September 15, 1991

United Europe: How Big? The European Community is divided over whether the new democracies of Eastern Europe may join. Page 12. Portrait of Judge Thomas Clarence Thomas's image is in some ways more blurred after his Senate testimony. News analysis, page 28. Jackson Nears Decision Jesse Jackson meets with supporters today to discuss a bid for the Presidency. Political Memo, page 18.

IT is something of a gamble, but Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir seems to have calculated that he can go home with all the marbles: He would get $10 billion in special loan guarantees from the United States to help resettle Soviet immigrants. He would continue to receive some $3 billion a year in regular aid from Washington. He would go to Middle East peace talks planned for next month with no intention of giving up occupied territory and with the power to dictate which Palestinians would be allowed to sit at the conference table. Most important, he would do all this without having to slow the expansion of Jewish settlement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that he regards as his country's manifest destiny.

When it was begun in 1988, the 38-unit condominium at 100 Sterling Place in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn was an indication of how far the New York City housing boom had come. Not only was it the first new construction in the neighborhood in years, but in addition, the developers -- a team headed by David H. Ward of Manhattan -- rejected the option of building a 10-story tower, which would have been allowed on their parcel under zoning rules. Instead, they built a four-story structure designed to blend in with the 19th-century brownstones of the neighborhood. Their asking prices were lofty: $170,000 to $350,000 for one- to three-bedroom apartments.

Secretary of State James A. Baker 3d made a whistle-stop tour of all three newly free Baltic republics today, promising them help in joining international organizations to solidify their break from the Soviet Union and limited American economic aid. The Baltic leaders made it clear to Mr. Baker that despite the new independence, 100,000 Soviet soldiers remained on their soil with no firm agreement on withdrawal, American officials said. Leaders Still Wary Mr. Baker told republic leaders that Washington was prepared to give them $14 million this fiscal year in the form of assistance programs divided among the three republics. The Baltic leaders were clearly hoping to get more, but the chief issue on their agenda was security issues.

Without the strong arm of affirmative action, Renee Baldwin would not be a police officer in Cleveland, Carlyle Miller of Manhattan would have trained at a segregated medical school instead of an Ivy League college and Jay Walker, a Chicago lawyer, might not have suffered the pangs of uncertainty over why an East Coast law firm had hired him. They are among the thousands of blacks who are the ambivalent children of affirmative action, the first generation to walk over the threshold of newly opened doors and integrate the nation's offices and classrooms.