News stories from Sunday March 2, 1975

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

Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee formally issued proposals for a national energy program, and administration officials indicated privately that the plan offered a better basis for compromise with the White House than the program offered last week by a study group of congressional Democrats. The committee's plan includes a graduated tax on gasoline and import quotas. [New York Times] As unemployment has increased, enrollment in the government's food stamp program has increased by two million, pushing the national enrollment to 17.9 million people as of Jan. 31. Meanwhile, reports issued by government agencies and a congressional group were critical of the program. The Senate Select Committee on Nutrition and Human Needs estimated that only 38 percent of persons eligible for food stamps were receiving them, and that about 20 million eligible persons were not on the rolls. [New York Times] A fact-finding delegation of eight members of Congress left for home after a heated, theatrical encounter with representatives of North Vietnam and the Viet Cong's Provisional Revolutionary Government. The delegation visited South Vietnam and Cambodia at President Ford's request to determine if Saigon and Phnom Penh required additional military aid. Most members of the group professed to have not quite made up their minds on the administration's request for $222 million, but several said that the group had at least reached a rough consensus that it was imperative for Secretary of State Kissinger to involve the United States again in a search for negotiated settlements of the Vietnamese and Cambodian wars. [New York Times] The kidnapping ordeal of Peter Lorenz, a West Berlin party leader, moved toward a climax on election night. West Berlin and West German authorities flew four convicted anarchists and a hostage to Frankfurt as the kidnappers demanded. Two anarchist prisoners whose release was demanded by the radical June 2 Movement had at first refused to agree to be exchanged for Mr. Lorenz, but one of these, Gabriele Kroecher-Thidemann, was reported en route from a prison in Essen to the airport. [New York Times] Israel's Defense Minister, Shimon Peres, suggested that Israel would return the Abu Rudeis oilfields and two strategic mountain passes in Sinai to Egypt only if President Anwar Sadat gave an open and direct pledge of an end to belligerence. [New York Times]