News stories from Wednesday April 4, 1973
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Communist forces tightened their siege of Phnom Penh. Pentagon officials view the Cambodian situation as very serious, but Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Admiral Thomas Moorer said he doesn't think that the Cambodian government is threatened with immediate collapse. The U.S. has a large bombing campaign underway in Cambodia. Defense Secretary Elliot Richardson stated that the U.S. is trying to keep river routes to the city open. Senate liberals are uneasy about Cambodia. Senator Edward Kennedy urged the administration to pull back before Cambodia becomes another Vietnam. [CBS]
- The Nixon administration is reportedly delaying any requests to Congress for aid for North Vietnam. The Cambodian situation is one reason. [CBS]
- A grand jury continued its probe of the Watergate bugging case. The "Miami 4" testified to the grand jury today after being given immunity by Judge John Sirica. Bernard Barker and Eugenio Martinez told reporters that they responded to the jury's questions. The Senate committee investigating Watergate said that it has no evidence that White House aide H.R. Haldeman is linked to the bugging, but Senator Lowell Weicker vowed to continue his own investigation of the case. Committee chairman Sam Ervin praised investigative reporters for bringing much of the Watergate case to light. [CBS]
- The Nixon administration is backing off from its threat to attack welfare cheats by immediately withholding aid payments to states. Welfare Secretary Caspar Weinberger now says that the administration will give states two years to eliminate welfare fraud. [CBS]
- The Mississippi River is flooding from Illinois to Louisiana. Flood waters cover 7 million acres in seven states. Agricultural areas are the hardest hit. The town of Montz, just north of New Orleans, is being razed to make room for a new levee. Montz resident Shirley Dufresne said that she is resigned to having her home destroyed if it will save lives. [CBS]
- Florida suffered its second power blackout in the last two days. [CBS]
- Ceremonies honored the memory of Martin Luther King today on the fifth anniversary of his assassination. When news of King's assassination on April 4, 1968 reached Washington, DC's black ghetto, the city erupted into burning and rioting like many others, leaving 12 people dead and $15 million worth of property damage. Little has been done to rebuild the inner city since then. Four years ago President Nixon pledged aid to the D.C. ghetto for rebuilding. Reverend Walter Fauntroy said that although the President promised to rebuild, nothing has happened. Businesses haven't moved in as was expected. [CBS]
- Lymphocytic leukemia affects 4,000 children a year in the United States. Researchers now say that the disease, formerly 100% fatal, can be cured in many cases. Lack of funds, however, prevents necessary treatment in 75% of cases. [CBS]
- The Senate approved a $268 billion ceiling on federal spending, $700 million lower than the amount budgeted by President Nixon. The bill requires the President to obtain congressional approval before impounding appropriated funds. [CBS]
- The House Banking Committee voted to roll back prices and interest rates to what they were the day before Phase II economic controls were lifted. The same bill would trigger ceilings on wages, salaries and dividends if inflation reaches certain levels. A congressional committee predicted that food prices will rise 10% this year.
Meat sales are reportedly down because of the boycott. Farmers are withholding cattle from markets. More job cuts are being made in the meat production industry.
[CBS] - The Cost of Living Council said that it might impose price controls on lumber. The National Association of Home Builders endorsed the prospective controls. [CBS]
- Ralph Nader's group claimed that Alka-Seltzer precipitates bleeding ulcers and should be taken off the market. [CBS]
- Los Angeles Mayor Sam Yorty and black city councilman Tom Bradley will meet May 29 for a runoff election in the mayor's race. [CBS]
- The Viet Cong and North Vietnam warned that publicizing POW stories of torture could jeopardize Communist plans to try to locate the 2,400 missing and dead American servicemen in Indochina. The last POW to be freed, Capt. Robert White, has returned to the U.S. and was reunited with his wife. [CBS]
- The POWs are being treated as returning heroes, but this is not the case for most of the other men who served in Vietnam. Vietnam has 6 million veterans. Over 300,000 were wounded and over 56,000 died there. Social historian Murray Polner noted that men from lower income groups served in Vietnam since the "privileged" generally managed to avoid the draft.
Vietnam veterans came home one by one, unlike World War II veterans who came home together after the war was over. Many Vietnam vets have found the GI Bill to be inadequate for schooling; others could not find jobs. Georgia state Senator Max Cleland is a Vietnam veteran and a triple amputee and is the exception to the rule. Cleland says that many Vietnam vets had no reason for fighting and were psychologically confused by the war, and this impedes their ability to function normally as civilians. While most Vietnam veterans have returned to useful lives, for many others there is no "peace with honor."
[CBS]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 922.71 (-5.04, -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* |
| April 3, 1973 | 927.75 | 109.24 | 12.91 |
| April 2, 1973 | 936.18 | 110.18 | 10.64 |
| March 30, 1973 | 951.01 | 111.52 | 13.74 |
| March 29, 1973 | 959.14 | 112.71 | 16.05 |
| March 28, 1973 | 948.00 | 111.62 | 15.85 |
| 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 |