News stories from Saturday June 19, 1976
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Ford was the victor over Ronald Reagan by a narrow margin in the Iowa Republican convention in Des Moines. Mr. Ford got 19 of the state's delegates and Mr. Reagan 17. Republicans also gathered in Delaware, Texas, Colorado and Washington to select an additional 62 delegates. Except for Delaware, where Mr. Ford had the solid support of his party and got 13 more delegates, Mr. Reagan appeared to have the best of it in the three other states. Mr. Ford is now leading Mr. Reagan by only 66 delegates, according to the New York Times delegate tabulation. The President now has 1,001 delegates -- 1,130 are needed for nomination. Mr. Reagan had 935, and 166 were uncommitted. [New York Times]
- Jimmy Carter, in a 38-minute address to a Disciple of Christ laymen's convention that sounded like a sermon, said a separation of church and state should not dictate a separation of public and private morality. "It doesn't mean," he said, "we ought to have a different standard of ethics. There's no reason why we should be less honest on Monday than we were Sunday." Without mentioning his presidential candidacy, Mr. Carter repeated many of the religious convictions that have become a familiar part of his campaign speeches. [New York Times]
- The future of busing as an instrument of school desegregation has come under political challenge at a time when experts agree that there is still by no means sufficient information on which to assess the impact of busing on education. An analysis of the issue finds that educational effectiveness during segregation is essentially an unknown area. It is not even certain what the variables are that affect education under normal circumstances, let alone under desegregation. [New York Times]
- An accusation that Rubin (Hurricane) Carter attacked Carolyn Kelley, his former defense chairman, has brought into the open a smoldering controversy within the group that raised $600,000 to help Mr. Carter and his co-defendant, John Artis, win a new trial on triple-murder charges. There are still disagreements among committee members over how most of the $600,000 was drained off in overhead expenses, instead of being used for legal and investigative costs. [New York Times]
- The United States has built more nuclear-powered submarines than the Soviet Union in the last 10 years, although Defense Department testimony to Congress has left a contrary implication. Representative Les Aspin, Democrat of Washington, made public figures that show that the United States has outproduced the Soviet Union 48 to 42 since 1966 and 20 to 17 from 1971 to 1975. The figures were based on information he requested from the Pentagon. Mr. Aspin also released information from the Pentagon that shows that official United States intelligence estimates exaggerated Soviet production of nuclear-powered attack submarines by 300 percent in 1975 and more than 100 percent in 1973 and 1974. [New York Times]
- New York City Comptroller Harrison Goldin angered Mayor Beame by releasing a special audit that would seem to make the city's participation in Operation Sail on July 4 an extravagance. Mr. Goldin said the Bicentennial festival would cost the city at least $1.4 million for extra police, sanitation and other services and that there would be no return from concessionaires who would make "hundreds of thousands of dollars." Mr. Beame said the Comptroller's statement was "inaccurate, ill-timed and shortsighted." The statement did not, the Mayor said, take into account the "vast financial benefits that will accrue to the city's economy from the most spectacular Bicentennial event in the nation." Mr. Goldin said "this investment by the city appears to be working to the benefit of selected concessionaires." [New York Times]
- Riot squads acting under Prime Minister John Vorster's order to restore peace "at all costs" apparently succeeded in bringing calm to 11 black townships around Johannesburg. The casualty figures after the toughest police action of the three days' rioting were secret, but they were reliably reported to have exceeded 100 and possibly to be far higher. Mr. Vorster departed for West Germany where he will begin talks with Secretary of State Henry Kissinger on Wednesday. Before his departure, Mr. Vorster said his meeting with Mr. Kissinger was "a very important one in which I hope to be able to put South Africa's case at the highest level." [New York Times]
- A convoy of buses and cars that had been organized by the British to take Britons, Americans and others out a Lebanon to safety in Damascus was postponed 24 hours when fighting broke out near the seaside route the convey would have followed. Because the Beirut airport has been closed, the convoy was the only means by which the people could leave the country. The convoy was to have taken out 168 Britons and others and 140 Americans and dependents. Another British-organized convoy arrived safely in Damascus on Friday and had carried the bodies of the United States Ambassador, Francis Meloy, and Robert Waring, the embassy's economic counselor, who were slain Wednesday. [New York Times]
- King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden married Silvia Renate Sommerlath, the daughter of a West German businessman, in the 700-year-old St. Nicholas Church behind the royal palace in Stockholm. The city had a festive air, and 150,000 people lined the procession route after the ceremony. [New York Times]
- Western diplomats in Kinshasa said that the United States will substantially increase its military aid to Zaire, which has been uneasy about assistance given to its neighbor, Angola, by Cuba and the Soviet Union. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld discussed the arms increase on his trip to Zaire and Kenya last week. Zaire's army will also get more training aid under the agreement, it was said. [New York Times]