January 7, 1992

Here in the suburbs, where a home is a passport to the American dream, the Nassau County Executive declared today that the "American dream is dying" and called for emergency measures including a moratorium on foreclosures for homeowners who cannot pay their taxes. The County Executive, Thomas S. Gulotta, who has a budget crisis that is forcing layoffs of up to a quarter of the county's workers, said the local economy was "closer to a depression" than a recession and was driving people out of the county.

NEW YORK CITY MAYOR WORRIED OVER STEIN PARTY City Council President Andrew J. Stein, gearing up to run for Mayor, is hosting a glittering political dinner with Frank Sinatra, Liza Minnelli and Shirley MacLaine to raise more than $2 million. David N. Dinkins, not on the list, was worried enough to call friends listed as committee members to ask if they were abandoning him. That put some of them where they least like to be -- in the spotlight in a public feud. B3.

The Economy U.S. auto sales finished 1991 on a positive note, as expected, capping the weakest year since 1983. Sales of U.S.-made cars and light trucks rose 7.7 percent in the Dec. 21-31 period but were off 11.2 percent for the year. [ Page D1. ]

Officials of the State University here announced today that they would delay the spring semester by two weeks and move 1,000 students out of dormitories after electrical transformers exploded or overheated last week, contaminating five buildings with PCB's. Three dormitories and two academic buildings were contaminated after a car struck a utility pole on Dec. 29, causing a power surge that damaged the transformers. In the transformer room of one academic building, the level of PCB's was 3,200 times the level considered safe under state guidelines, although some samples revealed no contamination in parts of the affected buildings. Concern From Students Twenty-two people, including seven students, were exposed to smoke-borne polychlorinated biphenyl particles. They were treated at local hospitals and released.

SCIENTISTS studying the sleeping brain are making new progress in understanding the nerve cells and messenger chemicals that paint the mysterious mental images known as dreams. The purpose of dreams remains as elusive as ever. Some scientists believe they help consolidate the memories and learning that took place the previous day. Others see dreams as a mechanism for allowing busy brain cells to recharge their depleted stocks of transmitter chemicals. There is no physiological support so far, however, for Freud's view of dreams as repressed wishes, and psychoanalysts are for the most part busy trying to cut and trim their guru's theory to the framework of modern findings.