November 12, 1989

LEAD: THE first thing would-be apartment buyers want to talk to brokers about is what their new place must have - a fireplace for coziness, big windows for light, views for pleasure and prestige, a location with cachet.

LEAD: IN elections marked by upsets, Long Island voters last week reconfirmed Republican dominance in Nassau County and gave a Republican and Conservative coalition a one-vote majority in the Suffolk County Legislature.

LEAD: NIXON Volume Two: The Triumph of a Politician, 1962-1972. By Stephen E. Ambrose. Illustrated. 736 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. $24.95.

LEAD: A DAVID and Goliath showdown is looming over who will get a license to book entertainment at the Jones Beach Theater in the 1990's.

LEAD: In one of the few moments he stopped scurrying round the lounge, the lobby and the grounds of the Doubletree Resort last week, Roland Hemond shrugged and said: ''That's always been my style. I can't change. You just try to make things happen.''

LEAD: A YOUNG man involved with drugs regularly broke into his mother's house to steal from her. One night, his mother was home when he arrived, and so he beat her, took her money and left.

LEAD: ''Athletically we are not a bandit school, we are not an outlaw school. We're good academically, that's been documented. We've made mistakes, like other people. But we're not outlaw, we're not crooked.'' - Dr. Robert Maxson, president, University of Nevada-Las Vegas.

LEAD: China's Internal Battle: How the Hard-Liners Won

LEAD: In one of the most extensive immigration frauds ever perpetrated against the United States Government, thousands of people who falsified amnesty applications will begin to acquire permanent resident status next month under the 1986 immigration law.

LEAD: On Tuesday, the Open Market Committee of the Federal Reserve System will hold its monthly closed-door policy meeting, and possibly decide to alter the Federal funds rate. This rate, the amount charged to commercial banks, was lowered to 8.5 percent last week, from 8.75 percent. Four economists speculate on what the Fed might do.

LEAD: Work has begun on transforming an 1890's businessmen's club in Hoboken, N.J., into four upscale condominium apartments. Expected to be completed in six months, the renovation involves the Columbia Club, at 1101 Bloomfield Street, a gabled building erected in 1891 for the use of 100 of the city's wealthiest residents.

LEAD: Romeo J. Ventres knows exactly what he wants Borden Inc. to be when he retires in December 1991. He wants it to be the lowest-cost producer of all its products, from milk to pasta to plastics to glue. He wants it to have a decent mix of national and regional brands. He certainly wants it to be independent - a year ago, he and Borden's top 25 managers agreed to quit simultaneously in the event of a hostile takeover.