News stories from Thursday December 23, 1982
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A gasoline tax increase won approval in a down-to-the-wire rush by the Senate after its members broke a filibuster by two conservative Republicans. After passing the bill to increase the tax by 5 cents a gallon to finance highway repairs and mass transit, the Senate belatedly ended the 97th congressional session and members rushed home for the holidays. [New York Times]
- Seventy-five-foot trucks will be allowed to travel nearly anywhere in the country under the legislation that Congress approved increasing the gasoline tax. Many states, including New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, bar the huge double-trailer trucks, which critics say do major damage to roads. A state that refuses to accept the new rules risks losing federal transportation aid. [New York Times]
- A legal snarl in bankruptcy cases is likely after the Supreme Court refused to extend a Dec. 24 deadline that it gave Congress for restructuring bankruptcy courts. With Congress no longer in session and no immediate end in sight to the political impasse over bankruptcy legislation, the Court's action cast substantial doubt on the ability and the jurisdiction of the federal court system that is to handle corporate and personal bankruptcies on an interim basis. [New York Times]
- Huge borrowing for Social Security benefits is planned by the Reagan administration because the old-age trust fund exhausted its cash reserves in early November, Officials said that the fund would borrow more than $13 billion on Dec. 31 to make sure that it can pay monthly benefits through next June. [New York Times]
- Four nuns were upheld by the New Hampshire Supreme Court. The five-member tribunal ruled unanimously that the Roman Catholic nuns have the right to sue their bishop for a public hearing on the church's decision to dismiss them as parochial school teachers. The diocese contends that the dismissals are an internal church matter. Since the nuns' dismissal, they have received donations from students' parents and have earned $3,200 from the sale of arts and crafts contributed by the parents. [New York Times]
- The homeless try to return to their hometowns at Christmastime more than in any other season. Most of the homeless are solitary men. One, an electrician who served 20 years in the Navy, was trying to get to Jackson, Miss., from Tucson. Saying he had lost his pride, he added, "I've eaten out of garbage cans, I rode freight trains and slept in culverts with only a cardboard under me." [New York Times]
- The President, asked what comfort he might offer the unemployed this Christmas, replied that each company should try to hire "just one person" to cut the number of jobless workers, now nearly 12 million. Administration aides said that Mr. Reagan's suggestion, made at a brief new conference, was an earnest proposal that had caught his fancy. [New York Times]
- Seoul freed the leading challenger to the government. The opposition leader, Kim Dae Jung, left South Korea on a flight for the United States after serving two and a half years of a 20-year prison sentence for sedition. [New York Times]
- President Reagan and King Hussein held their second and final meeting of the week. After the 25-minute session, Mr. Reagan expressed optimism that negotiations aimed at achieving a Middle East peace settlement were "within our reach," but the Jordanian leader indicated he had not yet acceded to American appeals that he enter Israeli-Egyptian negotiations on Palestian self-rule. [New York Times]
- An Indian-Pakistani accord on the formation of a commission to promote cooperation between their governments in a variety of fields was announced in New Delhi. [New York Times]
- The release of all Poles being held for political reasons was announced by the martial law authorities, but they said that seven Solidarity leaders among those interned had been formally arrested. The seven activists of the outlawed trade union now face unspecified criminal charges. [New York Times]
|
Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1045.07 (+10.03, +0.97%)
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* |
| December 22, 1982 | 1035.04 | 138.83 | 83.46 |
| December 21, 1982 | 1030.26 | 138.61 | 78.01 |
| December 20, 1982 | 1004.51 | 136.26 | 62.20 |
| December 17, 1982 | 1011.50 | 137.49 | 76.01 |
| December 16, 1982 | 990.25 | 135.30 | 73.69 |
| December 15, 1982 | 992.64 | 135.24 | 81.05 |
| December 14, 1982 | 1009.38 | 137.39 | 98.38 |
| December 13, 1982 | 1024.28 | 139.95 | 63.13 |
| December 10, 1982 | 1018.76 | 139.57 | 86.43 |
| December 9, 1982 | 1027.96 | 140.00 | 90.31 |