News stories from Wednesday March 4, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A huge spurt in military spending that would "significantly and quickly strengthen our ability to respond to the Soviet threat at all levels of conflict" was proposed by Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. In congressional testimony, he requested an increase in authorized financing to $178 billion, from $171.2 billion, in the present fiscal year. [New York Times]
- The first key economic victory in Congress for President Reagan occurred as the Senate Agriculture Committee approved, by a vote of 14 to 2, a temporary freeze in the level of dairy price supports. Without such a freeze, higher consumer prices for dairy products would take effect next month. Committee aides estimate that the price of a gallon of milk would rise by about 7½ cents. Congress must act by April 1 to avert such an increase. [New York Times]
- A further cut in aid to education will be sought by the Reagan administration. It plans to ask Congress next week to approve a spending reduction of 25 percent in key federal programs for educating the poor and handicapped in elementary and secondary schools. The cut is 5 percentage points more than President Reagan proposed in his economic address on Feb. 18. [New York Times]
- A limit on Medicaid funding for the states, proposed by President Reagan, was denounced by Governor Carey of New York as "inconsistent" with Mr. Reagan's stated commitment to help those who are needy through no fault of their own. Mr. Carey issued a detailed analysis to show that the plan would harm people who are most in need.
Opposition by labor leaders to President Reagan's economic program was pressed on Capitol Hill. They called the proposals "ill-conceived," "inequitable' and "disastrous to working Americans."
[New York Times] - An avowed racist was convicted on federal civil rights charges arising from the fatal shooting of two young black men as they jogged with two young white women in a Salt Lake City park last August. The case against the accused, Joseph Paul Franklin, was circumstantial because there were no eyewitnesses to the slaying. [New York Times]
- Narcotics permeate life in Florida, bringing opulence and violence, money and corruption. The state's widespread drug traffic involves 70 percent of the nation's cocaine, 80 percent of its marijuana and 90 percent of its counterfeit Quaaludes. The trade in Miami is estimated at $7 billion a year. [New York Times]
- Fears of a rightist coup in El Salvador were raised as a military leader denounced any negotiations between the governing junta and the leftist insurgents. Sources close to President Jose Napoleon Duarte said Tuesday that he planned to go to West Germany this weekend to hold peace talks but added today that he had canceled the trip, apparently because of fear of a coup. The American Embassy issued a statement opposing any coup attempt after shots were fired at the embassy from a passing truck.
Firm support for the Salvadoran junta was expressed by Secretary of State Alexander Haig. He said that a rightist military takeover would have "serious consequences" for a continuation of United States aid.
[New York Times] - A need for "urgent" action in Poland to counter a threat to Communism was agreed on by senior Polish and Soviet leaders in Moscow, according to the Polish press agency. The report said that the two sides had agreed that the preservation of Communism in one country concerned all Communist nations. Western analysts viewed the unexpected meeting as a new warning to Warsaw's leadership that it must resolve economic turmoil in Poland quickly. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 971.44 (+5.42, +0.56%)
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* |
| March 3, 1981 | 966.02 | 130.56 | 48.73 |
| March 2, 1981 | 977.99 | 132.01 | 47.71 |
| February 27, 1981 | 974.58 | 131.27 | 53.20 |
| February 26, 1981 | 966.81 | 130.10 | 60.31 |
| February 25, 1981 | 954.40 | 128.52 | 45.71 |
| February 24, 1981 | 946.10 | 127.39 | 43.96 |
| February 23, 1981 | 945.23 | 127.35 | 39.59 |
| February 20, 1981 | 936.09 | 126.58 | 41.90 |
| February 19, 1981 | 933.36 | 126.61 | 41.64 |
| February 18, 1981 | 947.10 | 128.48 | 40.42 |