News stories from Wednesday May 16, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Optimism that the gasoline shortage would ease significantly by next month was expressed by President Carter. Earlier, he met at the White House with Gov. Jerry Brown of California and promised increased supplies for that state. Throughout the day, Mr. Carter and the Governor, an undeclared competitor for next year's presidential nomination, seemed to be vying for news coverage. [New York Times]
- School integration has stalled in the nation's big cities, particularly in the North, 25 years after the Supreme Court ruled such segregation unconstitutional. Ironically, while the once recalcitrant Southern states are now generally integrated peacefully, progress in the cities of the North and West has been little or none in the last decade. Demography, economics and racial discrimination have left the schools of major cities with few white students to be integrated. [New York Times]
- Federal laxness on a toxic dump was charged by the Attorney General of Michigan. He announced that he would sue the Environmental Protection Agency for "doing virtually nothing" to prevent a poisonous chemical dumped at an Air Force base from contaminating ground water across four miles of lower Michigan. [New York Times]
- Lowell Weicker ended his drive for the Republican presidential nomination, citing his poor showing in the polls. The Senator from Connecticut said that all evidence pointed to "my holding a strong third position" in his home state, behind Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. [New York Times]
- Alaskan lands would be preserved under a bill approved in the House by a vote of 268 to 157. What President Carter and congressional leaders termed the greatest conservation decision in the nation's history would protect more than 125 million acres of federal lands, including 67 million acres designated as wilderness areas, in which no commercial activity would be allowed. The bill now goes to the Senate, where its fate is uncertain. [New York Times]
- A. Philip Randolph died in New York at the age of 90. He was a legendary leader of the civil rights movement and one of the country's major black leaders. In 1925 Mr. Randolph organized a handful of rail porters in what eventually became the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, the first black union to win a charter from the American Federation of Labor. [New York Times]
- Political divisions in Philadelphia mounted on the day after primary elections. The Democratic and Republican nominees to succeed Mayor Frank Rizzo were out on the streets campaigning as the Mayor suggested he might support an independent candidate in the general election. [New York Times]
- A former Lufthansa employee was convicted of helping to plan and carry out the $6 million robbery last December at the airline's cargo terminal at Kennedy Airport. Louis Werner was found guilty of being the "inside man" in the largest cash robbery in the nation's history. None of the currency and jewels has been recovered. [New York Times]
- Rhodesia and South Africa hailed the Senate request to President Carter to lift economic sanctions against Rhodesia as a key victory for the incoming black majority government and a major setback to guerrillas fighting the administration. Britain's new Conservative government sent an emissary to Salisbury, marking the first time that an American negotiator has been excluded from high-level talks there since the British-American peace effort was begun. [New York Times]
- Canada's economy is a critical issue in the national elections next Tuesday. Prime Minister Trudeau and his Liberal Party are being forced by their opponents to defend their record on unemployment and inflation. He invariably points out that the economies of some countries are even worse. [New York Times]
- Many want to leave Vietnam, Hanoi said. According to a high Vietnamese diplomat, 400,000 to 600,000 South Vietnamese are seeking asylum in other countries, in addition to "several hundreds of thousands " who have fled since 1975. He said those wanting to go would be allowed to depart only when countries accepted them. [New York Times]
- Bonn slowed atomic development with a decision to postpone indefinitely construction of a nuclear reprocessing plant pivotal to West Germany's energy program for the next two decades. The decision reflected major public resistance to the project in reaction to the recent reactor accident near Harrisburg, Pa. [New York Times]
- An approach to ratifying the arms pact was suggested by Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee. He said a way of dealing with opposition would be for the Senate to attach reservations acceptable to both the Carter administration and the Soviet Union. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 828.48 (+2.60, +0.31%)
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 15, 1979 | 825.88 | 98.14 | 26.19 |
| May 14, 1979 | 825.02 | 98.06 | 22.46 |
| May 11, 1979 | 830.56 | 98.52 | 24.01 |
| May 10, 1979 | 828.92 | 98.52 | 25.23 |
| May 9, 1979 | 838.62 | 99.46 | 27.67 |
| May 8, 1979 | 834.89 | 99.17 | 32.72 |
| May 7, 1979 | 833.42 | 99.02 | 30.49 |
| May 4, 1979 | 847.54 | 100.69 | 30.63 |
| May 3, 1979 | 857.59 | 101.81 | 30.86 |
| May 2, 1979 | 855.51 | 101.72 | 30.51 |