News stories from Tuesday October 24, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Carter unveiled his voluntary wage-price guideline program tonight and backed it up with a unique plan to punish violators and protect workers who agree to comply. Declaring that he is launching a new era of national austerity, Carter said he will propose a "wage insurance" program to Congress next year that will give workers who obey his 7 percent pay increase standard a tax rebate if inflation should accelerate beyond that point. [Chicago Tribune]
- A federal grand jury indicted Rep. Joshua Eilberg [D., Pa.] on charges he illegally profited from involvement in a federal contract for construction at a hospital in Philadelphia. Eilberg is the second Pennsylvania Congressman to be indicted in recent weeks. Rep. Daniel Flood, also a Democrat, has been indicted in Washington and Los Angeles on 13 felony counts involving 2 incidents unrelated to the Eilberg incident. [Chicago Tribune]
- The Food and Drug Administration approved the use of the first drug found to be effective in treating a serious viral disease -- a medical breakthrough deemed comparable to the discovery of penicillin. The drug will be marketed under the trade name Vira-A by Parke Davis & Co. of Detroit for treatment of herpes encephalitis, a rare but deadly virus infection of the brain. Before development of the new drug, the disease killed 70 percent of its victims and left many of those who survived brain-damaged "vegetables" for life. [Chicago Tribune]
- Elvis Presley's father, Vernon, was hospitalized in Memphis with a heart problem. A Baptist Hospital spokesman said Presley, 63, was treated for a rapid heartbeat. "It is felt that this condition can be brought under control with medication," Elliot said. "But his condition at present should be listed as serious." [Chicago Tribune]
- A fire swept through 10 Boardwalk shops in Atlantic City, burning for seven hours just blocks from this famous resort community's gambling casino. Authorities said $2.5 million in property was destroyed between Kentucky and Illinois avenues. Twelve firemen suffered smoke inhalation. [Chicago Tribune]
- Men as well as women who smoke may be endangering their unborn children, experts attending a conference on the control of smoking said. Prof. Helmut Greim, a toxicology researcher from Munich, West Germany, said in a paper prepared for the World Health Organization conference in Geneva this week that there is a significant increase in infant mortality around the time of birth when the husband smokes more than 10 cigarettes a day. [Chicago Tribune]
- In a seesaw session, the stock market failed to hold an early gain. Declining issues took a small lead over gaining stocks and the Dow Jones industrial average, which was higher twice during the day, fell back 7.11 to close at 832.55.
Chrysler Corp. has geared up for capacity production of the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon in its Belvidere, Ill. plant. The firm expects to build 300,000 units in the next 12 months.
[Chicago Tribune] - A natural gas pipeline exploded into flames at a trailer park in Brookside Village, Texas, killing five persons who were overcome by scorching heat as they tried to flee through an open field, authorities said. Hospitals in the area treated 50 persons. The blast was felt 35 miles away, and the fireball that arose from the scene was seen by airplane pilots 200 miles away. Seven of the 23 mobile homes were destroyed. [Chicago Tribune]
- Officials said that arson caused the most devastating of the wind-swept brush fires that have ravaged 40,000 acres of suburban Los Angeles countryside, injured 12 persons, destroyed 161 houses, and forced thousands of residents from their homes. Investigators found a delayed-action incendiary device, a paper matchbook with a cigarette in it, near where one fire began. [Chicago Tribune]
- In Tallassee, Alabama, a 300-pound pet lion, one of two chained outside the rural one-room shack of Margaret Haynie and her husband, broke its chain and killed Mrs. Haynie. Haynie, 28, said the female lion jumped Mrs. Haynie from behind and mauled her. She was bitten on the neck, head, and leg and dragged about 100 yards into the woods. [Chicago Tribune]
- Despite an aging and growing population, the number of Americans who died of heart and blood vessel disease last year was the lowest since 1963, continuing a decline in the heart attack death rate that experts find hard to explain. [Chicago Tribune]
- Sen. William Proxmire [D., Wis.] presented his monthly "Golden Fleece" award to the Environmental Protection Agency for a two-year, $38,174 study which determined that runoff from open stacks of cow manure polluted the water in nearby streams and ponds. [Chicago Tribune]
- The Israeli cabinet met in secret session again today to discuss the text of a peace treaty with Egypt. Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan and defense chief Ezer Weizman, who brought the draft of the treaty to Israel on Sunday, are expected to return to the Washington peace talks with Egypt later this week. Sources in Jerusalem predict the Israeli government will give general approval to the proposed treaty while questioning some amendments. [Chicago Tribune]
- Modified Anglo-American peace proposals for Rhodesia have no chance of being accepted by that nation's transitional government, informed sources in Salisbury said today. They said the plans, understood to have been sent there over the weekend, still rest on the assumption of the dominant role in a new Zimbabwe army by Marxist Patriotic Front guerrillas, which makes them "a complete non-starter." [Chicago Tribune]
- Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richard, who pleaded guilty to heroin possession, was given a one-year suspended sentence and ordered to give a benefit performance for the blind. County Court Judge Lloyd Graburn also ordered the millionaire rock star to continue treatment for heroin addiction at a private psychiatric clinic in New York. [Chicago Tribune]
- California Gov. Jerry Brown makes much out of the simple lifestyle he leads, but you can't always say the same about his friends. Singer Helen Reddy and her manager-husband, Jeff Wald, recently held a reception for the governor in their Brentwood, Cal., mansion. More than 400 guests attended the party, including Jane Fonda and her husband, Tom Hayden, and Brown's parents, former Gov. and Mrs. Edmund Brown Sr. When the guest of honor arrived in his blue Plymouth he parked it right next to the Reddys' beige Rolls-Royce convertible, which is complete with burgundy upholstery and portable telephone. "He accepts our lifestyle and we accept his," the hosts told their guests about Brown, As for the reason behind a gala bash for Brown's campaign, Reddy supplied an extremely understandable answer, "When you pay over half a million dollars a year in taxes, you have a responsibility to see that it's well spent." [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 832.55 (-7.11, -0.85%)
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 23, 1978 | 839.66 | 98.18 | 36.09 |
| October 20, 1978 | 838.01 | 97.95 | 43.67 |
| October 19, 1978 | 846.41 | 99.33 | 31.81 |
| October 18, 1978 | 859.67 | 100.49 | 32.97 |
| October 17, 1978 | 866.34 | 101.26 | 37.87 |
| October 16, 1978 | 875.17 | 102.61 | 24.60 |
| October 13, 1978 | 897.09 | 104.66 | 21.93 |
| October 12, 1978 | 896.74 | 104.88 | 30.17 |
| October 11, 1978 | 901.42 | 105.39 | 21.74 |
| October 10, 1978 | 891.63 | 104.46 | 25.47 |