News stories from Thursday March 19, 1981
Summaries of the stories the major media outlets considered to be of particular importance on this date:
- A budget cut package was approved by the Senate Budget Committee. The planned reductions total $36.9 billion for the next fiscal year, $2.3 billion more than was proposed by President Reagan. Despite a unanimous endorsement, the Democrats indicated they would seek to restore $3 billion to $4 billion in funds for social programs when the bill reaches the floor. [New York Times]
- The working poor would be hardest hit by President Reagan's proposed budget cuts involving welfare families. The first comprehensive study of the potential effect of the program shows it would markedly reduce the difference between the disposable income of the working poor and that of a family that relies entirely on welfare. [New York Times]
- Thousands of workers are being laid off by local governments and community organizations as a result of President Reagan's decision to withhold funds for public service jobs. The withholding of about $1 billion in funds under the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act means that about 300,000 of the workers will probably be dismissed by Sept. 30.
A 40 percent cut In public service jobs in New York City that are financed by the federal government poses a major problem. The Reagan administration order means that the city can dismiss all 11,500 of the mostly poor workers by June 30, or it can dismiss half of them by March 31 so that the others can stay on the job until Sept. 30.
[New York Times] - Reduction of the food stamp program by a Senate committee illustrates President Reagan's use of the budget process and political leverage to get massive cuts in record time. Democrats were repeatedly thrwarted, even in an attempt to block a plan to dock food stamp recipients for free meals their children eat at school. [New York Times]
- A lobbying drive for the economic plan advanced by President Reagan was abruptly killed by the White House after some corporations complained they felt dunned for contributions. The fundraising campaign for the Coalition for a New Beginning, organized by Mr. Reagan's friends, has collected more than $800,000. [New York Times]
- Nearly 13,000 miners kept mines shut for a second day in coal fields in the East and Middle West, and other wildcat strikes began in Pennsylvania. Roving pickets, some wearing ski masks to hide their identities, closed the mines in seven states. [New York Times]
- The space shuttle passed a key test in its preflight preparations, but the successful countdown rehearsal in Florida was marred two hours later by an accident that killed a technician and injured two, one of them critically. They were inadvertently exposed to the pure nitrogen atmosphere of the shuttle's engine section. [New York Times]
- The man named in a major bank fraud asserted that at least four previously unidentified bank executives were involved in the purported theft of $21.3 million from the Wells Fargo National Bank in Los Angeles. Harold Smith, the boxing promoter who is in hiding, contended that he was innocent and gave an account of the alleged scheme that differed substantially from that given by the bank. [New York Times]
- A stir over the Mormon succession prompted the president of the reorganized Mormon church in Missouri to speak with reporters. The president, who is a great-grandson of Joseph Smith Jr., said that a recently discovered document confirmed that Smith intended the presidency of the church he founded to be conveyed to his lineal descendants. [New York Times]
- An effort to develop an anti-Soviet belt across the Middle East will be pressed by the Reagan administration, according to Secretary of State Alexander Haig. The aim, he said in Senate testimony, will be a strategic "consensus" stretching from Egypt to Pakistan, and including such disparate nations as Turkey, Israel and Saudi Arabia. [New York Times]
- Bonn officials welcomed disavowals by Washington of statements by a Reagan adminstration security adviser that questioned the ability of West Germany's Foreign Minister to withstand Soviet pressure and suggesting that war with the Soviet Union was inevitable unless the Russians abandoned Communism. [New York Times]
- An attack on protesting Polish farmers was reported by the independent trade union movement. It said that riot policemen in the city of Bydgosczc had broken up a demonstration by farmers seeking to form a union, evicting them from a government building and beating some severely. [New York Times]
- China's downgrading of Mao Tse-tung was indicated further in the official newspaper. It said that Mao, who was revered for decades as virtually a deity, was "a great Marxist," but only one of dozens of outstanding leaders, including Sun Yat-sen, Confucius and even Genghis Khan. [New York Times]
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Stock Market Report
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 986.58 (-7.48, -0.75%)
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 18, 1981 | 994.06 | 134.22 | 55.74 |
| March 17, 1981 | 992.53 | 133.92 | 65.92 |
| March 16, 1981 | 1002.79 | 134.68 | 49.94 |
| March 13, 1981 | 985.77 | 133.11 | 68.29 |
| March 12, 1981 | 989.82 | 133.19 | 54.63 |
| March 11, 1981 | 967.67 | 129.95 | 47.39 |
| March 10, 1981 | 972.66 | 130.46 | 56.61 |
| March 9, 1981 | 976.42 | 131.12 | 46.17 |
| March 6, 1981 | 964.62 | 129.85 | 43.93 |
| March 5, 1981 | 964.62 | 129.93 | 45.37 |