May 22, 1991

THIS Sunday morning, 33 drivers and their racing teams at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway will be making final preparations for the 75th running of the Indianapolis 500, setting tire pressures, practicing pit stops and warming engine oil. But on Danny Sullivan's team, Paul Brian's significant role will be to fuel the driver and his 42-member Alfa Romeo racing crew. Mr. Brian turns out fine Northern Italian dishes not only for the racing team, but also for the corporate guests, celebrities and other visitors.

"The punishment fits the crime" is the opinion of the prosecutor who handled the case and fashioned the sentence. A New Jersey man who threw a can of beer at Mayor David N. Dinkins as he marched with a contingent of gay Irish in the St. Patrick's Day Parade has been sentenced to a week of duty in the Mayor's Office for the Lesbian and Gay Community.

A RETIRED teacher became so depressed when illness left her weakened that she drew the blinds, stopped eating and refused to leave her apartment. Once proud and independent, she was headed for a nursing home. Though she needed therapy, she could not get to a therapist. So Dr. Darwin Buschman came to her.

Many American companies in recent years have made a crusade of trying to rescue the nation's deteriorating public schools, casting themselves as white knights whose donations help the cause. But at the same time, many of these companies are extracting as many sizable tax breaks as they can from their communities, cutting off money needed to finance public education.

As the recession in the magazine industry worsens, the battle to grab readers at supermarket checkout counters has intensified. And no company has been more aggressive at expanding its American operations than the German publisher of Woman's World and First for Women. Both magazines have attracted millions of readers but the Bauer Publishing Group has yet to woo the advertisers it needs to make a profit.