News stories from Saturday December 1, 1973

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

In a major executive branch shake-up, President Nixon has decided to establish a Federal Energy Administration to be headed by William E. Simon, a former Wall Street investment banker who has been Deputy Secretary of the Treasury for the last 11 months, high Administration sources said. Mr. Simon, who will continue as deputy secretary, will get the additional rank of counselor to the President. [New York Times] The Senate failed to break a deadlock over campaign spending legislation that has forced the government to operate with a total debt of about $63 billion over the legal ceiling. The resulting fiscal problem, academic over the weekend but real when business resumes Monday, was serious enough for the Treasury to halt the sale of savings bonds on the ground that the government's credit had run out at midnight Friday and no further borrowing was possible. [New York Times] Members of the House Judiciary Committee are prepared, by a substantial majority, to recommend the impeachment of President Nixon if they find evidence of serious misconduct that falls short of criminal wrong-doing. The Judiciary Committee will not get into the thick of its impeachment inquiry before February, and it is not likely to reach a determination on Mr. Nixon's conduct in office before spring. But a check that The New York Times made among the 21 Democrats and 17 Republicans who serve on the committee produced a surprising consensus on the question that will be central to the outcome of the inquiry: What is an impeachable offense under the Constitution? [New York Times] Anticipating a virtually complete voluntary shutdown of the 220,000 service stations in the country tomorrow, motorists lined up at gasoline pumps throughout the New York area and across the United States to stock up on fuel. Many motorists found that some gasoline prices were higher following the announcement of increases by three major oil companies. Surveys in the New York metropolitan area and other sections of the country indicated that, in most cases, 90% or more of the service station operators intended to observe the voluntary weekend closing suggested by President Nixon as a way to conserve gasoline. [New York Times] David Ben-Gurion, a founding father of modern Israel and its first Premier, died in Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv at the age of 87. He succumbed to a brain hemorrhage that struck him two weeks ago. [New York Times] Egypt has requested the United States and the Soviet Union to break the new deadlock in the Middle East by putting pressure on Israel to withdraw her forces to the cease-fire lines of Oct. 22. The request was made by Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmy in separate meetings with the American Ambassador, Hermann Eilts, and Vladimir Vinogradov, the Soviet Ambassador. The Egyptian government also declared that it would not return to military talks on the Cairo-Suez highway until it was sure that Israeli "obstruction" there was ended. [New York Times] State Department officials reported that despite the Arab-Israeli war, Soviet authorities permitted a record number of Jews to emigrate to Israel in October and that the number has remained high since. They said that according to United States intelligence figures, about 3,660 Jews left the Soviet Union in October, and the number in November was believed to be close to that. [New York Times] The governments of Britain, France and West Germany have become convinced that the United States is determined to withdraw some of its military forces from Europe. Conversations with senior officials of the three countries convey a sense of profound insecurity about the future defense of Western Europe. [New York Times]