News stories from Tuesday December 26, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- An increase in the defense budget of $10 billion, to $122.8 billion, in the coming fiscal year will be proposed by President Carter to meet an administration pledge to Europe, according to administration sources. The military budget represents about 25 percent of all federal outlays, and Mr. Carter's decision seems to mark a compromise in the administration debate on how much to spend for defense at the expense of domestic programs.
When President Carter restored funds for domestic programs to his planned new budget last Friday, he seemed to be overruling his Office of Management and Budget. But he was acting according to a plan, budget officials said. Budget worksheets allowed Mr. Carter to placate key Democratic Party groups with an extra $2 billion and keep the prospective deficit at about $29 billion, the target level.
[New York Times] - Unneeded surgery was deplored by a House subcommittee that urged Congress and the administration to increase regulation of the amount and quality of surgical care delivered to Americans. The panel said that since its first report on unnecessary surgery nearly three years ago, there had not been a significant drop in the number of unneeded operations. [New York Times]
- The remains of four more bodies have been found under the house of a contractor in a Chicago suburb, bringing the total to nine. John Wayne Gacy is being held on charges that he killed a 15-year-old youth. Investigators said he had confessed to strangling that boy and also to killing as many as 32 young men after having had sexual relations with them. [New York Times]
- Cleveland's fiscal crisis widened amid the political rift at City Hall. Mayor Dennis Kucinich failed to get enough City Council members to attend an emergency meeting at which he had planned to propose new legislation aimed at averting default. [New York Times]
- The elderly are getting a growing share of federal funds each year. This year, 24 percent of the budget will go to them, and in 50 years the outlay will be 40 percent, according to government estimates. Unless major changes are made, the nation could eventually be faced with a huge group of retired workers supported by a shrinking base of wage earners. [New York Times]
- Three chemical dump sites in Niagara Falls, N.Y., are larger and potentially more dangerous than the much publicized Love Canal area, data released by the state show. One, like the Love Canal, is leaking toxic pesticides into ground water, and, according to the chemical-dumping company's own estimate, contains 80,200 tons of hazardous wastes. [New York Times]
- Iran's oil exports halted as production, hampered by strikes and reported new threats to workers by opponents of the Shah, fell to the level of 26 years ago, an industry source in Teheran said. He reported that production declined to no more than 700,000 barrels. Meanwhile, violent demonstrations and clashes continued in Teheran and other cities. [New York Times]
- Somali-backed guerrillas are pressing a campaign of ambushes and hit-and-run attacks nine months after Ethiopian and Cuban troops swept through the Ogaden desert region of eastern Ethiopia to reclaim it from Somali government soldiers. Commanders of the two guerrilla groups in the disputed region asserted that their forces had won a series of small-scale but significant clashes. [New York Times]
- Martial law in 13 Turkish provinces was overwhelmingly approved by Parliament after clashes that took at least 97 lives. The government declared martial law Monday as three days of religious and political strife in eastern Turkey between rival Moslem sects left more than 1,000 people injured and reduced sections of the city of Kahramanmaras to rubble. [New York Times]
- Chinese demands for democracy have spread beyond Peking. Wall posters in the ancient city of Hangchow call for unofficially organized mass meetings soon to discuss democracy and political persecution. [New York Times]
- Moscow issued oblique denials that it had delayed the conclusion of a strategic arms treaty because of concern over Washington's diplomatic recognition of China. Soviet officials and commentators indicated that while Moscow was uneasy about the American-Chinese relationship, the Kremlin considered the pact too important to be used as a tactical maneuver. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 816.01 (+7.54, +0.93%)
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* |
| December 22, 1978 | 808.47 | 96.31 | 23.79 |
| December 21, 1978 | 794.79 | 94.71 | 28.68 |
| December 20, 1978 | 793.66 | 94.68 | 26.52 |
| December 19, 1978 | 789.85 | 94.24 | 25.96 |
| December 18, 1978 | 787.51 | 93.44 | 32.90 |
| December 15, 1978 | 805.35 | 95.33 | 23.64 |
| December 14, 1978 | 812.54 | 96.04 | 20.85 |
| December 13, 1978 | 809.86 | 96.06 | 22.48 |
| December 12, 1978 | 814.97 | 96.59 | 22.21 |
| December 11, 1978 | 817.65 | 97.11 | 21.01 |