June 13, 1991

Twenty-five years after joining the National Basketball Association, the Chicago Bulls won their first championship last night by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers, 108-101, and winning the final series, 4 games to 1. They did it behind a 30-point performance by Michael Jordan, above, who was the unanimous choice for most valuable player in the finals. And they did it by capturing four straight games in the four-of-seven game series, including the last three on the Lakers' home court.

In what may be the death blow to the Shoreham Nuclear Power Station, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agreed yesterday to grant a license that clears the way for the eventual dismantling of the plant's nuclear systems. Once these systems are taken down at the plant that was once the centerpiece of energy plans for Long Island, it will be virtually impossible to restore them and make Shoreham a nuclear plant.

The man charged with stabbing a former Rockette to death was indicted yesterday as prosecutors remained under pressure to explain their handling of an earlier case against the defendant. The Manhattan District Attorney's office has been criticized for allowing the defendant to plea bargain 15 months ago to a trespass charge after having been charged with attacking a woman with an ice pick. The defendant received a 45-day sentence and served 30 days.

More than 10 years ago, speculation was rampant that William Agee, the Bendix Corporation's chairman and chief executive, was having an affair with Mary Cunningham, a 29-year-old vice president who had received two promotions in a matter of months. Ms. Cunningham left; Mr. Agee stayed. Fast-forward a decade. Earlier this month, word got out that Standley H. Hoch, head of the General Public Utilities Corporation, a power company, was having an affair with Susan Schepman, the vice president of communications. Mr. Hoch resigned; Ms. Schepman is still there. Why the Different Outcomes? Why were the outcomes so different? In good part, say some scholars and other business-watchers, because they took place in different eras. Mr. Agee worked when women executives were few, male executives usually winked at one another's affairs and, in case of trouble, the woman left the company. In Mr. Hoch's time, women executives are often just down the hall, or at customers, suppliers and competitors. Disentangling business and romance can be far more difficult. And business people have become more prominent, known and judged by their conduct as well as their corporate performance.

The shouts of a furious Barry Feinstein, the teamsters' union leader, rang out from a conference room where a handful of New York City officials and union leaders last gathered in vain to discuss union concessions that could head off deep cuts in the city's budget -- and the layoffs of 20,000 city workers. "Back stabbing" and "double dealing" were among the less salty gibes that were heard, interrupted at times by an angry retort from Milton Mollen, in ordinary times the most unflappable of Mayor David N. Dinkins's deputy mayors. And when it was all over two hours later, union leaders stormed out, complaining that the city had been duplicitous, disrespectful and incompetent.