December 15, 1972

Bill providing protection for news sources, sponsored by Sen J H Wallwork, wins final legis approval from NJ Sen and Assembly on Dec 14; bill would give reporters right to refuse to disclose any confidential news source to investigative body and would continue to protect newsman even if he left employ of news media at later date; Assembly passed bill 63 to 4 after amendment that would have limited its protection was rejected; bill was returned to Sen, which voted final approval, 32 to 0; amendment that prompted return of bill to Sen was that protection should apply to news source or information whether or not news was finally published; bill gained major momentum in Sen when reporter P J Bridge (Newark Evening News) was jailed for 20 days for refusing to disclose source of article; Assemblyman W K Dickey holds bill is 'strongest news-source protection law' in US; Gov Cahill is expected to sign bill into law; Assemblyman D J Friedland, in Dec 14 debate, says that free govt is only present when there is free press

Dec 15: 4 delegations to formal Paris peace talks, Dec 14, publicly record their explanations of why almost a month of private talks failed to result in agreement; at 170th talks session, all say that major questions remain unsettled; Hanoi spokesman says Le Duc Tho is going home Dec 15 to rept; says nothing has been decided about when or whether he would return to Paris; Kissinger returns to US Dec 13 after 15 talks with Tho; talks are not broken off; technical level session to be held Dec 15 with Amb Porter heading US group and Xuan Thuy, the Hanoi group; another session of formal talks set for Dec 21; deputy head of US delegation H Isham rejects Communist charges that US uses 'pretexts' to prolong talks; says talks concentrate on issues of central importance; chides Communists for their repeated insistence that US sign an 'incomplete contract'; S Vietnamese and 2 Communist delegations in formal talks make tough restatements of their basic positions; Hanoi deputy delegate Nguyen Minh Vy charges US demands revision of the basic principles of Oct agreement

Commerce Dept repts on Dec 14 total business inventories for Oct were $190.92-billion, seasonally adjusted, up $1.2-billion from Sept figure revised upward; substantial rise follows similar ones in Aug and Sept; total business sales rose almost $2.8-billion in Oct, or about 2%; graph; Business Council releases optimistic forecast for '73, seeing GNP close to $1,260-billion, with rise of about 6% in real terms; sees inflation rate in range of 3% to 3.5%

Apollo 17 lunar module with Dr H H Schmitt and Capt E A Cernan blasts off from moon's surface on Dec 15 and rejoins orbiting command module after astronauts complete lunar surface activities on last Apollo moon landing mission; Pres Nixon hails feat and wishes astronauts safe return to earth; Capt Cernan delivers short speech prior to blastoff; says 'Amer's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow,' adding: 'As we leave the moon and Taurus-Litterow, we leave as we came, and, God willing, we shall return, with peace and hope for all mankind'; crew will orbit moon at altitude of more than 60 mi for 2 more days to conduct further experiments; TV camera mounted on lunar rover and operated remotely from Manned Spacecraft Center records lunar module's ascent from landing site and camera in command module records docking of spacecraft; illus; text of Pres Nixon's remarks; highlights of mission revd

Traffic Action Com survey, made public on Dec 14, reveals that 45% of all private cars parked in Manhattan are parked illegally; com presents 14-point plan that calls for use of civilian 'paraprofessionals' to enforce traffic and parking laws, expansion of midtown tow-away program, creation of new crosstown and north-south express routes, higher parking fines, establishment of 4-state program to deal with scofflaws and development of more parking facilities away from mid-Manhattan; com head R C Gross estimates that trucking delays caused by double parking and other forms of illegal parking are costing NYC 'millions of dollars' in higher prices, since merchants pass on higher costs to consumers; com retained Market Research Corp of Amer to make survey, which was conducted on lower Bway, midtown area and upper East Side during 6 wks between hrs of 10 AM and 4 PM from July to Nov; survey detailed; Downtown-Lower Manhattan Assn exec vp J B Goodman, NYC Traffic Comr Karagheuzoff and Police Dept Asst Chief Inspector F Catalano comment; chart; illus