News stories from Tuesday December 12, 1978

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

Golda Meir was burled in a plain pine coffin at Mount Herzl National Cemetery in Jerusalem. At the former Prime Minister's request, there were no eulogies. Instead, Israelis and other mourners heard excerpts from her writings and speeches. [New York Times] President Carter sought to minimize his differences with Senator Edward Kennedy. Speaking to reporters, Mr. Carter also denied that the Democratic Party was being split between backers of his proposal to curtail social welfare programs in the battle against inflation and those, including the Massachusetts Senator, who have called for a re-dedication to the party's commitment to help the poor, minorities and unemployed. [New York Times] To try to save Cleveland from fiscal default, Mayor Dennis Kucinich outlined a sweeping plan to bankers, hoping to persuade them that the Ohio city was trying to put its finances in order and to get them to renew about $15.5 million in debts that fall due on Friday. The Mayor proposed to raise the city income tax to 1.5 percent from the current 1 percent and to issue $90 million in bonds early next year. [New York Times] A group of 177 freed Cuban political prisoners and their relatives arrived in Miami, the latest to benefit from a Cuban-American "dialogue" that has caused a bitter split in the city's Cuban exile community. The split is between militant anti-Castroites and the "dialogue" group that has nurtured the rapprochement with Havana. [New York Times] A coroner's jury in Guyana is to begin an inquiry tomorrow to determine whether any of the 909 deaths at the Jonestown commune constitute murder under Guyanese law. The hearing may also shed new light on how many of the People's Temple members voluntarily chose to commit suicide. [New York Times] Curbs on domestic surveillance have hampered the ability of the Secret Service to protect the President's life, H. S. Knight, director of the service, told a House hearing. But Deputy Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti testified he believed that the "quality" of the information was as good as it had previously been. [New York Times] Unusual division in organized labor was reflected in criticism by Glenn Watts, chief of the 500,000-member Communications Workers of America, of George Meany for the A.F.L.-C.I.O. leader's attacks on President Carter's anti-inflation program. [New York Times] A new peace formula for resolving the remaining issues in an Egyptian-Israeli treaty advanced by Secretary of State Vance has been tentatively approved by President Sadat, and Mr. Vance will seek Israel's approval. "We consider that headway has been made toward possibly breaking the logjam in the negotiations," Mr. Vance's spokesman said. [New York Times] "Good progress" on an arms accord has been made in talks with Moscow, President Carter said, but he added that additional problems needed to be resolved before a meeting with Leonid Brezhnev could be scheduled. The State Department announced that Secretary of State Vance and Foreign Minister Gromyko would confer Dec. 21 and 22 in Geneva. [New York Times] The violence in Iran is being encouraged by "uncontrolled statements made from foreign nations," President Carter said in urging that such statements be halted. Administration officials said later that he was referring to a Shiite Moslem leader, who is living in exile in France and who has repeatedly called on his followers to shed blood for the rebellion.Opponents of Iran's Shah attacked on two fronts, with demonstrations that reportedly took 90 lives in Isfahan and a widespread strike in the southern oil fields that brought production to a near-record low for the year. A surgeon in Isfahan said that 90 people had been killed there and 600 to 700 wounded in clashes between demonstrators and troops. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 814.97 (-2.68, -0.33%)
S&P Composite: 96.59 (-0.52, -0.54%)
Arms Index: 1.42

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	521	5.11
Declines	941	13.06
Unchanged	458	4.04
Total Volume		22.21

* in millions of shares

Arms Index is the ratio of volume per declining issue to volume per advancing issue; a figure below 1.0 is bullish.

Market Index Trends
Date	DJIA	S&P	Volume*
December 11, 1978	817.65	97.11	21.01
December 8, 1978	811.85	96.63	18.56
December 7, 1978	816.09	97.08	21.18
December 6, 1978	821.90	97.49	29.68
December 5, 1978	820.51	97.44	25.66
December 4, 1978	806.83	96.15	22.02
December 1, 1978	811.50	96.28	26.83
November 30, 1978	799.03	94.70	19.90
November 29, 1978	790.11	93.75	21.16
November 28, 1978	804.14	95.15	22.74