News stories from Monday May 8, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Carter administration has started an intensive campaign to get through Congress New York City's fiscal aid bill. Administration officials said that President Carter would be involved in the campaign, enlisting public support, and would become personally involved in rounding up votes. Many cabinet members also will enlist support for the legislation, in the same manner in which they lobbied for civil service reorganization, the officials said. [New York Times]
- David Berkowitz pleaded guilty to six murder charges, affirming that he was the gunman known as the "Son of Sam," the .44-caliber killer. The plea was accepted by three state Supreme Court justices in Brooklyn after they had questioned the 24-year-old former postal clerk about the shooting rampage in which six young people died and seven were wounded. Mr. Berkowitz also admitted all other crimes connected with the shootings. Sentencing on all charges was scheduled for May 22.
Mr. Berkowitz might also have been the "Phantom of the Bronx," who is held responsible for 2,000 fires in brush, abandoned cars and buildings, Bronx District Attorney Mario Merola said. He interrupted the court proceedings in Brooklyn to make the charge, and offered as evidence diaries kept by Mr. Berkowitz.
[New York Times] - A new trial for Juan Corona was ordered by the California District Court of Appeal in San Francisco, which reversed his 1973 conviction in the murders of 25 farm workers on the ground that his lawyer did not represent him competently. A unanimous 71-page opinion by three judges was scathingly critical of the lawyer's conduct of the case. [New York Times]
- A reduction in Amtrak's service and employees has been proposed to Congress by Secretary of Transportation Brock Adams to trim the line's escalating deficits. Mr. Adams would eliminate 8,100 miles of the 27,000-mile Amtrak system and hundreds of jobs at a savings to taxpayers of $118 million the 1980 fiscal year, the year the cuts would become effective. Service would not be affected in the heavily traveled Washington-Boston route and in the 36 largest cities. Cities that would drop from the system include Dallas, Omaha, Salt Lake City, Nashville and Williamsburg, Va. There would be no service at all in Maine, New Hampshire, Arkansas, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. [New York Times]
- Evidence of a $300,000 payment in Ghana by a sales agent for Textron's Bell helicopter unit was destroyed the day after G. William Miller, Textron's former chairman, was asked about it at the Senate hearings on his nomination as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, the Textron corporation said. Textron made the disclosure in a document filed with the S.E.C. that said there was "no indication" that Textron officers, including Mr. Miller, knew that a payment had been demanded by a high Ghanaian military official or that funds had been made available for it. [New York Times]
- Kaiser Aluminum increased the per-pound price of aluminum ingot by 7.5 percent, or 4 cents a pound. The ingots are widely used in consumer goods. Kaiser also increased by 3.5 percent the price of aluminum strip, used in beverage cans, after a similar increase last week by the Aluminum Company of America. Industry analysts doubted that the ingot increase would stick, but said that the increase for aluminum strip for cans would be supported by the market. [New York Times]
- The Gannett Company, owner of 77 newspapers, announced from its headquarters in Rochester. N.Y., a merger agreement with Combined Communications of Phoenix, which operates seven television stations, 13 radio stations, two newspapers and the country's biggest outdoor advertising group. The merger proposal would make Combined Communications a subsidiary of the Gannett Company. [New York Times]
- Stock prices declined moderately despite a strong start that was based on the weekend prediction by an OPEC leader of no oil price increase this year. Although the Dow Jones industrial average was up more than 4½points at noon, it ended the day with a decline of 4.51 points at 824.58. [New York Times]
- Henry Kissinger urged the administration to increase the number of warplanes it proposes to sell to Israel. The administration, meanwhile, indicated that it was seeking a compromise on the $4.8 billion package of plane sales to the Middle East. The former Secretary of State, speaking at a meeting of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, endorsed the sales of planes to Saudi Arabia and Egypt but said that the number of planes for Israel was "at the very lowest end of the spectrum." His views won wide support in the committee. [New York Times]
- The C.I.A. advised and supported a group of dissident Ghanaian army officers who overthrew the government of President Kwame Nkrumah in February 1966, first-hand intelligence sources said. The C.I.A.'s role in the coup was carried out without prior approval from the high-level interagency group in Washington that monitored C.I.A. clandestine activities, the sources said. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 824.58 (-4.51, -0.54%)
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* |
| May 5, 1978 | 829.09 | 96.53 | 42.68 |
| May 4, 1978 | 824.41 | 95.93 | 37.52 |
| May 3, 1978 | 828.83 | 96.26 | 37.60 |
| May 2, 1978 | 840.18 | 97.25 | 41.40 |
| May 1, 1978 | 844.33 | 97.67 | 37.02 |
| April 28, 1978 | 837.32 | 96.83 | 32.85 |
| April 27, 1978 | 826.92 | 95.86 | 35.47 |
| April 26, 1978 | 836.97 | 96.82 | 44.45 |
| April 25, 1978 | 833.59 | 96.64 | 55.80 |
| April 24, 1978 | 826.06 | 95.77 | 34.52 |