August 30, 1992

"RIGHT!" barks Tony Canarozzi. Kristen Connolly, a 25-year-old researcher for the Wall Street firm Tudor Investments giggles and pushes her right arm toward her 24-year-old colleague, Stacy Beecher. Ms. Connolly grins impishly, like a little girl on a playground trying to see just how far she can go. Her punch is tentative, soft, halting.

The Ginger Man, a 28-year-old restaurant at 51 West 64th Street, is experiencing the construction equivalent of middle-age spread. The restaurant, which straddled two buildings, has lost the western front room that held its bar, 55 seats, main kitchens and entrance. Now it is rebuilding all that, plus more, in new space to the east and north of what's left.

The Army and the United States Bureau of Prisons are nearing agreement on a plan to convert Fort Dix, the sprawling Army base in central New Jersey, into a low-security Federal prison for 3,200 convicted drug offenders and white-collar criminals. Article, page 33.

Anticipating that steeper cuts in future military spending are inevitable, the Pentagon is quietly preparing to reduce its forces below the lowest levels the Bush Administration has said would be acceptable, senior Defense Department officials say. The cuts, which would affect fundamental military programs, including troops, weapons purchases and military bases, could free as much as $80 billion in military spending by 1997 for use in other domestic programs.

United States Army units began fanning out across the devastated southern suburbs of Miami today, but the bulk of stepped-up efforts to help the victims of Hurricane Andrew continued to be shouldered by local governments and increasingly efficient private relief agencies. At mid-morning, 24 hours after the first military transport plane landed at Homestead Air Force Base, military spokesmen said only 700 soldiers were at work, mostly in field kitchens. Seven hours later, they were joined by 500 more soldiers. President Bush today raised to nearly 20,000 the number of Federal troops and military workers who will be involved in the relief effort.