News stories from Monday March 29, 1976
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- In a 6 to 3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that states may prosecute and imprison people who have participated in homosexual acts even though the parties were consenting adults and the act occurred in a private place. The Court thus sharply reversed a trend over the last 10 years in which it had increasingly expanded the concept of the constitutional right to privacy. The Court acted without hearing arguments and without issuing an opinion. The decision affirmed without comment the 2 to 1 ruling of a lower federal court that had rejected a challenge to a Virginia law prohibiting consensual sodomy.
Astonishment and dismay were expressed by spokesmen for homosexual and civil liberties groups over the Supreme Court's affirmation of a state law against private homosexual acts. They said the decision was a government step into the bedroom.
[New York Times] - Nine days after her federal conviction in San Francisco for bank robbery, Patricia Hearst was arraigned in Los Angeles in an 11-count state indictment that charged her with kidnapping, robbery and assault, all connected with an alleged shoplifting attempt 22 months ago. [New York Times]
- Frank Zarb, the federal energy administrator, gave the East Coast a compromise on heavy fuel as he sent to Congress an initial proposal in what he outlined as a step-by-step elimination of price and allocation controls for petroleum products. Neither the compromise, which concerned cost-sharing payments within the industry, nor the proposed suspension of mandatory price controls, was expected by itself to bring about significant changes in average prices of heavy fuel oil. [New York Times]
- In a Pentagon ceremony in which he presented the Defense Department's Distinguished Service Medal to three former ambassadors to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, President Ford threatened to take the "unprecedented" step of vetoing any defense spending bill approved by Congress that he would regard as inadequate for the country's security. His remark was the toughest of a series of tough statements that he has been making about national security and foreign policy since losing the North Carolina primary to Ronald Reagan last week. [New York Times]
- Dr. Frank Rauscher, director of the National Cancer Institute, said that he was setting up a national clearinghouse on cancer-causing agents in the environment. He said that the clearinghouse would accumulate all available information, decide what substance should be tested and when and alert the public to findings "as they come off the line." [New York Times]
- Congress indicated to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who testified before the House International Relations Committee, that approval of the new Turkish-American bases agreement was doubtful if Turkey made no significant progress toward a Cyprus settlement. [New York Times]
- Lebanese Moslem leaders rejected the latest cease-fire proposals offered by Syrian mediators while fighting continued in Beirut and the nearby mountains. The meeting was held by Kamal Jumblat, the head of the Islamic Druse sect and the Progressive Socialist Party, now the dominant figure in the Moslem-leftist alliance, As the meeting ended in the mountain village of Aleih, mortar fire from right-wing Christians blew out the windows of the meeting room and sprayed some of the participants with glass. No casualties were reported. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 997.40 (-6.06, -0.60%)
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, 1976 | 1003.46 | 102.85 | 18.51 |
| March 25, 1976 | 1002.13 | 102.85 | 22.51 |
| March 24, 1976 | 1009.21 | 103.42 | 32.61 |
| March 23, 1976 | 995.43 | 102.24 | 22.45 |
| March 22, 1976 | 982.29 | 100.71 | 19.41 |
| March 19, 1976 | 979.85 | 100.58 | 18.09 |
| March 18, 1976 | 979.85 | 100.45 | 20.33 |
| March 17, 1976 | 985.99 | 100.86 | 26.19 |
| March 16, 1976 | 983.47 | 100.92 | 22.78 |
| March 15, 1976 | 974.50 | 99.80 | 19.57 |