News stories from Friday August 25, 1978

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

The threat of an illegal mail strike grew as two more postal unions rejected a proposed new contract and the government asked a federal judge to block a walkout. U.S. District Court Judge John Pratt refused to grant an immediate order against a strike but said he "won't delay" in issuing one if there is a breakdown in talks that began late today between the Postal Service and union leaders. [Washington Post] Sen. Herman Talmadge (D-Ga.) acknowledged that his name appeared on a secret bank account that a former Talmadge aide said was used to funnel improper Senate reimbursements to the Senator and his family. In a statement released by his office, Talmadge, who is under investigation by the Senate Ethics Committee and a federal grand jury, said he did not learn his name was on the account until yesterday, when he was told by his administrative assistant and his attorney. [Washington Post] The Senate voted 66 to 10 to extend the nation's major jobs program for four more years at an estimated cost of $46 billion. It authorized the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act after approving revisions, many of them approved by the Carter administration, to give more preference to the hard-core unemployed and to protect against fraud and other abuses. [Washington Post] White House officials denied that President Carter changed his position on breeder reactor research to win a needed vote for his natural gas deregulation bill, which has become endangered by the breeder issue. Buy key Senators remained angry over what they regard as a change in the administration's position. [Washington Post] Senate Majority Leader Robert Byrd (D-W. Va.) warned the Carter administration that any attempt to enter into a strategic arms limitation talks (S.A.L.T.) agreement with the Soviet Union without gaining two-thirds approval of the Senate was certain to fail. [Washington Post] The U.S. Atomic Energy Detection System today reported it had detected seismic signals presumably caused by a Soviet underground nuclear explosion. [Washington Post] The first balloonists to cross the Atlantic returned to American soil today and a heroes' welcome. Ben Abruzzo, Maxie Anderson and Larry Newman flew to Kennedy International Airport in New York aboard an Air France supersonic Concorde, which made the Atlantic crossing in 3½ hours, somewhat less than the six days it took the three to float the 3,200-mile distance in their silvery balloon. [Washington Post] A federal judge put off the start of desegregation in Cleveland's 100,000-pupil school system until at least February. And the Supreme Court refused to reinstate a school desegregation plan for schools in Columbus, Ohio, that was due to take effect next month. [Washington Post] In Montgomery, Ala., U.S. District Court Judge Frank Johnson denied Watergate conspirator John Mitchell's request for immediate release from prison, but gave the U.S. Parole Commission 10 days to show cause why Mitchell should not be freed. [Washington Post] It will cost taxpayers $211,835.35 for police expenses in two recent Nazi party rallies, according to Chicago police superintendent James O'Grady. He listed the departments expenses for manpower and equipment to handle the Nazis' June 24 rally outside the Federal Building in the Loop, and their July 9 rally in Marquette Park.Another $149,667.71 was spent for crowd control during the June 24-25 Puerto Rican Independence Day festival in Humboldt Park, O'Grady said. [Washington Post] Mourning ceremonies for the victims of last Saturday's Abadan theater fire turned into anti-Shah demonstrations as this southwest Iranian oil town entered what residents said would be a "day of blood." The feeling against the Shah and his government -- blamed by a majority of the townspeople for the tragedy -- is open, virulent and overwhelmingly widespread in Abadan, the site of one of the world's largest oil refineries and a key city in the Iranian economy. [Washington Post] In Geneva, a phantom hijacker held a TWA jet captive for 11 hours while airline officials tried to decide how to deal with his bizarre threat to blow up the plane with all 87 persons aboard. Finally, mystified TWA officials decided to evacuate the plane, and the 78 passengers and nine crew members -- with the unknown hijacker apparently in their midst -- filed off safely.Swiss police, after questioning all 87 persons for hours, admitted that they had not found the hijacker and were not sure whether the whole episode was a hoax or a serious terrorist attempt. [Washington Post]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 895.53 (-1.82, -0.20%)
S&P Composite: 104.90 (-0.18, -0.17%)
Arms Index: 0.75

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	766	17.99
Declines	753	13.32
Unchanged	412	4.88
Total Volume		36.19

* in millions of shares

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*
August 24, 1978	897.35	105.08	38.50
August 23, 1978	897.00	104.91	39.63
August 22, 1978	892.41	104.31	29.62
August 21, 1978	888.95	103.89	29.44
August 18, 1978	896.83	104.73	34.66
August 17, 1978	900.12	105.08	45.27
August 16, 1978	894.58	104.65	36.13
August 15, 1978	887.13	103.85	29.78
August 14, 1978	888.17	103.97	32.32
August 11, 1978	890.85	103.96	33.55