This Day In 1970's History: Sunday February 12, 1978
- Efforts to end the coal miners' strike, now in its third month, are "back to square one," a union official said after the United Mine Workers bargaining council rejected a contract proposal, 30 to 6. Arnold Miller, the union's president, spent nearly four months negotiating with the major mine owners, but it became apparent soon after a tentative agreement was announced last Monday that the union membership would not accept it. [New York Times]
- The pressure on the dollar and the French franc were reported to be among the world economic problems discussed by Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal and the Finance Ministers of Britain, France, West Germany and Japan. They held one of a series of informal meetings at the Chateau de Versailles near Paris. Mr. Blumenthal is due to have a meeting tomorrow in Bonn with West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, a visit described by one diplomatic source as "a last, personal shot" at trying to resolve policy disagreements between Washington and Bonn. [New York Times]
- Taxpayers reporting over $50,000 income are major beneficiaries of the special-treatment provisions of the tax code. A new Treasury analysis has found that those taxpayers received almost one-third of the $84 billion in special-treatment benefits last year. The analysis was made for Senator Edmund Muskie, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who released it as part of an effort to build support for proposed tax changes. [New York Times]
- A high school graduation test has been challenged by the New York State Board of Regents because many of the regents believe the test's standards are ridiculously low. The exam was developed by the State Education Department and asks students, for example, to tell time on the face of clock reading 1:35 and how many pennies there are in $4. It will be better to have no test than this one, some of the regents say. [New York Times]
- The mysterious buyer of stock in Financial General Bankshares Inc, has identified himself as Eugene Metzger, a Washington lawyer. He said he had recently purchased 15 to 20 percent of the bank holding company on behalf of a group of unidentified individual investors. Speculation concerning the transaction had forced a halt in trading of Financial General shares last week and the Washington Post reported that Bert Lance, former budget director, was orchestrating the purchase. But Mr. Metzger said that "to the best of my knowledge, Bert Lance has not acquired any of the stock, and has not been a principal in the negotiations." [New York Times]
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