News stories from Saturday May 29, 1976
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The parents of 22-year-old Karen Anne Quinlan, who has been in a coma 13 months, have found physicians willing to treat her as a "chronic care patient" and to refrain from using extraordinary medical procedures to keep her alive, but they have not found a hospital that will accept her. Miss Quinlan is in St. Clare's Hospital in Denville, N.J., where hospital officials and her present doctors have indicated that they will take whatever steps are necessary to keep her alive, even if it means connecting her to a respirator again. She was removed from the respirator 10 days ago. If she is transferred to a new hospital under the care of other doctors she would not be connected to a respirator in the event of a medical crisis and would be allowed to die. [New York Times]
- A stop-Carter effort is being made by a loose and shifting alliance of people in Washington who either dislike Jimmy Carter or like someone else better and want the Democratic front-runner to be stopped short of the 1,505 delegates needed for nomination to give the other aspirants a chance. Stopping Mr. Carter will not be easy because he seems certain to emerge from the final primaries on June 8 with between 1,100 and 1,250 delegates and the record of "stop" actions -- against John F. Kennedy in 1960, Richard Nixon in 1968 and George McGovern in 1972 -- is unimpressive. [New York Times]
- Under strong protests by civil rights leaders and others, Attorney General Edward Levi reversed his tentative decision of three weeks ago to use the Boston school busing case as the administration's vehicle for seeking a reconsideration by the Supreme Court of busing as a means of integration. He announced that he would not go before the Court in the Boston case unless the Court decided on its own to hear the case. It was regarded as highly unlikely that the Court would do so, especially because of Mr. Levi's decision not to ask for a review. But he did not withdraw from the position that there should be a Court review in some future case on the busing issue. [New York Times]
- An internal study at the United States Military Academy of its honor code last year anticipated many of the problems now facing the Academy, including the growing disenchantment of the junior class. The junior class is currently involved in what is likely to become the Academy's gravest cheating scandal. About 250 cadets may eventually face hearing boards. The report said the honor code was "idealistic, but not a picture of reality," but recommended that it be kept. Changes in the code's administration were suggested but have not been carried out. Officers at the Academy said that the report's recommended changes were not made because they were diverted last fall, soon after the report was completed, by the news that Congress had ordered the naval and military academies to admit women beginning this July. [New York Times]
- Vincent Sombrotto, whose New York local gave the country its first big postal strike in 1970, is seeking, with a great deal of support from its members, the presidency of the National Association of Letter Carriers. If he wins this summer's election, labor relations in the United States Postal Service are likely to become more turbulent than ever. The way for Mr. Sombrotto's candidacy was opened last week when James Rademacher, the union's president, said he would resign, mainly because of the growing pressure from his unhappy membership and the militant demands from Mr. Sombrotto and his supporters. [New York Times]
- Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago, backed by a recent Supreme Court ruling, has given municipal employees who live outside Chicago until Aug. 1 to move into the city or be dismissed. The 43,000 employees were required last week to sign statements declaring an understanding of the residency requirements. It is estimated that 25 percent of Chicago's municipal employees live in the suburbs. Since the Court ruled last March that cities may require their employees to live in the city that employs them, several other cities have taken or are contemplating action similar to Chicago's. [New York Times]
- Delegates to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in Nairobi met in dozens of informal groups today -- the 26th day of the conference -- attempting to reach a compromise on two critical issues. It appeared as the conference was ending that a formula was emerging to resolve the impasse on the issue of a program to regulate commodity markets, the thorniest issue that confronted the conference. Representatives of both poor and rich countries said that the compromise on commodities would call for the convening of an international conference to be held no later than March to discuss a common fund that would regulate prices of the commodity exports that account for most of the third world's foreign-exchange earnings. [New York Times]