News stories from Monday August 21, 1978
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Completing their weekend stay in. Plains, Ga., President and Mrs. Carter departed Monday for Idaho. The president, who is on his first vacation away from his hometown since going to the White House, plans to shoot the Salmon River as well as do some fishing. [Chicago Tribune]
- Stocks sank sharply in late trading as the market was revisited by familiar fears of rising interest rates and inflation. Declining issues took a commanding lead over gaining stocks and the Dow Jones industrial average fell 7.88 to close at 888.95. [Chicago Tribune]
- President Carter's former drug adviser, Dr. Peter Bourne, who wrote a sedative prescription under a fictitious name to conceal the fact that his office assistant had mental troubles, was let off the hook today both by authorities in Virginia, where an attempt was made to have the prescription filled, and in Washington, whose authorities were happy to see the affair in Virginia's lap. The Virginians said they had no authority over what Bourne did in Washington. [Chicago Tribune]
- A nationwide government survey, in which blacks and whites applied to the same four private housing agencies in various areas, shows the blacks encountered a 75 percent chance of discrimination in rentals and a 62 percent chance of bias on the purchase of a home. On a regional basis, the survey showed the incidence of discrimination on home sales was four times higher in the North-central United States than in the South and West. The lowest rate in both rentals and sales was found in the Northeast. [Chicago Tribune]
- Because of a dramatic increase in the use of surgery as a contraceptive method, nearly one-third of America's married couples with wives of child-bearing age said they were sterile in 1976, a government report shows. The report also shows that use of the oral contraceptive pill decreased in 1976 for the first time since the surveys by the National Center for Health Statistics have been taken. [Chicago Tribune]
- Senate opponents of a proposal to give full congressional representation to the District of Columbia failed in repeated efforts to load the measure with crippling amendments. A final vote on the measure, a proposed constitutional amendment, is set for Tuesday. It already has passed the House. If approved by the Senate, it will still need to be ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the states. [Chicago Tribune]
- Sen. Herman Talmadge, Democrat of Georgia, whose finances have been challenged in recent months, has sent a personal cheek for $37,125.90 to the secretary of the Senate as reimbursement for excess funds collected by his office, it was announced. He said he would pay interest on the money when it has been computed. Talmadge wrote in a letter that his check did not include another $13,000 that an aide says he believes went to members of Talmadge's family or for the Senator's personal expenses. [Chicago Tribune]
- Sen. George McGovern, long a foe of United States military involvement in Southeast Asia, called Monday for international military intervention in Cambodia to stop what he called "a clear case of genocide." A State Department official told him no such plan is under consideration in the Carter administration or in the international community. And an expert in Southeast Asian affairs said the unique character of the Cambodian government makes a quick knockout blow virtually impossible. [Chicago Tribune]
- The Pentagon announced $1.1 billion in proposed military sales to Saudi Arabia and Iran, boosting this year's total over the $8.6 billion ceiling set by President Carter for non-allied countries. Defense officials said some of the new sales may not be accepted formally by the countries before the end of the 1978 fiscal year Sept. 30. Any such sales not so accepted by then will count later and will not be part of the 1978 total. [Chicago Tribune]
- Movie theaters in Iran were shut by worried owners, fearing a repetition of a terrorist fire in Abadan that left a reported 430 dead. Many owners said they would remain closed until Sept. 3, the end of the Moslem holy month of Ramadan. Abadan police have arrested three theater employees on negligence charges and 10 school teachers for alleged past incitement to violence. [Chicago Tribune]
- Viet Nam said it has found and is returning the remains of 11 U.S. servicemen listed as missing in action in the Indochina war and vowed to search for decades for others still lost. No identities were disclosed. At the same time, the Communist leaders of Hanoi asked for American help in their economic and diplomatic troubles. [Chicago Tribune]
- Czechoslovak students staged a silent vigil around a statue of their patron St. Wenceslas in Prague in a token protest on the 10th anniversary of the Soviet-led march into their country. The statue was the focal point of clashes in 1969 on the first anniversary of the Warsaw Pact invasion. Today's anniversary passed quietly with no violence reported. [Chicago Tribune]
- In La Tuque, Quebec, an entertainer who dressed as a vampire and prided himself on giving weird performances was strangled during his show Sunday night by his 7½-foot boa constrictor. The showroom manager said the performer apparently "missed a reflex" and the boa wrapped itself around his neck. [Chicago Tribune]
- Federal Express, the Memphis-based small-package airline that has been attempting to get into the passenger business, has filed an amended application with the Civil Aeronautics Board to enter the race for budget flights between Midway Airport in Chicago and six cities. [Chicago Tribune]
- "President Carter Jr." says he has no particular advice on how his White House namesake can boost his sagging public image. But "Jimmy Carter should just be proud because he has my name," says President Carter Jr., -- yes, that's his real name. The 36-year-old San Diego store supervisor is a Democrat who voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976 and thinks the White House has "a good man." The unusual first name runs in the family. His father, President Carter Sr?, 80, lives in Broken Bow, Okla. Junior said, "I would consider it an honor to meet Jimmy Carter simply because of him being president." But he added, "Really and truly, I'm just as popular and as much of an individual as he is, and I think it would be an honor for him to get to know me." [Chicago Tribune]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 888.95 (-7.88, -0.88%)
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 18, 1978 | 896.83 | 104.73 | 34.66 |
| August 17, 1978 | 900.12 | 105.08 | 45.27 |
| August 16, 1978 | 894.58 | 104.65 | 36.13 |
| August 15, 1978 | 887.13 | 103.85 | 29.78 |
| August 14, 1978 | 888.17 | 103.97 | 32.32 |
| August 11, 1978 | 890.85 | 103.96 | 33.55 |
| August 10, 1978 | 885.48 | 103.66 | 39.75 |
| August 9, 1978 | 891.63 | 104.50 | 48.79 |
| August 8, 1978 | 889.21 | 104.01 | 34.30 |
| August 7, 1978 | 885.05 | 103.55 | 33.35 |