News stories from Tuesday November 21, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Guyanese forces hunted in the jungles for up to 500 members of a California cult still missing after more than 400 others joined their leader, the Rev. Jim Jones, in a mass suicide. United States military teams and helicopters joined the search for the cultists, who might be hiding.
Jim Jones's son termed him a fanatic who was in ill health and had become increasingly paranoid in recent years. "I can almost say I hate this man because he has destroyed everything I've worked for," said the son, who has spent his life in the cult. The Rev. Jim Jones changed sharply over the last two decades, a former church colleague recalled. He said that the young minister had at first organized soup kitchens and nursing homes and helped minorities but later started "healing" the ill, aggressively recruiting members and taking on a messianic quality.
The doctor who prepared and served the cyanide-laced punch with which hundreds of members of the People's Temple cult took their lives was described by former associates as an intense and dedicated young man with a deep concern for the poor. The mass suicide was attributed to two main concepts, according to several experts. They said the critical forces were probably fanatic loyalty to a charismatic leader preaching suicide as a noble act and a deep fear that a hostile world was closing in on their settlement.
[New York Times] - Jimmy Carter's peanut business gained more than was previously believed, according to local tax officials. They said they had more than doubled the appraised value of improvements made in 1975 and 1976, resulting in $3,556.23 in additional taxes and penalties, which the family has agreed to pay. [New York Times]
- Electronic transmission of mail is to be tested by the Postal Service, which said it could start putting such a system into effect in about three years. Under the concept, computers transmit a message, bouncing it off a satellite to the receiving point, where it is put into an envelope for delivery. [New York Times]
- Banning or limiting sales of Darvon is sought by the Health Research Group, which said that flagrant abuse of the pain-killing drug is killing more than 1,000 Americans a year and in some areas causing more deaths than heroin and morphine. The director of the Ralph Nader public-interest group said that Darvon "leads all other prescription drugs in the United States in drug-related deaths." [New York Times]
- The Delaware school strike ended when the New Castle County School Board agreed to equalize suburban teachers' salaries with Wilmington levels within 18 months. The strike, which closed 60 percent of the state's schools for five weeks, came when a busing plan to bring about better racial balance merged city and suburban school systems. [New York Times]
- Cleaning up the Great Lakes will be pressed further in a new agreement to be signed tomorrow by the United States and Canada. The latest pact sets deadlines of 1982 and 1983 for the elimination of excessive discharges by municipal sewerage systems and industry and some limits on emissions of phosphates, toxic chemicals, hazardous substances and radioactivity. [New York Times]
- The first legal mixed drinks in 70 years were sold in North Carolina. A local-option bill was approved in June, and Mecklenburg County was the first to approve the sales. [New York Times]
- The Love Canal neighborhood near Niagara Falls has begun to look like the disaster area that it was declared 14 weeks ago. New York state has bought 237 houses contaminated by toxic industrial chemicals, emptied them, boarded them up and encircled them with a chain-link fence. [New York Times]
- Newark (N.J.) policemen faced with layoffs on Jan. 1 handed out flyers to passers-by, warning them to leave the city before dark, to keep their car doors locked and "if attacked, scream loud." The "fear city" campaign, following dismissal notices to 450 city employees, including 200 police officers, continued as state and county officials prepared to investigate possible police involvement in recent vandalism. [New York Times]
- The Israeli cabinet approved a United States-sponsored draft for a peace treaty with Egypt, but rejected Cairo's demands that the pact be linked to a timetable for Palestinian autonomy on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. The draft, which deals with the linkage in generalized wording, was approved by a vote of 15 to 2. [New York Times]
|
Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 804.05 (-1.56, -0.19%)
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* |
| November 20, 1978 | 805.61 | 95.25 | 24.44 |
| November 17, 1978 | 797.73 | 94.42 | 25.17 |
| November 16, 1978 | 794.18 | 93.71 | 21.34 |
| November 15, 1978 | 785.60 | 92.71 | 26.28 |
| November 14, 1978 | 785.26 | 92.49 | 30.62 |
| November 13, 1978 | 792.01 | 93.13 | 20.96 |
| November 10, 1978 | 807.09 | 94.77 | 16.75 |
| November 9, 1978 | 803.97 | 94.42 | 23.33 |
| November 8, 1978 | 807.61 | 94.45 | 23.56 |
| November 7, 1978 | 800.07 | 93.85 | 25.32 |