News stories from Friday June 19, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The fight over the budget in Congress grew hotter when President Reagan strongly endorsed a Republican proposal to change the basic spending priorities recently established by House committees. The Republican bill would make deeper cuts than the Democrats want in such programs as welfare, subsidized housing, school lunches and student loans. It would also revive six block grant programs -- transfers of federal funds from Washington to local governments. The Republican block grant programs were rejected or substantially altered by the Democratic-controlled House committees. [New York Times]
- A strike by air traffic controllers on Monday seemed less likely after the president of the controllers' union agreed to delay a walkout if a contract agreement seemed near. Negotiations were begun again tonight in the first meeting between the two sides since Wednesday. They were recessed and were expected to resume tomorrow. [New York Times]
- Earl Butz was sentenced to jail for 30 days and fined $10,000 for filing a false federal income tax return. Mr. Butz, Secretary of Agriculture in the Nixon and Ford administrations, and now dean emeritus of agriculture at Purdue University, pleaded guilty in May to a charge of fraudulently understating his 1978 income by $148,114. He was ordered by a judge of the Federal District Court in Fort Wayne, Ind., to report within two weeks to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Chicago. He will be on probation for the balance of the five-year term. [New York Times]
- Infectious hepatitis broke out among many patrons of a Mexican restaurant in Middletown Township, N.J., health officials said. The disease was traced to two food handlers employed by the restaurant, Taco Town, whose owners closed it voluntarily. Fifty-two men and women became ill and 15 were hospitalized. The sick list is expected to grow. [New York Times]
- Increased lung cancer risk is slight among non-smoking wives of smokers, according to a study by the American Cancer Society. The study found that there was insufficient evidence to conelude that passive smoking -- inhalation near tobacco smokers -- is a hazard to non-smokers. It contradicts a Japanese study released in January that asserted that non-smoking wives of smokers developed lung cancer at a much greater rate than those with non-smoking husbands. [New York Times]
- George Washington's false teeth were missing from a locked storage room in the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History. The teeth, made of ivory and gold in 1795 by Washington's dentist, John Greenwood, were on loan from the University of Maryland Dental School, and had been placed in a locked room after a series of thefts at the museum. [New York Times]
- A unanimous Security Council vote approved a resolution that "strongly condemned" Israel for its destruction of an Iraqi nuclear reactor and urged Israel to open its nuclear plants to international inspection. The resolution was agreed to on Thursday by the United States and Iraq. Jeane Kirkpatrick, the chief American delegate to the United Nations, said Israel deserved condemnation for not using all diplomatic means to deal with its concern that Iraq would build a nuclear bomb. She said, however, that "nothing in the resolution will affect my government's commitment to Israel's security." [New York Times]
- Iraq intended to build a nuclear bomb, according to a former inspector for the International Atomic Energy Agency. The former inspector, Roger Richter, told a hearing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that international safeguards would not have detected Iraq's secret production of plutonium, which is needed for a bomb. He also said that his concern over the agency's constraints on inspection of the Iraqi nuclear reactor led him to report to the State Department last year. He said that on the basis of available information, Iraq had an "aggressive, coordinated program" to develop the ability to make nuclear weapons in the next five years. [New York Times]
- Western Europe boosted two satellites into space with the successful launching in French Guiana of a 155-foot tall rocket, the Ariane, developed by the 11-nation European Space Agency. The rocket is expected to enable Western European nations to compete with American telecommunications satellites. The new satellites reportedly have been booked through 1985. [New York Times]
- An American-Soviet dialogue is looked on favorably by the Reagan administration, but firmness in the Atlantic alliance's restraints on the Soviet Union is necessary, the Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, Lawrence Eagleburger, said at an alliance meeting in Bonn. His speech appeared to be aimed at dispelling doubts in Western Europe that the Reagan administration was willing to negotiate a limit on middle-range nuclear missiles in Europe. [New York Times]
- Japan will not raise military outlays despite continuing pressure from Washington, Japanese officials quoted Foreign Minister Sunao Sonoda as telling Secretary of State Alexander Haig during a meeting in Manila of the foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 996.19 (+1.04, +0.10%)
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* |
| June 18, 1981 | 995.15 | 131.64 | 48.40 |
| June 17, 1981 | 1006.56 | 133.32 | 55.47 |
| June 16, 1981 | 1003.33 | 132.15 | 57.77 |
| June 15, 1981 | 1011.99 | 133.61 | 63.34 |
| June 12, 1981 | 1006.28 | 133.49 | 60.79 |
| June 11, 1981 | 1007.42 | 133.75 | 59.53 |
| June 10, 1981 | 993.88 | 132.32 | 53.20 |
| June 9, 1981 | 994.44 | 131.97 | 44.61 |
| June 8, 1981 | 995.64 | 132.24 | 41.57 |
| June 5, 1981 | 993.79 | 132.22 | 47.18 |