News stories from Tuesday September 26, 1978

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

The cost of living went up 0.6 percent in August, the second consecutive moderate monthly increase. Housing costs nationwide were up 0.7 percent. [Chicago Tribune] Supporters of the Equal Rights Amendment rallied on Capitol Hill to launch an eleventh-hour appeal to the Senate to grant a 39-month extension to the limit for ratification of the E.R.A. by the states. Deadline for ratification is March 22 and supporters hope to get the extension before the Senate's scheduled adjournment on Oct. 14. [Chicago Tribune] The nation's 27 million Medicare recipients will have to pay higher hospital fees out of their own pockets next year before the government's insurance program for the elderly steps in to pay the rest. The standard base payment for Medicare patients entering hospitals will rise from $144 to $160 on Jan. 1, an increase of 11 percent. The increase in the Medicare insurance program's "deductible" was disclosed at a White House meeting hastily convened to seek support for the administration's 11th-hour campaign for passage of legislation limiting hospital fee increases. [Chicago Tribune] Rep. John Conyers [D., Mich.], the new Congressional Black Caucus chairman, angrily stormed out of a White House meeting after President Carter refused to call another Camp David conference on full employment. Conyers and other black leaders are trying to push the Humphrey-Hawkins employment bill, which sets 4 percent unemployment as a national goal. [Chicago Tribune] The Senate defeated a second and last attempt to kill the natural gas pricing and regulation bill by a vote of 55 to 36 and is expected to pass the bill Wednesday. House passage also is expected. [Chicago Tribune] Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart, acting with only minutes to spare, blocked New York Times reporter Myron Farber's return to jail today. Stewart told New Jersey officials to keep Farber out of jail pending further word from him or the full court. Stewart's action also postponed the scheduled resumption of $5,000 daily fines against the Times. Farber and the Times were found guilty of contempt for refusing to give a judge files on a murder case. [Chicago Tribune] The stock market worked higher despite a mixed news background. Brokers said the market was helped by a report of slower inflation. But investors continued to worry about rising interest rates. The Dow Jones industrial average advanced 5.81 to close at 868.16.President Carter announced a plan to bolster American exports, including the erosion of barriers that inhibit U. S. companies from selling goods abroad. [Chicago Tribune] Sen. Maryon Allen was defeated by state Sen. Donald Stewart in her bid to complete her late husband's term, and former football hero Fob James, a former Republican, won the Democratic nomination to succeed Gov. George Wallace. Former Alabama Chief Justice Howell Heflin won the Democratic nomination to succeed retiring Sen. John Sparkman. The three runoff primaries were tantamount to election in this heavily Democratic state. [Chicago Tribune] Federal authorities said that at least one witness saw a third plane near a commercial jet and small plane at the time they collided in the nation's worst air disaster that killed an estimated 150 persons. "There are strong indications that there was a third plane" that may have contributed to the crash, said Phillip Hogue, head of the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation. [Chicago Tribune] Eight persons died and six were injured when a twin-engine plane crashed and burned in a crowded residential street in San Juan, Puerto Rico's Obrero district. Six of the dead were passengers in the plane, and the other two were in a car crushed by falling debris. [Chicago Tribune] Robert Griffin, fired in July as deputy chief of the General Services Administration, tried to demote and transfer his chief investigator for becoming "too strong an influence" in probing agency scandals, according to an agency memo. [Chicago Tribune] The U.N. General Assembly chamber fell instantly, eerily quiet today when Andrei Gromyko suddenly stopped in the midst of a speech and tightly gripped the rostrum, the blood draining from his face. Gromyko, the Foreign Minister of the Soviet Union and a powerhouse on the world diplomatic stage for decades, was helped from the podium. He returned later to finish his speech and blamed his problem on the heat. [Chicago Tribune] The government declared an amnesty for political prisoners, granting opposition leaders one of their two demands for agreeing to sit down to peace talks with President Anastasio Somoza. Diplomatic sources estimated that about 350 political prisoners should be affected by the amnesty, including at least six members of the Broad Opposition Front, a coalition of political, business and labor organizations opposed to Somoza's rule. [Chicago Tribune] The Israeli parliament, due to vote on the Camp David agreements tomorrow, appears almost certain to approve the accords -- including a commitment to abandon Jewish settlements in the Sinai Desert in return for a peace treaty with Egypt. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat made the removal of the Sinai settlements a non-negotiable precondition for a peace treaty. Several polls show at least 90 to 100 members of Israel's 120-member parliament in favor of the Camp David package. [Chicago Tribune] The Carter administration is withholding the transmission of a letter that promises American aid to build two new Israeli airbases until the issue of Israel's commitment to halt settlements on the West Bank is decided, officials said. [Chicago Tribune] President Carter ended a 3-year-old embargo on arms shipments to Turkey. The embargo ended with the President formally declaring that Turkey "is acting in good faith to achieve a just and peaceful settlement of the Cyprus problem." This coincided with Carter's signing into law of the $2.8 billion foreign military aid authorization act empowering him to lift the embargo. [Chicago Tribune]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 868.16 (+5.81, +0.67%)
S&P Composite: 102.62 (+0.76, +0.75%)
Arms Index: 0.58

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	1,001	18.44
Declines	460	4.90
Unchanged	421	2.99
Total Volume		26.33

* 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 25, 1978	862.35	101.86	20.97
September 22, 1978	862.44	101.84	27.96
September 21, 1978	861.14	101.90	33.65
September 20, 1978	857.16	101.73	35.08
September 19, 1978	861.57	102.53	31.66
September 18, 1978	870.15	103.21	35.83
September 15, 1978	878.55	104.12	37.29
September 14, 1978	887.04	105.10	37.40
September 13, 1978	899.60	106.34	43.33
September 12, 1978	906.44	106.99	34.41