News stories from Saturday January 4, 1975

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

President Ford signed an emergency $4.5 billion appropriations bill that will provide funds for extended unemployment insurance and public jobs programs. He also made some "tentative decisions" on new economic and energy policies after a meeting with his top economic advisers, his press secretary said. Under instructions from the President, no details about his new policies were disclosed at a news briefing at the White House. It is expected that he will announce his new program in his State of the Union message, which is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 20. [New York Times] President Ford established a commission that will investigate allegations of illegal domestic spying by the Central Intelligence Agency. Ron Nessen, the White House press secretary, said Mr. Ford had interviewed several persons and hoped to make from five to seven appointments, all from outside the government, this week. The President, in a statement describing the new commission as a "blue ribbon panel," said that the Justice Department was also "looking into such aspects of the matter as are within its jurisdiction." [New York Times] Senator Howard Baker, the Tennessee Republican who served as vice chairman of the Senate Watergate Committee, called for a renewed inquiry into the Central Intelligence Agency's connection with Watergate before and after the June 17, 1972, break-in at the Democratic national headquarters. His staff conducted an extensive inquiry into the C.I.A.'s Watergate role, and he said today: "There's a whole range of unanswered questions and they are far more important now than they were last year. It was just some loose ends then." [New York Times] After years of controversy, the Air Force has decided to abandon its bombing range on Matagorda Island near Corpus Christi, Tex., in deference to the nearly extinct whooping crane. The crane has flown every fall for centuries to spend the winter on the island, which in 1942 was taken over as a bombing range. The military use of the island had been a long-standing issue with conservationists, but it was never decisively proved that target practice contributed to the crane's near extinction. [New York Times] Cambodia's capital, Phnom Penh, does not seem to be in immediate danger from the Communist-led rebels' latest offensive, though the drive continues with intensity on several fronts within 10 miles of the city. Once again, neither side seems able to win this war, begun nearly five years ago. This year's offensive started a few hours before dawn on New Year's Day, coordinated at all points all around the city's defense perimeter. A huge new refugee problem was instantly created as the insurgents swept through village after village, abducting, burning and killing. The hospitals are full of casualties. [New York Times] Fierce fighting with North Vietnamese forces was reported from the besieged province capital of Phuoc Binh in South Vietnam, 75 miles north of Saigon. The Saigon government was known to have flown out several hundred rangers to reinforce the town, which had been defended by about 2,500 men, most of them members of regional forces. [New York Times] Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization, at a meeting in Cairo, took a first step toward ending the deep hostility between them by agreeing to hold regular meetings in the coming months to discuss the issues dividing them. The meeting was also attended by the Egyptian and Syrian foreign ministers. The P.L.O. said it would stop its bitter propaganda campaign against King Hussein of Jordan, and the Jordanian government gave assurances that it would respect the "vested rights" of the nearly one million Palestinians who live on the east bank of the Jordan River and who make up about half the population of Jordan east of the river. [New York Times]