News stories from Wednesday August 16, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A nervous and trembling James Earl Ray swore to the House Assassinations Committee that he did not kill Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 10 years ago. Ray said he was nine blocks away, getting a tire fixed, when the black civil rights leader was shot to death by a sniper in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Ray -- who pleaded guilty to killing King -- is serving a 99-year sentence in a Tennessee prison for the murder. [Chicago Tribune]
- President Carter has denied pardons to four of the original defendants in the 1972 break-in at Democratic National Headquarters in the Watergate complex, it was disclosed today. Carter did not state a reason for his decision, Justice Department officials said. The four -- Bernard Barker, Frank Sturgis, Eugenio Martinez, and Virgilio Gonzalez -- were convicted of burglary and wiretapping in the June 17, 1972, break-in. All were released from prison in 1974. [Chicago Tribune]
- A House subcommittee voted 9 to 8 to recommend that HEW Secretary Joseph Califano be cited for contempt of Congress for not producing subpoenaed documents on drug companies. The vote came after the failure of earlier motions to delay the contempt motion until after Congress' three-week recess later this month to give Califano more time to comply with the request. The contempt recommendation, from the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, now will go to the parent House Commerce Committee. If approved there, it would have to be voted on by the full House before taking effect. [Chicago Tribune]
- The city of Memphis, staggered by a wave of looting during a huge power blackout, asked Chancery Court to issue contempt citations against officials of the striking police and firefighters' unions. Petitions filed by city attorney Clifford Pierce cite officials of the Memphis Police Association and the International Firefighters local for ignoring the court's back-to-work orders. [Chicago Tribune]
- President Carter signed four executive orders to encourage the federal government to consider the plight of the cities and pump more dollars into downtown areas. The move was acclaimed by leaders of the nation's cities as "a turning point in federal policy." The key order would require all major proposals for legislation or other government action to be accompanied by an urban impact statement. [Chicago Tribune]
- More than 50,000 persons who bought defective government-insured homes will be able to reopen their claims for refunds for repairs through an agreement reached with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. At least half the claims are from Chicago. An independent agency, the American Institute of Architects, will review the claims. [Chicago Tribune]
- A tavern quarrel in New Hill, N.C., between two men over whose pickup truck was more powerful turned deadly early today when one of them drove his truck at high speed through the parking lot, killing two men and injuring six, authorities said. The driver himself was injured minutes later when he was chased off the highway by a witness in another vehicle and his truck exploded in flames. [Chicago Tribune]
- The U.S. dollar, which had gone into a new slide overseas early today, rallied strongly on U.S. money markets later in the day after President Carter called for recommendations to halt its long decline.
The Commerce Department reported that businesses built up their inventories in June only half as rapidly as in May, indicating businesses are remaining conservative about stocking their shelves after getting caught with too much on hand in 1974-75.
[Chicago Tribune] - Three adventurers from the United States became the first men to cross the Atlantic Ocean in a balloon and headed toward an expected landing in England or France. "We are on top of the world," radioed 44-year-old Maxie Anderson from the balloon. He said he and fellow balloonists Ben Abruzzo, 48, and Larry Newman, 31, "almost jumped out of our skins" when they passed over the coast of Ireland. [Chicago Tribune]
- Chinese Communist Party Chairman Hua Kuo-feng began his historic visit to Europe with a sharp and barely disguised attack on the Soviet Union, warning that some big powers were trying to dominate the world. Hua received a tumultuous welcome from a crowd estimated as large as 250,000. "In Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Europe, imperialism and hegemonism [Soviet domination] are spreading out their hands all over to infiltrate, undermine, and to commit aggression and expansion against some countries," Hua said at a banquet in his honor. [Chicago Tribune]
- A Moscow psychiatrist said that people without mental problems are hospitalized in Soviet asylums as a form of punishment. He was the first medical man to confirm to Western correspondents the accusations brought by Soviet dissidents. At a press conference held by a dissident group, Dr. Alexander Voloshanovich said he decided to speak out because of the conviction Tuesday of Alexander Podrabinek, a young dissident who gathered evidence about the situation in psychiatric hospitals. [Chicago Tribune]
- Paul Cardinal Yu Pin of China died in Rome today, reducing to 111 the number of cardinals expected to attend the Aug. 25 conclave for the election of a new Pope, Vatican officials say. Yu Pin, 77, was archbishop of Nanking but lived in Taiwan. His death reduced to 114 the number of cardinals under 80 years of age and thus eligible to attend the conclave. [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 894.58 (+7.45, +0.84%)
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* |
| August 15, 1978 | 887.13 | 103.85 | 29.78 |
| August 14, 1978 | 888.17 | 103.97 | 32.32 |
| August 11, 1978 | 890.85 | 103.96 | 33.55 |
| August 10, 1978 | 885.48 | 103.66 | 39.75 |
| August 9, 1978 | 891.63 | 104.50 | 48.79 |
| August 8, 1978 | 889.21 | 104.01 | 34.30 |
| August 7, 1978 | 885.05 | 103.55 | 33.35 |
| August 4, 1978 | 888.43 | 103.92 | 37.92 |
| August 3, 1978 | 886.87 | 103.51 | 66.37 |
| August 2, 1978 | 883.49 | 102.92 | 47.50 |