October 29, 1991

To Restore a Wetland With new regulations requiring restoration of marshes, swamps and bogs after development, the trick is finding experts with the knowledge that will let them do it effectively. Science Times, page C1. Still Drinking, Still Driving While arrests for drunken driving have declined since 1982, repeat offenders account for a disproportionate number of fatal accidents, pointing out flaws in state laws to keep offenders off the road. Page A18. Writ Large, Long and Slowly After a 27-year gestation period since the signing of the contract, Harold Brodkey's mammoth first novel, "The Runaway Soul," is about to be published. Page C13. 'Middle Road' at CUNY Dr. Leonard Jeffries Jr., the City College professor who has made racially charged remarks, was allowed to remain as department chairman for eight more months. Page B1.

Venturing out of the Soviet Union for the first time since the failed Kremlin coup in August, President Mikhail S. Gorbachev arrived in Madrid today for the opening of the Middle East peace conference on Wednesday. As some Arab and Israeli delegates also arrived here, security concerns were very high, given threats from terrorist groups to upset the conference. Spanish police, many wearing bulletproof vests and toting automatic weapons, guarded the hotels around Madrid housing the Soviet, American, Israeli, Syrian, Jordanian, Palestinian and Lebanese delegations.

The results of the Polish elections have significantly increased the pressure for braking Poland's economic reform. News analysis, page A3.

Two strong Detroit-based banking companies, Comerica Inc. and the Manufacturers National Corporation, announced plans yesterday for a friendly merger that would create one of the nation's 25 largest banking companies and the largest in the Detroit market. The new company, which plans to operate under the Comerica name and will have total assets of $26.8 billion, intends to cut costs by eliminating duplicated operations of the two former competitors. By closing 60 of their combined 413 branches and eliminating 1,800 of their 13,500 jobs, mostly through attrition and retirement, the new Comerica expects to save about $145 million annually by 1994. In the first nine months of this year, the two companies had combined profits of $199.5 million, up 9.5 percent from $182.2 million last year.

Declaring that the time had come to act "decisively, sternly, without hesitation," President Boris N. Yeltsin of the Russian republic told his people today to brace for drastic reform and proposed to take personal charge of the republic's government. Speaking grimly for more than an hour to the Congress of People's Deputies, the highest assembly in the Russian republic, Mr. Yeltsin declared his intention to lift price controls by year's end, to sharply accelerate the privatization of agriculture and light industry, to stop financing central ministries and all foreign aid and to bolster the ruble.