News stories from Friday June 9, 1978

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

Blacks may become priests of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Spencer Kimball, the church's president, announced from headquarters in Salt. Lake City. Blacks had been barred from the priesthood since the church's founding 118 years ago. The ban was lifted, Mr. Kimball said in a letter to church leaders, as a result of a "revelation" from God. "He has heard our prayers," Mr. Kimball said. [New York Times] Financing for 26 water projects was requested by President Carter of Congress. At the same time Mr. Carter indicated that he would veto any attempt to restore projects he killed last year. He asked Congress to vote budget authority for the full $720 million cost of the 26 projects instead of following its usual practice of approving payments followed by piecemeal financing over a period of years. [New York Times] Ford recalled 1.5 million Pintos, its popular subcompact, for "modification" of the fuel system intended to increase resistance to leakage and risk of fire in rear-end collisions. Ford previously insisted that the fuel systems were safe. The recall includes all Pinto models, except station wagons, made for the 1971-1976 model years. About 30,000 Mercury Bobcats that were equipped with the same type of fuel system will also be recalled. [New York Times] Israeli forces devastated a Palestinian coastal base in southern Lebanon, north of the zone held by United Nations peacekeeping troops. Israeli military sources said that the attack by naval commandos and paratroops was ordered when it was learned through intelligence reports that an attack on Israeli civilians was imminent from the base at Dhar al-Burj. Israel said that at least seven Palestinians had been killed and that it had lost two naval lieutenants. [New York Times] The Skylab space station responded to radioed commands and apparently stabilized itself after being in a menacingly falling orbit. The likelihood of the 81-ton craft's maintaining its current 212-mile-high orbit at least into early 1980 was improved, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration said. [New York Times] The Carter administration has failed to support its charges that Cuba was involved in the training and equipping of the Katangan invaders of Zaire last month, some members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said with varying degrees of skepticism. [New York Times] South Africa refused to give passports to two black leaders who were preparing to attend a conference on the country's future that begins Sunday in Freiburg, West Germany. Dr. Nthato Motlana, a physician, and Tamsanga Kambule, a university lecturer, were turned down when they refused to accept citizenship in a tribal homeland as a condition for being granted a passport. They said they would have the status of "foreigners" in their own country. [New York Times] Freedom was offered to hundreds of political prisoners in the Philippines by President Ferdinand Marcos on the eve of the start of a limited form of a parliamentary government. Among them is former Senator Benigno Aquino Jr., the government opposition leader, [New York Times] Proposals for a new Canadian constitution to be proclaimed by July 1. 1981, the 50th anniversary of Canada's formal independence from Britain, were published by a Montreal newspaper, La Presse. The paper printed what it said was the full text of the document that Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau is planning to submit to the House of Commons next week. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 859.23 (-2.86, -0.33%)
S&P Composite: 99.93 (-0.28, -0.28%)
Arms Index: 0.89

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	706	13.98
Declines	729	12.82
Unchanged	457	5.67
Total Volume		32.47

* 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*
June 8, 1978	862.09	100.21	39.38
June 7, 1978	861.92	100.12	33.06
June 6, 1978	866.51	100.32	51.98
June 5, 1978	863.83	99.95	39.59
June 2, 1978	847.54	98.14	31.86
June 1, 1978	840.70	97.35	28.75
May 31, 1978	840.61	97.24	29.07
May 30, 1978	834.20	96.86	21.04
May 26, 1978	831.69	96.58	21.41
May 25, 1978	835.41	96.80	28.41