LEAD: When the candidates for governor of New Jersey began their television advertising two weeks ago, their commercials differed sharply in tone and tenor.

FOR FLORIO AND COURTER, CRUCIAL TV BATTLE TURNS NASTY

LEAD: Black fraternities and sororities, long criticized by other blacks as divisive and elitist, are attracting record numbers of young people, particularly on many predominantly white campuses shaken by racial tension.

Black Fraternities Thrive, Often on Adversity

LEAD:  Nicaragua Voters Register  International observers were in place as registration began for Nicaragua's February vote. Page A10.  Tax Debate Doesn't Add Up  In the debate on cutting the capital gains tax rate, both sides buttressed their positions with misleading statistics. News Analysis, page D1.

INSIDE

LEAD: All that talk that the Giants need defensive turnovers to win is a myth they helped create. What they need is good defense when it counts. They got enough of that today, kept Herschel Walker from doing too much damage and scored a methodical 30-13 victory over the Dallas Cowboys.

Giants Reach 4-0 Mark

LEAD: He intimidated people. He was short on tact, impatient with failure and determined to leave his mark on the largest police department in the country.

WARD YEARS: LEAVING A MARK ON POLICE

LEAD: When an underground steam pipe exploded with a thunderous roar in the Gramercy Park section of Manhattan Aug. 19, killing three people, injuring 24 and coating much of the area with asbestos-contaminated mud, New York City officials assumed they were dealing with a phenomenon that happened once in a blue moon.

STEAM BLASTS MAY BE RISING AS MAINS AGE

LEAD: Israel has asked the United States for $400 million in loan guarantees to finance the construction of housing for Soviet Jewish emigres, and Israeli officials said some of the housing would probably be built in the West Bank.

ISRAEL ASKING U.S. FOR AID ON HOUSING FOR SOVIET EMIGRES

LEAD: From early this morning, packed East German trains pulled into this border junction town at three-hour intervals, disgorging exhausted East Germans whose departure had been allowed only the day before through an extraordinary face-saving arrangement reportedly approved by Erich Honecker, the East German leader.

More Than 6,000 East Germans Swell Tide of Emigres to the West

LEAD: A YEAR ago, when the Oakland Athletics were elbow-bashing their way to a pennant, their pitching was the best in the American League. But alongside their prodigious hitting, it was sometimes undervalued. This year, with important injuries to Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire, to the team's shortstop, Walter Weiss, and to the top reliever, Dennis Eckersley, there has been less attention to the thudding of forearms and more to the way the A's play baseball and, particularly, to the way in which their pitching has consistently sustained them.

Strong Arms Behind the Bashing Elbows

LEAD: WHEN all those strangers came to watch in the spring of 1982, leaning on the outside of the chain-link fence where the baseball team at Thomas Jefferson High School played, there was little doubt about the abilities of the 18-year-old they had come to see.

Dunston In Full Stride

LEAD: The Jets brimmed with confidence today. The offense, fresh from a 40-point performance against Miami, was primed for another good outing against a questionable Colt defense; the defense, despite allowing 33 points last week, vowed to pressure the Colt's stand-in quarterback, Jack Trudeau, and stop the

Jets Sputter And Colts Rally, 17-10

LEAD: These are heady days for American practitioners of the takeover game here. There is the $3.4 billion takeover of Columbia Pictures by the Sony Corporation. And a number of big corporate breakups in the United States have sent investment bankers skittering all over town trying to peddle multibillion-dollar companies.

The Sony Deal Aside, Japan Not Rushing to Buy Up U.S.

LEAD: In a sign of the growing importance of information technology and systems-related expertise in general management consulting, McKinsey & Company is seeking to buy the Information Consulting Group, which was created last year by several high-ranking executives from Arthur Andersen and other top accounting firms.

McKinsey May Buy Consultants

LEAD: Rudolph W. Giuliani's mayoral campaign demonstrated last week the pitfalls of racial politics. The campaign's apparent failure to capitalize on race represents what for a politician of any color is the ultimate ineptitude.

