January 11, 1992

A bright idea flashed through this woodsy suburb in the Watchung Mountains four years ago, promising significant relief from the state-imposed obligation to provide affordable housing for low- and moderate-income people. With the prospect of being forced to rezone a 50-acre tract for such housing, leaders of the Township Committee approached the property owner, a well-known developer in Union County, with what seemed to be a mutually beneficial deal. Exporting Fair Housing The Township Committee would approve an office park with two 10-story towers, two five-story parking garages and a helicopter pad, changing the zoning to allow the larger project. In return, the developer would pick up the cost of half the township's obligation under the Mount Laurel housing doctrine: $3.8 million for 129 units. The money would be paid to Berkeley Heights, then transferred to Newark under a legal but much criticized arrangement that permits suburbs to export part of their "fair share" housing mandate to depressed urban areas.

The flu season has descended on the New York region like an unpredictable blizzard, creating shortages of hospital beds, closing schools and making its victims generally feel as if they are 102 years old. Across the nation, flu-associated deaths have reached epidemic levels for the first time since 1989, the Federal Centers for Disease Control said yesterday.

A nine-week campaign by Democratic Assembly members to repeal a $2.8 billion tax package that they passed 19 months ago at Gov. Jim Florio's urging ended in defeat today. The five-bill package failed when its Democratic backers fell 6 votes short of the 41 needed.

From the moment President Bush stepped off Air Force One this morning, he and his advisers plunged into an effort to put an optimistic gloss on what automobile industry officials and Democratic Congressmen were calling a disastrous trade meeting with Japan's leaders. In a speech at Andrews Air Force Base, Mr. Bush promised that his four-day visit to Japan would produce "clear and measurable" gains in American exports and the jobs they create.

The nation's unemployment rate climbed to a five-and-a-half-year high of 7.1 percent in December, with the bulk of the rise occurring among people discharged from their latest job with little prospect of recall, the Labor Department reported today. Long-term unemployment also rose substantially as the ranks of those out of work swelled by 289,000, to 8.9 million, the highest in nearly eight years.