News stories from Monday July 5, 1971
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Chief Justice Warren Burger declared that the Supreme Court's workload is becoming unmanageable; Burger rejected the idea of expanding the size of the court. [CBS]
- President Nixon was present today for the ratification of the 26th amendment, which gives 18 to 20-year olds the right to vote. Polls show that 16% of the new voters are likely to register Republican, 42% Democrat and 42% independent. [CBS]
- Many Americans found U.S. beaches to be closed or polluted over the Fourth of July holiday. Chicago beaches are relatively pollution-free after the introduction of Coho salmon in Lake Michigan to control alewives, but beaches from Cleveland, Ohio, to Erie, Pennsylvania are still closed because of the breakdown of a Cleveland sewage plant. Swimmers ignored pollution warnings at New York City beaches. Overpopulation is a major problem at west coast beaches, where resort houses block access to many beaches. [CBS]
- Dale Eidson, recently signed by the San Diego Chargers football team as a kicking specialist, had to have both of his legs amputated following a fireworks accident at his home. [CBS]
- The Internal Revenue Service office in San Jose, California, was bombed. A dynamite explosion destroyed the first floor, but tax records remained intact. U.S. Treasury investigator Mike Monzon said that records were scattered by the blast, but not destroyed. The motive for the bombing is not known. [CBS]
- The Washington Post reports that Mississippi Senator James Eastland and actor John Wayne are among farmers who are reorganizing in order to escape Congress' limit on crop subsidies; Illinois Rep. Paul Findley charged that the Agriculture Department is widening subsidies by interpreting the new law permissively. [CBS]
- The Census Bureau added 14 cities and subtracted Charleston, S.C., from the list of cities with a black-majority population. [CBS]
- Three soldiers were killed and 37 wounded in a rocket attack on Danang.
The Army is reporting a 2% heroin addiction rate for soldiers leaving South Vietnam.
[CBS] - Presidential adviser Henry Kissinger is in South Vietnam; Vice President Spiro Agnew is in Singapore. Both men stated that the U.S. won't be stampeded out of South Vietnam. [CBS]