January 3, 1991

Nobody threw a pass, ran back a punt or scored a touchdown in college football yesterday. But in the absence of a playoff tournament to choose a national champion on the field, Colorado, Georgia Tech and Miami were awarded what amounts to perpetual debating rights to the unofficial 1990 national championship. It is the first time three teams have been named to the top spots in three major rating systems, capping a season of unusual turmoil with more than half a dozen teams ranked No. 1 at one time or another.

To pay for half the settlement reached yesterday with unions representing 150,000 city workers, the Dinkins administration proposed raising its forecast of earnings from city pension funds to one of the highest levels used by any municipal government. But coming amid a darkening fiscal picture, the proposed change -- raising the earnings assumption from 8.25 percent to 9 percent -- prompted some fiscal experts yesterday to warn that it could worsen the city's financial problems.

The Dinkins administration and two large municipal unions announced a tentative labor agreement yesterday that would provide 150,000 city workers with a wage and benefit increase of 5 percent over 15 months, less than city teachers are to receive but more than some fiscal experts say the city should pay. The proposed contract appeared to reflect a decision by the administration or union leaders or both to trade a reduction in the city work force, expected to be outlined later this month by city officials, for higher wages for those who remain. That approach, along with the cost of the proposed new contract -- $233 million -- and its reliance on pension fund savings, came under immediate criticism from some financial experts and politicians.

It's a one-party town. Party bosses dictated the choice of the City Council leader. Just once in his five-year tenure was legislation passed that he had strongly opposed personally -- a human-rights bill -- and only after he deigned to allow a vote. The Council's elected president is largely a figurehead. The Moscow City Council? No, Moscow on the Hudson.

A critical element of the widely accepted Big Bang theory about the origin and evolution of the universe is being discarded by some of its staunchest advocates, throwing the field of cosmology into turmoil. According to the Big Bang theory, matter from the explosive moment of cosmic creation originally was evenly spread throughout the universe. But galaxies tend to be clumped together, an awkward fact that astronomers have sought to explain by assuming that cold invisible matter is a major attractive force.