November 15, 1991

Saying that Long Island had been severely damaged by local and national economic forces, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo today unveiled an economic revitalization package that he said should breathe some life into its distressed economy. Among the initiatives in the program are a $35 million fund for Long Island's parks and a proposal to accelerate hundreds of millions of dollars worth of road projects to jump-start the economy by putting people to work as early as next year.

Julio Rivera, his friends say, was the most improbable gay martyr -- a Hispanic drug user from Queens who lived on the far fringes of gay society. Yet the stabbing death of this 29-year-old man in July 1990 has served to rally gay people throughout New York City. And the killing's impact has been especially strong in Mr. Rivera's neighborhood of Jackson Heights, which has with little outside notice become home to the city's second-largest gay community.

For the second time in 10 days, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly defeated legislation today that would have significantly changed the nation's 60-year-old banking laws. The vote tonight, a defeat for both the White House and the House Democratic leadership, seemed likely to force President Bush and Congress to limit banking legislation this year to a measure that would do little more than shore up the nearly depleted deposit insurance fund by providing tens of billions of dollars in taxpayer loans.

NEW YORK CITY NOW PLAYING: CRIMINAL COURT? Nearly 80 years after it opened on Broadway with an ill-fated show called "Are You a Crook?" a darkened Times Square theater is trying out for a dramatic new role as a real-life criminal courtroom. Under a plan being advanced by state and city officials, a part of the city's Criminal Court would be moved into the West 48th Street theater, the Longacre, for a three-year trial run. Page A1. CRIME DECLINES IN THE SUBWAYS Major crimes declined by 13 percent in the subways during the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, transit police officials said. The decrease was the first since 1987. Page B3. POETRY IN MOTION Thomas Ostrowski gets behind the wheel of a yellow cab at 5 o'clock just about every afternoon, and as he careens around the city streets, he composes poetry. Now, he and other cab drivers have formed a Hack Poets Society to gather their works and read them aloud. Page B3. CLOSE ENCOUNTER: MAYOR AND NOVELIST In a cozy South African living room, a quietly challenging query on race relations from the Nobel Prize-winning novelist Nadine Gordimer moved Mayor Dinkins to rare candor on his feelings as a black American. Page B4. Key witness in Miller trial admits history of lying. Page B6. Clerical workers' strike disrupts classes at Columbia. Page B3. Bronx mother charged with abusing infant. Page B3. Jury in Gotti trial to be anonymous and sequestered. Page B4. As a child, defendant in gay-bashing case saw his father kill his mother. Page B8. REGION RABIES OUTBREAK IS SPREADING The rabies outbreak among raccoons that reached New Jersey in late 1989 has spread across much of the state, the southern tier of New York and western Connecticut. Page B5. TAPPAN ZEE: BRIDGE OF COMMUTER SIGHS With more than three miles of pavement soaring across the Hudson River, the Tappan Zee Bridge offers motorists a majestic drive. But lately crossing the bridge has brought more misery than majesty. Congestion has grown so severe that some business leaders fear that it could thwart economic growth. Page B5. REPUBLICAN CHIEF IN CUOMO'S COURT The Republican national chairman went to Governor Cuomo's home turf and said that the Governor's failure to disclose his Presidential plans was "evidence of indecisiveness." Page B7. NEW CAMPAIGN FOR FLORIO: HEALTH CARE After pushing through a blitzkrieg of legislation on insurance, gun control, education and taxation, Governor Florio says he will now concentrate on a campaign to revamp health care in New Jersey. Page B5. TROOPERS ACCEPT PAY FREEZE Faced with the painful choice of losing money or their jobs, Connecticut State Police have voted to accept a pay freeze and other concessions so that 111 laid-off troopers can return to work. Page B6. Our Towns B6 Law B10

In the inner sanctums of the Mafia, Salvatore Gravano was affectionately known as Sammy Bull, a gimlet-eyed gangster with a reputation for fast fists, violence and unflinching devotion to John Gotti. But some investigators were not always sure he was so tough. Or so loyal. At a strategy session several years ago, Federal agents speculated that he might actually be a vulnerable link in the Gambino organized- crime family hierarchy.