News stories from Saturday September 4, 1976

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

The White House announced that President Ford has decided to retain Clarence Kelley as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation despite disclosures that Mr. Kelley had accepted free goods and services from the bureau and some gifts from his top aides. The White House press office said that President Ford had examined a report on the matter from Attorney General Edward Levi and had concluded that there was "no adequate justification" for asking Mr. Kelley to resign. [New York Times] If President Ford's campaign strategists are correct, the contest between the President, an Episcopalian, and Jimmy Carter, a Southern Baptist, will hinge on the votes of several million Roman Catholics in the industrial states. "We think they're up for grabs," a senior Ford campaign official said of the urban Catholics who make up as much as one-third of the electorate in the crucial states of the East and Middle West. Mr. Ford intends to court the Catholic voters, even though they are traditionally Democrats, because they are what one Ford tactician said was "the key to the corridor" of states in which the Republican presidential candidacy is centered. [New York Times] Jimmy Carter, who has been surprising the country politically for 19 months, seems determined once again to do what many political observers would regard as unconventional and unexpected. In an interview in Plains, Ga., Mr. Carter said he would try to avoid concentrating his campaign efforts in a limited number of large states that might guarantee him a victory. He will instead treat all regions of the country as equal campaign battlegrounds and will campaign extensively at factory gates and in shopping centers. He will formally begin his campaign tomorrow at Warm Springs, Ga. [New York Times] About 70 million qualified, voting-age Americans -- believed to be almost certainly a record number -- are not expected to vote on Nov. 2. Non-voters, who are approaching majority status in the adult population, seem to know more than ever why they want nothing to do with politics. According to a national poll, two-thirds of them agree that "candidates say one thing and then do another" and give that as reason enough to stand off from the presidential election. [New York Times] The investigation of the mysterious disease that has killed 29 people in Pennsylvania became further confused by results of a new series of tests that experts had hoped would conclusively show whether nickel poisoning was the cause of the epidemic. Instead, the results of the new tests for nickel were called "inconclusive" by Dr. William Sunderman, head of a research team at the University of Connecticut Medical School. Dr. Sunderman is regarded as one of the world's experts on nickel poisoning. [New York Times] Investigators for the House Subcommittee on Energy and Power said there were "serious doubts" whether the Alaska pipeline would be ready next summer as scheduled. Their report, giving the first official indication by the government that the deadline might not be met, quoted "persons familiar with the problems" of the pipeline as saying that a year's delay may be possible. The investigators, who spent two weeks in Alaska in July, said the pipeline project continues to be plagued by sloppy workmanship, inadequate quality controls and insufficient government monitoring, despite outcries against these shortcomings last year. Nevertheless, William Darch, president of the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, which is constructing the pipeline, insists that the work will be completed by next summer. [New York Times] The pictures transmitted by Viking 2 from the Utopia Plain of Mars to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena show a landscape that is very far from Utopian. A panoramic view in which the scanner swung through 300 degrees, sweeping five-sixths of the horizon, shows a mostly level sandy surface strewn with boulders and small stones. The surface appears to be much like the area in the Chryse Plain of Mars where Viking 1 landed last July 20. [New York Times] Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and Prime Minister John Vorster of South Africa met for five hours in Zurich tonight. A joint statement issued later said "progress is being made" in the discussion of crucial Southern Africa issues. The statement about "progress" followed expressions of cautious optimism made by both men prior to the start of the first of three days of talks on Southern Africa. [New York Times]