News stories from Thursday February 22, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Organized labor plans legal action against the core of the Carter administration's voluntary wage-price anti-inflation program. The A.F.L.-C.I.O. contends that present law bars mandatory controls and that the government's threat to withhold contracts from companies violating the guidelines, including the 7 percent average for wage and price rises, makes it mandatory that companies hold down wage increases. [New York Times]
- C.I.A. morale has plummeted, and there has been a new wave of resignations and early retirements. Intelligence officials acknowledged that up to 200 senior and middle-level officials -- including some regarded as the most respected professionals in the agency -- chose to resign last month to obtain maximum retirement benefits. The agency has been criticized for failing to predict the revolution in Iran. [New York Times]
- Efforts for a constitutional convention to require a balanced federal budget were rejected by a vote of 12 to 8 in a California assembly committee that rebuffed Gov. Jerry Brown. But the panel approved, 18 to 1, a measure to petition Congress to draft a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. [New York Times]
- Long-term effects of atomic tests conducted above-ground in southern Utah in the 1950's are the subject of increased concern because of a new study. Earlier evidence suggested that people had died because of the tests. The latest study showed that the number of children who died of leukemia in southern Utah rose two and one half times in the years of tests. [New York Times]
- David Berkowitz said there were "no real demons, no talking dogs, no satanic henchmen," who had ordered him to kill six persons and that he had "invented" his "Son of Sam" stories "to condone what I was doing." The prisoner said he was rebutting his earlier stories in an effort to scuttle a possible major book-and-movie plan that might cause someone to hurt him or his family. [New York Times]
- An apparent Soviet military airlift of supplies to Vietnam has begun, Western analysts reported. Four of Moscow's largest long-range cargo aircraft were said to be on the way to Vietnam. The analysts also reported that a Soviet delegation, presumably military, was also flying to Hanoi. Meanwhile, heavy fighting was reported continuing between the Vietnamese and the Chinese invaders.
Moscow does not plan military intervention in the Vietnamese-Chinese fighting as long as the scale of hostilities remains limited, Soviet officials reportedly told Western and Asian diplomats earlier this week.
A U.N. Security Council meeting was requested urgently by the United States and three Western allies to take up "the situation in Southeast Asia." It was hoped that a Council session would begin Friday.
[New York Times] - Vietnamese troops are in trouble in Cambodia, according to intelligence reports. They said that two months after the successful invasion, the Vietnamese have major supply problems because guerrillas loyal to the routed Cambodian government have cut most main highways. [New York Times]
- President Carter urged caution against overly simple interpretations of complex international crises, saying this could lead the United States "into taking actions that might be ineffective, irrelevant or even dangerous." He also argued against "the temptation to see all change" as "a kind of loss for us or a victory for 'them.'" [New York Times]
- The government of Iran moved to broaden its limited authority. It formally set up a national guard, completed the formation of a cabinet and initiated legislation to take over from secret revolutionary tribunals the prosecution of former officials now under arrest. The provisional regime is seeking to dissolve a committee around Ayatollah Khomeini that has been acting as a parallel government. [New York Times]
- American aid to Afghanistan will be severely cut by order of President Carter in part because of the slaying last week of the American Ambassador, Adolph Dubs, in a shootout between government forces and terrorists. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 828.57 (-5.98, -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* |
| February 21, 1979 | 834.55 | 99.07 | 26.05 |
| 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 |