September 20, 1991

In Rare Step, Council Overrides Dinkins on Prices Asserting its new power, the New York City Council unanimously overturned Mayor Dinkins's veto of a bill requiring price stickers on supermarket items. It was only the fourth time in 20 years that a mayoral veto had been overturned. Page B1. Pink Slips in Hartford Layoff notices went out to about 2,500 state workers in Connecticut, the first wave in what could become 8,000 dismissals as Governor Weicker presses for concessions by unions. Page B1. Time Inc. Plans 105 Layoffs Time Inc. said it would lay off 105 editorial employees at six of its magazines. With advertising slumping, Time has already laid off 500 business workers. Page D1. Trade Deficit Widens The nation's foreign-trade deficit widened sharply to $5.9 billion in July as soaring imports overwhelmed a modest rise in exports. Page D1. An AIDS Threat Discounted Mandatory AIDS testing of health workers would be costly and useless because the risks are so small, medical experts told Congress. Page A22.

THE art season, which chugged off to a quiet start last week, moves into high gear this weekend with the opening of shows in dozens of galleries and museums from SoHo to Harlem. Several of the most extensive exhibitions look back in time, as far back as the Bronze Age in a show of Etruscan art at the Grey Art Gallery of New York University.

COMPANIES Salomon Brothers has uncovered two additional violations of trading rules, Government officials said. The additional violations, which the firm is expected to announce today, include another instance of illegal bidding involving S. G. Warburg. [ D1. ] Time Inc. Magazine Co. said it would lay off 105 editorial employees at six magazines. The editorial cuts follow 500 layoffs on the business side that Time Inc. made recently. [ D1. ]

Soviet officials taking stock of the stagnant economy today doubled their estimate of their foreign food aid needs for the coming year, to $14.7 billion. The higher request was submitted to the European Commission in Brussels as Russian economic officials reported that the republic's oil export sales had dwindled by 50 percent, further decreasing the hard currency on hand to buy needed foreign grain.

WRITING will out. It's as simple as that. As the new television season unfolds, the vast bulk of series are content to be formula-driven concepts, put together by committees of vice presidents and researchers. A wedding possibility here, some cute teen-agers there, and you pray for a hit. Only very occasionally is a distinctive voice allowed to be heard above the numbing prattle, and one can be heard tonight at 8 in the special hourlong premiere of "Brooklyn Bridge." It belongs to Gary David Goldberg. Best known as the creator of the long-running "Family Ties" and the more recent "American Dreamer," Mr. Goldberg has decided to return to the Brooklyn of his youth for a warm-hearted look at a family and community that he clearly cherished. The year is 1956, the neighborhood Bensonhurst. For many young viewers, I suspect, it might just as well be the 19th century. With a theme song performed by Art Garfunkel, accompanied on the piano by Marvin Hamlisch, "Brooklyn Bridge" is about a time gone by. A sort of "Wonder Years" crossed with "The Goldbergs," it can be shamelessly sentimental and, at least in this sensitively crafted introduction written and directed by Mr. Goldberg, thoroughly captivating.