LEAD: The 1990 election campaign, which has so far generated little excitement despite a number of races with considerable significance, is approaching its first major event, the March 13 primaries in Texas.

1990 Vote Will Test Power Of G.O.P. in the Sun Belt

LEAD: AS more and more rental buildings in Brooklyn and Queens are converted into cooperatives, New York City's Commission on Human Rights is gearing up to tackle one of the stickiest of housing discrimination issues - the broad powers of co-op boards to reject would-be buyers without explanation.

As Co-ops Spread, Discrimination Concerns Grow

LEAD: DESPITE a vacancy rate of more than 10 percent and a soaring number of foreclosures, two developers broke ground here last month on this city's largest apartment complex.

NATIONAL NOTEBOOK: DENVER;

A 2,016-Unit Rental Project

LEAD: As Nicaragua prepares for national elections that all sides hope will draw a clear line between the country's past and its future, Nicaraguans on all sides are counting on the elections to halt their country's long slide into civil strife and economic ruin. Article, page 14.

The Nicaraguan Vote: Break With the Past?

LEAD: Darryl Strawberry is expected to complete his 28-day program of treatment for alcohol abuse Friday and to leave the Smithers Center in Manhattan with a new determination to rejoin the Mets and salvage his marriage and career.

  Ring of Support Awaits Strawberry

LEAD: After their greatest boom since World War II, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut face the prospect of years of slower economic growth.

ECONOMIC PULSE: The New York Region - A Special Report    NEW YORK REGION FACES SLOWDOWN OF THE ECONOMY

LEAD: Nearing completion on the same site in Morningside Heights is a 200-seat chapel for the Seventh Church of Christ, Scientist, and a 71-unit condominium called Lionsgate. The plot, at 520 West 112th Street, near Amsterdam Avenue, is approximately 100 feet square and had, until three years ago, been the site of a brownstone owned by the church, as well as of the church building itself, which had fallen into disrepair.

POSTINGS: Condos and a Chapel;   Site Sharing

LEAD: FEW Americans would be as adept at ordering a meal from a menu written in Chinese as the nine students in the new Chinese II class at Mamaroneck High School. Nor would many in this country be as familiar with the Chinese culture as these teen-agers, most of whom are studying Chinese as their second or third foreign language.

Schools Act Cautiously On Adding Languages

LEAD: WHEN models at the Pennsylvania apartment building open next month, they will be the first new residences on Pennsylvania Avenue in more than a century.

FOCUS: WASHINGTON;

New Neighborhood on Pennsylvania Ave.

LEAD: The Islanders ended a four-game losing streak this afternoon by rallying from a 3-0 deficit and earning a 3-3 tie with the Detroit Red Wings at Nassau Coliseum.

  Islanders Rally For Tie

LEAD: In October 1987 and again two years later, Wall Street started panics that spread around the world, only to be slowed and eventually halted in Tokyo. Each time, the Japanese stock market slipped a little but soon rallied, to the great relief of traders everywhere.

  Tokyo Teeters, But New York Holds Firm

LEAD: For Joseph F. Cullman 3d, the scenario had to be one of the oddest of his 77 years. In one court, his corporate accomplishments were drawing fire. In the other, his sports accomplishments were drawing praise. Like a tennis net, Cullman was straddling both courts.

Mixed Reviews

LEAD: Baseball's labor dispute could be only one meeting away from disrupting the start of the regular season.

  Baseball Deadlock Is Nearing

LEAD:    THE JOURNALIST AND THE MURDERER    By Janet Malcolm.    162 pp. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. $18.95.

WAS TRUST BETRAYED?

LEAD: With Queens caught up in a flood of condominium and cooperative conversions, residents there may want to attend a seminar on owning and operating such apartments. It will be Tuesday at 6:45 P.M. at the Queens Borough Hall in Kew Gardens.

POSTINGS: Owners' Seminar;   Conversions

LEAD: One fad that appears to be gaining momentum among the young in urban areas is climbing atop elevators and riding them up and down the shafts in high-rise buildings.

POSTINGS: A Film Warning;   Perilous Play on Elevators

LEAD: Whenever Jim Lee opens his refrigerator, his two carefully hoarded bottles of Seconal are there, reminding him that he is soon to die, and that like large numbers of people with AIDS, he is preparing when the time is right to take his own life.

AIDS Patients' Silent Companion Is Often Suicide, or Thoughts of It

LEAD: It seemed like a nightmare. Willie O'Ree, unable to see with his jersey pulled over his head, could only throw punches at the voices screaming around him.

No Headline

LEAD: THE developer of the largest downtown office complex, the $700 million, 1.7 million-square-foot International Place, has received a $268 million construction loan from the Bank of Boston for its second and final phase.

NATIONAL NOTEBOOK: BOSTON;

Office Complex Gets Big Loan

LEAD: Sam Lopata, a daring and innovative designer, helped make the restaurant scene sizzle in New York in the 1980's. He worked on places that helped define the style of the time. Among them were Cafe Seiyoken, one of the first noisy, grand cafes; Pig Heaven, a whimsical Chinese restaurant filled with pink pigs, and Batons, an austere environment with concrete floors and black and white light fixtures.

U.S. Designers Find Bright Horizon in Japan

LEAD: AFTER 40 years in an alliance held together by the Soviet military threat, the United States and Western Europe have suddenly realized that things may never again be the same between them. When Cold War issues dominated, Western Europe never questioned Washington's leadership. Today, trans-Atlantic ties are being pulled in all directions.

  Western Europe Is Edgy Over the U. S. and Much Else

LEAD: WHEN Suffolk County Police Commissioner Daniel P. Guido called the car-bomb death of a veteran undercover narcotics detective, Dennis Wustenhoff, an assassination that appeared to be job-related, his words resounded across Long Island and beyond like a sharp report from the front lines of the war on drugs.

After Police Death, Questions for Guido

LEAD: Like many of the thousands of candidates campaigning for local office across the maddening new landscape of Soviet politics, Vladimir M. Rylyakov is a practicing Communist who is wondering what happened to Communism.

  Republic by Republic, Soviet Vote Points to a Murky Political Future

LEAD: Nikon, the Japanese consumer products and high-technology company, will move its American headquarters this summer to a new structure in Melville, L.I., that is almost twice the size of the building it currently occupies 20 miles to the west, in Garden City, L.I.

POSTINGS: Twice as Much Space;   Nikon Is Moving to a New Headquarters

LEAD: As Harvey Myerson tearfully tells it, not long ago he sat his two youngest daughters down in the living room of his apartment, high above Central Park, and placed before them a scrapbook chronicling his tumultuous legal career.

Can a Tarnished Star Regain His Luster?

Félix Ricardo Peña is a Dominican professional baseball pitcher for the Uni-President Lions of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL). He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago Cubs and Los Angeles Angels, and in the KBO League for the Hanwha Eagles. He made his MLB debut in 2016.

February 25, 1990

Headlines from February 25, 1990

1990 Vote Will Test Power Of G.O.P. in the Sun Belt

As Co-ops Spread, Discrimination Concerns Grow

NATIONAL NOTEBOOK: DENVER; A 2,016-Unit Rental Project

The Nicaraguan Vote: Break With the Past?

Ring of Support Awaits Strawberry

Billboard 200

Forever Your Girl

Janet Jackson's Rhythm Nation 1814

Girl You Know It's True

...But Seriously

Cosmic Thing

Notable Births

Historical Context for February 25, 1990