News stories from Friday February 22, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The American hockey team defeated the defending-champion Soviet squad at Lake Placid by 4-3. The victory put the underdog American team, made up mostly of collegians, in a commanding position to take the gold medal of the XIII Olympic Winter Games, The Americans have not won the medal since 1960. [New York Times]
- Anti-Soviet rioting broke out in Kabul and the Soviet-backed government placed the capital under martial law, while other anti-Soviet demonstrations reportedly were held in other cities in Afghanistan. At least three persons were reported killed in Kabul. Tass, the Soviet press agency, said the Afghan government was trying to curb a wave of "plundering and arson" by Moslem rebels and "foreign agents and mercenaries."
Soviet troops reinforced town garrisons in Afghanistan's eastern provinces near the Pakistani border, according to Afghan rebels and diplomatic sources in Peshawar, Pakistan. Western diplomats in Pakistan believe that the reinforcements, which they first noticed 10 days ago, might presage an effort by Soviet troops and loyal Afghan army units to close the mountainous Pakistan frontier to fleeing Afghan refugees and infiltrating Moslem rebels. They doubt that it will succeed.
[New York Times] - Leonid Breznhev said a "guarantee" by the United States and Afghanistan's neighbors not to interfere in Afghanistan's affairs would would make it possible for Soviet troops to leave. He said in a speech in the Kremlin that if a guarantee were forthcoming the need for Soviet intevention in Afghanistan "would cease to exist," and charged that the United States was making a Soviet withdrawal impossible because, in collusion with China and Pakistan, it was stepping up military support to the Afghan rebels. [New York Times]
- Iran said that the way was clear for the arrival tomorrow in Teheran of a United Nations commission that will investigate alleged crimes of the deposed Shah. Secretary General Kurt Waldheim and American officials hope that the investigation, which is expected to last two weeks, will lead to the release of the American hostages. [New York Times]
- Consumer prices climbed 1.4 percent in January, pushed by the biggest gasoline price rise in history. It was the largest monthly increase in six years, the Labor Department said. At an annual rate, the increase amounts to 18.2 percent and it brought that yearly rate to for the last three months to 15.6 percent. The administration's response was somber
Commercial borrowing costs soared to record levels as some of the nation's largest banks raised their prime lend-ing rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, to 16½ percent. The one-day increase was the largest in a decade. The action was taken amid growing concern in financial circles that inflation was running on unchecked, and some bankers and eonomists called for emergency measures to deal what they described as a breakdown in confidence in the government's will or ability to check inflation.
[New York Times] - George Bush received a setback in New York City when the city's board of elections rejected nearly half of the Republican presidential candidate's delegate nominees. The board's action followed a protest from supporters of Ronald Reagan that the Bush petitions showed "a citywide pattern of misrepresentation, falsification and fraud." The board erased the full Bush slates in six of 15 districts, finding signatures invalid for a variety of reasons. [New York Times]
- Chicago's firefighters reached a tentative agreement with Mayor Jane Byrne to end a strike after day-long negotiations. The agreement could end the nine-day-old strike by the city's 4,000 firefighters within 24 hours. Mayor Byrne announced a memorandum of agreement in which she pledged to grant the firefighters their first contract. [New York Times]
- Sterilizations of mentally retarded men, women and children were performed over 50 years in the state hospital for the retarded in Lynchburg, Va., "to raise the intelligence of the people of the state," in the words of the Virginia Supreme Court. This application of sterilization, which was generally accepted medical practice, is still legal, but was terminated by the state in 1972. The sterilization records, made public by the hospital's director, indicate that more than 4,000 operations were performed, most of them in the 1930's and 40's. [New York Times]
- A major riot could break out at any time in New York state's prisons, correction officials say, because tensions are so high. Their view is shared by inmates, guards and penologists. All say their main concern is serious overcrowding, a factor in the 1971 Attica uprising and the recent rioting at the New Mexico State Penitentiary. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 868.77 (+0.25, +0.03%)
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, 1980 | 868.52 | 115.28 | 51.54 |
| February 20, 1980 | 886.86 | 116.47 | 44.34 |
| February 19, 1980 | 876.02 | 114.60 | 39.48 |
| February 15, 1980 | 884.98 | 115.41 | 46.67 |
| February 14, 1980 | 893.77 | 116.72 | 50.55 |
| February 13, 1980 | 903.84 | 118.44 | 65.22 |
| February 12, 1980 | 898.98 | 117.90 | 48.08 |
| February 11, 1980 | 889.59 | 117.12 | 58.66 |
| February 8, 1980 | 895.73 | 117.95 | 57.86 |
| February 7, 1980 | 885.49 | 116.28 | 57.69 |