October 2, 1992

In the first step of what could be a long legal battle, a New York State law prohibiting begging on the streets has been declared unconstitutional by a Federal District Court judge. The judge, Robert W. Sweet, ruled in a decision handed down on Wednesday in Manhattan that the law was in violation of the First Amendment guarantees of free speech. While the Government has a "valid interest" in preserving public order, Judge Sweet wrote, "the interest in permitting free speech and the message that begging sends about our society predominates."

As Suffolk County District Attorney, James M. Catterson has control over millions of dollars in assets seized from criminals. Among them is the BMW that he drives in place of a county car. Mr. Catterson insists that the law gives him discretion to use those assets as he pleases, without any public accounting. He said there was nothing improper about his use of the BMW or other funds from the forfeiture account. But county officials, who say they knew nothing about his handling of the account until they learned of it in Newsday this week, disagree. Question of Accountability Today, Herbert Davis, the chairman of the County Legislature's Public Safety Committee, proposed a measure that would require Mr. Catterson to submit his forfeiture account for an annual audit by the county comptroller. The findings would then be made available to the Legislature.

Blacks and other minorities continue to be rejected for mortgage loans far more frequently than whites of similar income, according to data compiled by many banks and other analysts. In one study covering 46 banks in 13 cities, nearly one in four mortgage applications from middle-income blacks was denied, compared with a denial rate for middle-income white applicants of about one in 11. For all income levels, 26.7 percent of black applications were turned down, compared with 10.5 percent of whites, according to the study prepared by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

Over the last two days, hundreds of Muslims have been pouring into Sarajevo's city center from their homes in a Serb-held neighborhood, offering compelling evidence that at least some of the Serbs fighting in Bosnia and Herzegovina are reneging on a promise to end the widely condemned practice of "ethnic cleansing." From noon on Wednesday until dusk today, at least 500 residents of Grbavica, a leafy suburb that clings to the steep hillsides across the Miljacka River from the heart of Sarajevo, have come across the bridges into the city center, sometimes being fired on as they ran.

At least one and possibly two missiles fired accidentally from the aircraft carrier Saratoga hit a Turkish ship during NATO exercises yesterday in the eastern Mediterranean. American Navy officials said at least 5 Turks aboard the destroyer Muavenet were killed and 15 injured. Article, page A8.

President Bush has decided to support a ban on Serbian combat flights over Bosnia and Herzegovina, senior Administration officials said tonight. The issue of prohibiting combat flights over Bosnia has been strenuously debated within the Administration, with Gen. Colin L. Powell, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, publicly questioning the need for a ban and State Department and White House officials privately asserting the need for action. But officials said Mr. Bush decided to support the ban today after meeting with top Administration officials.

In the most comprehensive look yet at the activities of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International in the United States, a Senate report released today showed that the bank successfully derailed Congressional inquiries into its affairs, which ranged from international money laundering to terrorism. The long-awaited analysis by the ranking Democrat and Republican on the Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Narcotics and International Operations offers a scathing portrait of how political influence and international bribery, combined with Government incompetence and inaction, acted as a catalyst for one of the biggest financial frauds in history.

Gov. Bill Clinton, launching a new broadside against the Bush Administration's foreign policy, charged today that President Bush was overly eager to befriend "potentates and dictators" and said he would be more prepared than Mr. Bush to use trade sanctions or even force to protect human rights abroad. Mr. Clinton also stepped up his campaign's attack on Mr. Bush on Iraq, saying he was "angered by the Administration's appeasement of Saddam Hussein" before the gulf war last year and "disappointed by its callous disregard for democratic principles after the war." [ Excerpts, page A21. ]

When a citywide blackout and ensuing riots left much of Bushwick in ruins in 1977, one area that survived was a block of small businesses on Knickerbocker Avenues and three-story wood and brick houses nearby. That survival, however, sealed its doom.

Ross Perot shook the scaffolding of American politics by re-entering the Presidential race today, but it was only an aftershock compared with the major earthquakes he caused earlier this year. No one knows for sure from whom he is likely to take more votes, or how many, and the campaign staffs of President Bush and Gov. Bill Clinton are both more apprehensive than they let on; their almost fawning eagerness to send delegations to appeal for his support early this week is proof of that.

Union officials at General Motors' Willow Run assembly plant here have long complained about growing political apathy among the rank and file. But not this year. Their plant has been scheduled for closing, and the workers blame George Bush (along with the chairman of G.M., whose selection they don't get to vote on). Bill Clinton wasn't the union local's first choice for President (Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa was) or even its second (Edmund G. Brown Jr. from California was). But workers have been registering to vote in record numbers just so they can back the Democrat in November.

International A scathing Senate report on B.C.C.I. says the bank derailed Congressional inquiries by using political influence and bribery. That, combined with Government incompetence and inaction, catalyzed the biggest financial fraud in history. It cited John Culver, a former Democratic Senator from Iowa, and Michael Pillsbury, a senior aide to Senator Orrin Hatch, Utah Republican. [ Page A1. ]