June 29, 1988

LEAD: Samuel M. McClease, who vaulted to prominence last week by saying he had secret tapes of Tawana Brawley's advisers casting doubt on the black teen-ager's charge of abduction and rape by white men, has a checkered work and military record that has compounded questions about his truthfulness and reliability.

LEAD: Three investigators from the Brooklyn and Bronx Public Administrators' offices were arrested yesterday and charged with falsifying public records and stealing valuables from rooms they believed had been occupied by people who died without leaving a will.

LEAD: LIZ SILVERSTEIN, a 28-year-old New Yorker, keeps up with restaurants the way some people keep up with movies or plays or music. She knows, for instance, that everyone is going to Il Bianco, and that M.K. is a must-see. ''I figure I can sit home when I'm 90,'' she said. ''I want to go out now.''

LEAD: THERE was a time when you could never be too rich or too young. Now, it seems, you cannot be too beautiful. Never before have so many people desired flawless features and luminous skin, and been willing to pay so much to have them, despite risks.

LEAD: The Securities and Exchange Commission is examining securities trading records at six brokerage firms in its insider trading investigation of an investor from Taiwan and a young Wall Street analyst, people with knowledge of the inquiry said yesterday.