News stories from Wednesday June 7, 1978

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

Emergency budget cutbacks began to be ordered by California's cities, counties and school districts after the vote Tuesday that will slash property taxes by 60 percent, starting July 1. Stale legislators drafted plans to set up a loan fund to help ease short-term problems with cash flow, and they said that at least $2.5 billion from a state surplus would be available.Adjusting to the anti-tax vote, Gov. Jerry Brown gave up his opposition to the measure and began to speak of the opportunities for better government that Proposition 13 provided. His future as a national political figure will be affected by his success in solving the resulting local financial problems. The Governor was nominated for a second term, and Attorney General Evelle Younger will be his Republican challenger. [New York Times] An anti-tax message emerged from Tuesday's primaries. Leaders of anti-tax and anti-spending groups around the country seized on Californians' vote to slash property levies to argue that a tax revolt was under way and to sack support for similar drives. The primaries in eight states were also dominated by conservative and anti-incumbent patterns. [New York Times] The equal rights amendment was rejected by the Illinois House of Representatives, putting its eventual ratification nationally by March 1979, the deadline, in doubt. The balloting for the measure was 101 to 64, six votes short of the 107 votes needed for approval. [New York Times] Senator Edward Brooke's finances were the object of new questions. The Massachusetts Republican testified under oath that he had invented a story about a $49,000 debt to a leading Boston businessman last year to keep secret a family fund sponsored by his mother-in-law. But he seemed unable to reconcile this explanation with the fact that he gave details of the fund in the same deposition. [New York Times] Higher fees for better health care would be paid by a sizable majority of Americans sampled in a poll, but they said that recent increases in charges of doctors and hospitals were not resulting in such improvements. A majority expressed general satisfaction with the quality of health care and a plurality opposed greater government regulation, but most of those questioned said they would like increased control by consumer groups. [New York Times] Long-term federal aid to New York City was strongly urged by Governor Carey and Treasury secretary Michael Blumenthal. They told the Senate Banking Committee that without such assistance, the city would have to appeal to Congress repeatedly to meet its financial needs. But there were growing signs that the committee would endorse only a continuation of short-term loans. [New York Times] The defeat of Clifford Case in the Senate Republican primary in New Jersey stemmed from the militancy of the conservative wing of the party, the Senator's overconfidence and his age. These factors were cited by politicians and analysts in explaining the surprising upset of the 74-year-old, four-term incumbent by Jeffrey Bell, a 34-year-old conservative making a first bid for public office. [New York Times] President Carter told Moscow to choose between confrontation or cooperation, and said Washington was prepared for either choice. He attacked the Soviet interpretation of detente, which, he said, "seems to mean a continuing aggressive struggle for political advantage and increased influence." Speaking at Annapolis, Mr. Carter warned that unrestrained competition would cause "graver tensions."Moscow accused Washington of vacillating between cold war and détente. The press agency Tass also termed President Carter's speech on American-Soviet relations "strange." Just before the speech, the Communist Party newspaper Pravda accused the administration of "constant zigzags and inconsistency" in foreign policy. [New York Times] Proposals for a peace force of Africans advanced by Western nations have brought responses by black African states ranging from indignant charges of neocolonial designs to approval. Even before five major Western nations met on Monday to discuss the possibility of backing a multinational African force to respond to challenges like the rebel attack on southern Zaire last month, sentiment on the continent was sharply divided. [New York Times] Ethiopia faces a famine "far, far worse" than the 1973-74 crisis when about 200,000 died there, World Food Program officials said. Their warnings confirmed reports by the Ethiopian radio that up to 1.5 million people faced starvation unless emergency food was provided. [New York Times] Prague was accused of a literary crackdown. Twenty of Czechoslovakia's leading writers said in a letter that the government had repudiated a tacit understanding that had long allowed the underground publication of literary works that do not challenge the Communist system. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 861.92 (-4.59, -0.53%)
S&P Composite: 100.12 (-0.20, -0.20%)
Arms Index: 0.80

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	726	15.22
Declines	787	13.16
Unchanged	414	4.68
Total Volume		33.06

* 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*
June 6, 1978	866.51	100.32	51.98
June 5, 1978	863.83	99.95	39.59
June 2, 1978	847.54	98.14	31.86
June 1, 1978	840.70	97.35	28.75
May 31, 1978	840.61	97.24	29.07
May 30, 1978	834.20	96.86	21.04
May 26, 1978	831.69	96.58	21.41
May 25, 1978	835.41	96.80	28.41
May 24, 1978	837.92	97.08	31.46
May 23, 1978	845.29	98.05	33.23