News stories from Saturday January 3, 1976

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

President Ford was urged to support a federal takeover of state and local welfare programs by the governors of New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. They told Mr. Ford in a telegram that "the current patchwork of federal, state and local welfare is not working." They made a number of proposals for welfare reform, including the consolidation of existing federal programs for the poor into a "single, federally financed cash system providing a floor to the income available to every family." This proposal would consolidate the federal food stamp program, the Supplemental Security Income program for the aged and disabled, and the principal federal welfare program, Aid to Families with Dependent Children. [New York Times] President Ford plans to use his State of the Union address on Jan. 20 to reopen debate on the issue of taxes and spending, which he regards as one of the principal issues in his election campaign. He will tell the American people that they can have a tax cut of $10 billion, starting July 1, if Congress will hold government spending for the coming fiscal year to the $395 billion level that he wants. The tax-cut proposal would, if enacted, provide an increase in the personal exemptions from $750 to $1,000 and some reductions in tax rates for individuals and corporations. [New York Times] Congress was criticized by Chief Justice Warren Burger in his year-end report on the state of the judiciary for failing to establish the federal judgeships it was told in 1972 were necessary to reduce the workload on the federal bench. He warned that judges in the federal district courts and the courts of appeals were being flooded with steadily increasing caseloads without any relief from Congress, which had been asked to provide 52 new judgeships in the federal district courts and 13 in the courts of appeals. Despite some preliminary action, no new seats have been established, the Chief Justice noted. [New York Times] The police said they had found what they were convinced were parts of both the timing device and the battery that were used to detonate the bomb that killed 11 people and injured 75 last Monday night at La Guardia Airport. Louis Cottell, chief of detectives, said the fragments had "far-reaching evidentiary value." The police were still sifting through the debris left by the blast. [New York Times] Some African leaders and journalists who are not Soviet sympathizers are publicly backing Moscow's assistance to Angola's Popular Movement while condemning the smaller-scale and less conspicuous support given by the United States to two other nationalist factions in Angola. "The issue, put simply," said the leader of an international African Christian church group, "is that the Soviets have had a historical involvement with the African liberation struggle against the Portuguese, while the United States was on the other side." [New York Times] Delegates to a national convention of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's Congress Party last week solidly supported the authoritarian course she has set for India, and it seemed that the suspension of Indian democracy had the appearance of permanence. The delegates, with unanimity, approved the postponement of parliamentary elections for a year -- the first such postponement in the 25 years of India's independence -- the indefinite extension of the state of emergency proclaimed six months ago by Mrs. Gandhi to deal with what she said was a "deep and widespread conspiracy," and changes in the Constitution that will probably give the Prime Minister more power, and the courts less. [New York Times] The general staff of Portugal's armed forces accused the participants in demonstrations outside Custoias Prison in Oporto on New Year's Day of having tried "to provoke" the security forces with the aim of "discrediting" the authorities. It gave full backing to the National Republic Guard, which fought the demonstrators and killed three persons. The demonstration had been called by leftist organizations demanding the release of prisoners implicated in the abortive leftist coup on Nov. 25. [New York Times]