News stories from Monday March 19, 1979

Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:

Nuclear plant hazards were stressed by a member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, who said that the chance of a significant earthquake occurring near one of the nuclear power plants shut down last week by the agency was far more likely than suggested by some critics of the shutdown. He told a House panel that preliminary calculations suggested that the chance that a quake would impose stresses beyond permissible limits could be one in every 20 years. [New York Times] Attorney General Griffin Bell won a reversal of a court order that held him in contempt for refusing to release the files on 18 informers who had spied on the Socialist Workers Party. A federal appellate court overturned the contempt citation that had been issued by a federal district judge. [New York Times] A supposed abortion clinic was accused of being a front for an anti-abortion group. A lawsuit against a Northeast Philadelphia clinic was lodged by a women's health group and a clinic patient. The 19-year-old patient said that she called the clinic for an abortion, requesting confidentiality, but that later the same day two women associated with the clinic informed her parents she was pregnant. [New York Times] An alleged plot to steal $50 million by wire, for which a computer expert has been arrested, was planned and directed by agents of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, according to knowledgeable sources. The agency denies the allegations but acknowledges that one of its informers encouraged Stanley Rifkin, who was in jail for a similar theft of $10.2 million, to plan a second theft. [New York Times] Peabody College faces a change. Trustees of the financially troubled college for teachers in Nashville voted to end its 104-year existence as a small undergraduate college to become a professional school of adjacent Vanderbilt University. The action followed debate and speculation over the likelihood that the private, mostly white college would merge with the mainly black Tennessee State University. [New York Times] Whether a jail break can be justified on the ground that prison conditions are onerous or intolerable will be reviewed by the Supreme Court. A federal appeals court ordered a new trial for four men convicted of escaping from the District of Columbia jail, ruling they were entitled to present to a jury evidence of harsh conditions, including threats by guards, inadequate medical care and frequent fires. [New York Times] Rosy job prospects for college graduates are reported. Opportunities seem to be better this year than in any year since the recession of the early 1970's. Employers are making 30 percent more job offers than at this time last year, according to a survey. [New York Times] Washington pledged Mideast aid. The administration said that after the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty was signed it would provide Egypt with about $2 billion in arms and Israel with $3 billion toward the cost of withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula. American officials said that the requests would be sent to Congress, where no major resistance is expected. Israel's cabinet approved overwhelmingly the proposed peace treaty with Egypt. The vote was 15 to 2. The pact will be presented tomorrow to Parliament and is expected to be ratified easily but after long debate.Willingness to cooperate with American diplomacy in the Middle East was indicated by Saudi Arabia and Jordan, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's national security adviser, who reported on a three-day mission to the Middle East. [New York Times] Kurds fought Iranian troops in the Kurdistan city of Sanandaj. The Kurds, who seek autonomy, reportedly took over barracks and a radio station. Casualties were said to be heavy, with reports of fatalities ranging from 13 to 170. The government said a cease-fire had been agreed on. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 857.59 (+4.77, +0.56%)
S&P Composite: 101.06 (+0.37, +0.37%)
Arms Index: 0.88

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	891	18.69
Declines	594	11.02
Unchanged	416	4.91
Total Volume		34.62

* in millions of shares

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*
March 16, 1979	852.82	100.69	31.77
March 15, 1979	847.02	99.86	29.37
March 14, 1979	845.37	99.71	24.65
March 13, 1979	846.93	99.84	31.17
March 12, 1979	844.68	99.67	25.75
March 9, 1979	842.86	99.54	33.41
March 8, 1979	844.85	99.58	32.00
March 7, 1979	834.29	98.44	28.94
March 6, 1979	826.58	97.87	24.50
March 5, 1979	827.36	98.06	25.96