News stories from Monday December 8, 1980
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- John Lennon was shot and killed while entering the apartment building where he lived, the Dakota, on Manhattan's Upper West Side. A suspect, identified as Mark David Chapman, 25, of Hawaii was seized at the scene. The 40-year-old Mr. Lennon was shot in the back twice after getting out of a limousine and walking into an entrance way of the Dakota. The suspect had lived in New York for about a week, according to James Sullivan, chief of detectives of the 20th Precinct. With Mr. Lennon when he was shot was his wife, Yoko Ono. Officer Anthony Palma, who drove Miss Ono to the hospital said she sobbed: "Tell me it isn't true." She was apparently not hurt. [New York Times]
- A callup of Soviet-bloc reservists was reported by United States officials. They said that the Soviet Union, East Germany and Czechoslovakia had summoned some military reservists in the last few days, increasing the possibility of joint intervention in Poland under the guise of Warsaw Pact maneuvers.
Moscow issued the strongest comment to date on the turmoil in Poland. The official Soviet press agency Tass asserted explicitly for the first time that some independent union groups in Poland were conducting a counter-revolutionary struggle against Warsaw's Communist government.
[New York Times] - Moderation was reflected in Warsaw as both the government and the independent unions sought to counter the report from Moscow that counter-revolutionaries were threatening the authorities. Many Poles appeared to doubt that Soviet-bloc intervention was imminent and they interpreted reports of troop buildups near Poland's frontiers as a sign that the Warsaw authorities must show they are in control. [New York Times]
- Optimism about the hostage dispute was expressed by the Speaker of Iran's Parliament as Iranian officials spent a fifth day considering the latest American reply to Teheran's conditions for releasing the 52 captives. The Speaker said on state television that the 13-month-old dispute "is now much closer to being solved" and that if Washington "truly wants to solve the matter, it will be solved." [New York Times]
- The costliest transition operation in history has been begun by President-elect Reagan. The $2 million government appropriation provided by law will not be enough to pay the salaries and expenses of the Reagan team, according to transition planners, and at least $1 million more must be raised in private donations. [New York Times]
- A surge in liberal activism has been stirred by the election of Ronald Reagan and the coming influx of conservatives into Congress. Key organizations advocating civil liberties, women's rights and minority causes report an extraordinary increase in both membership and contributions in the last month. [New York Times]
- A Connecticut industrialist is in line to be Secretary of Commerce in the new administration, according to associates of President-elect Reagan. The reported choice is Malcolm Baldrige, the chairman of a Waterbury manufacturing company. [New York Times]
- Rising financial trouble for Chrysler prompted the auto maker to warn the government that it must have $350 million in additional federal loan guarantees within 30 days to keep operating. Government sources said that a federal panel had reacted coolly to the corporation's request but had not explicitly denied it. The government has already issued $800 million in such loan guarantees. [New York Times]
- Large wage settlements are expected to result from union contract bargaining next year, according to a group of labor experts. An eight-member panel predicted that union targets and contract settlements would rise above 10 percent in response to a projected national increase of more than 12 percent in living costs. [New York Times]
- The issue of "selective prosecution" is to be considered again by the Supreme Court. The Justices agreed to decide whether Larry Flynt, the publisher of the sexually explicit magazine Hustler, had been unfairly singled out by Cleveland prosecutors for violation of an Ohio obscenity law. [New York Times]
- A Border Patrol agent was sentenced to a year in prison and a second agent was given three years' probation for their part in the beatings of several Mexicans and at least one American near San Clemente, Calif. [New York Times]
- Jordanian-Syrian ties are damaged irreparably because of their three-week-old confrontation, according to King Hussein. The Jordanian ruler confirmed that neither Jordan nor Syria had withdrawn any troops from their common frontier. [New York Times]
- A Zimbabwean leader was convicted of murder in the slaying of a white farmer last summer, but was freed under a law enacted by the previous white-minority regime that shields government ministers from criminal charges when they act "in good faith" to suppress terrorism. The Minister, Edgar Tekere, left the courtroom in a triumphal procession made up of seven bodyguards and other backers. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 933.70 (-22.53, -2.36%)
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* |
| December 5, 1980 | 956.23 | 134.03 | 51.99 |
| December 4, 1980 | 970.48 | 136.48 | 51.17 |
| December 3, 1980 | 972.27 | 136.71 | 43.44 |
| December 2, 1980 | 974.40 | 136.97 | 52.35 |
| December 1, 1980 | 969.45 | 137.21 | 48.17 |
| November 28, 1980 | 993.34 | 140.52 | 34.27 |
| November 26, 1980 | 989.68 | 140.17 | 55.34 |
| November 25, 1980 | 982.68 | 139.33 | 55.83 |
| November 24, 1980 | 978.75 | 138.31 | 51.13 |
| November 21, 1980 | 989.93 | 139.11 | 55.93 |