September 16, 1983

The declaration of bankruptcy by the Osborne Computer Corporation was the first spectacular failure in a shakeout in the personal computer industry that is bound to hit many others, according to analysts and executives. The same problems that hit the home computer industry - oversupply and severe price competition - are starting to affect the market for more expensive personal computers, which are used largely in business. By some estimates, there are more than 150 companies trying to compete on the periphery of a business that is increasingly dominated by the International Business Machines Corporation. In such a crowded environment, and one in which technology is changing so quickly, one can go from riches to rags almost overnight.

Senate Democrats moved tonight to force President Reagan to seek authorization under the War Powers Resolution to keep marines in Lebanon. The action came after the failure of repeated attempts earlier in the day to work out a compromise with the White House. Democrats, meeting in a party caucus, decided unanimously to take the issue to the Senate floor by introducing a resolution saying that the marines are involved in ''hostilities'' and that the President therefore has to seek Congressional approval under the War Powers Resolution to keep the marines in Lebanon. Issue of Congressional Approval The move, which obscured basic agreement between Congress and the White House on the need for the marines in Lebanon, put Congress and the White House a step closer to a constitutional confrontation over the war- making powers of the Presidency and Congress. At stake is the question whether the President, as Commander in Chief, needs Congressional approval when he sends American troops into combat or situations of potential hostilities.

''The mastery of English is the first and most essential goal of education.

The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Bob Dole of Kansas, has decided to move ahead on a token tax increase that would raise about $12 billion over three years, Congressional staff members said tonight. Mr. Dole's plan provides the first indication since Congress returned from its summer recess of how it will respond to the directives of the budget resolution for fiscal year 1984 that it approved in June. The $12 billion figure falls far short of the $73 billion in tax increases called for in the Congressional budget resolution. But it matches the three- year total of spending reductions that were also approved in the resolution, a recent objective of Mr. Dole.

Police Commissioner Robert J. McGuire has agreed to increase the staff of the Civilian Complaint Review Board by almost 25 percent to reduce a backlog of cases, the board's executive director said yesterday. The director, Charles J. Adams, said his formal request for additional staff members was made to Mr. McGuire last month and was approved last week. In testimony prepared for Monday's Congressional hearing on charges of police brutality, Mr. McGuire had planned to announce the increased staff, which will cost an estimated $350,000 a year in salaries, according to Alice T. McGillion, the deputy commissioner for public information. Mr. McGuire's testimony was scrapped, however, because Mayor Koch said that the site of the hearing was inappropriate and that no city official would testify.