News stories from Thursday July 23, 1981

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

Inflation remained under 10 percent on an annual basis for the fourth successive month. The government reported that despite sharply higher housing costs, consumer prices rose by seven-tenths of 1 percent in June. If continued for 12 months, this would result in inflation of 8.8 percent. The June increase brought the annual rate of inflation for the first six months of 1981 to 8.5 percent, as against the 12.4 percent rate in 1980. [New York Times] The end of the Social Security floor was approved by House and Senate conferees. They agreed to retain the minimum pension benefit of $122 a month only until next February. Representative Dan Rostenkowski, chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, urged the delay to give those affected time to apply for Supplemental Security Income and "make other adjustments." [New York Times] Final decisions on food stamp cuts were negotiated by House and Senate conferees in a compromise that will reduce the program by $6 billion in the next three years. Most of the cuts will take the form of delayed benefits, and comparatively few families presently on the rolls will receive lower monthly allotments than they do now. [New York Times] A third aerial walkway was removed from the lobby of the vacant Hyatt Regency hotel in Kansas City before dawn, despite protests by Mayor Richard Berkley that the removal might make it more difficult to determine why the hotel's two other walkways collapsed Friday, killing 111 people and injuring 188. The two fallen walkways and other debris that experts say is crucial to the investigation have also been removed by the company that owns the hotel. [New York Times] A crackdown on violent offenders is to be urged by an advisory panel appointed by the Reagan administration. The head of the panel said it had substantially agreed on a need to ease restraints on the use of illegally gained evidence in criminal trials, to abolish parole, to impose more fixed-term sentences and to provide federal funds to build more state prisons. [New York Times] A major drought in south Florida has prompted the state to make plans to start seeding clouds for rain as well as to impose rationing and declare an emergency in 16 counties. [New York Times] The American West's boom in energy and mineral development is generating tremendous growth for many tiny and remote communities. The mining companies are finding that before they begin to reap profits they must make a heavy investment to help upgrade overburdened school systems and other public facilities. [New York Times] Children's rights in the courts are being severely restricted in a recent shift. After 80 years of trying to put the interests of juvenile offenders first, a number of courts and legislatures have begun to place greater emphasis on protecting the public from violent young offenders. [New York Times] The Washington Star will shut down on Aug. 7 because of circulation and financial losses. The 128-year-old daily has long been regarded as one of the nation's best afternoon newspapers. The paper's death, which comes after an $85 million effort to make it profitable, will leave the capital with only one daily, The Washington Post, a morning publication. The Star's owner, Time Inc., said it was losing about $20 million a year and that daily and Sunday circulation was declining with each press run. [New York Times] New shipments of F-111 jets to Israel were urged by the leaders of 34 American Jewish organizations. They said that President Reagan's suspenion of the deliveries would appear to be "one-sided punishment of Israel" that encouraged "those committed to Israel's destruction." [New York Times] A muting of U.S.-Israeli discord and a halt in public criticism of the policies of Prime Minister Menachem Begin was sought by the White House. Publicly, officials stressed an even-handed appeal for military restraint by both Israeli and Palestinian forces, but privately they acknowledged they had been dismayed by the heavy Israeli air attack in Beirut last Friday and upset at the setback they felt it dealt to peace efforts. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 928.56 (+3.90, +0.42%)
S&P Composite: 127.40 (+0.27, +0.21%)
Arms Index: 0.57

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	597	19.72
Declines	872	16.37
Unchanged	412	5.70
Total Volume		41.79

* 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*
July 22, 1981	924.66	127.13	47.49
July 21, 1981	934.46	128.34	47.26
July 20, 1981	940.54	128.72	40.24
July 17, 1981	959.90	130.76	42.78
July 16, 1981	955.48	130.34	39.01
July 15, 1981	954.15	130.23	48.95
July 14, 1981	948.25	129.65	45.23
July 13, 1981	954.34	129.64	38.10
July 10, 1981	955.67	129.37	39.95
July 9, 1981	959.00	129.30	45.51