News stories from Wednesday August 30, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The 35-year-old son of Mexico's ambassador to the United States was slain by leftist terrorists after being kidnapped in Mexico City, police said. Police in the small town of Chalco, 18 miles from Mexico City, said the blood-spattered body of Hugo Margain Charles was found near the village early Wednesday but was not identified until 10:30 p.m. Margain, son of Ambassador Hugo B. Margain, was abducted by members of an extreme leftist guerrilla group who attacked the auto in which he was riding near the national university, police said. [Chicago Tribune]
- Rep. John Anderson [R., Illinois] said he has begun an exploratory campaign to find out whether he has enough backing to run for President. Anderson, the chairman of the House Republican Conference, the No. 3 leadership post in the House, said he will make no decision on running until after Jan. 1. "I need financial support if I run," he said. "I'm not going to drag a trailer around the country like Fred Harris did." [Chicago Tribune]
- Striking firefighters stood and watched a five-hour blaze destroy a downtown business block in Anderson, Indiana, blaming the loss on city officials' refusal to negotiate a salary dispute. A few non-striking firemen and volunteer firefighters from surrounding communities controlled the fire after it burned six businesses and the county prosecutor's office. [Chicago Tribune]
- Contractors working on federal buildings have paid millions of dollars in bribes to General Services Administration employees, the agency's top investigator said. Federal agents believe some of the alleged bribes are in Swiss bank accounts, one source said. GSA administrator Jay Solomon said he expects at least 50 GSA employees to be indicted. [Chicago Tribune]
- A $1 billion state income tax cut was signed into law and rents throughout Los Angeles were ordered rolled back and frozen as the California tax revolt spawned by Proposition 13 railed on. Gov. Jerry Brown termed it "the largest state tax cut in the history of California." [Chicago Tribune]
- In Bowling Green, Kentucky, Marla Pitchford, the 22-year-old former Western Kentucky University coed charged with performing an abortion on herself with a knitting needle after physicians refused their help, was acquitted by jurors on the grounds that she was temporarily insane. The jurors took less than an hour to arrive at their verdict. If convicted, she could have faced 10 to 20 years in prison. [Chicago Tribune]
- A twin-engine charter plane carrying a group of Australian tourists crashed into the desert four minutes after takeoff from the North Las Vegas airport, killing 10 persons. "All nine passengers were from Australia," said Don Donohue, vice president of Las Vegas Airlines. The pilot, a Las Vegas resident, had 6,000 hours flying time and joined the charter airline in April after retiring from the Air Force. [Chicago Tribune]
- Stocks advanced despite an increase in the prime rate posted by major banks. Gaining issues held a moderate lead over losers and the Dow Jones industrial average edged up 0.52 to 880.71.
Banks in New York City and elsewhere began raising their prime lending rate Wednesday from 9 percent to 9¼ percent. It was the sixth increase in the base lending charge this year and brings the rate to its highest level since February 1975. The boost reflects efforts of the Federal Reserve Board to make credit tighter by encouraging higher borrowing charges. The move by the Fed is an effort to fight inflation by dampening demand. The Fed also wants to make dollar investments more favorable for foreigners and thus help the international value of the dollar.
[Chicago Tribune] - In Matagalpa, Nicaragua, men and women, the young and the old, are prowling the streets of this city of 40,000, shooting and hurling bombs at National Guard troops. And when they aren't shooting, they are demonstrating against President Anastasio Somoza, seeking his resignation. Matagalpa, Nicaragua's third-largest city, has been under a virtual state of siege since Saturday. Every civilian capable of carrying a gun appears to be armed, visitors say. [Chicago Tribune]
- United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim asked the U.N. Security Council to send 7,500 troops and 1,200 officials to South-West Africa [Namibia] to ensure a peaceful transition to independence. The operation would be one of the biggest and costliest in U.N. history. Waldheim estimated that the 12-month venture would cost up to $300 million -- more than half the U.N. budget. [Chicago Tribune]
- Egypt said it wants a comprehensive Middle East settlement at next month's Camp David summit meeting and rejected any partial settlement with Israel. President Carter, who cut a Rocky Mountain vacation short by two days, said he "would be reluctant" to send American troops to the Middle East as part of a peace settlement between Israel and its neighbors. [Chicago Tribune]
- A gunman, accompanied by his wife and at least one child, hijacked a Polish jetliner with 60 passengers aboard and forced it to land at Tempelhof Airport, a U.S. air base in West Berlin, an Air Force spokesman said. After the plane landed, the hijacker and his family and a least six other occupants asked for asylum in the West, official sources said. The Polish plane, a twin-engine TU-134, was en route from Warsaw and Gdansk, Poland, to East Berlin. [Chicago Tribune]
- Police arrested 2,000 farmers who threatened to besiege India's Parliament to protest the government's leasing of land to Untouchables and other landless peasants, authorities reported. Many of the 4,500 protesters were small-landholding farmers of the Hindu Jat caste. At issue was the allocation of 120 acres of communal grazing pasture at the village of Kanjhawla in 1970 to 120 families, half of them Untouchables, the lowest Hindu caste. [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 880.72 (+0.52, +0.06%)
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 29, 1978 | 880.20 | 103.39 | 33.78 |
| August 28, 1978 | 884.88 | 103.96 | 31.76 |
| August 25, 1978 | 895.53 | 104.90 | 36.19 |
| 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 |