May 9, 1992

Nine days after they delivered the verdict that stunned the nation and set South-Central Los Angeles aflame, the jurors who acquitted the four police officers charged for beating Rodney G. King are variously frightened, defensive, agonized by second thoughts or firmly resolved that they did the right thing. "My life is beyond hell. I cannot take any more," said Alice Debord, a 43-year-old grounds worker at a local college. Standing outside her modest home in the verdant remote hills near Ojai, a 75-mile drive from riot-scarred Los Angeles, she looked shaken as she recalled getting death threats. Some Left Home Other jurors have left their homes in various parts of Ventura County, a mountainous area northwest of Los Angeles that stretches from the far suburbs of the city, like Simi Valley, through vast citrus groves and strawberry fields, through oil fields near the coast in Ventura and over lush horse country in the mountains near the resort of Ojai. The courts ordered the trial transferred there on the ground that the Los Angeles police officers could not get a fair trial in the city.

The poignancy of Mikhail S. Gorbachev as Bolshevik turned mendicant is undeniable these days as he makes a grand tour of America intended to capitalize a new life for himself. He is darting about as a kind of foundation Firebird rising from the ashes of Communism to flap on westward toward the future, a hard-currency glint in his eye to finance the endless vents of talk and ideas that keep him aloft.

President Bush concluded his 38-hour inspection tour of Los Angeles today, offering words of compassion for anguished welfare mothers and victims of street violence, and a promise that "government has an absolute responsibility to solve these problems." He announced a $19 million aid package for Los Angeles that includes more money for Head Start programs, health and drug-treatment clinics, housing for about 175 low-income families, worker retraining and law enforcement to combat drug dealers.

Mayor David N. Dinkins insisted yesterday that it would be "a grave error in public policy" to use $200 million in surplus funds exclusively for schools. In a strongly worded letter, Mr. Dinkins sent a clear message that he should be the arbiter of how the funds are spent rather than the Governor or the chairman of the Municipal Assistance Corporation, the source of the money.

Hearing in Delivery Dispute A judge opened a hearing to review a newspaper drivers union's actions in a dispute with a delivery company and The New York Times. Page 25. Tracking Retirees for Taxes In pursuit of revenues, some states are following retirees out of state and taxing their pension income. Page 38. A Day for Ma Bell, as Well A.T.& T. expects that this year, for the first time, Mother's Day will be its busiest holiday. Page 37.