News stories from Wednesday March 28, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The FBI released its 1972 crime report. For the first time since 1955, overall crime was down. Violent crimes, however, continued to increase. Attorney General Richard Kleindienst said that the reason for the general drop in crime is that more money is being given to police departments for them to update crime fighting and to increase staffs.
Rapes were up 35% in New York City. Perhaps rape is being reported more now than before and this is part of the reason for the increased rate. The overall decline in crime may be partly due to a drop in drug addiction. The number of addicts appears to be on the decline, and drug related crimes are down considerably in New York City. Heroin is harder to get and drug treatment programs have been vastly expanded. Methadone abuse is now more common, however, and statistics can be misleading, but it appears that the heroin problem really is diminishing. The Justice Department will take over the enforcement of federal narcotics laws in July.
[CBS] - Hog prices are down. Ranchers are threatening to withhold the sale of cows and hogs in early April to combat the planned consumer boycott.
AFL-CIO president George Meany called for food price controls. Meany warned the Senate that food prices must stop rising or unions will seek higher wages. Many unions are due to renew their contracts this year.
[CBS] - Tomorrow the U.S. role in Vietnam comes to an official end. Forty-nine more American POWs were released in Hanoi by the Viet Cong today. The nine American prisoners who had been held in Laos were among those freed. One Canadian POW was also among the returnees. The Pathet Lao claims to have no knowledge of the 308 Americans who are listed as missing in Laos. The Viet Cong stated that it has one more POW who was not listed previously. [CBS]
- Captains Jeremiah Denton and James Stockdale and Colonels John Flynn and David Winn were promoted. All are former POWs. [CBS]
- Fighting continued in Cambodia; the U.S. bombed Communist targets there today. Despite mounting protests from Congress, President Nixon intends to continue the U.S. military effort in Cambodia even after the Vietnam war is over. Defense Secretary Elliot Richardson said that the President has great public support and therefore has the right to continue bombing. [CBS]
- A Senate committee heard testimony from Watergate defendant James McCord. McCord has told Judge John Sirica that high Nixon officials were involved in the Watergate bugging and he stated that trial defendants were pressured to keep quiet and plead guilty. McCord testified for four hours before the Senate Watergate Committee. Former Nixon campaign director Jeb Magruder denied having had prior knowledge of the Watergate bugging.
After attorney Earl Silbert reported that defendant E. Howard Hunt was taking the fifth amendment at the grand jury hearings, Judge John Sirica granted Hunt immunity from prosecution and ordered Hunt to testify. Hunt spent four hours behind closed doors at the grand jury proceedings today. The four Miami-based defendants now say they are ready to give all the information they have about the case to the grand jury if they are granted immunity.
[CBS] - A Senate committee is investigating ITT's involvement with the CIA in its attempts to influence Chilean politics. CIA agent William Broe testified that ITT's financial offer to help the CIA in its campaign against President Salvador Allende was rejected, and he told ITT president Harold Geneen that the U.S. was not supporting any candidate in Chile. [CBS]
- Federal Communications Commission chairman Dean Burch attacked sexually oriented talk shows. [CBS]
- Non-smokers are objecting more frequently to having people around them smoke. It is claimed that inhaling smoke from other people's cigarettes is as hazardous to a person's health as smoking. Trains as well as restaurants and other public areas are being divided into smokers and non-smokers areas. [CBS]
|
Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 948.00 (+3.09, +0.33%)
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 27, 1973 | 944.91 | 111.56 | 17.50 |
| March 26, 1973 | 927.90 | 109.84 | 14.98 |
| March 23, 1973 | 922.71 | 108.88 | 18.47 |
| March 22, 1973 | 925.20 | 108.84 | 17.13 |
| March 21, 1973 | 938.37 | 110.49 | 16.08 |
| March 20, 1973 | 949.43 | 111.95 | 13.25 |
| March 19, 1973 | 952.06 | 112.17 | 12.46 |
| March 16, 1973 | 963.05 | 113.54 | 15.13 |
| March 15, 1973 | 969.82 | 114.12 | 14.45 |
| March 14, 1973 | 978.85 | 114.98 | 14.46 |