From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Dec. 8, 1973:

• In Washington, funding for the construction of Clinton Parkway was killed in committee this week. The funding had been defeated by the U.S. Senate Public Works Committee, but the final report contained “language that insures that the Senate will take up the parkway and the entire lake access road question” in the next session, according to an assistant to Sen. James Pearson. The $6 million parkway was to be the main access between Lawrence and Clinton Lake, the new reservoir which was then under construction and which was scheduled to be finished in 1976.
• Gerald R. Ford formally assumed his duties as the nation’s 40th vice president this week after being sworn into office by Chief Justice Warren E. Burger before a packed joint session of Congress, the government’s highest officials, and a nationwide television audience. In the Senate chamber the next morning, the Rev. Dr. C. Ralston Smith, the day’s guest chaplain, took note of the historic occasion in his opening prayer, saying, “Especially do we ask Thy blessing upon our vice president, Gerald Ford, as he undertakes the responsibility of presiding at these significant sessions.”