News stories from Sunday March 21, 1976
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Representative Morris Udall of Arizona was endorsed for the Democratic presidential nomination by the New Democratic Coalition, which seeks to speak for the liberal wing of the New York state Democratic Party. The endorsement was voted by 70 percent of about 200 party members attending a state delegate assembly in Manhattan. [New York Times]
- Gov. Jerry Brown of California, sensing that the country is ready to turn to a new generation of leadership, is taking a long-shot gamble that his ability to control the 280-member California delegation to the Democratic National Convention this summer could persuade the party to nominate him for president. Mr. Brown, who is 37 years old and one of the most popular governors in California's history, said in an interview that he had not decided whether to expand his favorite-son candidacy into a wider campaign in other state primaries. He insisted that he was not a stalking horse for national Democratic leaders such as Senator Hubert Humphrey. [New York Times]
- The federal prosecutor who won a bank robbery conviction against Patricia Hearst Saturday said that she would be turned over to the California state authorities this week to face charges ranging from kidnapping to armed robbery.
The jurors who found Patricia Hearst guilty of armed bank robbery wanted "in all our hearts," as one of them said, to believe that she was innocent, but they regarded the government's evidence against her as so persuasive that within minutes Friday morning they found that all but perhaps three of their number believed Miss Hearst guilty and found her story of coercion and fear unbelievable.
[New York Times] - Four years after the student movement formed the vanguard of George McGovern's successful sweep to the Democratic presidential nomination, campaign coordinators in New York are finding that the movement has ended. The coordinators who are preparing for the April 6 primary say they are attracting groups of only several hundred student volunteers in contrast to the tens of thousands who flocked to campaign headquarters in 1972. The enthusiasm that brought about the "McGovern wave" will not he repeated, at least during this election. [New York Times]
- Exporters, apparently worried about breaching a new state law that makes aiding the Arab boycott of Israel a misdemeanor, are diverting cargo destined for the Middle East from New York City to other ports. James Dickman, president of the New York Shipping Association, said it was too early to tell exactly how much shipping has been lost but, he said, "we must know we're losing an awful lot of freight," and estimated that the loss might be two million tons a year. [New York Times]
- In what was regarded as an important military and psychological victory for them, hundreds of Moslem and leftist gunmen, backed by armored vehicles, drove right-wing Phalangists from their stronghold in the battered Holiday Inn in Beirut yesterday. The final assault was led by an armored personnel carrier, which crashed into the entrance of the 26-story hotel and fired on the last of the mortar crews defending the building's south side. Grinning civilians, peeking timorously from their apartment balconies, flashed victory signals to the hotel's captors. [New York Times]
- Following an order from the Thai government to close all military installations by July, the United States ended all operations at its facilities in Thailand in preparation for the final withdrawal. Meanwhile, several thousand students held an anti-American demonstration in front of the United States Embassy in Bangkok and at least four persons were killed and 70 injured when a bomb exploded in a crowd marching through the capital to the embassy compound. [New York Times]