News stories from Wednesday April 24, 1974

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

Lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee plan to propose tomorrow that the committee narrow its impeachment inquiry to focus only on the most serious potential charges of wrongdoing by President Nixon. The areas would include the President's possible role in the Watergate cover-up, his income tax returns, the activities of the secret White House intelligence unit, the settlement of the International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation antitrust suit and contributions from dairy producers. [New York Times] The government began to sum up its case against former Attorney General John Mitchell and former Commerce Secretary Maurice Stans, charging that the two men "sat at the very pinnacle of government in this country" and thought "they were above the law." The prosecution's summation followed the closing remarks of Mr. Mitchell's lawyer, who called the case "a prosecutorial vision." The case is expected to go to the jury tomorrow. [New York Times] The Justice Department revealed that it found no violations in its probe of Shirley Chisholm and her 1972 presidential campaign staff, leaving the Democrat Congresswoman "almost totally clear" of the charges that she misused campaign funds. Those charges had been brought by the federal government's General Accounting Office. [CBS] In a change that reflects mounting anxiety about inflation and its effects on the November elections, Senate Democrats voted to support a limited extension of presidential authority to impose wage-price controls. The action by the Democratic caucus set the stage for a Senate battle before the authority expires next Tuesday. [New York Times] John Dunlop, the Director of the Cost of Living Council, predicts that inflation will be even worse than economists have forecast for the rest of the year. The Federal Reserve has raised the discount rate to 8% and many banks have pushed their prime interest rates up to 10%.Senate Democrats caucused to discuss the inflation problem, including their intention to allow the President to implement wage and price controls. Senators Walter Mondale and Edward Kennedy pressed for tax cuts, however Senator William Proxmire thinks a tax cut would be foolish. Treasury Secretary-designate William Simon agrees with Proxmire, stating that the administration feels a tax cut would be highly inflationary. A tax cut is likely to pass the Senate but not the House. [CBS] In a tape-recorded message that the authorities described as apparently authentic, Patricia Hearst said she had been a willing participant in last week's bank robbery, that her weapon had been loaded and that she had been prepared to use it. [New York Times] A federal judge will rule on the San Francisco police department's latest tactics in their search for the "Zebra" killer. Police have had authority to stop and search young black men resembling the killer. However the black community is angry and mayor Joseph Alioto is the subject of much of their criticism.The NAACP has taken the matter to court. As a result, the police plan to change their approach, putting a special task force on the streets to help track the killer or killers. A highly placed source within the police department admitted that the stop-and-search tactics were not productive. [CBS] The Tennessee legislature rescinded its approval of the national Equal Rights Amendment. [NBC] The Supreme Court upheld a law whch allows certain tax exemptions to widows but not widowers. [NBC] The Egyptian government said that a group of terrorists who attacked a Cairo military academy last week had intended to seize President Anwar Sadat and overthrow his regime. A statement by the national prosecutor's office said that the chief plotter in the attack had met at length with Col. Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan chief of state, last year. [New York Times] HEW Secretary Caspar Weinberger urged that national health insurance be instituted right away. The House Ways and Means Committee has begun hearings on various national health insurance plans. Weinberger praised Representative Wilbur Mills and Senator Edward Kennedy for their new health plans which he says are more in line with administration thinking. However the Nixon health insurance bill still differs from Kennedy's and Mills' bill. [CBS] President Nixon asked Congress for $5.18 billion in foreign aid, including a $900 million "peace package" for the Middle East. The request is more than twice the $2.5 billion appropriated for the current fiscal year, not counting $2.2 billion in emergency aid to Israel, and $960 million more than the President's original request. [New York Times] Secretary of Defense Schlesinger plans to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in Europe and cut back on the number of atomic missiles and planes kept on alert for immediate attack. According to his associates, Mr. Schlesinger believes the United States has more nuclear weapons in Europe than it could effectively use and that the United States is in effect increasing the chances of nuclear war by keeping so many planes and missiles on alert. [New York Times] Arab oil money has begun to flow to the West, including the United States, where about $1 billion has surfaced, mainly as investment in real estate -- land, hotels, apartment buildings and office towers. So far the flow has been little more than a trickle, a small but significant part of the vastly increased Arab oil revenues. But truly massive flows are expected to follow. [New York Times] The Environmental Protection Agency ordered a halt to the sale of pesticides containing vinyl chloride. Director Russell Train ordered the action to speed the removal of those pesticides from the market. [CBS] Bud Abbott of the Abbott and Costello comedy team died today in Los Angeles. [CBS] New York City officials said that the ruptured water tank blamed in Monday's office tower explosion had been installed last September and renovated only last Saturday by unlicensed contractors working without required permits. Mayor Beame said he had asked the District Attorney to investigate the "apparent violation of law." [New York Times] The Roman Catholic Church in Chile issued a declaration accusing the military junta of permitting the use of torture, arbitrary and lengthy detentions, causing large-scale unemployment and making job dismissals for political reasons and of establishing an economic policy described as shifting the burden to the poor. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 832.37 (+86.39, +11.58%)
S&P Composite: 90.30 (-1.51, -1.64%)
Arms Index: 1.43

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	241	1.73
Declines	1,249	12.84
Unchanged	303	1.45
Total Volume		16.02

* 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*
April 23, 1974	845.98	91.81	14.11
April 22, 1974	858.57	93.38	10.52
April 19, 1974	859.90	93.75	10.71
April 18, 1974	869.92	94.78	12.47
April 17, 1974	867.41	94.36	14.02
April 16, 1974	861.23	93.66	14.53
April 15, 1974	843.79	92.05	10.13
April 11, 1974	844.81	92.12	9.97
April 10, 1974	843.71	92.40	11.16
April 9, 1974	846.84	92.61	11.33