News stories from Wednesday August 5, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The first dismissal notices were sent out by the government to 55 striking air traffic controllers after they defied an ultimatum from President Reagan that they return to work or forfeit their jobs. The overwhelming majority of the more than 12,000 controllers who began the illegal strike Monday continued to hold ranks to compel the government to grant their economic demands, raising the prospect that thousands of dismissal notices might be issued. The first jailings of striking controllers for failing to obey court orders took place in Alexandria, Va., and Kansas City, Kan. [New York Times]
- The number of flights rose slightly and the nation's airlines reported that more passengers were filling previously empty seats. The government reported that 75 percent of the normal 14,200 daily flights had been handled by supervisors and other non-striking controllers. [New York Times]
- The impact of a long walkout and of prospective mass dismissals of the striking controllers was assessed by government and airline officials. They predicted an extended disruption of air traffic, with flights reduced for at least a year while new controllers are trained, unless substantial numbers of the strikers return to work. The government also began making preparations to replace large numbers of controllers. [New York Times]
- U.S. officials began planning strategy to cope with such a strike 20 months ago. The officials said that in January 1980 they started to draft a detailed plan for operating airport control towers and radarscopes with supervisory personnel, and that complex legal strategy was also charted well in advance of the walkout. [New York Times]
- With bravado, rhetoric and fears about the future, controllers around the country defied the Reagan administration's ultimatum that could eventuallly disrupt their careers. Most members of a militant union local on Long Island said that they were willing to risk dismissal because they backed the union's package of economic demands. "A political solution" to the illegal strike is expected by the controllers' union, acording to one of its lawyers. He acknowledged that the strikers faced an uphill legal fight. [New York Times]
- Pope John Paul II underwent surgery for 45 minutes to restore the normal functioning of his intestine. His doctors said the operation "succeeded perfectly" and predicted that the Pope would be able to leave the hospital in about 10 days. [New York Times]
- Modifications in the Clean Air Act were outlined by the Reagan administration. It proposed that standards for motor vehicle emissions be relaxed and that more reponsibility for clean air be given to the states, but it said it would not base the new standards on cost factors. [New York Times]
- Fears for Florida's citrus crop, which is worth $2 billion a year, were generated when three dead Mediterranean fruit flies were found in a trap in East Tampa. State and federal officials moved at once to determine whether the fruit flies came from California, where officials have been trying to combat a major infestation. [New York Times]
- Du Pont said it had gained control of Conoco Inc., the nation's ninth largest oil company, ending a bidding competition with Mobil and Seagram that was the most costly corporate takeover battle in history. The acquisition cost $7.56 billion in stock and cash and will make the chemical company the seventh largest industrial corporation in the country. [New York Times]
- American-Egyptian talks opened in Washington. President Anwar Sadat urged President Reagan to drop the longstanding United States refusal to deal with the Palestine Liberation Organization to help achieve peace in the Middle East, but the proposal was rejected by Secretary of State Alexander Haig. [New York Times]
- A street tie-up ended in Warsaw at the end of a two-hour token strike to protest food shortages as a column of 173 buses and trucks voluntarily left a key downtown intersection that it had blocked since Monday. The peaceful departure of the convoy ended a confrontation between the independent union and the authorities. [New York Times]
- French citizens should leave Iran quickly, according to advice by Paris. Teheran ordered the French Ambassador to depart as demonstrations continued outside the French Embassy to protest Paris' granting of political asylum to Abolhassan Bani-Sadr, the former Iranian President. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 953.58 (+7.61, +0.80%)
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* |
| August 4, 1981 | 945.97 | 131.18 | 39.47 |
| August 3, 1981 | 946.25 | 130.48 | 39.65 |
| July 31, 1981 | 952.34 | 130.92 | 43.47 |
| July 30, 1981 | 945.11 | 130.01 | 41.55 |
| July 29, 1981 | 937.40 | 129.16 | 37.61 |
| July 28, 1981 | 939.40 | 129.14 | 38.15 |
| July 27, 1981 | 945.87 | 129.90 | 39.61 |
| July 24, 1981 | 936.74 | 128.46 | 38.88 |
| July 23, 1981 | 928.56 | 127.40 | 41.88 |
| July 22, 1981 | 924.66 | 127.13 | 47.49 |