News stories from Monday February 9, 1981

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

The federal hiring freeze is working and will remain in force, according to officials of the Reagan administration. Every day, they said, 500 jobs are being eliminated from the government's payroll as employees retire or quit and are not being replaced. [New York Times] Sharply higher military spending plans were detailed by Pentagon and industry officials. They said that the Reagan administration would seek increases totaling $32 billion over President Carter's proposals for the current fiscal year and the next one. [New York Times] Cuts in urban aid will be softened by an easing of restrictions and requirements governing the use of federal assistance, President Reagan said. He told a group of county executives and state legislators that his administration would try to distribute the remaining aid in large grants, giving local governments maximum flexibility in determining how to spend the funds. [New York Times] Gen. David Jones will retain his post as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to Pentagon cfficials who ended three months of suspense over President Reagan's decision. General Jones has been strongly criticized by some conservatives in Congress on the ground that he has been too closely linked to the Carter administration's military policies. [New York Times] A desegregation suit was pressed by the Justice Department against the public schools of Charleston County, S.C. The department's statements suggested that the Reagan administration would not automatically halt all controversial litigation. [New York Times] A delay in a car safety rule was backed by the Reagan administration. It proposed a postponement for at least one year of a rule to require American auto makers to provide airbags or other automatic crash protection in new large-sized cars this fall. [New York Times] The managers of Three Mile Island were criticized in a report by the staff of the House Interior Committee. The study said that the operators of the nuclear plant had withheld information about the severity of the reactor accident on March 28, 1979, and had made misleading statements to federal and state officials. [New York Times] A strict gun penalty law in New Jersey is to take effect soon. Voting 71 to 1, the Assembly gave final legislative approval to a bill to mandate a three-year prison term for anyone who uses a gun in the commission of a violent crime. Governor Byrne, who vetoed a similar measure last year, has promised to sign the new bill. [New York Times] An ex-patient of Dr. Herman Tarnower testified that she heard the cardiologist shout in a telephone conversation on the morning of the day he was shot: "Jean, I want you to stop bothering me." Jean Harris, who is accused of murdering him 12 hours later, has testified that she telephoned him that morning, but she did not describe any angry conversation. [New York Times] An American could not leave Iran because of unspecified problems with her travel documents. Cynthia Dwyer, a freelance journalist, had been scheduled to be deported today, but at the last minute she was barred from boarding a plane at Teheran's airport. The Swiss Ambassador said he hoped that Mrs. Dwyer could be on a flight leaving Iran within 24 hours. [New York Times] In a government shake-up in Poland, Prime Minister Jozef Pinkowksi was dismissed and was replaced by Gen. Wojciech Jaruzelski, the Defense Minister. The general, a Soviet-trained officer with a reputation for professionalism, is generally regarded as a moderate.Washington reacted calmly to the shake-up in Warsaw. State Department specialists said they did not believe that the promotion of Gen. Jaruzelski presaged a crackdown. They said they viewed the change as an effort by Poland's leadership to demonstrate firmness in the face of continuing labor turmoil. [New York Times] The creation of a new party in Britain was signaled by Shirley Williams, the former Education Secretary who completed a break with the Labor Party. Mrs. Williams, a leader of a new faction in the ideological center, and three other former Labor cabinet ministers plan to form a social democratic movement soon. [New York Times] A decline in violations of human rights was reported in the State Department's annual survey of international conditions. The report, prepared by the Carter administration, said that torture, disappearances and inhuman treatment of prisoners continued to decrease in 1980, particularly in countries where human rights violations came under "intense international scrutiny and criticism." [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 947.18 (-5.12, -0.54%)
S&P Composite: 129.27 (-1.33, -1.02%)
Arms Index: 1.25

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	591	11.61
Declines	912	22.47
Unchanged	393	4.25
Total Volume		38.33

* 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*
February 6, 1981	952.30	130.60	45.82
February 5, 1981	946.76	129.63	45.31
February 4, 1981	941.98	128.59	45.53
February 3, 1981	941.38	128.46	45.95
February 2, 1981	932.17	126.91	44.08
January 30, 1981	947.27	129.55	41.16
January 29, 1981	948.89	130.24	38.16
January 28, 1981	942.58	130.34	36.69
January 27, 1981	949.49	131.12	42.25
January 26, 1981	938.91	129.84	35.37