News stories from Tuesday October 31, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The A.F.L.-C.I.O. rejected President Carter's voluntary anti-inflation program and called on Congress to impose mandatory controls. George Meany, president of the labor federation, denounced Carter's plan as "inequitable and unfair." He said that he opposes full controls, but since the administration is moving in that direction "in piecemeal and ill-designed stages, America might as well do it right and do it now." [Chicago Tribune]
- The Carter administration has two major inflation fighting proposals under study for possible submission to Congress in January. One proposal involves cutting Social Security payroll taxes to reduce the cost of doing business for many companies, the other involves reducing the minimum wage for teenagers. But Barry Bosworth, executive director of the Council on Wage-Price Stability, warned that a continuing decline in the dollar and the stock market could harm the President's new anti-inflation program and damage the economy. [Chicago Tribune]
- Uncle Sam is a softie as a debt collector, the General Accounting Office said. The G.A.O. checked the debts owed to big federal agencies. It concluded the government is quick at sending out bills but slow to say pay up, or else. The debts owed the government for everything from tax assessments to weapons sales to foreign countries totaled $14.6 billion, the G.A.O. said. That was up from $10.4 billion in 1973. [Chicago Tribune]
- Devotees of Harry Houdini say the long departed escape artist promised during a Halloween seance in the hospital where he died that he'll be back next year -- with even more amazing feats. Four researchers into the occult began a seance in Room 401 of Detroit's Grace Hospital at 1:26 p.m. today -- 52 years to the minute after the magician died of a ruptured appendix in 1926. The four beckoned him, and Houdini appeared, said medium Irene Rucinsky. Houdini said he would not appear again before "taking over another body" next year. [Chicago Tribune]
- President Carter signed a bill that protects working women from occupational discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. Carter said he is convinced job discrimination based on pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions ''constitutes discrimination based on sex" and said the measure requires employers with medical disability plans to provide pregnancy disability payments on an equal basis with other medical conditions. [Chicago Tribune]
- Trick-or-treaters preempted the weather on Channel 7 in Oscoda, Mich., Monday night with pictures of naked women. Stan Wooten, station manager, said someone broke into the station's studio and arranged Playboy-type pictures in front of an automated camera that ordinarily presents viewers with an array of thermometers, barometers and wind gauges. At the bottom of one picture was the sign: "The Class of '78-'79 Presents." Commented Jim Howse, senior class adviser at Oscoda High School: "No one is bragging, but a lot of people are smiling." [Chicago Tribune]
- Over the opposition of the Soviet Union, the United States has agreed to provide China with a domestic communications satellite. The satellite will dramatically improve telephone and television links in China. The cost of building and launching the satellite is expected to reach $30 million. Last week, the French government disclosed that it had agreed to sell China $700 million worth of anti-aircraft and anti-tank missiles. [Chicago Tribune]
- Walter Kelbach, convicted of killing two persons, filed a lawsuit in Salt Lake City against the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, claiming he should get Social Security disability insurance benefits because his "mental" condition prevents him from "engaging in any substantial gainful employment." [Chicago Tribune]
- Pope John Paul II reinstated five more cardinals as heads of major church departments Tuesday, indicating he plans no immediate shake-up of the Vatican administration known as the Curia. Reconfirmed were two cardinals from France, and one each from Brazil, Australia and Italy. The only prelate still not reconfirmed is American John Cardinal Wright, who recently underwent cataract surgery and is confined to a wheelchair. [Chicago Tribune]
- The stock market posted another steep loss in heavy trading after churning erratically through most of the session. Selling increased after the A.F.L.-C.I.O.'s general council called for mandatory anti-inflation controls. The Dow Jones industrial average closed 19.40 lower at 792.45.
The Wm. Wrigley Co. said it has reformulated its Orbit chewing gum, eliminating the controversial natural sweetener xylitol.
[Chicago Tribune] - The Iranian government alerted its troops against possible sabotage in the southern oil fields, where wildcat strikes have shut down production of the $20 billion a year oil industry, and martial law authorities took charge of parts of the world's largest integrated oil refinery at Abadan. The official Iranian news agency said the military move came amid mounting violence in Iran as 52 persons were killed and 64 injured in the last two days. In Washington, President Carter threw his personal prestige behind Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. [Chicago Tribune]
- Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel said he hopes that a peace treaty with Egypt will be signed by Dec. 9, the day before Begin and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Begin said his optimism is the result of reports of continued progress he received from the Israeli negotiators at the Washington peace talks. [Chicago Tribune]
- The Rhodesian government placed vast tracts of this war-torn country under martial law and extended military rule over nearly half of Rhodesia's 7 million citizens. The military also announced that 11 black civilians were killed during a shootout between guerrillas and security forces on a white farm Monday night about 40 miles northeast of Salisbury. [Chicago Tribune]
- Tanzania said its armed forces were engaged in battle with invading Ugandan troops in an area in northern Tanzania along the western shore of Lake Victoria. The government said Ugandan troops, supported by tanks and heavy artillery, crossed the border Monday and that Ugandan soldiers had advanced as far as Kyaka, about 18 miles inside Tanzania. The administration also said Ugandan claims that Tanzanian forces invaded Uganda last week were "blatant Iles." [Chicago Tribune]
- A Greek tanker that went aground and spilled en estimated 2,700 tons of oil on the Welsh coast was scuttled in the Atlantic Ocean today, the Department of Trade reported. A department spokesman said that when the 58,829-deadweight-ton Christos Bitas was sunk it still contained about 1,000 tons of oil that could not be removed easily because of technical problems. [Chicago Tribune]
- A 21-year-old Detroit area man who survived a nine-hour Detroit-to-London flight as a stowaway in a jumbo jet's unheated, semi-pressurized cargo hold was detained for medical tests and questioning by London authorities before being returned home. Immigration officials said Thomas Coles of Grosse Pointe, Mich., had refused to tell them how or why he hid himself aboard the 747. Coles suffered hypothermia and frostbite as a result of his long exposure to temperatures reaching 10 degrees below zero. [Chicago Tribune]
- The president of Oxford University's debating and social society, the Oxford Union, said he has persuaded former President Richard Nixon to address the union at its quarterly debate Nov. 30. Oxonian Dan Moylan, 22, says his coup has won him a battle of celebrities with his Cambridge rival and counterpart, Daniel Jenner. "Of course he [Nixon] will be talking about politics -- nobody wants to hear Nixon's views on botany," Moylan said. "As far as I know, an American President has never addressed the Union before." There was no immediate confirmation from Nixon's office in California. [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 792.45 (-19.40, -2.39%)
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 30, 1978 | 811.85 | 95.06 | 59.48 |
| 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 |