News stories from Monday October 30, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- President Carter has signed a bill to protect the privacy of rape victims in federal court proceedings by restricting testimony on the victim's prior sexual behavior. Under the new bill, testimony on previous sexual behavior would be restricted "to that genuinely relevant to the defense." The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a sentence of life in prison without possibility for parole for a Kentucky man found guilty of rape and robbery in 1974. [Chicago Tribune]
- Presidential adviser Barry Bosworth cast doubt on the Carter administration's ability to fight inflation and unemployment simultaneously. He suggested the government must call off its fight against unemployment and concentrate on inflation to avert a serious recession in the next year. Bosworth is director of the Council on Wage and Price Stability. [Chicago Tribune]
- Six persons, including children 1, 3 and 11 years old, were found slain in two triple homicides in Folsom, N.J., and Buffalo, N,Y. A man, his wife and their 3-year-old son were found dead with their throats slashed in their rural Folsom home a short while before police in Buffalo said a man who apparently went berserk with a shotgun killed a woman, her 1-year-old child and an 11-year-old girl. [Chicago Tribune]
- Air controllers at San Diego Airport -- site of the nation's worst air disaster one month ago -- on Sunday radioed a United Airlines jetliner already thundering down the runway to abort its takeoff because of heavy sky traffic. The abort order and the abrupt stop on the runway frightened passengers who were listening to the control tower conversation on their headsets, but there were no injuries. The plane took off normally a few minutes later. [Chicago Tribune]
- The Coast Guard cutter Cuyahoga, which sank with the loss of 11 lives after a collision with an Argentine freighter, was raised by two derricks from the bottom of Chesapeake Bay. Members of a Coast Guard board of inquiry examined the wreck in an attempt to corroborate testimony given during a week-long hearing to determine the cause of the collision between the Cuyahoga and the coaling ship Santa Cruz II. [Chicago Tribune]
- The government's major effort to pinpoint fraud and abuse in Medicaid payments is not working, an official study shows. Sen. Charles Percy [R., Illinois] and Sen. Sam Nunn [D., Ga.], top-ranking members of the Senate subcommittee investigating Medicaid fraud, said that a new report by the General Accounting Office shows the nation's fraud identification system is "underdeveloped, ineffective, and of unproven value." [Chicago Tribune]
- The U.S. Supreme Court let stand a Chicago ordinance that makes car rental companies liable for customers' parking violations. The high court gave no explanation for rejecting appeals by the Avis and Hertz companies that a city ordinance making the registered owner of a car liable to pay such fines was unconstitutional. The city in 1967 had sued the companies for 13,267 parking violations involving penalties of $199,005. [Chicago Tribune]
- In Newark, N.J., two Russians convicted of trying to steal U.S. defense secrets were sentenced to 50 years in prison today. The judge said he has no doubt the Soviet Union was "fully and completely behind what occurred here." The defendants were allowed to remain free without bail, in the custody of the Soviet ambassador, pending appeals. [Chicago Tribune]
- Israel and Egypt agreed to resume formal, face-to-face peace talks in Washington on Tuesday. Israel's chief negotiator predicted approval of a treaty "in a very short time." Meanwhile, the Israeli government denied that it has developed plans for increasing the population of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights. [Chicago Tribune]
- Tanzania charged that Ugandan President Idi Amin's troops have invaded its territory. A Tanzanian government communique said Ugandan forces crossed the short Ugandan-Tanzanian border near Lake Victoria. Tanzania called it "an act of provocation which cannot be tolerated" and said that "all necessary measures have been taken to meet this aggression." [Chicago Tribune]
- Security police killed 11 anti-government demonstrators in western Iran, and wildcat strikes by petroleum workers disrupted Iran's oil industry. The troubled nation underwent its third cabinet reshuffle in two months. The security units killed the demonstrators in what appeared to be a major outbreak of anti-government activity In the town of Paveh. [Chicago Tribune]
- A record number of white residents left Rhodesia last month in an exodus triggered by the growing war with black guerillas, official statistics released today show. A total of 1,490 whites from the 260,000 whites in Rhodesia elected to leave the country in September. It was the biggest monthly emigration of whites since Rhodesia declared its unilateral independence from Britain in 1965. [Chicago Tribune]
- Blue chip stocks attracted bargain hunters and staged a strong rally late today, pulling the Dow Jones industrial average into plus territory after heavy selling drove it lower earlier. But declining stocks still outpaced gainers by a wide margin among all New York Stock Exchange listings. The Dow Jones industrial average, off 18 points, rebounded to finish 5.80 points higher at 811.85.
A key government index designed to forecast developments in the economy -- the composite index of leading indicators -- rose 0.9 percent in September, the largest advance since April. The Commerce Department said much of the gain was attributed to high levels of construction activity and growth in the nation's money supply. This was the second healthy monthly gain and was interpreted by some administration officials as evidence that the economy will maintain a moderate growth rate.
The famous R.C.A. symbol of Nipper the dog with a phonograph is being resurrected, reports George Lazarus. R.C.A. Corp. plans to spend $11 million over the next 12 months on product advertising that will include Nipper. The logo, conceived nearly 80 years ago, also will appear on products, trucks and literature.
[Chicago Tribune] - A Houston department store thought it would be "humorous" to offer in its Christmas catalog the opportunity, for $94,125, to have a dinner party with Walter Cronkite and other celebrities as guests. The problem is, Sakowitz's didn't mention it to Cronkite and he is "furious," a CBS spokesman said. CBS is demanding that Sakowitz's "cease and desist" from sending out the catalogs, destroy all catalogs still on hand, and notify all who have received them that Cronkite's name was included without his authorization. [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 811.85 (+5.80, +0.72%)
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 27, 1978 | 806.05 | 94.59 | 40.36 |
| October 26, 1978 | 821.12 | 96.03 | 31.99 |
| October 25, 1978 | 830.21 | 97.31 | 31.38 |
| October 24, 1978 | 832.55 | 97.49 | 28.88 |
| 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 |