News stories from Saturday March 5, 1977

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

President Carter spent two hours answering telephoned inquiries on a nationwide broadcast -- "Ask President Carter." Forty-two people from 26 states dialing a toll-free number managed to reach and speak with the President. Their complaints, hopes, problems and questions perhaps disclosed more about the temper of the nation than about Mr. Carter's political intentions. Taxes and the rising cost of health care were the principal topics. [New York Times] "Ask President Carter" was an extension of the folksy, homespun campaign that made Jimmy Carter president, and no one seemed to enjoy it more than he did. The President sat in a big wing chair in front of the Oval Office fireplace, chatting like a back-fence neighbor with dozens of Americans from all parts of the country. When It was over, he said his inclination was "to do it again." [New York Times] Justice Department investigators, stymied in their attempts to get solid evidence of bribery in their inquiry into alleged Influence buying in Washington by the South Korean government, are Instead concentrating on possible tax violations by Congressmen, official sources said. The tax investigation may be the department's best way of obtaining at least a few indictments, the sources said. The influence buying inquiry has been hampered by missing witnesses, a lack of records and evidence that may not be usable in court because it was obtained illegally by intelligence agencies. [New York Times] More than 800 veterans of the New Deal held an emotional reunion at Washington's Mayflower Hotel to mark the 44th anniversary of Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inauguration. The names of many guests instantly evoked the New Deal era: Rexford Tugwell, Helen Gahagan Douglas, India Edwards, Claude Pepper, Jonathan Daniels, Leon Keyserling, Benjamin Cohen, and Grace Tully, who had been President Roosevelt's secretary when he was Governor of New York and went with him to the White House. [New York Times] Rumanian authorities were reluctant at first to estimate the number of casualties resulting from the earthquake that struck Bucharest Friday night, but the Bucharest radio was later reported by the United States Embassy to have said that there were 298 known dead in the capital, 72 dead elsewhere in Rumania, and 1,700 hospitalized in Bucharest. A report by the Bavarian Red Cross received in Vienna said that the death toll in Bucharest would probably exceed 1,000. Severe damage was apparent throughout the city. Many buildings showed huge cracks and some were smashed open. Most of the city's 1,700,000 inhabitants, fearful of another tremor, spent the day outdoors, wandering aimlessly in the bitter cold. [New York Times]