News stories from Thursday August 20, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- The financial crunch in many states and cities will be even worse as a result of the recent changes in federal tax laws. According to a knowledgeable estimate, the revisions could cost the state and municipal governments more than $27 billion by 1986. The most far-reaching money cutoff will occur because of the reductions in the federal taxes on personal and corporate income. [New York Times]
- The issue of safety recalls has split the nation's auto industry, and only General Motors still publicly announces most recalls. Ford and Chrysler have generally stopped issuing the public notices, opting instead to notify only the owners of the cars involved. Since last fall, Ford has quietly issued eight recalls involving a total of 222,538 autos with defects involving brakes and fuel tanks. [New York Times]
- Henry Ford's first factory will be sold to land developers. The 102-acre facility in Highland Park, Mich., is the birthplace of automotive assembly line production and the spiritual cradle of the American car industry. Over the years, Ford production was moved to more modern factories and the plant was closed in 1973. [New York Times]
- Buying power plunged more sharply for American families in 1980 than in any year since the government began compiling such statistics in 1947. The Census Bureau reported that real income fell more than 5 percent, mainly because of inflation. [New York Times]
- A plea for resumed contract talks in the 18-day-old strike by flight controllers was rejected by the Reagan administration. The latest appeal was made by the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers, which is to meet again Saturday in Amsterdam to decide whether its members in 60 foreign countries should act in support of the American strikers. [New York Times]
- Angry Indians barricaded a bridge over the Bighorn River on a Montana state highway and also blocked Crow Reservation roads in an effort to keep non-Indian fishermen off a 52-mile stretch of the river that crosses the reservation. The Crows were reviving a six-year legal battle that they eventually lost in the Supreme Court. After protesting for 14 hours, they obeyed a federal court order to withdraw. No arrests were made and no violence was reported. [New York Times]
- A moderate approach on civil rights was suggested by William Bradford Reynolds, the Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights. In his first news conference, he said he would not favor a wholesale review of federal court decrees that pertain to such issues as school desegregation with the intention of revising them. [New York Times]
- Roy Innis was released from jail without bail after pleading not guilty to a charge of severely beating a man in Harlem. Aides to Mr. Innis, the national chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality, said they had seen the man stealing a radio from a car belonging to the organization. [New York Times]
- The Navy maneuvers off Libya this week were planned to show that the United States was not honoring Libya's territorial claim to the Gulf of Sidra in the southern Mediterranean, President Reagan said. The maneuvers preceded an incident in which the United States said it had shot down two Libyan fighters that had fired on American jets. But Mr. Reagan denied that the exercises about 60 miles from the Libyan coast had been designed to provoke an incident or to threaten the Libyan regime. [New York Times]
- Oil company executives discounted the possibility that Libya would retaliate for the downing of the two jets. However, the officials expressed concern about the safety of the 1,500 American citizens living in Libya, and Exxon announced that all dependents of its employees there were being evacuated. [New York Times]
- Union militancy resumed in Poland as a two-day printers' strike, which effectively silenced most of the major newspapers, ended on an angry note. Aroused by government inquiries into the legality of the walkout and by a reported threat of force to dislodge union militants at one plant, the printers announced they were maintaining a strike alert and had only suspended, not halted, the walkout. [New York Times]
- A 10th Ulster hunger striker died in the Maze Prison in Belfast. Michael Devine, a 27-year-old Irish nationalist, died in his 60th day without food. To maintain pressure on Britain, another inmate is expected to begin fasting soon in the campaign for special political status for the prisoners. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 928.37 (+1.91, +0.21%)
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 19, 1981 | 926.46 | 130.49 | 39.39 |
| August 18, 1981 | 924.37 | 130.11 | 47.26 |
| August 17, 1981 | 926.75 | 131.22 | 40.84 |
| August 14, 1981 | 936.93 | 132.49 | 42.57 |
| August 13, 1981 | 944.35 | 133.51 | 42.44 |
| August 12, 1981 | 945.21 | 133.40 | 53.65 |
| August 11, 1981 | 949.30 | 133.85 | 52.59 |
| August 10, 1981 | 943.68 | 132.54 | 38.37 |
| August 7, 1981 | 942.54 | 131.75 | 38.38 |
| August 6, 1981 | 952.91 | 132.64 | 52.07 |