News stories from Sunday July 6, 1975
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Ford, against the advice of the Defense Department and his Budget Office, has asked Congress, with a minimum of publicity by the White House, to allow the Navy to construct a nuclear-powered cruiser that will cost $1.2 billion, one of the most expensive ships ever built by the Navy. This is regarded as a significant victory for Vice Adm. Hyman Rickover, director of the Navy's nuclear power program, and his congressional supporters. The ship raises some fundamental policy issues. [New York Times]
- The 9,000 teachers at the annual convention in Los Angeles of the National Education Association, the country's largest teachers' organization, are angry and forlorn and worried about an economy they believe is forcing compromises in educational programs. [New York Times]
- A key figure in the recent Mafia gang wars has provided a rare view into the inner workings of Mafia families in New York, including new details about the shooting of Joseph Colombo Sr., the murder of Joseph Gallo, the spate of killings that followed the Gallo murder and the current negotiations between the Gallo and Colombo factions. Peter Diapoulos, a member of the Gallo gang for 15 years, made the disclosures in a series of interviews with The New York Times. [New York Times]
- Witnesses have described in detail to federal investigators a simple trick with automatic weighing devices that has allegedly given several large grain companies millions of dollars in illegal profits on export shipments. The trick was only part of additional information being obtained from voluminous testimony, documents and data in an investigation of alleged dishonesty in the handling, weighing and grading of grain shipped for export through the port of New Orleans.
Melvin Hibbets, vice president for operations of the grain division of Cook Industries, Inc., has been suspended pending completion of an investigation by the company of its New Orleans operations.
[New York Times] - Israel postponed for at least a week a decision on the disputed elements of a new agreement with Egypt on disengagement in Sinai. After hearing a detailed briefing by Simcha Dinitz, the Ambassador to the United States, the cabinet in Jerusalem decided to seek additional "clarifications and elucidations" of the Egyptian position. [New York Times]
- The Indian government stepped up its campaign of economic measures, but critics say that the proposals are really intended to divert attention from the political crisis. In almost a crusading atmosphere, officials in various part of the country jumped on the bandwagon of economic change. They announced plans for the redistribution of land, the refinancing of agriculture, and the increased production of food and manufactured goods. Meanwhile, there were more political arrests. [New York Times]
- The dwindling number of American vacationers in Britain and most other parts of Europe are finding that prices are higher than ever before. Interviews with tourist bureaus, hotel managers and travelers in six countries find that costs are up to 20 percent higher for food, lodging and transportation. Europe, people in the travel business say, is increasingly being left to the wealthy, "inflation-proof" traveler or to members of package tours. More Americans are going to Canada, Mexico, Latin America and the West Indies. [New York Times]