News stories from Sunday September 22, 1974
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Senator Edward Kennedy is expected to disclose his political plans tomorrow morning and there are strong indications that he has decided not to seek the presidency in 1976. His Boston office issued an announcement that he would hold a news conference there Monday. It did not specifically promise a statement on 1976, but a member of his staff said that was what Senator Kennedy's announcement would be about. [New York Times]
- A group of Americans in Toronto spent the weekend planning a boycott of President Ford's conditional amnesty program for draft dodgers and deserters who have sought refuge in Canada and other countries. About 50 young men, speaking for the American-exile organizations in Canada as well as in France, Britain and Sweden, were unanimous in condemning the President's offer of amnesty in exchange for periods of public service work. [New York Times]
- Automobile owners who are trying to squeeze more mileage from their cars are finding that the cost of repairs has jumped 10 percent to 25 percent or more this year. In Manhattan, the owner of a garage estimates that repair and service costs have gone up as much as 50 percent in the last year. Nationally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics finds that the automobile maintenance costs in August were 11.3 percent higher than a year earlier. Enrollment In adult education classes in car repairs Is growing in many cities. [New York Times]
- Justice Department lawyers investigating a tax fraud case reportedly recommended that the government seek an indictment on income tax evasion by Benton Becker, a Washington lawyer who is an aide to President Ford, a month before he was sent to California by the White House as its intermediary in Mr. Ford's pardon for former President Nixon. [New York Times]
- The mass cremation of bodies of people killed in the hurricane that swept Honduras was ordered by rescue officials to prevent epidemics. It was officially estimated that 5,000 people were killed and 60,000 made homeless. The Honduran army said that 2,700 bodies had been burned or buried at Choloma, a commercial center in the banana zone, and 1,000 at the port of La Ceiba. [New York Times]
- The Defense Department is conducting a study to determine whether to reduce the large stockpile of American nuclear weapons in Western Europe. The assumption among senior officials, including Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger, is that the study will lead to the conclusion that, on military grounds, some of the weapons should be and could be withdrawn. The problem, however, is regarded as more political than military. [New York Times]
- State Department officials said that Secretary of State Kissinger plans to propose some new "initiatives" in a major address to the United Nations General Assembly tomorrow morning on food, oil and nuclear problems. He is also scheduled to hold meetings on the Cyprus crisis with Greek and Turkish ministers while he is in New York. [New York Times]