December 20, 1972

Tiffany & Co, NYC, accuses First Natl City Bank of putting up 'loud and vulgar' Christmas tree in front of its bldg at Park Av and 53d St that 'ruins effect of beautiful and dignified War Memorial Christmas decorations' on Park Av; takes out ad in Wall St Journal urging bank to put out lights on tree

Apollo 17 spacecraft with astronauts Cernan, Schmitt and Evans aboard splashes down in Pacific 400 mi SE of Amer Samoa on Dec 19, successfully completing Apollo project; illus; Pres Nixon says splashdown 'marks the end of one of the most significant chapters in the history of human endeavor,' adding that 'the making of space history will continue, and this nation means to play a major role in its making'; crew is flown by helicopter to USS Ticonderoga; Cernan, in brief welcoming speech, says 'we think we flew a good mission and...we're proud of it'; NASA lauds success of Apollo 17; says it was most successful of 7 manned lunar landing missions; prior to splashdown crew conducted slight mid-course correction maneuver pointing spacecraft's re-entry angle to 6.5 degrees and jettisoned service module; highlights of mission revd; wives of Cernan and Evans, flight controllers at Manned Spacecraft Center and astronauts aboard USS Ticonderoga illus

Blue ribbon com named by Chief Justice Burger, on Dec 19 recommends creation of 'natl court of appeals' that would screen out and dispose of nearly 90% of Sup Ct's present caseload; earlier repts of plan have aroused opposition, including private communications by ex-Chief Justice Warren to his former law clerks; considerable controversy is also expected among lawyers, judges and laymen; new ct would consist of 7 judges drawn from 11 circuits of US Appeals Ct; it will screen all of 3,600 cases a yr that now go to Sup Ct, refuse to hear most of them, decide some on their merits and send the 400 or so important ones to Sup Ct; if new ct refuses to take case or accept jurisdiction and makes no decision, no appeal to Sup Ct will be allowed; Prof P A Freund, chmn of com that proposed new ct, discusses proposal, news conf; doubts it will make Sup Ct any less activist or liberal in its outlook; holds it will free Justices to take more cases and devote more attention to them, which he says will be welcomed by supporters of liberal ct; B G Segal, member of study com, and Freund deny Burger played any role in drafting plan; note creation of new ct will require Cong approval but no Const amendment; Profs A M Bickel and C A Wright, Dean R D Niles, P D Ehrenhaft and R L Stern were other members of Burger panel

NY Auto Club on Dec 19 discloses that its 5 top officers, gen counsel and 2 retired dirs are principal stockholders in Club Agency Inc, private auto ins agency to which club refers its members; disclosure comes at club's annual meeting after consumer advocate R Nader repr R Landsman asks officers to disclose how much personal profit they made from arrangement; G B Phillips, auto club pres and stockholder in ins agency, says he does not think issue is 'particulary pertinent to annual meeting'; ins agency atty P Goldberg says auto club members are referred to agency when they ask club for advice on buying ins; agency pays auto club $75,000 a yr plus 25c for name of each new member who joins agency; other officers of auto club who are major stockholders in ins agency are vps H C Meyers, C J Murphy and R W Crossley, sec L B Scott, and retired dirs J R Crossley and M Klein; Landsman says 9 other employes own smaller amts of agency shares; calls arrangement 'at least unethical'

Oil cos on Dec 19 bid record $1,673,354,912,06 for 119 tracts in Gulf of Mex, south of Lake Charles, La; Trans Ocean Group, 8-co consortium, and Shell Oil Co, in partnership with other cos, are highest bidders; Interior Dept Bur of Land Mgt head J Rankin says 720 bids have been recd; decision on acceptable bids expected shortly