Campaign Matters; Mason's Jokes, Jackson's Photo, Giuliani's Woes

LEAD: After enduring six weeks of bombings and shootings, many Colombians are tiring of the drug war and suggesting that the Government abandon its campaign against powerful cocaine traffickers.

Colombians, Weary of the Strain, Are Losing Heart in the Drug War

LEAD: Over the last three months, the stock market showed surprising strength and resilience, advancing on takeover activity and on encouraging economic data, despite an unstable ''junk bond'' market and expectations of lower corporate profits.

Stocks Post Solid Gain in Quarter

LEAD: With the growth of crack addiction in the middle class, treatment specialists have discovered that affluent addicts are more likely to deny their problem at first, and more able to hide addiction's devastating costs.

Affluent Addicts' Road Back Begins in a Climb Past Denial

LEAD: With echoes of recent decisions still reverberating through the legal and political system, the Supreme Court returns Monday to a docket that all but guarantees a replay of the divisive constitutional struggles that defined its last term.

HIGH COURT FACING FIGHT ON ABORTION, PRIVACY AND DEATH

LEAD: Jackie Mason and his use of racially sensitive language continues to trouble the mayoral campaign of Rudolph W. Giuliani almost a week after the comedian was forced to withdraw from the campaign for making harsh remarks about blacks and Jews in a newspaper.

AN EARLIER JACKIE MASON RACIAL SLUR AGAINST DINKINS IS DISCLOSED

LEAD: With environmental concerns rising and the influence of the European Community growing, the nations of Western Europe have begun to take united action to curb air pollution from automobiles.

Europe Takes On Auto Pollution

LEAD: In the debate last week before the House of Representatives voted to lower the capital gains tax rate, both sides buttressed their positions with misleading statistics.

Capital Gains: Politics and Poor Data

LEAD: One of the most expensive services in Japan, the land of $70 watermelons, $150 cab rides and camera gear that costs twice as much as in New York, is making international telephone calls. But this weekend, a price war broke out.

A Price War In Japan on Foreign Calls

LEAD:  Companies  McKinsey is seeking the Information Consulting Group, which was created last year by several executives from Arthur Andersen and other accounting firms. The move is a sign of the growing importance of information technology and systems-related expertise in general management consulting.

Business Digest

LEAD: The Glen Ridge Board of Education acted properly in its handling of a sexual attack on a special-education student, according to a report by a retired judge.

GLEN RIDGE BOARD IS EXONERATED

LEAD: One man was killed and two other persons were injured last night when a fire of undetermined origin destroyed a three-story dwelling at 559 Lafayette Avenue between Bedford and Nostrand Avenues in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn.

Man Dies and Two Are Hurt In Fire in a Brooklyn House

Frederik Andersen is a Danish professional ice hockey goaltender for the Carolina Hurricanes of the National Hockey League (NHL). He previously played for the Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Frederik Andersen, Danish ice hockey player

Frederik_Andersen

Joshua Bailey is a Canadian professional ice hockey winger who is an unrestricted free agent. He has played 15 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the New York Islanders, who selected him ninth overall in the 2008 NHL entry draft.

Josh Bailey, Canadian ice hockey player

Josh_Bailey

Aaron Michael Hicks is an American professional baseball outfielder who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Minnesota Twins, New York Yankees, Baltimore Orioles, and Los Angeles Angels.

Aaron Hicks, American baseball player

Aaron_Hicks

George Christopher Nash is a British rower. He is dual Olympian, dual Olympic medal winner and three time world champion.

October 2, 1989

Headlines from October 2, 1989

FOR FLORIO AND COURTER, CRUCIAL TV BATTLE TURNS NASTY

Black Fraternities Thrive, Often on Adversity

INSIDE

Giants Reach 4-0 Mark

WARD YEARS: LEAVING A MARK ON POLICE

Billboard 200

Girl You Know It's True

Hangin' Tough

Forever Your Girl

Steel Wheels

Repeat Offender

Notable Births

Historical Context for October 2, 1989