July 25, 1969

Kennedy set to appear in Dukes County, Mass, Ct to answer charges he left scene of accident; waives right to probable-cause hearing; remains in seclusion in Hyannis Port; friends with him include R S McNamara, T C Sorensen, B Marshall; accident rept filed with Edgartown police by Kennedy's attys says he was driving at 20 mph when his auto plunged off bridge; police reason that at that speed he would not have had chance to brake auto before plunge; rept repeats Kennedy contention that accident happened at 11:15 PM; police, relying on Look's testimony, put time at 12:50 AM; Dist Atty Dinis charges Arena and Dukes County Prosecutor Steele have 'bypassed' him in their probe; charge seen provoked by eds in Mass newspapers criticizing him for aloofness in case

McCarthy says he will not seek re-election on any ticket, news conf, Minn; move seen opening seat to Humphrey, reflecting in part McCarthy's declining popularity in state recently and Humphrey's ascendance; Mondale lauds McCarthy

Sen Dem Policy Com and Dem members of Sen Finance Com decide to give Sen time to work out reform pkg before surcharge is extended for full period sought by Adm by extending surcharge through end of Nov; Dems on Sen com pledge to have reform bill completed by Oct 31, leaving mo for Sen debate; policy com says that unless Adm agrees to plan, it will bar consideration of extension without accompanying reform bill; Dirksen scores plan, news conf; Sec Kennedy, opposing plan, holds HR plan to get reform bill to Sen before Aug 13 should satisfy reform-minded Sens; notes he has not yet conferred on stand with Nixon; says he generally agrees with reforms set up by HR com; com continues work on reform; reforms it has tentatively approved would yield up to $3-billion annually

The Board of Estimate last night rejected a Metropolitan Transportation Authority route for a 3.6-mile stretch of the proposed Second Avenue subway that would have bypassed Manhattan's Lower East Side bulge. The vote was 18 to 4.

Kraft repts mission controllers almost aborted lunar landing because lunar module's guidance and navigation computer was sending alarms that it was overworked, int; says alarms were caused by problem in rendezvous radar system; holds quick decision by flight dir Kranz and guidance officer S G Bales to have ground controllers monitor computer's radar readings made landing possible; Phillips agrees with Kraft's statement