News stories from Thursday September 3, 1981

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

An effort to cut welfare rolls has been devised by the Reagan administration. The plan would require state agencies to assess most of the personal property and household effects of welfare recipients to insure that their assets do not exceed the statutory limit of $1,000 per household. [New York Times] Inquiries into food stamp fraud carried out on a large scale are to be coordinated by a special unit of officials in the Justice Department, the Agriculture Department and the Postal Service, according to Justice Department officials. They said some government investigators believe that $1 billion is lost through food stamp fraud each year, and that evidence of the cheating is increasing. [New York Times] The Clean Air Act would be crippled under detailed proposals quietly drafted by the Environmental Protection Agency. An analysis of the plan suggests that, it approved by Congress, the changes would eliminate many key provisions of the law, including programs requiring stringent rules on regions with polluted air and special safeguards for areas where the air is relatively clean. [New York Times] Unionists accorded President Reagan a polite but cool reception in his first appearance before a labor group since he dismissed 12,000 striking flight controllers. Shortly after Mr. Reagan's speech, members of the carpenters' union cheered a Democratic official when he criticized the President's economic policies and handling of the controllers' walkout. [New York Times] Proposed cuts in military spending would jeopardize national security and send the wrong signals to the Soviet Union and America's allies, according to a statement made by Deputy Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci at a meeting with Edwin Meese, the presidential counselor. [New York Times] The number of abortions obtained by poor women has been little affected by the law that nearly eliminated the use of Medicaid funds for abortions, according to a federal study. The report also said that the congressional restriction on federal abortion funds has not resulted in an increase of illegal abortions or in large numbers of unwanted births. [New York Times] The Sun Belt has higher fertility rates than the rest of the country, according to the Census Bureau. An official said that women in the South and West were having the majority of births every year. [New York Times] Over-the-counter drugs were assailed in a lawsuit filed by Public Citizen, a group founded by Ralph Nader. The suit asserts that ingredients contained in more than half of these 300,000 drugs now on the market are of doubtful safety or effectiveness. [New York Times] The threat of a new drought was raised by a drastically dry August after four months of plentiful rainfall. Robert Goodell, operations chief of the Delaware River Basin Commission, said that New York City's three big Delaware River reservoirs were only 54 percent full compared with 63 percent a year ago. [New York Times] Britain's Labor Party is embroiled in a bitter campaign over its deputy leadership. The contest, to be settled at a party convention on Sept. 27, has major significance. Both Denis Healey, who holds the post, and Tony Benn, the challenger, view the campaign as a critical milestone for the party at a time of major realignment in British politics. [New York Times] Street fighting erupted in Teheran as revolutionary guards fought two gun battles with guerrillas for many hours, reportedly killing 10 of the leftists. The state radio said that one guardsman was also slain. [New York Times] Angola and South Africa exchanged charges over the raid by South African troops. Angolan officials in Lisbon charged that the troops had begun a new drive deep into southern Angola east of the area where the raid began on Aug. 24. A South African spokesman in Pretoria denounced the statement as "ridiculous propaganda." [New York Times] South Africa is withdrawing its forces from Angola, officials in the Reagan administration said, based on information received in Washington. They said that if there was new fighting in southeastern Angola it was between rival Angolans. [New York Times] Future American-Chinese ties will be determined by how Washington handles the issue of Taiwan, according to Jimmy Carter's impressions of his talks with the Chinese leadership. The former President has ended a 10-day visit to China. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 867.01 (-17.22, -1.95%)
S&P Composite: 121.24 (-2.25, -1.82%)
Arms Index: 2.06

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	305	4.18
Declines	1,237	34.98
Unchanged	329	2.57
Total Volume		41.73

* 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*
September 2, 1981	884.23	123.49	37.57
September 1, 1981	882.71	123.02	45.11
August 31, 1981	881.47	122.79	40.36
August 28, 1981	892.22	124.08	38.02
August 27, 1981	889.08	123.51	43.91
August 26, 1981	899.26	124.96	39.98
August 25, 1981	901.83	125.13	54.60
August 24, 1981	900.11	125.50	46.74
August 21, 1981	920.57	129.23	37.67
August 20, 1981	928.37	130.69	38.27