January 11, 1991

The wealth of affluent people grew substantially in the 1980's while the assets of other Americans barely kept pace with inflation, the Census Bureau reported today. The Government and private economists have been reporting for several years that the nation's income distribution was becoming more unequal, with a bigger gap between people of high and low incomes. Today's report was one of the first systematic examinations of wealth, reflecting not just one year's income but the lifetime accumulation of property and other assets.

Pan American World Airways last night was saved from running out of cash and having to shut down when a bankruptcy judge approved a $150 million loan to the ailing carrier. Judge Cornelius Blackshear broke the suspense after a long hearing in lower Manhattan when he said the confidence of the public, travel agents and credit card companies was crucial to enable the carrier, which on Tuesday sought bankruptcy protection from creditors, to keep operating.

After some bleak times, things are looking up for the Grumman Corporation. The Pentagon's decision to kill the A-12 Avenger attack plane could mean new business for the Bethpage, L.I., company. The Navy is considering modifying Grumman's 20-year-old F-14 fighter to be used as an interim replacement for the A-12, a carrier-based bomber developed jointly by the McDonnell Douglas Corporation and the General Dynamics Corporation.

Critics and supporters began staking out positions yesterday on a proposal for a New York City high school that focuses on the needs of black and Hispanic young men, while a number of current and former school officials said politics and money, as much as educational philosophy, lay behind the idea. Nona Smith, education director of the New York State N.A.A.C.P., said the organization opposes the use of public money to "establish schools that separate black boys" from other ethnic groups. While she said she would withhold final comment until she had seen the full plan, she said that one of the plan's architects, Assemblyman Roger L. Green, a Brooklyn Democrat, had assured her that the school "would not practice segregation."

THE strength of photography as a medium of information is its faithful inclusivity. Nothing is left out of a scene. Wildlife, in particular, can be viewed in natural surroundings, the shore or savannah, the jungle or tundra, where they belong and are in danger of being lost without. But photography, like any other medium, can be contrived to deliver a forceful message, and James Balog has done just that. His contrivance is to strip away the natural setting and expose the animals against stark, surrealistic backgrounds. They can be seen more clearly as individuals, elegant, exotic, expressive and vulnerable. And that is the message: The survival of living creatures, bereft of their habitat, is problematic.