News stories from Wednesday October 31, 1979
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A long budget battle ended as House and Senate conferees agreed to a spending compromise of $547.6 billion for the 1980 fiscal year. The budget projects a deficit of $29.9 billion, about $2 billion greater than the deficit for the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. In the compromise, the House members accepted sharp increases in military spending and the Senators agreed to increased spending for such domestic programs as education, job training and welfare. [New York Times]
- Congressmen backed nuclear reform recommended by the presidential inquiry into the reactor accident at the Three Mile Island plant. The commission won bipartisan support for its central conclusion that basic changes are needed if the risks of nuclear power "are to be kept within tolerable limits." But the legislators expressed markedly less agreement on which remedies were required and who should administer them. [New York Times]
- A DC-10 airliner crash killed 71 of the 90 persons on board and at least three persons on the ground at the Mexico City airport. The Western Airlines jumbo jet, flying from Los Angeles, was said to have tried to land on a runway closed for repairs, hit a truck and veered out of control, demolishing a building and exploding in flames. [New York Times]
- Exploiting new technology was pressed by President Carter. He proposed revisions in patent, antitrust and regulatory policies and other measures in what he termed an effort to ease the "stifling constraints" imposed on industry by the government. [New York Times]
- Houston minorities will gain influence in the city as a result of next Tuesday's elections. Under pressure from the Justice Department, the city has scrapped a system under which all city council members were elected at large. From now on, five will be elected at large and nine will be elected from specific districts. At the least three seats are guaranteed to go to blacks and Mexican-Americans. [New York Times]
- The survival of private colleges and universities is being sought by a blue-ribbon panel that is to propose a way to force weak public institutions to close. The panel plans to recommend that states require that the programs of state-supported institutions be reviewed by outside scholars and that their evaluations be made public to disclose weaknesses. [New York Times]
- Corruption in Alabama was charged by a federal grand jury, which indicted seven persons, including a state legislator, two former state legislators and three officials of the state's largest coal mining company on charges involving racketeering, extortion and influence buying. [New York Times]
- Anthony Scotto denied under cross examination that he had knowingly made illegal contributions to the campaigns of New York Governor Carey and Lt. Gov. Mario Cuomo. The Brooklyn leader of the longshoremen's union testified Tuesday at his racketeering trial that he had passed along $75,000 in cash contributions from two waterfront businessmen to campaigns of the two officials.
A state labor official was subpoenaed for questioning before federal prosecutors about a possible unreported $50,000 political contribution. Anthony Scotto has testified that he passed the cash along to the official, Louis Valentino, for the 1977 mayoral campaign of Mario Cuomo.
[New York Times] - A suspected nuclear blast near South Africa Sept. 22 may instead have been a "superbolt" -- a lightning flash so powerful that it can release as much energy as a small nuclear device, according to some scientists. Several dozen superbolts, which release 100 times more energy than a normal bolt, have been identified in recent years by bomb-monitoring satellites. [New York Times]
- New aspects of the power plot in Seoul last Friday were disclosed by South Korean and Western sources. They said that Kim Jae Kyu, then head of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency and accused slayer of President Park Chung Hee, had tried to draw the Army Chief of Staff, Gen. Chung Seung Hwa, into the plot after the assassination. After a long battle of wills, the general ordered the arrest of the intelligence chief. [New York Times]
- A split in Japan's governing party deepened as the leaders of three factions opposing Masayoshi Ohira's continuing tenure as Prime Minister agreed to coordinate their efforts to oust him. But Mr. Ohira, who is serving as a caretaker, showed no indication that he would step down. [New York Times]
- Washington is backing Morocco and will not allow it to be forced to accept military demands by Algeria in their struggle over Western Sahara, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, President Carter's adviser. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 815.70 (-8.11, -0.98%)
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* |
| October 30, 1979 | 823.81 | 102.67 | 28.89 |
| October 29, 1979 | 808.62 | 100.71 | 22.72 |
| October 26, 1979 | 809.30 | 100.57 | 29.67 |
| October 25, 1979 | 808.46 | 100.00 | 28.45 |
| October 24, 1979 | 808.36 | 100.44 | 31.48 |
| October 23, 1979 | 806.83 | 100.28 | 32.91 |
| October 22, 1979 | 809.13 | 100.71 | 45.24 |
| October 19, 1979 | 814.68 | 101.60 | 42.43 |
| October 18, 1979 | 830.12 | 103.61 | 29.59 |
| October 17, 1979 | 830.72 | 103.39 | 29.66 |