News stories from Wednesday December 25, 1974

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

President Ford's senior advisers will fly to Colorado for several days of talks with him. The conferences are expected to lead to basic policy decisions concerning energy and the economy. Despite Mr. Ford's repeated expressions of dislike for a higher gasoline tax, he continues to entertain proposals for such an increase to discourage driving and to move toward a cut in oil imports of one million barrels a day by next fall. [New York Times] A young man dressed like an Arab in a white robe shattered the Christmas calm in Washington when he drove a car through a White House gate. He was believed to have had "explosives," which actually were emergency flares. The man, identified as Marshall Fields, surrendered after about four hours to White House security police and was taken to a hospital for psychiatric examination. [New York Times] Concern over the nation's economy has caused President Ford's popularity with the American people to slide to its lowest point since he took office less than 5 months ago, the latest Gallup poll shows. The poll, taken early this month, showed that 42 percent of the national sample questioned approved the job Mr. Ford is doing; 41 percent disapproved and 17 would register no opinion. Last Aug. 9, shortly after he took office, Mr. Ford's approval rating was 71 percent of the 1,500 adults questioned. [New York Times] Former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford has urged Congress to form a special committee to investigate published charges of domestic spying by the Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Clifford, who helped to draft legislation in 1947 setting up the C.I.A., said that previous investigations by Senate and House Armed Services Committees had not got very far. Meanwhile, in Vail, Colo., where he is skiing, President Ford is awaiting a 50-page report on the domestic spying allegations from William Colby, Director of Central Intelligence. [New York Times] An airlift has begun to evacuate at least 10,000 people from the cyclone-devastated city of Darwin according to word from the Australian capital of Canberra. The north coast city was hit by cyclonic 125-mile-an-hour winds Christmas eve, leaving 90 percent of the city in ruins, 44 persons dead and hundreds injured. The death toll was expected to climb when reports come in from Katherine, a town 190 miles from Darwin, also hit by the storm. [New York Times] Speaking from the outer balcony of St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Paul VI, in his Christmas message to the world, praised Jesus as "the brother of all, the advocate of the poor, the friend of the lowly, the companion of the suffering, the redeemer of sinners -- in a word, our Savior." The Pontiff was heard by 30,000 persons in St. Peter's Square, among them some of the first Holy Year visitors. [New York Times]