News stories from Monday September 22, 1975

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

A woman fired a gunshot at President Ford as he stepped out of the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco this afternoon, but a civilian bystander deflected the weapon just as it went off and the President was not hit. The bullet struck the pavement, ricocheted up and slightly wounded a man in the crowd of more than 3,000 people that had gathered outside the hotel to catch a glimpse of the President. Police officers and Oliver Sipple, a 30-year-old former Marine who had deflected the weapon, pounced on the assailant who was later identified as Sara Jane Moore, a 46-year-old activist who had been questioned by the Secret Service Sunday night but was not detained. The crowd broke into screams at the sound of gunfire. Mr. Ford, stunned momentarily, doubled over and was immediately shielded and rushed by Secret Service agents to his limousine. [New York Times] President Ford said he would soon ask Congress for authority to begin a $100 billion energy development program whose purpose would be to give the United States "energy independence in 10 years or less." Mr. Ford plans to establish a new government agency that would be known as the Energy Independence Authority. The agency would cooperate with a private industry. [New York Times] Former President Richard M. Nixon has denied under oath "responsibility" for the 18-minute gap in a key White House tape recording, one of his lawyers said in court arguments over the constitutionality of a new statute that gives the government control over Mr. Nixon's presidential papers and tape recordings. The lawyer, Herbert Miller, said that Mr. Nixon made his denial when he gave grand jury testimony in California last June under questioning by lawyers from the office of the special Watergate prosecutor. [New York Times] A coalition of environmentalists and oil-state conservatives is expected to make an effort to scuttle President Ford's plan for the $100 billion government energy development agency, The coalition already has joined the strong opposition to a somewhat similar proposal by Senator Henry Jackson of Washington, which is now pending in the Senate Interior Committee. Both sides of the coalition have expressed deep reservations about the proposed agency on the ground that it would have unusual power that would be subject to little congressional review. [New York Times] The Justice Department has begun an investigation of the circumstances surrounding the destruction of a threatening letter delivered by Lee Harvey Oswald to the Dallas office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation shortly before the assassination of President Kennedy. [New York Times] The Environmental Protection Agency said that purchasers of new 1976 model cars could look for better gasoline mileage than the automobile industry has offered in years. Industrywide, the agency said, the 1976 cars tested in the laboratory averaged a theoretical 17.6 miles per gallon in simulated city-plus-highway driving, and the most economical of them did almost twice as well, turning in about 33 miles per gallon. [New York Times] Secretary of State Kissinger, In a speech today to the General Assembly of the United Nations, proposed an informal meeting of key nations as a possible new approach for clearing the way to further diplomatic progress in the Middle East. This tentative new concept was described by American officials as an effort to spur peace moves either through direct Arab-Israeli talks or through a reconvened Geneva conference -- not as a substitute. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 820.40 (-9.39, -1.13%)
S&P Composite: 85.07 (-0.81, -0.94%)
Arms Index: 1.93

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	590	3.49
Declines	789	8.99
Unchanged	408	2.27
Total Volume		14.75

* 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*
September 19, 1975	829.79	85.88	20.83
September 18, 1975	814.61	84.06	14.30
September 17, 1975	799.05	82.37	12.19
September 16, 1975	795.13	82.09	13.09
September 15, 1975	803.19	82.88	8.67
September 12, 1975	809.29	83.30	12.23
September 11, 1975	812.66	83.45	11.10
September 10, 1975	817.66	83.79	14.78
September 9, 1975	827.75	84.60	15.79
September 8, 1975	840.11	85.89	11.50