News stories from Wednesday February 21, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A higher legal drinking age is being widely opposed by many groups of young people in New England. The national trend toward raising the required age, which was lowered in many states early in this decade, is meeting strong resistance. [New York Times]
- Two teenagers had their father slain, according to the police in Cleveland, who said that a son, 17, and a daughter, 14, had paid a youth $60 to carry out the murder. The police quoted the children as saying that their father had been too strict. The police said the children cashed their father's last paycheck and used the money and his credit cards to go on a spending spree. [New York Times]
- E.P.A. officials are upset over White House efforts to get the agency to review and modify rules to increase cost efficiency to fight inflation, according to administration officials. The agency's senior staff is reported split sharply over whether to cooperate with the policy or to resist what some of them regard as dangerous meddling with the promulgation and enforcement of anti-pollution laws.
Efforts to protect Ohio coal miners from losing jobs because of federal clean-air rules have led to a conflict between Ohio utilities and the Environmental Protection Agency. The federal agency has ruled that coal mined in Ohio contains too much sulfur to be burned by most Ohio utilities without the installation of costly exhaust "scrubbers" on smokestacks. As a result, the utilities have contracted for low-sulfur coal from West Virginia and Kentucky.
[New York Times] - A Lufthansa cargo agent who was arrested Tuesday night was promised $300,000 for setting up the $5.8 million robbery at Kennedy Airport Dec. 11, according to an F.B.I. agent's affidavit. It also disclosed that a material witness told the authorities that the agent, Louis Werner, had admitted taking part in the theft. [New York Times]
- China renewed its advance in Vietnam after a pause to resupply its troops, analysts in Hong Kong said, adding that Vietnam has started moving up large numbers of reinforcements, including some regular units that had been held in reserve to guard Hanoi.
Moscow is not expected to retaliate against China for its attack on Vietnam unless the conflict intensifies significantly, in the view of the Carter administration, expressed by a senior State Department official. He also said the administration did not know what Peking sought or how long Chinese forces would remain in Vietnam.
[New York Times] - Iran's biggest Marxist group retreated from a confrontation with Ayatollah Khomeini's forces and canceled a march through Teheran planned for tomorrow. But the Marxist guerrillas said they would hold a rally Friday at Teheran University, leaving open the possibility of a confrontation with the Ayatollah's forces.
An American Marine was freed by the Iranian authorities, an aide to Ayatollah Khomeini announced. The 22-year-old Marine, Sgt. Kenneth Kraus, was taken from a hospital bed after he was wounded last week in an attack on the American Embassy.
[New York Times] - Mideast peace efforts were resumed at Camp David by Secretary of State Vance and Israeli and Egyptian ministers in a new attempt to resolve the persistent obstacles to an Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty. [New York Times]
- A fragile cease-fire in Chad allowed the burial of about 500 victims of four days of street fighting, but more violence was predicted. The civil war revolves around ethnic and religious divisions and pits forces loyal to the President against those loyal to the Prime Minister, who is a former leader of a Libyan-backed guerrilla movement. [New York Times]
- Mexico's oilfields led to protests by peasants. Troops have been sent to the rich facilities to remove roadblocks set up by farmers demanding compensation for land expropriated by Pemex, the national oil company. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 834.55 (0.00, 0.00%)
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* |
| February 20, 1979 | 834.55 | 99.42 | 22.01 |
| February 16, 1979 | 827.01 | 98.67 | 21.11 |
| February 15, 1979 | 829.09 | 98.73 | 22.56 |
| February 14, 1979 | 829.78 | 98.87 | 27.22 |
| February 13, 1979 | 830.21 | 98.93 | 28.47 |
| February 12, 1979 | 824.84 | 98.20 | 20.61 |
| February 9, 1979 | 822.23 | 97.87 | 24.32 |
| February 8, 1979 | 818.87 | 97.65 | 23.36 |
| February 7, 1979 | 816.01 | 97.16 | 28.45 |
| February 6, 1979 | 822.85 | 98.05 | 23.57 |