November 14, 1982

Todd Blackledge and Curt Warner combined on a 48-yard touchdown pass early in the fourth quarter today and sparked Penn State to an 11-point rally and a 24-14 victory against Notre Dame. The triumph also pointed the Nittany Lions in the direction of the Sugar Bowl. Notre Dame tried valiantly to come up with its second straight major upset, but was hampered by the loss of its starting quarterback, Blair Kiel, who left the game after the Irish's seventh play on offense. Nevertheless, the Irish led, 14-13, at halftime on a touchdown pass by a substitute quarterback, Ken Karcher, and a 93-yard kickoff return by Allen Pinkett, the freshman tailback.

THE Long Island Lighting Company, nearing completion of its controversial $3 billion nuclear power plant at Shoreham, has proposed a new way for customers to pay for it that would increase electric bills by 50 percent over the next three years. This ''rate moderation plan,'' as Lilco calls it, would average out heavy start-up costs in the first year or two of plant operation and then theoretically would hold down rate increases after the threeyear period. Lilco estimates that by 1986 it will begin showing a saving on Shoreham, which should then begin to pay for itself. Lilco contends that over the 30-year life of the nuclear power plant there should be a saving of $16 billion, compared with what the cost would be to abandon the project or to build a coal-fired plant to generate an equivalent amount of electricity. Consumer groups, meanwhile, are insisting that when Lilco proposed the nuclear plant it had asserted that itwould pay for itself. Therefore, they insist that Lilco put the plant in operation with a zero rate increase.

WHILE many Long Island hospitals are trying to expand their facilities to make room for new beds, they are apparently not heeding the second opinion of a regional health agency that is insisting that the Island as a whole has ample beds to meet population needs through 1985. Daniel T. McGowan, the executive director of the Nassau@/Suffolk Health Systems Agency, a governmental organization responsible for evaluating all applications for hospital capital expenditures, said that Nassau County will have 69 more beds than it needs in 1985 while Suffolk County will need 167 more beds. To determine the numbers, the agency used a complex formula that took into account such factors as age and density of population, hospital admissions and medical procedures. One of the main reasons for the discrepancy between what the agency foresees for the Island and the current situation is a temporary population ''bulge'' among older patients. Many hospitals have been forced to keep patients in their beds who properly belong in nursing homes. This has forced a long wait, in some cases several months, for patients who need surgery.

WHETHER you are a landlord or a homeowner, there are risks with t enants that cannot be avoided. Even if you carefully select your t enant, even if you check and double check all references, even if y ou rent to a friend, you may still wind up with a damaged property. The repair bills will certainly make you angry and probably will make you question your own judgment about people. And there are only a few practical steps you can take to lessen your losses: You can demand a security deposit; you can set the rent high enough to cover excessive wear or malicious carelessness; you can sue and you can write off part of the loss as a tax deduction. But each of these steps has limitations.

THE Gold Rush of the 1980's is the push for high technology - the Open Sesame, it is said, to jobs and prosperity. But in New Jersey, people are asking whether the state's business climate is conducive to high-level prospecting. It is important that the climate be the right one, they say, because the race is on. Whether high technology fulfills the promise, as economists predict, or turns out to be merely a fad, as detractors claim, states are competing against states, nations against nations and companies against companies.