March 25, 1992

Olympia & York Developments Ltd., the cash-short Canadian property giant, pulled out all the stops yesterday in hiring some of the financial world's star players to help it reorganize billions of dollars in loans on its vast holdings. Moving quickly to put new management in place to prepare for the complex debt negotiations, the company said it was replacing Paul Reichmann as its president with Thomas S. Johnson, the former president of the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company, for the duration of the reorganization. The company also retained James D. Wolfensohn and Robert Miller, partners in James D. Wolfensohn Inc., as advisers, along with J. P. Morgan & Company and the Canadian investment firm Burns Fry Ltd. A Role for Reichmann Although Mr. Reichmann is stepping aside as president, a spokesman for the company said he would continue to play an important role behind the scenes in the debt negotiations.

THE CONNECTICUT PRIMARY CLINTON REBUFFED IN CONNECTICUT Connecticut's Democratic primary voters served notice that they were less than overwhelmed by their party's front-runner, giving Gov. Bill Clinton an embarrassing second-place finish to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. A1. NEW YORK CITY BIRTH CENTERS FOR POOR WOMEN In New York and around the nation, the search is on for cheaper and better health care for poor urban women. The solution, many health-care experts say, may be found at the Childbearing Center of Morris Heights in the Bronx, where prenatal care, labor, delivery and follow-up care are all given outside the hospital. A1. CRIME DROPS IN NEW YORK Reported crime in New York City fell modestly in every major category last year, the Police Department said. It was the first such across-the-board decline in 36 years and went against the trends in other cities nationwide. A1. OFFICER ACQUITTED IN BRUTALITY CASE Bringing to a close a case that stirred deep passions over allegations of police brutality, a Queens judge acquitted the last of five New York City police officers who had been charged in the death of a car-theft suspect. B3. State to withhold $6 million because of street-repair problems. B3. Jews debate admission of homosexuals into the clergy. B3. Jeffries successor seeks to bring calm to City College. B3. City Hall plans to divert anti-crime funds to general budget. B4. REGION A DEADLOCK ON REDISTRICTING After missing four self-imposed deadlines in five weeks, legislative officials said today that they were at an impasse over how to draw a consensus redistricting plan for members of Congress from New York. The legislative officials said they saw no obvious way to break the deadlock, increasing the likelihood that the Legislature will end up abdicating its control over redistricting to the courts. A1. AN UNLIKELY CRUSADER An unlikely champion has emerged to lead a crusade to soften New Jersey's stringent new welfare laws. He is a freshman Republican Assemblyman named John Hartmann, who has introduced a bill that would remove the most controversial section of the welfare-revision legislation, which denies additional benefits for a child born into a family already on welfare. B7. CORRUPTION INQUIRY WIDENS IN PASSAIC Even as Mayor Joseph Lipari of Passaic was pleading not guilty to 14 charges of extortion, bribery, conspiracy and income-tax evasion, Federal prosecutors said their corruption investigation was focusing on new targets. B7. Bridgeport U. may reconsider Unification Church offer. B7. In a reversal, appeals court upholds rule barring homeless man from Morristown library. B8. A rash of Congressional politicking in New Jersey. B8. About New York B3

Democratic primary voters in Connecticut served notice yesterday that they were less than overwhelmed by their party's new front-runner, Gov. Bill Clinton, handing him an embarrassing second-place finish to former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr. of California. The voting was a jarring message for a man who was widely predicted to be on a clear path to the nomination after former Senator Paul E. Tsongas left the race last week. It heightens the importance of New York's primary on April 7, and it signals that Mr. Clinton still has considerable work to do to build and consolidate his support among Democratic primary voters.

First came newspaper exposes, then a Senate investigation, criminal trials and even a Congressman incognito, carrying a hidden video camera. Over the past few years, these have produced a mountain of evidence of widespread abuse at truck-driving institutes, beauty colleges and other private, profit-seeking trade schools. But with the laws that govern these schools scheduled to come to a vote on Wednesday in the House of Representatives, the industry's leaders are celebrating. Having faced the possibility of expulsion from the Federal student aid programs -- a step toward extinction -- the industry says it has reformed itself and preserved what it calls its rightful access to the aid programs.

Sales of North American-built vehicles fell 2.7 percent in mid-March, as auto makers continued to feel the decline in fleet sales of cars to rental companies. Light-truck sales were higher. Sales of cars fell 6.9 percent in the period to 167,708, from 180,195 a year earlier, while sales of light trucks rose 4.7 percent. Total vehicle sales fell to 276,889, from 284,482 in the comparable period of last year.