December 26, 1991

The story of Ocke Ketelsen's garbage began Dec. 15, when he put it out on his curb in Westbury, L.I. It was nothing special, just things like an old milk carton and some scraps of aluminum foil, and Mr. Ketelsen didn't give it a second thought. "Garbage is garbage," he said. Not really, not anymore.

It's bad enough that the nation's largest auto maker can't move the metal. Now, General Motors is having trouble moving its paper. Several of the nation's largest money market funds are shying away from commercial paper issued by the General Motors Acceptance Corporation, the company's finance unit. As the nation's second-largest issuer of these short-term debt securities, G.M.A.C. has more than $23 billion in commercial paper outstanding -- an amount that happens to be about $5 billion more than the value of the whole company's common stock.

At 10 A.M., Phyllip Coleman, who is 2 years old, was running all over his cramped living room in Harlem, just missing the Christmas tree as he tossed his new basketball at his new All-Pro free-standing basket. Between shots, he grabbed his new Incredible Hulk doll and jumped into his new two-passenger, battery-operated red Jeep with black vinyl interior. Phyllip Coleman's second Christmas was going very well indeed. His grandmother, Robertus Coleman, who is raising Phyllip, in addition to her daughters, Tanisha, 19, and Shatrona, 8, was thinking she must have been crazy. "I'm going to kill myself for buying that basket," she said as she kept one eye on the ham baking in the oven, and another on the ball bouncing perilously near the glass figurines on a shelf against the wall that was now a backcourt. Fortunately for Mrs. Coleman, the Jeep, a gift from one of her grandson's legions of admirers, was not yet working.

NEW YORK CITY THE STRUGGLE FOR THE DAILY NEWS The Daily News appears to have about six weeks to turn itself into a viable business after the Maxwell debacle, industry experts suggest, and some say the newspaper's convoluted management group -- controlled by an accounting firm and overseen by its creditors -- now has less chance than ever of surviving. B3 DIGGING DELICATELY THROUGH THE PAST Archeologists have carefully removed more than 100 skeletons from the site just north of City Hall that was known in the 1700's as the Negros Burial Ground. With each coffin, they are building a bridge back to a people whose history was ignored for centuries. B3. THE PLACE TO BE ON NEW YEAR'S EVE There will be no ball falling, no alcohol and, its promoters hope, no rowdy crowds. First Night New York, 12 hours of entertainment in and around Grand Central Terminal, is being billed as a family-oriented alternative to the traditional Times Square celebration. B3. CITY JAIL CONTRACT REVOKED New York City has revoked a $1.2 million contract it awarded to the Leon D. DeMatteis Construction Company of Elmont, L.I., to supervise the building of a $67 million jail annex on Rikers Island. Officials say the company concealed and altered reports about possible ties to organized-crime figures. B11. Employment firm will pay $1.75 million to settle lawsuits over discrimination. B5. REGION WHERE YOUR GARBAGE GOES Throwing out your garbage is no longer as simple as it used to be. Garbage has become a multimillion-dollar industry, a touchy environmental issue and a major headache for places like Long Island, where the population is large and the landfills are full. A1. AS DEER COME BACK, SO DO THE HUNTERS For the first time in nearly two decades, officials in Princeton Township, N.J., are allowing people to hunt the white-tailed deer in an effort to control the population. The deer has become an increasingly troublesome pest, especially in towns on the wooded fringes of suburbia. B6. NEW LAW FOR HOME BUYERS AND SELLERS Beginning Jan. 1, prospective home buyers and sellers in New York State will have to sign forms that make it clear for whom a real-estate agent works. The new law, a result of two years of negotiations between the state and the real-estate industry, is expected to promote the use of separate agents by buyers and sellers. B6. 'CHEATING 101': THE REVIEWS ARE IN A junior at Rutgers University was so convinced that most college students cheat that he wrote a book to prove it. Culling cheating methods from teachers and students at Rutgers and other campuses, he published "Cheating 101: The Benefits and Fundamentals of Earning the Easy 'A.' " The book has sold out, but the reviews are mixed. New Brunswick Journal, B6. NOT RUNNING, BUT STILL ON THE BALLOT? A former New York State party chairman has said that he is campaigning to have Gov. Mario M. Cuomo entered in the state's Democratic presidential primary as a favorite-son candidate, despite Governor Cuomo's announcement last week that he would not run. B10. Neediest Cases B9

THEY began like most other couples undertaking a private adoption, with advertisements placed in small-town newspapers and a toll-free telephone line at home. The couple, who live in Connecticut, stopped advertising soon after they connected with a biological mother they considered sincere and responsible. Their "800" number, once a net that drew in any and all babies, had become a lifeline to one.