News stories from Monday February 9, 1976
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Patricia Hearst told her story from the witness stand for the first time and rarely showed emotion as she testified that she had helped rob a bank because her captors had threatened to kill her if she did not. For the first time publicly, she turned against William and Emily Harris, who have not been charged in the bank robbery, by stating that they took part in the crime for which she is on trial. [New York Times]
- The administration is said to be considering the possibility of implementing much of its proposed food stamp reform by issuing new regulations rather than waiting for congressional action. The strategy is regarded as an attempt by the administration to cut back the $5.8 billion food stamp program, which has come under criticism and partisan attack from within and outside the government. [New York Times]
- Robert Pollard, the federal safety engineer for the nuclear reactors at Indian Point, New York, resigned, charging that plants were unsafe in design and construction and could cause a catastrophe. "If I had the authority, I would close down Indian Point Plant No. 2 at once -- it's almost an accident waiting to happen," he said as he announced his resignation as project manager for the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, formerly the Atomic Energy Commission. The commission, the Consolidated Edison Company and the State Power Authority quickly issued rebuttals. [New York Times]
- The General Accounting Office said that the Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, involved in a worldwide bribery scandal, may not be able to pay its federally guaranteed loans on time. The loan guarantee averted the company's bankruptcy in 1971. Meanwhile, two more countries -- Mexico and Colombia -- were added to the list of those where Lockheed had paid bribes to facilitate the sale of its planes. [New York Times]
- A firing squad of their own countrymen reportedly shot to death 13 or 14 British mercenaries in Angola. Prime Minister Harold Wilson told Parliament that the reports were probably true. According to reporters who interviewed them, members of the firing squad said that they had been forced to kill their compatriots because the men had complained about combat conditions in Angola and wanted to return home. [New York Times]
- Soviet-supplied Angolan forces led by Cuban troops seized the central Angolan town of Huambo, where two Western-supported nationalist movements had established a government last November. Huambo's capture was announced by Jorge Sangumba, secretary for foreign affairs of one of the movements, the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola. [New York Times]
- While relief supplies were rushed to Guatemala, estimates of the death toll from the quake of last Wednesday and Friday continued to rise. United States and international relief officials, who had made damage surveys by air and on the ground, said they believed that more than 15,000 had been killed. They estimated the number of injured at 40,000 and the homeless at nearly 500,000. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 957.18 (+2.28, +0.24%)
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* |
| February 6, 1976 | 954.90 | 99.46 | 27.36 |
| February 5, 1976 | 964.81 | 100.39 | 33.78 |
| February 4, 1976 | 976.62 | 101.91 | 38.27 |
| February 3, 1976 | 972.61 | 101.18 | 34.08 |
| February 2, 1976 | 971.35 | 100.87 | 24.00 |
| January 30, 1976 | 975.28 | 100.86 | 38.51 |
| January 29, 1976 | 968.75 | 100.11 | 29.80 |
| January 28, 1976 | 951.35 | 98.53 | 27.37 |
| January 27, 1976 | 957.81 | 99.07 | 32.07 |
| January 26, 1976 | 961.51 | 99.68 | 39.64 |