News stories from Tuesday April 7, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A new assassination plot against President Reagan was reported by the Secret Service. Agents arrested a 22-year-old unemployed man armed with a revolver at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan. The agents said they had tracked him from a New Haven hotel, where a letter was found in which he vowed to complete the assassination attempt last week attributed to John W. Hinckley. The agents said they had evidence the suspect, Edward Richardson, apparently shared Mr. Hinckley's affection for the actress Jodie Foster. [New York Times]
- President Reagan was up and about in his hospital room and in "excellent spirits," with no sign of any bacterial infection, according to his doctors. They also said that his temperature had remained at a "near normal" level since Monday night. [New York Times]
- The President's economic program was pressed by his senior aides, who were increasingly concerned that his hospitalization might rob the program of momentum in Congress. They assailed an alternative budget proposed Monday by the Democrats as "well-intentioned but inadequate." [New York Times]
- Unemployment benefits would shrink markedly under President Reagan's plan to cut the costs of the program and reduce the number of workers who would be eligible for extended benefits. Last year, about two million people received extended benefits at a cost of $1.8 billion.
Major changes in Social Security are proposed in a bill that won tentative approval in a House subcommittee. Under the plan, the age for full retirement and benefits would be postponed from 65 to 68. The new formula would take effect in 1990 and be phased in gradually over 10 years.
[New York Times] - Abbie Hoffman was sentenced to up to three years in prison three months after he pleaded guilty to selling $36,000 worth of cocaine to undercover police officers in 1973. The counterculture leader of the 1960's surrendered last year after six years in hiding. [New York Times]
- A boxing promoter failed to post bail of $200,000 and remained in the Los Angeles County Jail. The promoter, Ross Eugene Fields, who had expected to be able to raise the money from friends, is accused of defrauding Wells Fargo National Bank of $21.3 million and also forgery, fraud and writing bad checks in at least three states. [New York Times]
- An end of the Warsaw Pact maneuvers was announced by Moscow. It said that all troops, including those who joined the three-week-long exercises over the weekend, were speedily returning to their bases. Earlier, Leonid Brezhnev, the Soviet leader, said he believed that Poland's Communist leaders could resolve the country's crisis by themselves. The State Department reacted warily to the Soviet statements about Poland, calling Moscow's intentions unclear and describing military activity by the Warsaw Pact countries as continuing at "unusual levels." [New York Times]
- Washington exhorted the NATO allies to share the West's military obligations. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger transformed a routine meeting in Bonn with Western European defense ministers into a strong advertisement for the Reagan administration's military policy. [New York Times]
- Fighting intensified in Lebanon as Syrian troops sought to drive Christian militiamen out of hill positions overlooking the Christian stronghold of Zahle. The militiamen shelled Syrian troops at the nearby town of Shtura on the main Beirut-Damascus highway with heavy artillery, and artillery duels continued in Beirut. [New York Times]
- Alexander Haig was set back in efforts to build "a strategic consensus" in the Middle East against Moscow. In private talks with the Secretary of State, King Hussein of Jordan said he opposed "polarization" and insisted that Israel was responsible for the region's turmoil and instability. [New York Times]
- U.S.-Argentine military cooperation is in prospect despite a congressional ban on military links with Argentina because of human rights abuses there. The administration is sending a number of military leaders to the country, where rights advocates say that torture is commonplace and more than 900 Argentines have been in jail for five years without being charged. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 992.89 (-1.35, -0.14%)
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* |
| April 6, 1981 | 994.24 | 133.93 | 43.11 |
| April 3, 1981 | 1007.11 | 135.49 | 48.68 |
| April 2, 1981 | 1009.01 | 136.32 | 52.57 |
| April 1, 1981 | 1014.14 | 136.57 | 54.89 |
| March 31, 1981 | 1003.87 | 136.00 | 50.97 |
| March 30, 1981 | 992.16 | 134.28 | 33.49 |
| March 27, 1981 | 994.78 | 134.65 | 46.93 |
| March 26, 1981 | 1005.76 | 136.27 | 60.37 |
| March 25, 1981 | 1015.22 | 137.11 | 56.34 |
| March 24, 1981 | 996.13 | 134.67 | 66.40 |