News stories from Tuesday October 10, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The Senate voted 86-4 to cut individual and corporate taxes by $29.3 billion next year -- nearly double the cut approved by the House. The bill now goes to the House-Senate conference committee to resolve scores of differences. The House voted to cut taxes $16.3 billion.
President Carter said he will not hesitate to veto the $30 billion tax cut bill as drafted by the Senate, but hopes to work out a compromise so that he won't have to. He said he will meet Wednesday with the chairmen of the tax-writing committees of the Senate and House to try to work out an "acceptable package," combining the "best elements" of the Senate bill and the $16.3 billion tax cut passed by the House.
[Chicago Tribune] - President Carter said his controversial strategic arms negotiator, Paul Warnke, is quitting for personal reasons. Warnke, a target of Senate conservatives opposing a second SALT arms reduction treaty with the Soviet Union, will leave after talks that are expected to wrap up the treaty in Moscow on Oct. 22 and 23. Warnke plans to return to private law practice. [Chicago Tribune]
- The threat of a nationwide mail strike faded as the National Association of Letter Carriers approved a new contract by a 6 to 1 margin and a second union, the American Postal Workers, was reported voting heavily in favor of the pact. The letter carriers also voted by a wide margin to oust their president, Joseph Vacca, after one term. They elected the New York City local president, Vincent Sombrotto, who narrowly lost to Vacca in 1976. [Chicago Tribune]
- Rep. Charles Diggs [D., Mich.] gave up his committee chairmanships and vowed not to vote for the remainder of the 95th Congress because of his conviction on 29 felony counts, Diggs has said he will appeal his conviction Saturday in U.S. District Court in Washington in a $66,000 payroll kickback scheme. No date has been set for sentencing. He said he will not resign from Congress and remains a candidate for re-election. [Chicago Tribune]
- About 3 million poor people will be able to enroll for food stamps for the first time next year and more than 1 million participants may be dropped from the program under regulations announced today. They'll be dropped if their incomes rise above new lower income limits, if they drive cars worth more than $4,500, or if they are poor students who do not register for work. Students whose families are not poor must be dropped from the program. [Chicago Tribune]
- House and Senate conferees on approved a huge defense spending bill restricting military-funded abortions. The bill, authorizing $117.5 billion, is about $1.5 billion less than President Carter's request, mainly because of the deletion of a nuclear aircraft carrier vetoed by Carter. The bill still needs House and Senate approval. [Chicago Tribune]
- Gold mining issues chalked up wide gains while the rest of the stock market declined slightly, ending a four-session rally. Gold climbed to a new high of about $225 an ounce in London and Zurich. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 1.56 lower at 891.63.
Datsun has completed studies on building a United States plant, but hasn't made a decision yet, an executive of the Japanese automaker said, The rising value of the yen against the dollar has forced Datsun and other foreign producers to raise prices substantially in the U. S., prompting them to consider making cars here.
[Chicago Tribune] - U.S. Rep. Ralph Metcalfe, 68, was found dead in bed this morning in his South Side Chicago apartment, apparently of a heart attack. He had suffered a previous attack in 1967. His body was discovered by aides who had gone to the apartment to take him to the airport for a flight to Washington. Metcalfe, a former Olympic track star, rose through the ranks of the Cook County Democratic organization to become a powerful Chicago alderman and then a Congressman. [Chicago Tribune]
- DDT has not been ruled out as a possible cancer threat, a National Cancer Institute spokesman said. Melva Weber, speaking from Bethesda, Md., discounted reports that a study failed to show a link between DDT and tumors in test animals. She said confusion might have arisen when the study commented on the cancer-causing potential of DDT alone and of chemicals formed when DDT breaks down in the body. ''We didn't find cancer in rats and mice as a result of DDT [alone], but we did find it as a result of a byproduct of DDT," Miss Weber said. [Chicago Tribune]
- An increasing number of teachers in schools with serious discipline problems are developing the same kind of combat neurosis experienced by soldiers under battlefield conditions, a U.C.L.A. psychiatrist reported in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Dr. Alfred Bloch says that symptoms found in the teachers include emotional tension, anxiety, insecurity, nightmares, and excessive startle response. [Chicago Tribune]
- Egyptian President Anwar Sadat said that he is finished trying to negotiate on behalf of Syria or the Palestinians because of "their ingratitude and obscenities." He also assailed Syria's military action in Lebanon, calling it "murder for murder's sake" and "bloodshed for bloodshed's sake." Sadat said he never will "put the destiny of Egypt or the Arab cause in the hands of those murderers" but would carry on towards peace with Israel. [Chicago Tribune]
- Nine decades of legalized racial discrimination will end in Rhodesia when the country's segregated state schools, hospitals and urban residential areas are thrown open to all races, based only on the ability to pay, Rhodesia's transitional government announced. Bishop Abel Muzorewa, a ranking black official in the interim government, said "I'm so happy, I could jump for joy." The historic plan, which will take several months to implement, was hailed as "a victory for moderation."
