News stories from Monday March 8, 1982
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A dispute within the Supreme Court over the standards for admitting lawyers to argue before the Court, simmering for several years, flared again, providing an unusual public glimpse of disagreements among the Justices involving the day-to-day administration of the Court. Chief Justice Warren Burger accuses some lawyers of seeking membership in the Supreme Court bar to "launder" their credentials after being disciplined by state bars. [New York Times]
- Pleas for higher military spending have been made by senior Pentagon planners in testimony before a Senate panel. They asserted it would take more than the $1,600 billion that President Reagan has proposed for the next five years to carry out the armed forces' broad mission. [New York Times]
- A dispute over laser weapons placed in space and whether they would revolutionize warfare or be a costly and ineffective boondoggle has been renewed by the inadvertent disclosure of secret testimony by a member of Congress. In the testimony, the Pentagon's top research official warned that the Soviet Union is preparing to put a laser weapon in space in the next few years. [New York Times]
- Shootings at an anti-Klan rally in North Carolina will be investigated by a federal grand jury. The Justice Department announced that the panel would conduct "a full inquiry" into the violence in 1979 that left five demonstrators dead at a "Death to the Klan" protest in Greensboro, N.C. [New York Times]
- A census challenge failed as the Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal by New York City and state that the 1980 census failed to count hundreds of thousands of black and Hispanic residents. City lawyers said they would return to lower courts for a new trial and would challenge the count on different grounds. [New York Times]
- Bruce Caputo quit the race for United States Senator from New York. His campaign was damaged by his erroneous claims of having been a Vietnam-era draftee and an Army lieutenant. [New York Times]
- The role of Harrison Williams is the only issue before the Senate as it weighs a recommendation by its ethics committee to expel the New Jersey Democrat, the panel's chairman, Senator Malcolm Wallop, argued. But Senator Williams took the Senate floor for 90 minutes and continued to hammer at the theme that he was victimized by federal undercover agents in the Abscam investigation of political corruption.
Even if an Abscam undercover agent committed perjury, as asserted by his late wife, it would not warrant a voiding of the conviction of Senator Williams or the other defendants in the investigation, Justice Department prosecutors argue in court papers. In fact, the investigators hold, confirmation of the assertions would not even warrant a new review of the cases by the trial judges.
[New York Times] - Soviet forces killed 3,000 Afghans with poison gas and other chemical weapons in violation of a treaty signed by Moscow, according to the Reagan administration. Deputy Secretary of State Walter Stoessel told a Senate committee that the information came from Afghan defectors who had been trained by Soviet experts in chemical warfare and from refugees in Pakistan who were victims of the attacks. [New York Times]
- Salvadoran rebels attacked two provincial capitals. The assaults paralyzed both towns for much of the day, and government forces said that the fighting was widespread. [New York Times]
- Some of the 4,000 Polish detainees could face trials, according to officials in Warsaw. They said that a political amnesty granted before martial law was imposed Dec. 13 did not cover all offenses. This interpretation raises the possibility that the authorities may threaten detained people with trials in an effort to persuade them to leave Poland. [New York Times]
- U.S.-European differences prompted West Germany to propose that the foreign ministers of the NATO countries meet periodically in seclusion for frank talks. Bonn said such meetings, similar to those held by the foreign ministers of the European Economic Community, could led to "better understanding." [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 795.47 (-11.89, -1.47%)
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* |
| March 5, 1982 | 807.36 | 109.34 | 67.44 |
| March 4, 1982 | 807.55 | 109.88 | 74.34 |
| March 3, 1982 | 815.16 | 110.92 | 70.26 |
| March 2, 1982 | 825.82 | 112.68 | 63.80 |
| March 1, 1982 | 828.39 | 113.31 | 53.01 |
| February 26, 1982 | 824.39 | 113.11 | 43.83 |
| February 25, 1982 | 825.82 | 113.21 | 54.15 |
| February 24, 1982 | 826.77 | 113.47 | 64.80 |
| February 23, 1982 | 812.98 | 111.51 | 60.20 |
| February 22, 1982 | 811.26 | 111.59 | 58.31 |