News stories from Friday July 13, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Nixon is resting at Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland, recovering from viral pneumonia. The latest medical report says that the President continues to have pains in the right side of his chest. He has been ordered to take an easy schedule after being released from the hospital. Nixon's personal physician Dr. Walter Tkach stated that the President is getting very little rest due to significant discomfort. Doctors had difficulty in getting the President to go to the hospital; he insisted on continuing his regular schedule.
Chest specialist Dr. Sol Katz said that the therapy for viral pneumonia is rest and medication for 7-10 days, and the President will continue to experience a lack of energy after leaving the hospital. Press secretary Ron Ziegler reported that President Nixon will continue with major presidential matters from his bed, but won't meet with Senate Watergate committee chairman Sam Ervin to discuss White House papers.
Rumors exist that Henry Kissinger will be chosen as William Rogers' replacement as Secretary of State. There is no word that the President's illness has had any effect on that decision.
[CBS] - White House counsel Richard Moore continued his testimony before the Senate Watergate committee. Moore gave conflicting testimony regarding money supposedly used as a payoff for the Watergate defendants. Moore said that John Dean asked President Nixon for about $1 million for the defendants. The President stated money isn't the point, and the truth would come out anyway.
Chief minority counsel Fred Thompson asked for a description of the meeting with President Nixon after the bribe money was discussed. Moore replied that he urged the President to take action and let the American people know about Watergate before an investigation put the President in middle of a cover-up. Chairman Sam Ervin asked if media coverage of the charges against the campaign committee aroused suspicion regarding the finance committee. Moore admitted that it did.
Moore's testimony did not convince the Senate committee that the President couldn't or shouldn't have known about the Watergate scandal.
[CBS] - Reporters asked Senator Sam Ervin about what action he will take if President Nixon refuses to relinquish White House documents to the Senate Watergate committee. Ervin said he would vote to issue a subpoena for the papers. If the President doesn't honor the subpoena, Ervin said the White House would be risking a negative reaction from the American people regarding the President keeping the papers from the committee which has the right to see them.
Responding further to reporters' questions, Ervin stated that adequate questioning of H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Charles Colson cannot be made without access to White House papers, and added that withholding documents would hurt the President and the White House in the end.
[CBS] - President Hector Campora of Argentina has resigned to clear the way for Juan Peron's takeover. Eighteen years after being overthrown by the army, Peron is now back at the top. Today's action came as a complete surprise for many. Campora said he resigned because Peron is available to take over the leadership which Campora was holding for him. Peron will stabilize and unify the various Peronist groups under one leader. [CBS]
- Massacres of whole villages are said to be widespread by Portuguese troops in Mozambique. Father Bertuli, now back in Rome, spent much time in Mozambique but was ostracized because he spoke out against the refusal of the church hierarchy to publicize the massacres. Bertuli claims that the villages are really concentration camps and are under military surveillance by Portuguese troops. He stated that the Portuguese massacre whole villages or decapitate one person if they believe that a village sympathizes with the guerrillas. [CBS]
- Secret Service agents arrested three employees of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing regarding the theft of $13,000 in new $10 and $20 bills. [CBS]
- Maryland state legislator James Scott, Jr. was found shot to death in his basement. He was set to go on trial August 20 for heroin trafficking, His murder was apparently a professional contract job. Scott was considering telling prosecutors the names of big heroin dealers according to the Baltimore News-American. [CBS]
- The Senate moved toward passage of a bill to permit construction of the trans-Alaskan oil pipeline, which would run from Prudhoe Bay to the port of Valdez; the Senate rejected an amendment to delay the pipeline. [CBS]
- A follow-up report on the gasoline shortage on Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. Tourism is the mainstay for Martha's Vineyard, and the gasoline shortage hurt tourism. Station owner John Albhum said that without gas, the island's economy would be killed because tourism is its only source of income. Mysteriously, after national attention was focused on the gasoline shortage in Martha's Vineyard, major oil companies increased their allocations here, and the shortage passed. [CBS]
- Lon Chaney, Jr. died in California at the age of 58. Chaney played several monster roles in his heyday as an actor. [CBS]
- The National Transportation Safety Board reported that the plane in which baseball star Roberto Clemente perished last New Year's Eve was unsafe. Mechanical problems and the limited qualifications of the pilot and copilot were included on the list of factors that could have caused the crash. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 885.99 (-15.95, -1.77%)
Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish. | |||||||||||||||
| Market Index Trends | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | DJIA | S&P | Volume* |
| July 12, 1973 | 901.94 | 105.50 | 16.40 |
| July 11, 1973 | 908.19 | 105.80 | 18.73 |
| July 10, 1973 | 888.32 | 103.52 | 15.09 |
| July 9, 1973 | 877.26 | 102.14 | 11.56 |
| July 6, 1973 | 870.11 | 101.28 | 9.98 |
| July 5, 1973 | 874.32 | 101.78 | 10.50 |
| July 3, 1973 | 874.17 | 101.87 | 10.56 |
| July 2, 1973 | 880.57 | 102.90 | 9.83 |
| June 29, 1973 | 891.71 | 104.26 | 10.77 |
| June 28, 1973 | 894.64 | 104.69 | 12.76 |