News stories from Monday September 11, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- New acoustics tests indicate a second gunman might have fired on President John F. Kennedy, a finding that would support theories of a conspiracy in the assassination, a House committee was told. Dr. James Barger, chief scientist for a Massachusetts acoustics firm, told the House Assassinations Committee that the tests he conducted for the panel disclosed the 50-50 possibility that four shots were fired during the moments Kennedy was slain, the fourth coming from Kennedy's right near a grassy knoll. [Chicago Tribune]
- In Edison, N.J., a disgruntled former employee walked into a perfume factory and shot to death the company president and two plant foremen before killing himself with a sawed-off shotgun, authorities said. [Chicago Tribune]
- The House rejected the administration's attempt to limit hiring preferences for veterans, slowing its push toward completing the civil service reforms that President Carter considered the centerpiece of his government reorganization effort. As the House was in its 12th hour of continuous debate and approaching midnight, opponents of a controversial labor-management section succeeded in stalling action until Wednesday at the earliest. [Chicago Tribune]
- An unusually powerful North Atlantic storm slammed the luxury liner Queen Elizabeth 2 midway in its voyage to New York City, causing injuries to a score of passengers and crewmen. Waves up to 50 feet high and winds up to 72 miles an hour buffeted the 66,851-ton ship. The injuries were caused by sudden lurches that sent passengers and furniture flying. [Chicago Tribune]
- The Senate finally took up the compromise natural gas pricing bill, with a leading opponent denouncing it as "a C-minus piece of legislation" that would cost American consumers up to $41 billion by 1985. Sen. Howard Metzenbaum [D., Ohio], spearheading a move to send the measure back to committee, also rejected administration claims that the legislation would help shore up the dollar abroad. [Chicago Tribune]
- Twenty percent of all cancer cases in the United States -- at least four times the amount previously estimated -- may be caused by asbestos and other chemical agents in the workplace, government scientists said. They estimated that 67,000 Americans a year are contracting lung, intestinal, and other types of cancer from asbestos exposure alone. That would be 17 percent of the annual cancer rate in this country. [Chicago Tribune]
- The stock market ran into profit-taking late today after spurting earlier in an effort to build on Friday's strong gains. Advancing issues still led losers by a wide margin on the New York Stock Exchange. But the Dow Jones industrial average closed unchanged at 907.74.
The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a plan to require electric utilities to install $10 billion worth of air scrubbers to filter sulfur dioxide from smokestacks of all new plants. The plan would increase the bill of the average residential consumer by at least 30 cents a month and perhaps as much as $1.10.
Ford Motor Co. will challenge any government orders to recall cars that jump out of parking gear into reverse, a company official said. "We can't be required to make autos idiot-proof," said William Bourke, executive vice president of North American automotive operations.
[Chicago Tribune] - Fierce street battles raged in Masaya and other Nicaraguan cities as government troops fought rebel force seeking to topple President Anastasio Somoza. "There is no longer any doubt -- it is a civil war," sail Alvarro Chamurro, vice president of the anti-Somoza Conservative Party.
In Masaya, the rebels owned the streets of this city. Guns were raised in the air in time-honored revolutionary posture as rebels walked over the turf they had claimed in more than 40 hours of bloody fighting, Families flocked to the sidewalk to applaud and cheer as the fighters shouted their message of revolution.
[Chicago Tribune] - Heavy fighting between Christian militiamen and Syrian peacekeeping troops in Beirut raged into its fifth day. Christian officials said at least nine persons have been killed and 200 wounded. Meanwhile, a group of the Christian clergy called a general strike for Wednesday to "make the world listen" to Christian demands for the withdrawal of Syrian forces from Christian areas, the return of displaced persons to their homes, and ending the mandate for the Syrian-dominated 30,000-man Arab League peacekeeping force in Lebanon. The mandate expires Oct. 28. [Chicago Tribune]
- The Iranian military began a crackdown on officials blamed for Iran's political and social turmoil and arrested a former minister, his two deputies and six others on corruption charges. More arrests of former ministers and high officials were likely, sources said. The military's action appeared aimed at placating a seething population stirred up by Friday's clash in east Tehran, where as many as 250 people were believed killed. [Chicago Tribune]
- Scotland Yard was investigating the mysterious death of a Bulgarian defector who, a London newspaper said, may have been attacked with a poison-tipped umbrella. Georgi Ivan Markov, 49, an author who worked for the British Broadcasting Corp. after fleeing to the West in 1959, died today in St. James's Hospital. The London Daily Mail, in a front page story, said Markov had told friends he was walking past a line of people waiting to board a bus when "a man appeared out of nowhere with an umbrella and deliberately jabbed him on the right thigh." The cause of death has been listed as blood poisoning, pending an autopsy scheduled for Tuesday. [Chicago Tribune]
- Ratna Sari Dewi, the widow of President Sukarno of Indonesia, accused the C.I.A. and former Japanese Prime Minister Eisaku Sato of involvement in the abortive coup staged by Communists in Indonesia in 1965. [Chicago Tribune]
- There are more Democrats than Republicans, and Vice President Mondale says he knows why. According to the Wall Street Journal, Mondale offers these reasons: "We are more handsome, we are happier, we are warmer, we are sexier, and we have more kids." [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 907.74 (0.00, 0.00%)
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* |
| September 8, 1978 | 907.74 | 106.79 | 42.07 |
| September 7, 1978 | 893.71 | 105.42 | 40.30 |
| September 6, 1978 | 895.79 | 105.38 | 42.61 |
| September 5, 1978 | 886.61 | 104.49 | 32.18 |
| September 1, 1978 | 879.33 | 103.68 | 35.07 |
| August 31, 1978 | 876.82 | 103.29 | 33.85 |
| August 30, 1978 | 880.72 | 103.50 | 37.76 |
| August 29, 1978 | 880.20 | 103.39 | 33.78 |
| August 28, 1978 | 884.88 | 103.96 | 31.76 |
| August 25, 1978 | 895.53 | 104.90 | 36.19 |