News stories from Monday June 20, 1977
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- With the vote of confidence in his coalition government that he sought from Parliament, Menachem Begin became Israel's Prime Minister. He said prevention of another war in the Middle East was his primary concern. His new government won a vote of confidence from 63 members of Parliament, two more than the majority of 61 that was needed. He presented 12 members of his coalition cabinet, leaving three posts temporarily vacant as an enticement to another party to join the government. [New York Times]
- The Supreme Court ruled, 6 to 3, that neither the Constitution nor federal law required states to spend Medicaid funds for elective abortions. By the same vote, the Court ruled that cities and towns that had public hospitals were not required under the Constitution to provide or even permit elective abortions in those hospitals. [New York Times]
- The Navy has been under powerful pressure from the Speaker of the House, Tip O'Neill, and the Senators from Massachusetts to keep a controversial and expensive fighter-plane program it had planned to drop. Pentagon sources said that the plane, the F-18, had been set to be cut from the budget for fiscal 1979. Its engine is produced at a General Electric Company plant In Lynn, Mass. Senators Edward Kennedy and Edward Brooke helped Mr. O'Neill, who is from Massachusetts, too, to exert the pressure on the White House and the Pentagon. Full production of the F-18 would mean 5,000 to 6,000 jobs in the Lynn area. [New York Times]
- The wealth of oil under the tundra of Alaska's North Slope began moving nearly 800 miles southward to ice-free harbors through the $7.7 billion trans-Alaska pipeline just completed by a consortium of eight oil companies. A technician pushed buttons to start the historic flow from an oil field whose production is expected to reach 1.2 million barrels a day by autumn. [New York Times]
- After the reported personal intervention of President Carter, the Immigration and Naturalization Service admitted Mexican workers who will pick crops in southwestern Texas over the objection of the Labor Department. Allowing 809 Mexicans to work in the fields around Presidio, Tex., was "in the national interest," Immigration Commissioner Leonel Castillo said, because onion crops were in danger of rotting. It was a "bail out" for growers who failed to provide adequate housing for the migrants, who are also paid far below the United States minimum, the Labor Department said. [New York Times]
- The House Ways and Means Committee accepted with minor modifications President Carter's proposals for business tax incentives that are intended to encourage fuel conservation and conversions away from oil and gas. The conversion program would offer business two choices to spur investment in conversions. [New York Times]
- Optimistic economic predictions by a private business research group, the Conference Board, were credited for moderate advance in stock prices. The Dow Jones industrial average, moving In a narrow range throughout the session, closed up 3.82 points to 924.27. Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones 9 to 5. [New York Times]
- Congress was urged by the two top federal financial officials to permit banks in all 50 states to pay interest on checking accounts and similar deposits. Arthur Burns. chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, and Treasury Secretary Michael Blumenthal testified before a Senate banking subcommittee on a bill that would authorize interest-bearing "NOW" -- negotiable orders of withdrawal -- accounts, now available in New England, to be offered in the rest of the nation. The bill, drawn up by the Treasury with the cooperation of the Federal Reserve, faces obstacles in Congress. [New York Times]
- Unsuspecting consumers in New York, Detroit and Chicago have been buying as table-fare lake trout from Lake Michigan contaminated by the toxic chemical PCB. The trout are being illegally caught by what Michigan and federal officials call "renegade" fishermen. Agents trying to stop the fishing have been stoned and shot at and have been targets of high-speed, near-miss boat attacks. [New York Times]
- Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, arrived in Paris for three days of talks with President Valery Giscard d'Estaing that were expected to touch on detente, nuclear issues, trade and possibly provide some mention of views on the Middle East and Africa. He received an elaborately formal welcome in Paris under extraordinary security measures. It was his first visit to the West since a visit to France in December 1974. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 924.27 (+3.82, +0.42%)
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* |
| June 17, 1977 | 920.45 | 99.97 | 21.96 |
| June 16, 1977 | 920.45 | 99.85 | 24.31 |
| June 15, 1977 | 917.57 | 99.62 | 22.64 |
| June 14, 1977 | 922.57 | 99.86 | 25.39 |
| June 13, 1977 | 912.40 | 98.74 | 20.25 |
| June 10, 1977 | 910.79 | 98.46 | 20.63 |
| June 9, 1977 | 909.85 | 98.14 | 19.94 |
| June 8, 1977 | 912.99 | 98.20 | 22.20 |
| June 7, 1977 | 908.67 | 97.73 | 21.11 |
| June 6, 1977 | 903.07 | 97.23 | 18.93 |