THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
80th Year, No.59
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Thursday, Dec. 11, 1969
Photo by Halina Pawl
Holiday spirit brightens Union
With the Christmas spirit spreading over the campus, lights and decorations ornament many buildings and trees. Trimming the tree in the Kansas Union South Lounge are Nancy Taylor, Lawrence senior and Bill Read, Coffeyville senior.
Senate finishes tax bill debate
WASHINGTON (UPI)—Senators, some dressed in tuxedoes hoping to make late social engagements, rejected a Republican attempt to postpone tax cuts and completed debate on its massive tax reform bill late Wednesday night. A vote was set for today.
The Senate killed a proposal by Carl T. Curtis, R-Neb., which would have delayed $5 billion worth of tax cuts until after the Treasury secretary certified that the budget showed a surplus.
"That would not be next year," declared Chairman Russell B. Long, D-La., of the Finance Committee opposing Curtis' proposal. "It might not be the next year after that."
Then, after a work-day of 13 hours and eight minutes, the Senate agreed to cut off debate, preparing the way for Thursday's vote on approval of rejection of a measure President Nixon has threatened to veto. The action was greeted at 9:08 p.m. CST with a loud cheer and a standing ovation.
The tax cuts that Curtis proposed delaying were:
The increase in the $600 income tax personal exemption to $700 next year and to $800 in 1971.
The $25 tax credit allowed for college expenses.
The provision allowing persons over 65 to deduct all their medical expenses and not just those exceeding 3 per cent of their income.
—The retention of the 7 per cent investment tax credit.
—A tax subsidy for business equipment for the first $20,000 and total in depressed areas.
Curtis' move also would have affected the
bill's 15 per cent increase in Social Security benefits.
All those provisions have been tacked into the bill during its three-week Senate debate on the most comprehensive tax measure since the adoption of the income tax in 1913.
"I'm opposed to reducing taxes if we have to borrow money to do it," Curtis said, explaining his proposal. But it was killed, 56 to 28, on Long's motion to table it.
The last amendment was offered, to the vocal dismay of many of his colleagues, by Sen. Howard W. Cannon, D-Nev., who was attired in a tuxedo. Cannon was defeated, 55-29, in his attempt to get a tax credit for contributions to political campaigns for federal office.
In its final day of consideration of amendments, the Senate narrowly defeated a proposed $50 million tax break for the oil industry with one member sarcastically suggesting that senators "pass the hat" for needy oilmen.
After a parliamentary hassle requiring seven roll call votes, Senate liberals successfully sliced big oil firms out of the tax break, leaving it only for "small" oilmen with sales under $3 million a year.
Although Sen. Robert J. Dole, R-Kan., proposed the tax break in the name of small wildcatters, a Senate Finance Committee spokesman said big operators would have reaped 95 per cent of the $50 million windfall.
The final vote was 58 to 34, but preliminary votes were much closer and swung back and forth with both sides frantically calling absent allies to the chamber and trying to woo sup-
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Kopechnes happy
Judge denies autopsy
WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (UPI) After wrestling with the problem for seven weeks, a judge Wednesday refused a Massachusetts request to have the body of Mary Jo Kopechne exhumed from a Pennsylvania cemetery for an autopsy.
She died last July 18 when Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's automobile in which she was riding plunged off a bridge into a tidal pond at
The ruling was a victory for the parents of the 28-year-old secretary and only child in their legal battle to close the books on her death. The judge ruled all the facts showed that Miss Kopechne had drowned.
The parents appeared at a news conference after Judge Bernard J. Brominski announced his decision and said they were "very pleased" with the ruling.
Kennedy, who was driving the car, said in Washington he was "grateful" for the ruling, because of what it meant to the girl's parents, Joseph and Gwen Kopechne of Berkeley Heights, N.J.
Chappaquiddick Island, Mass.
They had strenuously opposed having their daughter's body exhumed, saying it would be "just like another funeral."
Massachusetts District Attorney Edmund S. Dinis, who filed the
request for exhumation and an autopsy, said at his home in New Bedford, Mass., he had "nothing to say" regarding Brominski's ruling. Dinis previously said he would accept any ruling here as final.
A spokesman for Judge James A. Boyle of Edgartown, Mass., who had been awaiting Brominski's ruling, said no immediate decision would be made on Massachusetts' plan for an inquest in the girl's death.
Sen. Kennedy said he hoped Massachusetts authorities "will move forward so that the entire matter can be concluded as soon as possible."
Apollo 13 cleared for March launching
CAPE KENNEDY (UPI) Apollo 13 astronauts James A. Lovell, Thomas K. Mattingly and Fred W. Haise were cleared Wednesday for launch March 12 toward a hard-to-reach landing site in the foothills of the moon's highlands.
It will be man's first attempt to land on one of the rugged, and scientifically more interesting, areas of the moon. The first two Apollo surface expeditions were carried out on vast lunar plains.
Geologists believe the Fra Mauro formation consists of material gouged by a great meteoroid out of the moon's crust, leaving the Sea of Rains basin. It this interpretation is correct, Apollo 13's astronauts may bring back samples of rock from deep below the lunar surface.
The Apollo 13 landing site is on the Fra Mauro formation, a large blanket of rock debris surrounding much of the Sea of Rains.
"The landing is expected to
Lovell, a Navy Captain, will be the first man to make four spaceflights and the first to make a second trip to the moon. He was a member of the Apollo 8 crew which orbited the moon for the first time last December.
Mattingly, a Navy lieutenant commander, and Haise, a civilian, are spaceflight rookies.
provide information on the nature, composition and origin of this widespread formation," the Space Agency said in a statement.
UDK News Roundup
By United Press International
State aid hike passes
TOPEKA-A $43 million hike in state aid to secondary and elementary schools, an increase in state support from 38 to 40 per cent, was the major recommendation adopted Wednesday at the Kansas Legislative Council's final meeting prior to the opening of the 1970 legislature.
Israel rejects peace
TEL AVIV—Israel rejected the latest U.S. Middle East peace proposal today and sent its warplanes against Syria for the first time in five months. A Tel Aviv spokesman said three Syrian MIGs were downed in dogfights.
Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban left for the United States several hours after the rejection statement was issued and said he would meet with Secretary of State William P. Rogers to outline in person Israel's peace position.
Dahomey coup succeeds
COTONOU, Dahomey—The man who led the latest military overthrow of the Dahomey government has promised a new government will be formed as soon as possible.
The coup Wednesday put the West African nation under military control for the fourth time in less than 10 years.