October 3, 1973

Bklyn Dem orgn has informed Repr Rooney, who at 69 is one of most powerful men in Cong, that it will not support him if he seeks re-election to 17th term in 14th Cong Dist; cites his poor health; expresses doubt that he could retain seat; party leaders hold Rooney has not decided whether to seek re-election but has pledged to be loyal to orgn; Rooney por; orgn is expected to support either NYS Assemblyman Straub or NYC Civil Ct Judge Dowd for seat; reptdly seeks to prevent Reform Dem from obtaining nomination; some highlights of Rooney career traced

sources say Vice Pres Agnew's attys will meet with Fed Dist Judge W E Hoffman on Oct 3 in secret in reptd effort to set up inquiry into leaks of information about Agnew investigation; attys are reptdly prepared to seek Hoffman's permission to question witnesses under oath about news leaks; witnesses reptdly might include top Justice Dept officials; grand jury will meet Oct 3 and 4; Judge J A MacKenzie says Hoffman will be in Baltimore on Oct 3 to 'instruct the jurors' on necessity for preserving secrecy of grand jury proceedings, int; W J Muth, friend of and fund-raiser for Agnew, is scheduled to appear before grand jury on Oct 3; sources say prosecutors are interested in a $1,000-a-plate Baltimore dinner held Sept 26 '72 to raise funds for Pres Nixon's re-election campaign; Muth, J W Jones and L Matz were members of organizing com for dinner

Volkswagen of Amer on Oct 2 announces 14% price increase for its '74-model cars sold in US; increase is 4th this yr for Volkswagen, which says major causes were rising production costs and decline of dollar's value in relation to West Ger mark; price for standard Beetle will go to $2,625 from $2,299; other Eur and Japanese auto mfrs say they will raise prices on new-model cars, at least to extent of covering higher costs deriving from tougher Fed safety and emission standards; chart shows rising price of Volkswagen Beetle since '60 when car sold for $1,565

Dr H J Brown, Lindsay adm's 1st Health Services Admr, on Oct 2 openly acknowledges his homosexuality in effort to end prejudice homosexuals face in obtaining employment, int; to make same statement in address on Oct 3 to 600 physicians at symposium on human sexuality at Carrier Clinic, Belle Mead, NJ; disclosed that he was homosexual 3 wks ago before bd of dirs of Public Health Assn; calls it 'tribute to bd' that following his declaration he was apptd chmn of com to combat discrimination against homosexuals in health community; says he knows of homosexual priests, clergymen, dentists and politicians and several other Comrs who were homosexuals during period he served; attributes his decision to disclose his homosexuality to sharp decline in public hostility toward homosexuals; says he made decision to resign adm post only when he learned that late columnist D Pearson might be writing column about homosexual Lindsay comrs; left adm in '67 after 18 mos as dir of health services program; is currently on faculty of NYU Med School; por

6 of 16 new NYS Claims Ct appointees who will be sitting in new narcotics cts as acting Sup Ct justices did not receive highest rating of 'qualified' from Gov Rockefeller's new Judicial Screening Com, but were listed as 'qualified with reservations'; panel was apptd to insure that best qualified people are apptd to bench; Rockefeller's counsel M Whiteman says when he apptd panel he did not abdicate his responsibility to make his own judgments about Claims Ct appointees and that factors other than legal qualifications figured in selection--pol, soc and geog balance; Bar Assn sources feel that Gov established his own screening panel to avoid having to send his appointees before assn judiciary com; 6 appointees in question are M Aarons, J Cohen, R G Denzer, W J Flynn Jr, M Ramos and R L Rubin; all 32 names sent to reviewing panel came from Gov's office; 2 of them were rated not qualified, 12 qualified with reservations and 18 qualified; panel was given no staff to conduct investigations because state police were supposed to have done extensive background investigations and sent results to Gov's counsel