News stories from Friday March 27, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Some school lunch aid was restored after a bitterly partisan debate over the administration's $36.4 billion cut in the budget proposed for the fiscal year 1982 by the Carter administration. The $200 million restored for school lunch programs will come at the expense of foreign aid. The measure, proposed by Senator Jesse Helms, the Republican chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, was an effort to head off a Democratic move to restore $400 million to the lunch program while keeping foreign aid intact. [New York Times]
- Secretary of State Alexander Haig and his aides resent what they describe as the underhanded way White House officials announced the appointment this week of Vice President Bush as President Reagan's crisis manager. President Reagan is not criticized, but there is a strong feeling at the State Department that the President's senior staff aides are determined to undermine the Secretary of State. [New York Times]
- A five-story condominium collapsed in Cocoa Beach, Fla., killing at least nine construction workers and injuring 14 others. The building collapsed as concrete was being poured on the unfinished roof. Rescue attempts were being made for at least six other workers believed to be trapped. [New York Times]
- Boston's bond ratings were suspended by Moody's Investors Service, which also suspended ratings for 36 other Massachusetts municipalities and seven regional educational districts because of uncertainities that followed a tax-cutting measure approved last November. The suspensions will make it harder for the municipalities and educational districts to issue tax anticipation notes if they run short of cash before local property bills fall due on May 1. [New York Times]
- Two top racing yachts were removed from the United States team in the forthcoming Admiral's Cup series because of alleged irregularities related to handicap ratings in past races. A third yacht's rating certificate was withdrawn by the sport's governing body. The alleged irregularities involved alterations in the three vessels' weight. [New York Times]
- The right to give anti-psychotic drugs to mental patients in public institutions is being tested in New Jersey. Increasing research evidence has found that the drugs have side effects that produce permanent neurological disorders and severe, incurable physical impairment. The legal dispute in New Jersey focuses on John E. Rennie, a former aircraft pilot with a history of mental illness who in 1974 allegedly threatened to kill President Gerald Ford. He claims that involuntarily committed mental patients -- he was one -- have a constitutional right to refuse anti-psychotic drugs. [New York Times]
- An old coal mine fire threatens homes and lives in Centralia, a village of 1,200 people in east-central Pennsyvania, where 109 of the village's 400 homes are in the danger area. The fire ignited in 1962 from a waste dump that had been dug over a coal seam. It had been burning 18 years before residents sensed a serious danger, though it had long ago forced miners from the anthracite desposits under Centralia. This fire is among 250 mine fires now burning in the United States. [New York Times]
- China appears to have been reassured by the Reagan administration that it wants closer relations with Peking and that it will not precipitate a confrontation over Taiwan. Former President Gerald Ford, who was sent to Peking as President Reagan's envoy, said that he was "absolutely convinced" and "absolutely confident" that differences between China and the United States could and would be resolved as relations are "expanded in depth and breadth." [New York Times]
- Poland's largest strike in 36 years was held by millions of workers who walked out for four hours to protest police attacks on unionists in Bydgoszcz eight days ago. The walkout, organized by the Solidarity union, began and ended exactly on schedule without incident. Several hours after the walkout was over, Solidarity and government officials resumed talks toward averting a complete shutdown of industry on Tuesday. [New York Times]
- Polish leaders are under pressure by the Soviet Union to reassert their authority through the use of forceful measures without concessions to the Solidarity union. This is the impression Western diplomats have received from Soviet press reports and commentaries since the Polish police attack on unionists in Bydgoszcz. Dispatches from Warsaw by Tass, the official Soviet news agency, strongly defended the Polish police and blamed the "extremely tense situation" on Solidarity and the "anti-socialist" dissident organization KOR. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 994.78 (-10.98, -1.09%)
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 26, 1981 | 1005.76 | 136.27 | 60.37 |
| March 25, 1981 | 1015.22 | 137.11 | 56.34 |
| March 24, 1981 | 996.13 | 134.67 | 66.40 |
| March 23, 1981 | 1004.23 | 135.69 | 57.87 |
| March 20, 1981 | 992.80 | 134.08 | 61.97 |
| March 19, 1981 | 986.58 | 133.46 | 62.44 |
| March 18, 1981 | 994.06 | 134.22 | 55.74 |
| March 17, 1981 | 992.53 | 133.92 | 65.92 |
| March 16, 1981 | 1002.79 | 134.68 | 49.94 |
| March 13, 1981 | 985.77 | 133.11 | 68.29 |