February 2, 1976

Newark Teachers Union votes overwhelmingly to strike but school authorities say schools will remain open with supervisory personnel and teachers who cross picket lines; union pres Carole Graves and school bd atty Robert Pickett comment on breakdown in negotiations; Police, mindful of bitter feelings stirred by '71 walkout, declare emergency because of strike (M)

Demonstrators demanding political amnesty clashed with the police in Barcelona while in Madrid the stillillegal opposition ended its first open congress with the same demand. Page 7.

NYS Commerce Comr John S Dyson plans to fight application of Niagara Mohawk Power to raise rates on large users of power; says move would hurt competitive position of industries in Albany area (S)

Sr Soc Security Adm officials confirm that loophole in Medicare has allowed millions of dollars in public funds to be spent needlessly for renting med equipment for sick and disabled beneficiaries of Medicare for elderly; individual Medicare beneficiaries have choice of renting or purchasing med equipment prescribed for them by Medicare officials; rental charges, which exceed purchase prices in some cases by 600%, are disclosed in audits of Medicare records in northern NJ and NYC; Dr James Kaple, head of program‐experimentation branch of div of health ins studies, says Soc Security Adm is planning series of pilot programs in 5 states to test new methods of eliminating abuses and waste connected with excessive rentals (M)

Rumsfeld says US should spend enough on defense to keep a ‘rough equivalence’ with Soviet Union, but that there is no need to match USSR or any other country in every detail, CBS‐TV int; illus; former Defense Sec Schlesinger's warning (Fortune magazine) against growing Soviet mil strength and retrenchment of Amer power, which he maintains poses most formidable threat to survival of Western world since '30s, noted