News stories from Wednesday July 18, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- No strike at the Chrysler Corporation was pledged by the auto workers union, which gave the critical financial condition of the automaker as its reason. The union began contract negotiations this week with the nation's Big Three car makers -- Chrysler, General Motors and Ford. [New York Times]
- A warning of a nuclear accident similar to the one at Three Mile Island was given a year before the reactor there broke down, according to two engineers for the company that supplied the reactor. They told a presidential commission that they had cautioned their superiors of the threat of a serious accident but that the warning was not passed on. [New York Times]
- Hamilton Jordan will be chief of staff of the White House. The administration announced President Carter's promotion of his long-time political aide as the first step in a shakeup of his personal staff and cabinet. Mr. Jordan issued several hundred forms to all cabinet members and White House assistants, asking them to provide detailed reports on the performance and personality of their subordinates. The planned shakeup had broad repercussions, with the dollar declining against gold abroad and a mood of uncertainty prevailing in Washington. [New York Times]
- Apparent aircraft safety violations were charged by the government, which announced it had moved to fine Pacific Southwest Airlines $385,000 for a seeming "pattern" of disregarding regulations for maintaining and operating jetliners. The airline denied that it had flown any "unairworthy aircraft" or violated any rules. [New York Times]
- A high Cleveland official was absolved of all charges in an alleged carnival kickback plot. The trial judge said that the prosecution had failed to prove a case against City Council President George Forbes, a bitter opponent of Mayor Dennis Kucinich. [New York Times]
- Improper waste disposal rules were attributed to the Environmental Protection Agency by two of its employees and staff members of the Environmental Defense Fund, who charged that the agency's proposed regulations had been revised to exempt some of the most toxic wastes. Agency officials said that the rules were changed to list manufacturing processes because regulations listing all chemicals would be impossibly broad. [New York Times]
- A price for backing gambling casinos was set by Mayor Koch. He said he wanted New York City to receive 12 percent of the profits on table games and 50 percent of slot machine profits in return for his support of a constitutional amendment to legalize casinos in the state. The Mayor said that the casinos would bring crime and "social" ills to the city and take revenues from off track betting. [New York Times]
- A new crisis in Nicaragua was averted. Faced with a rapid disintegration of the National Guard, the new government agreed to relinquish power quickly to a rebel-named provisional junta that had set up its temporary capital in the city of Leon.
The peace plan for Nicaragua appears to be taking hold, Carter administration officials said after Washington had applied heavy pressure on former President Somoza, who is in exile in Miami, and on his successor to transfer power to the guerrilla-backed provisional government.
[New York Times] - Tibet's Lamaist theocracy has waned in the 20 years since an abortive revolt against Chinese control, but Lamaism still seems to strongly influence many Tibetans. Peking has reduced the number of Buddhist monasteries from 2,464 to 10, officials said, and the number of lamas, or monks, has shrunk from 110,000 to about 2,000.
The Dalai Lama will remain in exile in India, he said, but he added that he believed some accommodation was possible linking Marxism with Tibet's traditional religion and culture. He said that only a handful of Tibetans supported the Chinese.
[New York Times] - A unique quality of a flowering plant has begun to be unraveled by botanists. The beautiful "umbrella" bamboo has begun to blossom for the first time in 100 years in northern Europe and will soon bloom throughout the United States and the world. After that, all of the world's umbrella bamboo will die. Most bamboo species are believed to have a genetic "clock" in their cells that determine when they will flower and when they will die. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 828.58 (+0.08, +0.01%)
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* |
| July 17, 1979 | 828.50 | 101.83 | 34.27 |
| July 16, 1979 | 834.90 | 102.74 | 26.62 |
| July 13, 1979 | 833.53 | 102.32 | 33.07 |
| July 12, 1979 | 836.86 | 102.69 | 31.77 |
| July 11, 1979 | 843.86 | 103.64 | 36.64 |
| July 10, 1979 | 850.34 | 104.20 | 39.73 |
| July 9, 1979 | 852.99 | 104.47 | 42.46 |
| July 6, 1979 | 846.16 | 103.62 | 38.57 |
| July 5, 1979 | 835.75 | 102.43 | 30.29 |
| July 3, 1979 | 835.58 | 102.09 | 31.67 |