LEAD: Israel G. Grossman, a 34-year-old New York lawyer, was arrested yesterday on criminal charges of stealing inside information from a law firm he worked for and passing it along to six relatives and friends. The six were charged yesterday in a civil complaint.

LAWYER IS ARRESTED AS INSIDER

LEAD: A slow-moving Metro-North commuter train collided last night with an empty train returning to Manhattan at a switching point in the South Bronx, injuring 20 passengers and halting service to and from Grand Central Terminal, officials said.

20 ARE INJURED

LEAD: Summations in the six-week manslaughter trial in the Eleanor Bumpurs case were completed yesterday in a noisy session interrupted by a 25-minute demonstration in a packed courtroom in the Bronx.

AMID PROTEST, BUMPURS CASE NEARS ITS END

LEAD: This time of year, as April 15 draws closer, is when the motivation to find ways to trim income tax bills is greatest, though the options available for legally outwitting the tax collector are the smallest.

LAST-MINUTE MANEUVERS CAN REDUCE TAX BILLS

LEAD: Robert M. Gates told a Senate committee today that the Central Intelligence Agency had actively avoided gathering information about how the Nicaraguan rebels were raising money.

NOMINEE FOR C.I.A. SAYS AGENCY ERRED ON IRAN ARMS DEAL

LEAD: Piedmont Aviation Inc., the parent of Piedmont Airlines, announced yesterday that it had received takeover offers from two companies and that a committee of its board members had recommended approval of a $65-a-share all-cash bid by the Norfolk Southern Corporation.

NORFOLK BID BACKED AT PIEDMONT

LEAD: The Koch administration and a coalition of the city's leading developers said yesterday that they had reached agreement on a plan to build 1,015 new condominium apartments for middle-income New Yorkers in the Kingsbridge section of the Bronx.

CITY AGREES ON HOUSING IN THE BRONX

LEAD: A 20-year-old college student from Brooklyn finally stepped forward yesterday, shyly and almost fearfully, to become a millionaire.

RELUCTANT MILLIONAIRE CLAIMS LOTTO WINNINGS

LEAD: MILK the good, the nourishing, the pure. Milk, the hard-to-digest, the high in fat. Countries and cultures have viewed milk both ways, but it is a fact that milk has left a large white mustache glistening over America's collective upper lip. Perhaps nowhere else is milk so glorified.

IS NOTHING SACRED? MILK'S AMERICAN APPEAL FADES

LEAD: MARKETS  Stock prices soared to further records as Wall Street chose to ignore the latest insider-trading scandal and concentrated instead on positive economic signals. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at 2,237.49, after rising 54.14 points, its largest one-day climb ever. Trading was a brisk 187.8 million shares, as the market got a push when word spread throughout Wall Street that Robert Prechter was predicting that the Dow would advance to the 2,300 level before any correction.

BUSINESS DIGEST: WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1987

LEAD: More police officers, including some on scooters and others with dogs trained to sniff out drugs, have been assigned to patrol the Washington Square Park area in Greenwich Village in a stepped-up effort to control drug sales there, police officials said yesterday.

MORE POLICE ADDED TO WASHINGTON SQ.

LEAD: An expert on psychiatric disorders testified today that experts hired by Baby M's legal guardian were incorrect in diagnosing the child's mother, Mary Beth Whitehead, as mentally disabled and in need of therapy.

DIAGNOSES OF MOTHER SAID TO ERR

LEAD: The state's highest court today unanimously upheld a New York City law that could force several of the city's most prestigious all-male clubs to admit women.

NEW YORK'S HIGH COURT UPHOLDS CITY LAW BARRING CLUBS' SEX BIAS

LEAD: ''THIS is November, Two, Boston, Tango, Sierra calling CQDX.

CALLING THE WORLD! HAM RADIO IS BACK BUT IN NEW WAYS

LEAD: Five days after the death in police custody of a burglary suspect whose shackled hands and feet were trussed behind his back, Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward issued an order yesterday banning the practice.

WARD, CITING SUSPECT'S DEATH, ISSUES BAN AGAINST HOGTYING

LEAD: ''I CARE about food'' - the violinist Itzhak Perlman paused to ponder le mot juste -''in an intense way.'' As he spoke his ebullient wife of 20 years, Toby, was circling her index finger near her head. ''Sick!'' she whispered sotto voce. ''Ill!''

VIOLINIST'S COOKING MAXIM: IMPROVISE

LEAD: A contra leader's resignation from a top political position Monday was part of an effort promoted by the Reagan Administration to overcome Congressional doubts and address the movement's continued failings, according to American officials and leading contras.

LEADER'S RESIGNATION IS DESCRIBED AS PART OF U.S. CAMPAIGN TO SHORE UP REBEL CAUSE

LEAD: For the first time since 1924 the Ford Motor Company is back as the most profitable automobile company in America. Ford reported today that it earned $3.3 billion, or $12.23 a share of common stock, in 1986. That made the year the first in more than 60 years that the No. 2 auto maker was more profitable than its archrival, the General Motors

FORD LEADS IN U.S. CAR PROFITS

LEAD: THEY have actually had to use a hook to remove bad acts from the Apollo Theater stage on amateur nights. This practice stopped when one particularly unpromising young performer sued for whiplash.

Amateurs on Stage, Semiamateur Critics

LEAD: Armed with new technology and eager to shorten supply lines, some American manufacturers have started to bring overseas operations home or switch from foreign to domestic suppliers. The homeward move has been augmented by the fall of the dollar against foreign currencies, notably the Japanese yen.

PRODUCTION RETURNING TO U.S.

LEAD: Stock prices soared to another record yesterday as Wall Street shrugged off the anxiety generated by its latest insider-trading scandal.

STOCK RECORDS SET IN FACE OF SCANDAL

LEAD: Soviet authorities said today that the imprisoned dissident Anatoly Koryagin had been freed by a decree, but that Iosif Z. Begun remained in prison pending a decree approving his release.

DELAY IN ANOTHER

LEAD: The International Business Machines Corporation today became the first personal computer maker to put the vanguard one-megabit memory chip in one of its desktop machines - a precursor of some major technological changes expected in the computer giant's products.

ADVANCED CHIP FOR I.B.M. UNIT

LEAD: Paying for a Papal Visit  A California diocese's plan to charge admission and to auction broadcast rights for a papal mass next Sept. 17 has created a controversy. Page A16.

INSIDE

LEAD: FOR most people, potassium deficiency will never be a problem. But this important mineral can be lost through nondietary causes, with grave consequences.

February 18, 1987

Headlines from February 18, 1987

LAWYER IS ARRESTED AS INSIDER

20 ARE INJURED

AMID PROTEST, BUMPURS CASE NEARS ITS END

LAST-MINUTE MANEUVERS CAN REDUCE TAX BILLS

NOMINEE FOR C.I.A. SAYS AGENCY ERRED ON IRAN ARMS DEAL

Billboard 200

Slippery When Wet

Licensed To Ill

Night Songs

The Way It Is

Different Light

Historical Context for February 18, 1987