February 27, 1982

New York City's savings banks lost $337 million in the fourth quarter of 1981, bringing the total loss for the year to $1 billion, the State Banking Department reported yesterday. The record quarterly and annual losses indicate that a number of major savings banks among the city's 34 are in danger of failing. However, banking authorities stressed that there was no danger for depositors, who are insured for principal and interest by Federal insurance agencies. The losses also are expected to exert considerable pressure on the Reagan Administration and on Congress to adopt measures to help the nation's beleaguered savings banks and savings and loan associations.

A long-awaited report released today by the National Academy of Sciences asserts that marijuana smoking has certain undesirable short-term effects on behavior and the body. But it says reliable evidence is so scanty that it is impossible to draw any firm conclusions about potential long-term health hazards. The report was prepared by a special panel of health authorities formed by the academy's Institute of Medicine. The panel's chairman, Dr. Arnold S. Relman, editor of The New England Excerpts from report are on page 9. Journal of Medicine, said that ''what little we know for certain'' is cause for ''serious national concern.''

President Reagan, yielding to protests from civil rights groups for the second time in two weeks, has lost his choice for a post on the Civil Rights Commission, White House officials said today. An aide to Mr. Reagan said that the Rev. B. Sam Hart, a black minister from Philadelphia who owns a radio station there, had asked the White House Thursday to rescind his nomination after protests from civil rights organizations and from the two Republican Senators from Pennsylvania. After further discussions today, the aide said, it was agreed that the White House would accept his decision, and Mr. Reagan was informed. An announcement of Mr. Hart's decision is expected Saturday.

A large water main burst just below Times Square in midtown Manhattan last night, shutting off subway service for much of the West Side and causing hundreds of buildings to lose water pressure. The cascading water halted traffic for several blocks below 42d Street, between the Avenue of the Americas and Eighth Avenue, and disrupted it elsewhere in a wide area of midtown. Within two hours, water began freezing on streets and sidewalks, making walking perilous for homebound Friday-night theatergoers. Water Shoots Up 2 Feet The break occurred shortly before 9 P.M. at 40th Street and Seventh Avenue, sending water two feet into the air through pavement that had been broken by the force of the pipe's bursting. Water swirled down the streets and into subway tunnels, sometimes reaching the knees of people caught by it.

Reagan Administration officials have told members of Congress informally that they are favorably disposed to selling F-16 fighter planes and mobile antia@ircraft missiles to Jordan, but that no decision is likely before next November's Congressional elections. Congressional and Administration sources said today that the official reason for the delay in any decision was that Jordan was not expected to make a formal request either for the F-16's or the mobile Hawk missiles until later in the year. They also said it was expected to take a long time for Jordan to find the necessary financing. But privately, Administration officials said that because of the strong opposition from Israel and its American supporters, it made no sense to go ahead with either the planes or the mobile missiles in an election year. Congress has the ability to veto such sales by majority votes in both houses, and last year the Administration was barely able to win a vote for the sale of five Awacs radar surveillance planes to Saudi Arabia.