October 8, 1989

LEAD: AS Jack Kemp, Housing and Urban Development Secretary, announced reforms last week to end political favoritism in Federal housing programs, accusations about abuses of such programs on Long Island continued to resound.

LEAD: New Jersey has long considered itself the ''medicine chest to the nation'' because of the large number of pharmaceutical companies based there. Schering-Plough Corporation, with headquarters in Madison, is one of them, and the expansion of its research facility in Kenilworth will no doubt help the state hold the title.

LEAD: Rickey Henderson did not steal a base today. There was little need.

LEAD: Rick Kaplan, the executive producer of ''Prime Time Live,'' the highly conspicuous new ABC News program starring Sam Donaldson and Diane Sawyer, has been wearing a soft cast on his right arm to protect a chronically sore elbow. He did not injure the arm trying to pat himself on the back. Though confident about the long-term future of his program, which has been given a two-year commitment from the network, and proud of most of its work so far, Mr.

LEAD: THE brief experiment in tax reform seems to be coming to an end. The three-year-old law, the dream of generations of academic experts, has fallen victim to political reality - a new President who wants to use the tax code to meet economic and social goals, powerful interests that lobby for favorable tax treatment and