November 18, 1992

A syndicate of banks led by the Bankers Trust Company is working to put together $300 million in new credit to help Northwest Airlines avoid a bankruptcy filing while it tries to complete its merger with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, an executive participating in the syndicate said yesterday. The airline, which has exhausted its current bank credit, is depleting its cash reserves to pay for running the airline at a time of heavy losses.

Nationsbank, the acquisitive North Carolina banking company whose name reflects its ambitions, announced an agreement yesterday to buy almost all of Chrysler First, a consumer finance subsidiary of the Chrysler Financial Corporation. For Chrysler, the sale of its consumer finance subsidiary will provide an infusion of cash and reduce by about $4 billion its borrowings in financial markets and from banks.

CHEF shmef. Come Thanksgiving, they'll be just like the rest of us: stuffing turkeys and themselves; secretly longing for marshmallows on the candied sweet potatoes and insisting that the holiday would be a flop without cranberry sauce, even if, like Dean Fearing, they put jalapenos and cilantro in it. The message from most trend-setting chefs is unmistakable: don't mess with my holiday. Some of them are more hidebound than others, but none would dream of Thanksgiving without a turkey, stuffing and either sweet potatoes or pumpkin something-or-other.

Baseball held its expansion draft to help stock two new teams, the Florida Marlins and the Colorado Rockies, who begin play next April in the National League. Who was chosen? Which players did the Yankees and Mets lose? And who is David Nied? SportsWednesday, page B9.

ON THE FRONT LINES OF DESPERATION Across the New York region and around the nation, experts say social service workers are increasingly at risk of assault. At least eight workers, five in New York State, have been slain by clients in five years and hundreds of others have been assaulted as they deal with desperate clients and a government they believe has caused their problems or cannot solve them. A1. NEW YORK CITY A FIERCE REBUTTAL FROM DINKINS Mayor Dinkins defended his handling of the Crown Heights racial violence to a group of rabbis and ministers, accusing critics of distorting facts to get his "political scalp" and saying that critics who accuse him of restraining the police during the violence in August 1991 are motivated by race. A1. Judge in Crown Heights trial criticizes proposed City Council resolution against the verdict. B2. TENSE TRIAL IN HASIDIC WOMAN'S SLAYING Hasidic women from Crown Heights filled a Brooklyn courtroom to hear somber testimony about the slaying of a neighbor who was stabbed to death in her home in February. The slaying heightened tensions because the suspect is black and because it occurred after the racial disturbances there in 1991. B3. TRADING IN THE TOKEN FOR A TRANSIT CARD Transit officials now promise that, after years of delays, riders will be able to use an automated card in some subway stations in December 1993. By March 1994, they say, the cards will be in use in 69 major subway stations and by May 1994 in all 3,450 buses. By 1997, transit officials hope, the token will have been eliminated. B3. TAXES AIMED AT OUT-OF-STATE WORKERS New York City officials said yesterday Mayor Dinkins planned to propose $162 million in new taxes next year, including an increase in the income tax for commuters and increased taxes on wine, beer, liquor and tobacco. A spokesman for the Senate minority leader, referring to similar proposals, said: "We've killed it five times, five separate times, and if it rears its head again, it will likely die a sixth death." B3. REGION THE ROAD TO DEATH ROW Though voters in New Jersey have approved a state constitutional amendment that could put more convicted murderers on death row, prosecutors and defense lawyers say the change is unlikely to increase the number of death-penalty trials dramatically. B5. SUFFOLK BUDGET CUTS VETOED The Suffolk County Executive ignored the pleas of fellow Republicans in the County Legislature and vetoed nearly all their proposed cuts in his $1.5 billion budget for 1993. Should an attempt to override his vetoes fail, residents will face a 17.7 percent increase in property taxes, or $110 for the average homeowner. B4. CUOMO MAKES UP HIS MIND TO BE DECISIVE If President-elect Clinton asked Governor Cuomo to consider a Supreme Court post, what would he do? Simple, the Governor said. He would decide. B5. IN SEX-ASSAULT TRIAL, A MOTHER TESTIFIES The mother of the mildly retarded young woman in the Glen Ridge sex assault trial took the witness stand today, testifying against young men she has known since their childhood. B5. About New York by Michael T. Kaufman B4