News stories from Monday December 11, 1972
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Eighty-five Cuban refugees were airlifted to Miami, where they were reunited with family members who were already in the United States. 3,400 more Cubans want to come to America, but Fidel Castro controls all emigration from Cuba.
Today in Miami an explosion occurred at a company that forwards packages to Cuba. It is not known if the explosion is connected with the immigration issue. Two similar explosions occurred in New York City, one at the Calypso Travel Agency in Queens, the other at the same company as the one in Miami.
[CBS] - Mark Van Doren, Pulitzer prize winning poet and scholar, died at age 78. [CBS]
- The Grumman-made lunar module landed on the moon, but Grumman's F-14 fighter plane has large cost overruns. The F-14 made its first test flight off of the Navy carrier Forrestal this past summer. The plane was originally supposed to cost $11.5 million, now the government is being charged $16.8 million and the corporation claims even that figure is $2 million less than the actual cost of making the plane. If the government holds Grumman to its contract, it could bankrupt the corporation. Senator William Proxmire's study indicates that the F-14 is not as good in some ways as the F-4 Phantom. Grumman does not intend to honor its contract for the F-14; a court fight is expected. [CBS]
- The Democrat-controlled Congress opposes wage-price controls in their present form; President Nixon wants them continued. This is a complete turnabout from previous years, when Congress demanded controls and the President totally opposed them. Inflation control will be difficult with many major labor union contracts up for renewal soon. [CBS]
- Ralph Nader's group charged that university health centers are prescribing "morning-after" birth control pills for co-eds without warning them that the drug may increase the chance of cancer for themselves or their offspring. The prescription contains DES, a cancer-causing substance. The FDA says that DES is effective but may be unsafe. [CBS]
- The National Petroleum Council, an oil industry advisory group, stated that the U.S. has enough supply to meet its energy needs for the rest of the century, but the costs will be much higher than they are now. The council urged that environmental protection laws be realistic. [CBS]
- Christmas has come to terms with women's lib. Cindy Larson answered a help-wanted ad in Ames, Iowa, for a position as Santa Claus, but she was hired as a Santa's helper instead. Cindy then filed a discrimination suit with the Civil Rights Commission. Larson noted that a Santa's helper gets $1.90 an hour but Santa gets $3.00 an hour, and she believes in equal pay. She got a Santa job in Syracuse, New York, as a result of her lawsuit's publicity. Children aren't concerned with Santa's gender. [CBS]
- Astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt have landed on the moon. Cernan expects to walk on the moon at 7 p.m. EST this evening. Schmitt and Cernan will spend seven hours outside the spacecraft. They will ride in the lunar rover and plan to spend 75 hours on the moon -- a new record. [CBS]
- President Nixon announced new plans for extended control of the economy. Treasury Secretary Shultz explained the plan for the modification of wage-price controls. Government spending is to be held at $250 billion, government hiring is halted, executive salaries are frozen, and cuts will be made in White House staff. Shultz stated that the President is determined to end inflation.
House Banking Committee chairman Wright Patman replied that he will make his own judgment regarding the continuation of wage-price controls. Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee say that controls have failed to stop high unemployment, and they recommend other forms of control.
[CBS] - Over the weekend, Democrats chose Robert Strauss as the new national party chairman. [CBS]
- Republican party chairman Robert Dole resigned and is being replaced by George Bush. Dole stated that he never planned to stay on as chairman; U.N. Ambassador Bush said that he has mixed emotions about his new appointment. [CBS]
- Daniel Patrick Moynihan was named U.S. Ambassador to India. He was an urban affairs adviser to President Nixon and he also served under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson. [CBS]
- The Supreme Court will rule on the constitutionality of the Hatch Act, which prohibits political activity by government employees. [CBS]
- Former President Lyndon Johnson's papers on civil rights will be formally opened at his library in Austin, Texas. Today's symposium on civil rights began with speaker Earl Warren, former Supreme Court Chief Justice. [CBS]
- Former President Harry Truman is now listed in serious condition at a Kansas City hospital. [CBS]
- Henry Kissinger and Le Duc Tho held a four-hour meeting in Paris regarding the Vietnam peace settlement. Three meetings are scheduled for tomorrow: the first involves technical drafting experts, the second will take place between U.S. Ambassador Porter and North Vietnamese negotiator Xuan Thuy, and the third meeting involves Kissinger and Tho. Reports of progress are optimistic, but the State Department says that there is little chance of American POW's being released by December 25. [CBS]
- Marxist President Salvador Allende of Chile is visiting Cuba on his way home from the Soviet Union. [CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1036.27 (+3.08, +0.30%)
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 8, 1972 | 1033.19 | 118.86 | 18.03 |
| December 7, 1972 | 1033.26 | 118.60 | 19.32 |
| December 6, 1972 | 1027.54 | 118.01 | 18.61 |
| December 5, 1972 | 1022.95 | 117.58 | 17.80 |
| December 4, 1972 | 1025.21 | 117.77 | 19.73 |
| December 1, 1972 | 1023.93 | 117.38 | 22.57 |
| November 30, 1972 | 1018.21 | 116.67 | 19.34 |
| November 29, 1972 | 1018.81 | 116.52 | 17.38 |
| November 28, 1972 | 1019.34 | 116.47 | 19.21 |
| November 27, 1972 | 1017.76 | 116.72 | 18.91 |