June 30, 1981

The first appointments of Ronald Reagan's administration were announced today, and key transition officials said work would begin Monday to select no fewer than three names to be considered for each Cabinet post. The Reagan camp announced in Washington and Los Angeles that, as expected, the President-elect's new chief of staff at the White House would be James A. Baker 3d, a 50-year-old former aide to President Ford and Vice President-elect George Bush. Also announced was the appointment of Edwin Meese 3d as counselor to the President with Cabinet rank. As explained by Mr. Reagan's aides, Mr. Baker is to direct the functions of the White House staff, including Congressional relations, administration, press relations and the White House personnel office.

As part of a 10-year citywide bridge rehabilitation program, New York City plans to replace the thousands of steel cables on the Brooklyn Bridge, where two cables snapped Sunday, city officials said yesterday. The $115 million program will virtually overhaul the bridge as it enters its second century, and will devote nearly $100 million to each of the three other major East River crossings - the Manhattan, Queensboro and Williamsburg Bridges. The plans were on the boards, the officials said, well before the cables broke on Sunday evening, critically injuring a man walking across the bridge and closing it to traffic for three hours. The city Transportation Commissioner, Anthony R. Ameruso, called the program, which is already under way, ''the largest bridge rehabilitation program in the country.''

AFOREBODING silence hangs over the respiratory-care unit at Bridgeport Hospital these days. All eight of the neatly made beds lie empty. The floor gleams, no longer scuffed and soiled by regular traffic, Because of an acute nursing shortage in the state and the entire country - the American Nurses' Association estimates that by 1982 there will be a nationwide shortage of 100,000 nurses -the four-yearold facility has been locked for the last three months. Thousands of dollars of advanced and complex life-saving equipment -meant to treat emphysema, pneumonia, chronic bronchitis and lung cancer - lies idle. Even regular care is being stretched tissue-thin. Late on a recent Wednesday afternoon Judy Kozlowski, a senior staff nurse at Bridgeport Hospital, arrived for evening duty as the only registered nurse covering 32 medical-surgical beds on the seventh floor. She would be assisted by one licensed practical nurse and two nurse's aides.

It seems like only months ago that gold and silver prices were climbing to new peaks daily and that investors, eager to profit on the explosion, were lining up across the country to buy those precious metals at almost any price. But it is all different now. ''There are no crowds at the gold counters,'' said George Parola, office manager at Deak-Perera's precious metals outlet on Fifth Avenue. ''People are now lining up in droves to take advantage of the strong dollar.''

The effort to rebuild the Democratic Party on the rubble of its crushing electoral defeats last Tuesday has begun with an intense focus on the future of John C. White, the party's national chairman. As an aide to Senator Edward M. Kennedy put it, ''a blizzard of names'' are being discussed for the chairmanship, but Mr. White contends that he could unify the party by staying on, at least for a time, and that he has the votes to be re-elected if he decides to run. However, it is uncertain whether he could do so without a fight that would set off the 1984 nomination race with a prematurely bloody start. A source close to the thinking of Senator Kennedy said today that ''the idea of White's staying on is not acceptable.''