January 17, 1992

The income-tax cut President Bush plans to propose this month would make families with incomes of more than about $50,000 the biggest winners, drawing a new line in his election year battle with the Democrats over who can develop the more attractive tax breaks for the middle class. The Democrats, in Congress and on the Presidential campaign trail, have not found a tax policy they can all support, but most of their proposals aim lower on the income ladder than the President's.

Fined for Trading Violations The Securities and Exchange Commission fined 98 banks and Wall Street houses for submitting phony bids in the debt markets. Page D1. Inflation in Check Consumer prices rose just three-tenths of a percent last month and only 3.1 percent last year. Page D6. Police Challenge Report A captain contested the criticisms in a review of the City College crush, and a police report concludes that officers acted properly. Page B1. Trade Deal With China Set China will provide greater protection against piracy for American books, recordings and other items. Page D1. Greece Acquits Ex-Premier Former Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou of Greece was acquitted of charges in a bank scandal. Page A5.

Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, chairman and chief executive officer of The New York Times Company and for 29 years publisher of The New York Times, relinquished the publisher's title yesterday to his son, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr. As publisher, Mr. Sulzberger Jr. will oversee all aspects of the newspaper, including its editorial-page policy. He will report to the elder Mr. Sulzberger, 65 years old, who intends to continue active participation in the overall company day to day as chairman and chief executive.

In a case that provoked impassioned outcries from pet lovers, the owners of a Long Island pet cemetery were convicted of mail fraud yesterday for dumping thousands of dead dogs and cats in mass graves and bilking thousands of people who had paid for dignified burials for their pets. The cemetery owners, Samuel J. Strauss, 71 years old, and his son, Alan J., 36, were each found guilty of 45 counts of mail fraud, and are expected under Federal sentencing guidelines to be sentenced to at least six and a half years in prison, said Andrew J. Maloney, the United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

The police commander who was criticized in the Dinkins administration's official review of the deadly crush at a City College gymnasium defended himself yesterday, as Police Commissioner Lee P. Brown released a preliminary report of his own that found that the 66 officers on duty at the time had acted properly. Both the commander, Capt. Daniel P. Carlin, and the Brown report differed from the Dinkins administration's report, which concluded that the police had been slow in responding to the incident, in which nine people died.