July 10, 1991

An epidemic of tuberculosis, an infectious disease that was once thought to be suppressed in this country, is forcing hospitals across New York City to turn back the clock and consider methods largely abandoned decades ago, including the use of sanitariums. With hundreds of patients now hospitalized with tuberculosis across the city, hospitals are scrambling to set up ventilated isolation rooms, once common, to stop the spread of infections within hospitals. At least three such outbreaks have been reported.

A little more than four months after a videotaped beating of a black motorist by Los Angeles police officers stirred national outrage, an independent commission today issued a harsh indictment of the Los Angeles Police Department as an agency that has tolerated excessive force and overt racism among its officers. The commission also called for the replacement of the police chief, Daryl F. Gates, but stopped short of asking for his immediate ouster. It said the department should begin the "transition" to a new chief, but Chief Gates, who has led the 8,450-member force for 13 years, quickly rebuffed the suggestion that he retire soon. 'Illusory' Citizen Control While the report said most of city's police officers worked efficiently and without excessive force, it found "a significant number" who "repetitively use excessive force against the public and persistently ignore the written guidelines of the department regarding force."

A murder suspect escaped from a maximum-security cell in a Brooklyn jail after making a dummy of wadded-up clothes and leaving it under the tattered woolen blanket on his cot, prison officials said yesterday. It was the second time that the 26-year-old inmate, Edward (Donny) White, had escaped from custody. The last time he did, he killed a man during a robbery, the police said.

IN the world according to seltzer connoisseurs, this is the year 20 A.P. Two decades have elapsed since plastic bottles with screw caps began to replace the blue or green glass bottles with hand-operated siphons that are to a lively seltzer what a flared cork is to a proper bottle of Champagne. In the years B.P. (Before Plastic), sales held their own. After Plastic (A.P.), sales of sparkling water geysered. There are now high-priced imports. There is orange, lemon, lime and raspberry seltzer.

The music and consumer electronics industries are close to reaching a landmark agreement on digital home recording that is likely to broaden the market for one of the most advanced technologies in the music business. Under the agreement, the electronics industry for the first time would pay royalties to the music industry, including songwriters, music publishers and record companies, to compensate for sales lost to recordings made at home on digital audio recorders.