News stories from Thursday August 6, 1981

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

The dismissal of all controllers taking part in the illegal four-day strike was proceeding as the Reagan administration shifted its emphasis to training new recruits and "rebuilding the system" with a virtually entire new staff. The administration said that the 12,000 strikers who had defied an ultimatum to return to work or forfeit their jobs would soon be off the payroll, except for a few with valid excuses. The government also reported that air traffic continued to rise, reaching 79 percent of the 14,200 normal daily flights. [New York Times] Preparations to train new controllers were being made at the government's academy in Oklahoma City. Officials said they were prepared to triple the nation's output of flight controllers to 5,500 or more a year. [New York Times] Fines against the controllers' union and its members continued to rise at the rate of several millions of dollars a day. But the Justice Department said it would not seek additional court injunctions because the strikers were being dismissed and were thus in no position to clear themselves from contempt citations. [New York Times] The most generous tax reductions provided in the new law include the rules governing estates and gifts, which will save Americans millions of tax dollars a year. Probably the most significant change is the provision, effective next year, that will allow individuals to leave everything to a spouse completely tax-free. [New York Times] The President has dazzled skeptics in Washington's political community with the stunning series of congressional victories he has achieved in his first six and a half months in the White House. In interviews, officials there said that Mr. Reagan had succeeded by concentrating his energy on "the big picture," as an aide put it, while letting subordinates do the necessary bargaining. [New York Times] A confession by an accused spy was reported in military court papers by the Air Force. It said that Lt. Christopher Cooke, who has been charged with making unauthorized contacts with the Soviet Embassy, had acknowledged that for about a year he had been "photocopying, copying and giving to the Soviets secret and top secret information" about strategic nuclear arms deployment. [New York Times] The Guardian Angels have grown since 1978, through controversy about their effectiveness, from a band of 13 youths battling crime in New York City's subways to a coast-to-coast organization in 22 cities. There are now 1,388 members, according to the orginator, Curtis Sliva, with hundreds of others going through the physical training with classes in karate, in legal requirements for citizen arrests and in lifesaving. [New York Times] Subway crime has been climbing, according to figures released by New York City's transit police. The report said that the number of reported crimes increased 20 percent in the first six months of 1981 over a year earlier. At the same time, reported crime on buses declined 17 percent. [New York Times] High American-Egyptian talks ended in Washington. President Reagan assured President Anwar Sadat that the United States would take an active role in future Middle East diplomacy but he refrained from agreeing to a specific approach. [New York Times] Iran held 62 French nationals who had tried to leave the country in an Air France jetliner. The 62 were the first contingent of about 110 French citizens, including diplomats, fleeing Iran after a warning by Paris that anti-French demonstrations in Teheran might get out of control. [New York Times] Moscow has rebuffed Washington in several recent efforts by the Reagan administration to open secret talks on a political settlement of the strife in Afghanistan, according to State Department officials. They said that Washington has tried to convince Moscow that its forces could not defeat the Afghan insurgents and that, therefore, it should accept the offer to work out compromises providing for a face-saving Soviet departure and guarantees for Soviet interests. [New York Times] A global economic agreement is being urgently sought by the third-world countries, but the Reagan administration firmly opposes a shifting of billions of dollars from the industrialized countries to the poor ones. A high State Department official said in an interview that the growth of developing economies should depend on the creation of new wealth, not on the sharing of existing resources. [New York Times]

Stock Market Report

Dow Jones Industrial Average: 952.91 (-0.67, -0.07%)
S&P Composite: 132.64 (-0.03, -0.02%)
Arms Index: 0.85

	Issues	Volume*
Advances	830	28.42
Declines	644	18.70
Unchanged	405	4.95
Total Volume		52.07

* 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*
August 5, 1981	953.58	132.67	54.27
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