June 27, 1983

Federal, state and county prosecutors have begun separate investigations into possible corruption in the operations of Newark's city government and Housing Authority. In interviews, law-enforcement officials said they were examining city records and interviewing city employees in these investigations: - The office of the United States Attorney is investigating the Housing Authority, according to W. Hunt Dumont, the United States Attorney for New Jersey. The State Commission of Investigation earlier this year turned over to the Federal prosecutor the results of its investigation of the New Jersey Housing Finance Agency, and the state commission said some of the material focused on the Housing Authority. - The County Prosecutor's office is looking into payments made by the city to some of the companies hired to salt city streets last winter, said George L. Schneider, the Essex County Prosecutor. - The State Division of Criminal Justice is investigating the city's purchasing practices, said Thomas Cannon, administrative assistant to Irwin I. Kimmelman, the State Attorney General.

''I will not quit like a rat, I will not run away.'' - Lech Walesa. (A8:3.)

Secretary of State George P. Shultz criticized the Soviet Union today for its rejection of interim proposals made last month by the United States at the Geneva talks on limiting medium-range missiles. Mr. Shultz, saying the United States offer was ''reasonable,'' added: ''It is up to the Soviet Union to respond to that, and not simply say we reject it. Try something else. I think we are owed a responsible answer.''

The high hopes of the United States team dissipated today, and East Germany won the two-day combined competition, 197 to 181, between two of the world's track and field powers. A crowd of 16,113 watched the American men complete a 125-97 victory over the East German men. The East German women defeated their American counterparts, 100-56. The meet concluded on an overcast afternoon at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where track and field will be contested in the Olympic Games next summer.

Beside a small farm on Route 96 here in the Finger Lakes Region, a sign says: ''Women's Encampment for a Future of Peace & Justice.'' The sign, leaning in the shade of a tall tree, is strikingly neat and glossy, in contrast with a nearby house where the shutters droop on their hinges, the porch railing is broken and only a hint of paint remains. A group of women bought the 52-acre farm in May and hopes to attract hundreds of women here this summer to use the farm's fields as a camping ground and assembly area for antinuclear demonstrations. Adjoining the land is the target of the protests - the Seneca Army Depot, an 11,000-acre ammunitions storage site that is widely assumed to contain nuclear weapons. The Army will not comment on this.