News stories from Wednesday November 4, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Doubt over New Jersey's election for Governor continued after a chaotic day of checking and rechecking figures. Governor Byrne ordered all voting machines and paper ballots impounded and placed under a round-the-clock police guard in preparation for a recount. Unofficial tallies showed Thomas Kean, the Republican, leading Representative James Florio, the Democrat, by 1,158 votes out of more than 2.28 million cast. Neither candidate declared victory or conceded defeat.
Democratic legislators held control of both chambers of the New Jersey legislature, but by the slimmest margins of their eight years in power. In Tuesday's balloting, the Republicans gained five seats in the Senate and one seat in the Assembly.
[New York Times] - Many propositions were rejected by American voters. These included tax breaks for private school pupils in the District of Columbia, a $750 million highway bond issue in West Virginia and a homosexual rights plan in Palo Alto, Calif. [New York Times]
- The second flight of the space shuttle Columbia was postponed for a week or possibly longer. The reason, according to project officials at Cape Canaveral, Fla, is impairment of the auxiliary power units that operate the craft's oil hydraulic system. [New York Times]
- Elvis Presley's doctor was acquitted of all 11 charges of criminally overprescribing addictive drugs to the late singer and eight other patients. The jury in Memphis deliberated just over three hours before agreeing that Dr. George Nichopoulos was not guilty on all counts. [New York Times]
- Divorced men are remarrying more often than divorced women, according to the Census Bureau. It also reported that the divorce rate for both black men and black women rose more than 140 percent in the 1970's. [New York Times]
- A gain for Northern cities in closing the competitive gap with the Sun Belt was revealed by a survey of the wages and benefits of municipal employees in 12 major cities. The study found that city employees in the Sun Belt, among the lowest paid in the nation, had begun catching up with those in the North, narrowing the South's edge over Northern cities. [New York Times]
- The Rolling Stones are about to arrive in the New York City metropolitan area, and officials at the buildings they will play in are talking about barricades, guards and secret "options." Starting tomorrow night, the British rock group will play a three-night stand at the arena in the Hackensack Meadowlands. [New York Times]
- A NATO contingency war plan calls for the explosion of a nuclear warhead as a "demonstration" to deter the Soviet Union from trying to overrun Western Europe with conventional arms, according to Secretary of State Alexander Haig. He made the statement in testimony before a Senate committee. [New York Times]
- A stalemate in the Salvadoran war has been reached, according to key Reagan administration officials. They said that the impasse was expected to lead to the defeat of the American-supported regime and that, as a result, Secretary of State Haig had been pressing the Pentagon to examine a series of options for possible military action in El Salvador and also against Nicaragua and Cuba. The administration says they are conduits of aid to the Salvadoran rebels. [New York Times]
- A strong U.S. human rights policy in foreign affairs is spelled out in a State Department memorandum approved by Secretary of State Haig. The document affirms that a strong commitment to human rights is needed if the United States is to offer a credible alternative to the Soviet example or to rising neutralism. [New York Times]
- All Libyan troops will leave Chad within seven days, according to a statement by their commander that was broadcast on French television. However, the Libyan government remained silent about its troops in the central African country. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 866.82 (-1.90, -0.22%)
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* |
| November 3, 1981 | 868.72 | 124.80 | 54.62 |
| November 2, 1981 | 866.82 | 124.20 | 65.12 |
| October 30, 1981 | 852.55 | 121.89 | 58.56 |
| October 29, 1981 | 832.95 | 119.06 | 40.07 |
| October 28, 1981 | 837.61 | 119.45 | 48.10 |
| October 27, 1981 | 838.38 | 119.29 | 53.03 |
| October 26, 1981 | 830.96 | 118.16 | 38.20 |
| October 23, 1981 | 837.99 | 118.60 | 41.98 |
| October 22, 1981 | 848.27 | 119.64 | 40.63 |
| October 21, 1981 | 851.03 | 120.10 | 48.48 |