News stories from Thursday March 5, 1981

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

A sharp cut in legal aid for the poor was expected to result from a plan by the federal budget office to abolish the $321 million program that finances the aid and the independent corporation that administers the program. The budget office said that state governments could finance legal aid for the poor with part of the federal block grants that the Reagan administration has proposed, but they would not be required to do so. [New York Times] The government is owed $25 billion in delinquent loans, unpaid taxes and other overdue debts, and federal agencies have performed poorly in collecting the money, according to a report by the federal budget office. [New York Times] Atlanta will receive nearly $1 million in federal grants to finance mental health and other social service programs, President Reagan announced. The city has been gripped with fear for more than 18 months because of the disappearance of 21 black children and the deaths of 19 of them. [New York Times] A key consumer agency was defended in congressional testimony against proposed budget cuts by its former chairman and three consumer groups. Susan King, former chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, said that a 30 percent budget cut planned by the administration would severely curtail the agency's ability to function. [New York Times] No major ruling regarding evolution and its teaching is expected to emerge from a California trial over a suit filed by fundamentalists. The trial has narrowed into a dispute over the language of state guidelines for organizing public school science courses rather than a new Scopes trial. [New York Times] Fear of Soviet intervention in Poland was suggested by the Reagan administration, which expressed concern over signs that the Warsaw Pact allies were about to begin their regular spring military maneuvers in and around Poland. A State Department spokesman reminded Moscow that any "outside intervention, in whatever form, would have the gravest consequences."Poland's top dissident was detained for seven hours by the police and told he was under investigation for allegedly slandering the state, his family said. The detention of Jacek Kurnon, who is an adviser to the independent union, prompted its leadership to call a national meeting on Saturday. [New York Times] An electoral panel in El Salvador was appointed by the governing junta as a first step toward promised elections for a constitutional assembly next year. Meanwhile, Washington's strong backing of the junta appeared to have headed off any movement toward a right-wing coup.New military aid to El Salvador was criticized sharply by House Democrats and a Roman Catholic bishop at a congressional hearing. Archbishop James Hickey of Washington testified in the name of the Roman Catholic Bishops of the United States. [New York Times] New terrorism by Basques in Spain caused Prime Minister Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo to fly to Bilbao to pay respects to a police chief a few hours after his assassination. Basque extremists were thought to be seeking to provoke another coup to encourage more Basques to support terrorism. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 964.62 (-6.82, -0.70%)
S&P Composite: 129.93 (-0.93, -0.71%)
Arms Index: 1.07

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	720	18.61
Declines	767	21.29
Unchanged	428	5.48
Total Volume		45.38

* 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*
March 4, 1981	971.44	130.86	47.25
March 3, 1981	966.02	130.56	48.73
March 2, 1981	977.99	132.01	47.71
February 27, 1981	974.58	131.27	53.20
February 26, 1981	966.81	130.10	60.31
February 25, 1981	954.40	128.52	45.71
February 24, 1981	946.10	127.39	43.96
February 23, 1981	945.23	127.35	39.59
February 20, 1981	936.09	126.58	41.90
February 19, 1981	933.36	126.61	41.64