News stories from Thursday April 2, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Special explosive bullets were used in the attack on President Reagan, according to the F.B.I. Officials said that the doctors who removed a bullet from the President's lung on Monday were not aware that the bullet could have exploded at any time. As a result of the disclosure, surgery was undertaken to remove a bullet lodged in the neck of a police officer.
President Reagan strolled around his hospital suite and ate heartily as he continued recovering. Meanwhile, a variety of sources provided more details about the events that unfolded in the uncertain hours after he and three other men were wounded Monday by a gunman.
[New York Times] - Secret Service officials testified in Congress that the F.B.I. had not provided them with details of the arrest last fall of John W. Hinckley in Nashville on charges of illegal possession of three pistols when President Carter was in the city. The Secret Service director said that his agency would have interviewed the man, at the least.
The accused assassin can stand trial, a court-appointed psychiatrist found after a scrutiny of the competence of Mr. Hinckley. But a federal judge ordered a more extensive mental examination of the man accused of shooting President Reagan. This could take from 30 to 90 days.
[New York Times] - An administration budget victory in Congress was recorded as the Republican-dominated Senate approved, by a vote of 88 to 10, a $36.9 billion package of spending cuts. The Democrats introduced dozens of foredoomed amendments to put themselves and the Republicans on record on the extensive retrenchment in social welfare programs. The bill now goes to the Democratic-controlled House. [New York Times]
- The strong education lobby is pressing a major campaign against President Reagan's proposed sharp cuts in federal aid to education. The National Education Association, the 8-million-member organization of educators, has warned that the planned reductions "would undermine the funding base of public education" and create a crisis in the schools. [New York Times]
- Government harassment is charged in a $40 million lawsuit filed by the Socialist Workers Party that went to trial in Manhattan. Several years of pretrial hearings have disclosed that the F.B.I. used 1,300 informers to spy on the party and also broke into its Manhattan headquarters more than 90 times. [New York Times]
- Harrison Williams was shown on a videotape giving an undercover agent posing as an Arab sheik assurances of help in seeking permanent residence in this country. The tape, played at the New Jersey Senator's bribery trial, also shows him pledging to provide the help, in part, because he wanted to bring to fruition a mining venture in which he had agreed to accept a hidden 18 percent interest. [New York Times]
- Widespread abuse of the elderly was reported by the House Select Committee on Aging after a year of hearings. The report concluded that a million elderly Americans, most of them more than 75 years old, were victimized by physical, psychological, sexual and financial abuse and that the pattern was growing. [New York Times]
- Volkswagen violated United States law in not disclosing potential engine problems in more than one million vehicles, according to a complaint issued by the Federal Trade Commission. The action involves water-cooled engines in cars made from 1974 to 1979. [New York Times]
- New American food aid to Poland was pledged by Vice President Bush. He told a high Polish official visiting Washington that the United States would provide $70 million worth of surplus butter and dried milk to help ease Warsaw's deepening economic crisis. [New York Times]
- The fiercest clashes in Lebanon since the civil war ended in 1976 erupted between Christian forces and Syrian troops in Beirut and the town of Zahle. At least 37 people were reported killed and 160 wounded. [New York Times]
- Bonn urged Soviet moderation in international affairs. At a wide-ranging meeting in Moscow, Hans-Dietrich Genscher, the West German Foreign Minister, said that Bonn would consider Soviet intervention in Poland a flagrant violation of the 1975 Helsinki accord on human rights and East-West relations in Europe. [New York Times]
- Increased arms sales to Saudi Arabia are tentatively planned by the Reagan administration, according to officials. They said that the enlarged program was expected to include five highly advanced surveillance planes and seven KC-135 aerial tankers. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1009.01 (-5.13, -0.51%)
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 1, 1981 | 1014.14 | 136.57 | 54.89 |
| March 31, 1981 | 1003.87 | 136.00 | 50.97 |
| March 30, 1981 | 992.16 | 134.28 | 33.49 |
| March 27, 1981 | 994.78 | 134.65 | 46.93 |
| March 26, 1981 | 1005.76 | 136.27 | 60.37 |
| March 25, 1981 | 1015.22 | 137.11 | 56.34 |
| March 24, 1981 | 996.13 | 134.67 | 66.40 |
| March 23, 1981 | 1004.23 | 135.69 | 57.87 |
| March 20, 1981 | 992.80 | 134.08 | 61.97 |
| March 19, 1981 | 986.58 | 133.46 | 62.44 |