News stories from Thursday March 29, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Radiation continued to leak from a crippled nuclear plant 11 miles south of Harrisburg as nuclear-power protesters flocked to the region and political figures demanded that steps be taken to insure public safety. Levels of increased radiation have spread over a four-county area and more discharges are likely, plant officials said, but safety experts said radioactivity at the plant was falling off and the reactor core was cooling rapidly.
The failure of several safety systems was cited as the cause of what is regarded as the most serious accident in Washington's drive to use nuclear power for civilian purposes. But records showing a number of similar equipment failures at the Pennsylvania plant in the last year prompted questions about the government's performance in achieving safe nuclear power and the basic design of the reactor now in five plants.
[New York Times] - Seeking a case against Bert Lance involving his banking activities and personal finances, Justice Department lawyers were said to be trying to arrange a plea bargain with a top executive of the National Bank of Georgia in the hope that he would become a key witness against Mr. Lance. But, according to sources familiar with the case, senior Justice Department officials have not yet approved the arrangement. [New York Times]
- Fires at two downtown Boston hotels injured 64 persons, 13 of them seriously and four critically, and sent 2,000 others into the streets before dawn. Later, an 18-year-old former dish washer and busboy, Julio Rodrigues, was arrested and charged with arson. [New York Times]
- Assailing rail modernization in the Northeast Corridor, the General Accounting Office accused the government of mismanagement and said that the project could exceed anticipated costs by more than $1 billion. The investigative arm of Congress also charged that passenger comfort and safety and future maintenance costs were being sacrificed in an attempt to contain the rising costs. [New York Times]
- Military base closings and mergers were proposed by the Pentagon in an effort to save $474 million a year. The latest base reduction package affects 157 installations across the country and would result in the loss of about 44,500 civilian and military jobs. [New York Times]
- The downfall of Idi Amin was reported near. A new government-in-exile said that its army of Tanzanians and Ugandan rebels could capture Kampala "at will" and that the Ugandan President "is fleeing north with convoys of his remaining loyal troops." Witnesses said that a stream of refugees was evacuating the capital. [New York Times]
- Argentine repression of leftists is easing. The military government is allowing the Inter-American Human Rights Commission to investigate in late May charges of violent repression of suspected subversives. [New York Times]
- Zulfikar Ali Bhutto lost a new court appeal in his bid to overturn his death sentence. The lawyer representing the former Prime Minister of Pakistan said that "the legal battle is over" and that unless clemency was granted Mr. Bhutto may be hanged next week. He was convicted of ordering the murder of a political opponent in 1974. [New York Times]
- Egyptian troops on the Libyan border are being reinforced, but a military spokesman in Cairo denied that the armed forces had been placed on full alert. President Sadat has charged that Syrian jets have been sent to Libya and that Cuba and East Germany were also offering military aid. [New York Times]
- Britain's election campaign opened with a hard-hitting appeal for votes by Prime Minister James Callaghan, whose Labor government was ousted Wednesday by a vote of no confidence. In a broadcast address, Mr. Callaghan announced that the elections would be held on May 3. [New York Times]
- Some flexibility in wage guidelines, indicated by the government, enhanced prospects of a contract accord between the Teamsters union and the trucking industry. But the negotiators still disagreed by a reportedly substantial margin on the size of a wage increase, and government officials said that whatever adjustments they might make in the administration's anti-inflation guidelines to help achieve a settlement before the weekend deadline would be relatively minor. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 866.77 (+0.52, +0.06%)
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 28, 1979 | 866.25 | 102.12 | 39.92 |
| March 27, 1979 | 871.36 | 102.48 | 32.93 |
| March 26, 1979 | 854.82 | 101.04 | 23.42 |
| March 23, 1979 | 859.75 | 101.60 | 33.58 |
| March 22, 1979 | 861.31 | 101.67 | 34.36 |
| March 21, 1979 | 857.76 | 101.25 | 31.12 |
| March 20, 1979 | 850.31 | 100.50 | 27.18 |
| March 19, 1979 | 857.59 | 101.06 | 34.62 |
| March 16, 1979 | 852.82 | 100.69 | 31.77 |
| March 15, 1979 | 847.02 | 99.86 | 29.37 |