February 23, 1985

Republican and Democratic legislators said today that Congress would not approve $14 million in aid for the Nicaraguan rebels, despite a stepped-up drive for it by President Reagan. The chairman and the deputy chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence urged Mr. Reagan to drop his campaign for additional aid to be sent to the insurgents through the Central Intelligence Agency and to formulate a new policy in conjunction with Congress. They said that although they wanted changes in the leftist Government in Nicaragua, that did not mean that they or the President could support the overthrow of that Government. ''That's wrong because he cannot do that,'' said Senator David F. Durenberger, Republican of Minnesota, the intelligence committee chairman.

In an outburst of partisan rancor, negotiations to seal a compromise on farm credit legislation collapsed in the Senate early this morning, and the filibuster blocking a vote on the confirmation of Edwin Meese 3d as Attorney General is to continue. Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, the majority leader, threatened all-night sessions in the Senate next week in order to face down the Democrats who have blocked the compromise and to force a vote on the Meese nomination. He ordered the Senate to reconvene this morning. Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia, the Democrats' leader, said the Republicans were putting the confirmation of Mr. Meese over the welfare of the nation's farmers. He said the Republicans' message was, ''Let the farmers go to hell.''

The Soviet public was officially advised that Konstantin U. Chernenko had stayed away from an important speaking engagement today ''on the recommendation of his doctors.'' Although Soviet officials have told foreigners on several occasions, both in Moscow and abroad, that Mr. Chernenko was ailing, the fact had not been acknowledged, implicitly or otherwise, by the Soviet press. Western diplomats said they could not remember when a Soviet leader's absence had ever been explained by the recommendation of doctors. The announcement was made by Soviet television and the official press agency Tass after the Soviet leader failed to deliver a scheduled address to his constituents from his Moscow electoral district.

Besieged by reports of inconsistencies in his credentials, John C. Michaelson, Governor Cuomo's choice to oversee economic development in New York State, withdrew yesterday. In a letter to Mr. Cuomo, Mr. Michaelson, a former investment banker, offered his resignation as Director of Economic Development ''with the most profound regret'' and asked the Governor to withdraw his nomination as Commissioner of Commerce. ''This decision is the most difficult one of my life,'' Mr. Michaelson wrote in his two-page letter. ''I leave with great regret, particularly because I was so anxious to make a contribution to the public good of our state, to the continuing progress your Administration has achieved and to the exciting future it is forging.''

A seven-story-high ginkgo tree on an elegant block of Upper East Side town houses is fast becoming a cause cel ebre. So far, the cause has involved the Parks Department, the Landmarks Preservation Commission, the City Planning Commission, the local community board, several lawyers, at least one architect, a horticulturist, various city officials, impassioned neighbors and one brownstone owner who wants to remove the tree in order to build a garage in his house. The owner, Matt Sabatine, bought the brownstone at 110 East 64th Street intending to turn it into a residence and office. When he learned that the zoning had been changed and that offices were not permitted, Mr. Sabatine decided instead to use the ground floor for a garage.