The United Nations Security Council rebuked the United States for admitting Prime Minister Ian Smith of Rhodesia in contravention of the council's ban on such visits. The council's resolution was adopted by 11 votes to 0 with the United States, Britain, Canada and West Germany abstaining. France voted to censure the U.S. Smith is visiting the U.S. along with the Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole, a Rhodesian black leader, to seek support for that nation's internal settlement leading to majority rule.
[Chicago Tribune] - Dissident Soviet nuclear physicist Sergei Polikanov arrived in Copenhagen, bound for the United States. Polikanov, 51, forced into exile, said it was no punishment to be kicked out of a country where his life and work had become "impossible." He was accompanied by his wife and their 18-year-old daughter, Katya. Polikanov worked for nearly 20 years at the Joint International Institute of Nuclear Research at Dubna, near Moscow. [Chicago Tribune]
- A top official of the Italian Justice Ministry was shot to death at his home in Rome, apparently the 17th Italian killed by the terrorist Red Brigades this year. The latest victim was Girolamo Tartaglione, 65, a Rome magistrate who also was the Justice Ministry's director general for penal affairs. He was shot by a young man as he came down the stairs of his suburban apartment building. Among earlier victims of the Red Brigades this year was former Prime Minister Aldo Moro, who was kidnapped and held hostage 55 days before being murdered. [Chicago Tribune]
- Vatican insiders said that demands for further details on the death of Pope John Paul I have no real basis and rumors of foul play are groundless. But they added that an official medical report should have been issued immediately. "It would have been easier to squelch these rumors right away if fuller information had been provided at once, although there was no indication of anything sinister about it," said the Rev. Donald Campion, a Jesuit expert on Vatican affairs. [Chicago Tribune]
- The heaviest gunfire since the weekend cease-fire erupted today on the edge of the Christian area of Beirut. Meanwhile, Syria and the Palestinians moved troops toward Beirut, prompting charges by Israel's state radio that Syria was planning a major attack on the Lebanese Christians, whom the Israelis support and furnish with arms. [Chicago Tribune]
- World titleholder Anatoly Karpov threw away a possible championship victory and adjourned the 30th game of the series at the 42nd move. Experts said the conservative Karpov missed a possible winning thrust earlier in the game and predicted that the game would end in a draw when it resumes Wednesday. Karpov and challenger Viktor Korchnoi each have a rook and six pawns after a series of exchanges. Karpov leads in victories, 5 to 4. Six wins are needed to take the championship. [Chicago Tribune]
- In Caracas, Venezuela, a fire believed started by a drunken arsonist swept through a downtown bar early today, killing 22 persons. Ministry of information officials said the arsonist -- a National Guardsman -- apparently splashed the establishment with gasoline and set it afire. He was arrested later at his barracks. No motive was determined. [Chicago Tribune]
- Foreign airlines canceled some flights to and from Mexico City and delayed others after aviation officials banned takeoffs and landings between 9 p.m. and 9 a.m. because of the air traffic controllers' strike. Mexico's two national airlines have cut their flights by 80 percent. The walkout is In protest against the government's attempt to make the 900 commercial controllers join a new government-controlled organization and sign individual contracts that would reduce salaries and fringe benefits. [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 891.63 (-1.56, -0.17%)
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* |
| October 9, 1978 | 893.19 | 104.59 | 19.72 |
| October 6, 1978 | 880.02 | 103.52 | 27.39 |
| October 5, 1978 | 876.47 | 103.27 | 27.81 |
| October 4, 1978 | 873.96 | 103.06 | 25.10 |
| October 3, 1978 | 867.90 | 102.60 | 22.54 |
| October 2, 1978 | 871.36 | 102.96 | 18.52 |
| September 29, 1978 | 865.82 | 102.54 | 23.62 |
| September 28, 1978 | 861.31 | 101.96 | 24.33 |
| September 27, 1978 | 860.19 | 101.66 | 28.37 |
| September 26, 1978 | 868.16 | 102.62 | 26.33 |