybean crop is exported and foreign markets are critical. Congress must handle the foreign trade problem or pass it along to the President. [CBS] Howard Hughes was reported to have left Las Vegas amid a power struggle between competing factions in the companies he controlled. One faction, led by a New York lawyer, unsuccessfully attempted to take over the Hughes casinos in las Vegas last night. Some sources have insisted that Mr. Hughes did not want to leave and was finally persuaded to do so in the company of persons he trusted. [New York Times] A series of explosions ripped through the Humble Oil & Refining Company plant in Linden, N.J., shooting huge flames into the sky and sending a shock wave through the New York metropolitan area. Numerous persons were injured, the police reported. On Staten Island and in Elizabeth, N.J., there were reports of looting of stores whose windows had been blown out by the blast. [New York Times] British diplomat James Cross returned home to London from Canada. [CBS] West German diplomat Eugen Beihl wrote to his wife, saying that he has been well-treated by his Basque captors in Spain. [CBS] Israel reported that it routed a United Arab Republic reconnaissance force near the Suez Canal. [CBS] Because of failure in the Saigon government's aid programs for war victims, many South Vietnamese are returning to Viet Cong controlled areas, Senator Edward Kennedy charged. Mr. Kennedy cited a report by the General Accounting Office criticizing Saigon's refugee programs and questioning the veracity of official South Vietnamese statistics on the subject. [New York Times] The government in Northern Ireland raided conspiracy suspects; the Irish Republican Army was especially harassed. [CBS]