News stories from Wednesday October 21, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- Much more secrecy in government would be possible under a draft proposal of the Reagan administration, according to administration officials. They said that the 31-page plan could make it much easier for federal officials to classify information as secret and tar more cumbersome to release such documents. No congressional approval is required. [New York Times]
- A clarification of U.S. nuclear policy was offered by President Reagan. He asserted that any suggestion that the United States was considering fighting a nuclear war with the Soviet Union at Europe's expense was "an outright deception." [New York Times]
- Retrenchment by day care centers because of a 20 percent cut in federal aid for social services is apparent across the country. Many centers are raising fees and halting or curtailing services to the children of poor families headed by working women. [New York Times]
- Tobacco price supports won backing as the House voted 231 to 184 against an amendment to end the 48-year-old program. The unusual winning coalition included labor unions, blacks and Southern conservatives. But there was a consensus that the program must be reformed. [New York Times]
- Two Weather Underground members were identified among the four captured suspects of a gang that killed an armored car guard and two police officers Tuesday in a bungled ambush robbery and shootout in Rockland County. There were growing signs that the Rockland holdup, and possibly other recent crimes, had been planned by a resurgent faction of the long-dormant radical terrorist group.
The lives of the two women arrested in the Brink's robbery attempt in Nanuet, N.Y. -- Katherine Boudin and Judith Alice Clark -- were entwined with the Weathermen movement since its birth in 1969, though they had apparently gone separate ways since the armed band of 40 or so radicals went underground in 1970.
[New York Times] - Nancy Reagan decried drug abuse among adolescents and exhorted American parents to be less permissive with their children and to become involved in drug therapy efforts. The First Lady, who is in New York for a three-day visit, toured Phoenix House, the nation's largest drug rehabilitation center. [New York Times]
- Opposition to the sale of Awacs planes to Saudi Arabia was expressed by Robert Byrd, the Senate minority leader, who said he would vote against President Reagan's proposal. The outcome of the Senate vote, set for next Wednesday, remained in doubt, but Senator Byrd's decision buoyed those opposing the sale of five radar planes and other equipment. [New York Times]
- American pilots are flying for Libya, according to associates of Edwin P. Wilson, a former American intelligence agent. They said that dozens of American pilots and aircraft mechanics, including military veterans, were working for the Libyan air force in an operation organized by Mr. Wilson. The sources said that the recruits, along with pilots from Britain and Canada, were hired and paid by companies controlled by Mr. Wilson and have been flying and maintaining, at least since last year, a Libyan fleet of American-made cargo craft and helicopters. [New York Times]
- A U.S. concession to poor countries was reported by a top Reagan administration of who said that Washington was prepared to back some continuing forum to deal with the poverty of the third world. President Reagan is expected to announce the position in his opening address tomorrow to the North-South economic conference at Cancun, Mexico. [New York Times]
- No change in Finland's foreign policy of neutrality and avoidance of any antagonism with the Soviet Union is expected of any successor to President Urho Kekkonen, who is 81 years old and ailing. One likely aspirant said that anyone "who is anti-Soviet, or even vaguely thought of as such, cannot be a serious candidate." [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 851.03 (-0.85, -0.10%)
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* |
| October 20, 1981 | 851.88 | 120.28 | 51.53 |
| October 19, 1981 | 847.13 | 118.98 | 41.58 |
| October 16, 1981 | 851.69 | 119.19 | 37.80 |
| October 15, 1981 | 856.26 | 119.71 | 42.82 |
| October 14, 1981 | 850.65 | 118.80 | 40.25 |
| October 13, 1981 | 865.58 | 120.78 | 43.07 |
| October 12, 1981 | 869.48 | 121.21 | 30.05 |
| October 9, 1981 | 873.00 | 121.45 | 50.06 |
| October 8, 1981 | 878.14 | 122.31 | 47.08 |
| October 7, 1981 | 868.72 | 121.31 | 50.02 |