Hv the Asseecrareq fF ress’

JERSEY CITY, N. J. March 6.-—-
Climbing through cold blue skies
more than five and one-half miles
over Jersey and Manhattan today,
Miss Ruth Nichols, Rye, N. ¥., Mier,
who holds coast-to-coast speed
marks, set an “unofficial altitude
record for women,

The altimeter on her speedy
Lockheed-Vega monoplane showed
nearly 30,054 feet. The sealed baro~-
graph placed in the plane by the
National Aeronautic association lm-
mediately was shipped to Washing-
ton for examination. If it show?
28.074 feet, or more, Miss Nichols
will be awarded the record now Seld
by Elinor Smith, young Long Island

fliine
 
WASHINGTON (UPI) — The
federal government says it has
spent nearly $2 million improv-
ing President Nixon’s homes in
Florida and California, all of it
relating to ‘‘security.”

The White House also dis-
closed that businessman Robert
H. Abplanalp, who helped the
President buy his San Clemen-
te, Calif., retreat, has been
getting some money back in the
form of rent associated with
Nixon’s~ Key Biscayné, Fila.,
place.

A month ago the White House
had listed $39,000 in federal
funds for improving the West-
ern White House at San
Clemente since Nixon bought it
in 1969.

Last week, after a further
search of record, it raised this
figure to $460,302.

On Thursday, General Ser-
vices Administration (GSA),
the government's housekeeping
agency, said a_ still more
extensive audit put the total
federal expenditure at San
Clemente at $703,367 over four
fiscal years beginning July 1,
1969. This included only the
residence there, not the White
House office space.

GSA listed for the first time
the federal expenditure for
improvements, equipment, Op-
eration and maintenance at the

White House complex at Key
 Biscayne, including both resi-
dence and office space—
$1,180,522, spread over five
fiscal years beginning July 1,
1968.

Included in the Key Biscayne
figure was $161,463 for renting
two houses in the complex for
the Secret Service and White
House communications staff.

The White House said all of
the taxpayers’ money spent in
San Clemente and Key Bis-
cayne was for security-related
improvements and that all
work was done at the request of
the Secret Service, not the
President.
 