January 11, 1976

First reports from police depts in 12 selected major cities show that in 9 of them the number of homicides dropped markedly and in some cases sharply, in 1975, after reaching a peak in '74; statistics on cities selected; chart compares murder rates in selected cities, '74 and '75 and compares homicide rate per 100,000 population for same periods (L)

R W Apple Jr article on Ford-Reagan contest for Repub Pres nomination; notes that seasoned Repubs in NH and Fla say Repubs are evenly split between 2, and most recent Gallup Poll found 45% of those questioned favor Ford, 45% favor Reagan and 10% undecided; notes moves in Ford campaign to correct some of grassroots failures that put him behind Reagan 3 mos ago; notes that Ford appears inclined to limit his traveling following his loss of popularity during his series of cross-country 'nonpolitical' campaign tours; notes dangerous signs of slippage in Ford support by party officeholders; Reagan illus (L)

Fed Reserve repts 954 banks in 33 states hold $2.017-billion in NYC obligations, $1.476-billion in NYS obligations and $2.997-billion in NYS-agency securities; holdings are far greater than had been indicated in previous study, leading to renewed Cong charges that Ford Adm was unaware of potential impact of NYC default on natl econ at time when it opposed Fed intervention to avert default; make up more than 50% of capital of 234 banks in 29 states and between 20% and 50% of capital of 718 banks in 33 states; Commerce, Consumer and Monetary Affairs Subcom chmn Repr Benjamin S Rosenthal, who requested new study, holds Adm did not know potential impact of default; says Fed Reserve Bd Chmn Arthur F Burns began to change Ford's stand when he became aware of danger; Treas Sec William E Simon recalls Fed Reserve had standby plans to aid hard-pressed banks; holds NYC's moratorium is same as default; study puts holdings of 162 NY banks at $1.513 billion in city paper, $2.5-billion in state-agency obligations and $1.132-billion in NYS obligations; Rosenthal says 3 or 4 major NY banks would probably have gone under if city had defaulted; Reserve vice chmn George W Mitchell, who submitted study, says banks' holdings presumably decreased as issues matured after survey dates; breakdown of banks' holdings by states (M)

NYC and 2 LI communities, Freeport and Islip, are considering housing lotteries, in which families would be selected to receive rundown vacant homes for urban homesteading; officials say lotteries would be needed if number of qualified applicants exceeds small number of houses; program is Fed funded but is still being tested for its effectiveness; details of program (L)

OAKLAND, Calif., Jan. 10 —The Golden State Warriors established their superiority early, held the Nuw York Knicks at arms length during the middle periods, and went on to a 117‐S7 victory tonight hefore a capacity crowd of 12,787 in the Oakland Coliseum.