News stories from Wednesday September 6, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- To bolster his weak anti-inflation program, President Carter is ready to get tough with violators of his wage-price standards, sources said. His advisers are developing a plan to use the government's purchasing and contract powers against businesses that fail to follow the voluntary pricing program. Also in the wind is a $5 billion slash in the estimated fiscal 1980 budget deficit, paring it by $30 billion. [Chicago Tribune]
- Public school employees in Cleveland, including teachers, are to begin a strike, affecting more than 100,000 students in the Cleveland school system. Union leaders announced late today that the strike would go ahead although they had agreed to continue contract talks. Two-thirds of the striking workers are teachers. Negotiations aimed at heading off the walkout broke off Wednesday. [Chicago Tribune]
- Former Texas Governor John Connally and his wife, Nellie, testified at the House Assassination Committee hearings into the death of President Kennedy. The Connallys were riding with the President when he was fatally shot on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas. Connally also was struck by the gunfire. The Connallys' testimony raised one of the central questions of the committee: Whether alleged assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was aided by another gunman. [Chicago Tribune]
- Three persons have been reported killed and at least 17 others missing after Tropical Storm Norman dropped a 5-inch snow on hikers in the Sierras. A possible fourth death was reported, but rescuers were unable to reach the location where a helicopter reported seeing a man lying in a sleeping bag with no apparent sign of life. [Chicago Tribune]
- The stock market staged a strong rally, led by blue chip and gambling issues, though some gains were pared by profit taking late in the day. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 9.18 points higher at 895.79.
William Miller, chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, recommended that Congress defer scheduled increases in Social Security taxes for a year. Testifying before the Senate Finance Committee, he said the delay would save the economy about one-half a percentage point in inflation.
[Chicago Tribune] - At his first general audience, Pope John Paul I asked those attending to pray with him that the Camp David summit conference will produce a Middle East peace solution and that it will solve the Palestinian problem, retain Israel's security, and safeguard the holy city of Jerusalem. The new pontiff said the 30-year-old Middle East conflict has caused much suffering and "like a bad disease has contaminated nearby countries." [Chicago Tribune]
- It will be impossible for the government to meet the Dec. 31 target date for black majority rule in Rhodesia, a government official, Rollo Hayman, said in Salisbury. Hayman, white co-minister of internal affairs, said the biracial transition government set up March 3 will not be able to complete the steps needed to bring a majority-rule government into power by the end of the year. [Chicago Tribune]
- In a major genetic engineering feat that promises to benefit millions of diabetics, the City of Hope Medical Center announced that the first human insulin has been manufactured in bacteria "tricked" by the insertion of artificial genes. Up to now, insulin has been obtained from the pancreas of slaughtered cattle and pigs, but this supply is becoming inadequate. The genetic breakthrough was achieved by 10 collaborating scientists from the City of Hope and Genentech, Inc., a research and development laboratory in South San Francisco. [Chicago Tribune]
- The leaders of the United States, Israel, and Egypt, placing "our trust in the gods of our fathers," met face-to-face to try to work out in the serenity of the Catoctin Mountains the problems of the chaotic Middle East. The day began with a joint call by the three for prayers by the waiting world. It ended with an unexpected sightseeing trip by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat through the Maryland countryside, apparently so he could blow off steam. [Chicago Tribune]
- The Soviet prosecutor asked the three-man Moscow court to impose a five-year suspended sentence at the currency trial of Jay Crawford, salesman for International Harvester, because he has helped to improve Soviet-U.S. trade relations. The recommendation came after the defense brought out errors and inconsistencies in the state's case. If Crawford receives a suspended sentence, he is expected to leave the country immediately. [Chicago Tribune]
- Police killed one of West Germany's three most wanted terrorists in a brief gunfight in a Chinese restaurant in Dusseldorf, according to West German authorities. He said officers burst into the restaurant after another guest recognized Willy Peter Stoll, 28, a member of the Baader-Meinhof gang, and called police. [Chicago Tribune]
- Indiana University Dean Carl Jackson arrived in Crosshaven, Ireland, tired, lonely, and with his clothes covered with mold, after ending a 51-day solo voyage across the Atlantic in his 30-foot ketch, "Carla Mia." Jackson, 55, said he would never undertake a similar venture again. "I always thought of myself as self-sufficient, but I found life without people had no meaning. I had a definite need for somebody to talk to, someone real and alive, and breathing," he said, after setting foot on dry land. [Chicago Tribune]
- Bottles of poisoned wine were sent to three leaders of a major political party in Montevideo, and one man's wife died immediately after tasting it, police said. The wine, with identical messages reading, "On Thursday, Aug, 31 at midday let us toast the fatherland in its new era," was signed with the initials "M.D.N." Police said none of the three men, who are leaders of the National Party, drank the wine but one of their wives sampled some Tuesday and died immediately. The wine contained a powerful pesticide, which was injected through the cork. [Chicago Tribune]
- Two Greek newspapers published pictures purportedly showing black-bearded Bishop Stylianos, 66, having sex with an unidentified woman, as the scandal rocking the Greek Orthodox Church continued to heat up. Another paper printed a front-page editorial headlined, "How many more sins, holy fathers?" The bishop has charged the pictures are forgeries and were used in a blackmail attempt. [Chicago Tribune]
- Japan and the United States have agreed to cooperate in developing new energy sources, with priority to be given to nuclear fusion. The announcement came after a meeting of the first working group on Japan-U.S. Cooperation in Science and Technology. The group agreed to cooperate in the fields of nuclear fusion, coal liquefaction, solar energy and photosynthesis, geothermal energy, and high-energy physics. [Chicago Tribune]
- Uganda radio reported a wave of murders and robberies by "Ugandans who have taken the law into their own hands." The broadcast, monitored in London, said President Idi Amin had signed death warrants for 13 persons convicted by the high court in connection with the crimes and commuted the death sentences of three others to life imprisonment. [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 895.79 (+9.18, +1.04%)
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 5, 1978 | 886.61 | 104.49 | 32.18 |
| September 1, 1978 | 879.33 | 103.68 | 35.07 |
| August 31, 1978 | 876.82 | 103.29 | 33.85 |
| August 30, 1978 | 880.72 | 103.50 | 37.76 |
| 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 |