April 6, 1980

A fundamental change is apparently taking place in the nation's appetite for electricity. Since 1974 Americans have been using far less electricity than the utility industry had expected, and now some analysts expect the rate of growth to fall even further in the future.

Negotiators for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the striking transit workers failed to break their deadlock in face-to-face talks yesterday. They planned to return to the bargaining table tonight to prepare for a major effort this week to settle the crippling walkout.

John Rubinstein is probably the only actor who has had to learn a foreign language in order to perform a play written in his native tongue. Mr. Rubinstein, who created the title role in the hit ...

PLAINVIEW CHANNEL 21, the Island's UHF public television station, will open a 12-day fund-raising drive tomorrow in an effort to erase a $257,000 deficit--an amount so large that the station's new chief executive said it would force the cancellation of Channel 21's locally produced programs and the dismissal of half the staff of 36 if the debt was not paid off by June 30.

Many homeowners in the metropolitan region who decided to switch to gas in 1979 found there were delays of from three weeks to four months in the processing of their applications by utility companies. Also, many homeowners said they had to go on long waiting lists. Others had to wait up to two months after equipment was installed for utility representatives to hook them up.