January 22, 1993

Television news, listings and advertising appear today on pages B14-15.

WITH the hoopla of a circus or a new amusement park, New Jersey is opening its first major science museum on Sunday, an extravaganza that provides a great deal of family fun, and even a bit of science. The museum, called Liberty Science Center, rises like a version of Tomorrowland out of the marshes of Liberty State Park, just across the harbor from lower Manhattan. It features the world's largest Omnimax theater, with a domed screen eight stories high. It has a continuous laser show. It has a mirror maze and a touch tunnel, a black maze you crawl through using only your sense of touch to guide you. It has an insect museum with live insects like carpenter ants, honeybees, tarantulas and giant cockroaches, some of which you can hold and pet. It has science demonstrations on stages set up on each floor. It has an auditorium where science shows will be performed each hour. And it has discovery rooms, where serious science students can explore subjects in depth and, the museum directors hope, in a peaceful environment.

These are grim days for the anti-abortion movement. For the first time in 12 years, opponents of legalized abortion do not have a sympathetic President in the White House. Many feel badly let down by a conservative Supreme Court. Perhaps most of all, they are fighting the idea that the courts and the political system reached a lasting consensus on abortion with the court cases and election of 1992, and that their side lost. Presidential Action There is no surer sign of the altered political climate than President Clinton's resolve to use executive orders to reverse some important victories the anti-abortion forces won under Republican rule. This turnaround will come only days after George Bush issued a proclamation declaring last Sunday National Sanctity of Human Life Day to "call attention to the tragedy of abortion."

NEW POLICY FOR NEW YORK CITY SHELTERS The Cuomo administration said that it would begin sending state mental health workers into New York City homeless shelters to evaluate mentally ill residents and commit those deemed dangerous to state mental hospitals, possibly against their will. The policy was ordered after a mentally ill homeless man was charged in the bludgeoning death of an 80-year-old woman in the Bronx. A1. SMALL STEP TO AID OVERWHELMED SYSTEM In moving to identify and hospitalize violent mentally ill residents of New York City shelters, state officials are taking a small step to improve coordination in a fragmented, overwhelmed mental health system. News analysis, B2. Community of slain Bronx woman calls for closing of shelter where accused murderer lived. B2. NEW YORK CITY STUDY FAULTS 3 AGENCIES The Citizens Budget Commission, a nonprofit organization financed by businesses, released a study that criticized several New York City agencies. The study contends that New York City's firefighters spend too much time in firehouses, called for the elimination of city-provided garbage pickup and said the city had been slow to hire civilians to replace police officers now doing some desk jobs. B3. PROSECUTOR'S OFFICE CHASTISED A judge, citing a "pattern of inaction, ineptitude and indolence, has thrown out drug-dealing charges against a man after Brooklyn prosecutors failed to produce him for trial for nearly three years because they did not know he was imprisoned in another drug case handled by their colleagues. B3. DISPUTE OVER RIGHTS TO 'RITE OF SPRING' In the Walt Disney film "Fantasia," music from Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring" is played during the creation of the universe, the demise of the dinosaurs and the birth of the modern world. Now comes the one thing that seems to have been left out: a lawsuit. B3. Sanitation Department reports theft of a dozen trucks over five months. B4. REGION FISCAL GUARDIAN FOR KATIE BEERS? The Suffolk County Attorney should take charge of Katie Beers's financial affairs, including any money she may receive from movie deals, Katie's mother, Marilyn, said. Miss Beers is seeking to regain custody of Katie, who was held captive for 16 days. B5. CHANGES FOR SOUTH NORWALK STATION For years, commuters have said the Metro-North station in Norwalk, Conn., was unsafe. Now the city says it is about to embark on an $8.6 million plan to transform a commuter's nightmare with a 600-car parking garage and an elaborate electronic security system. B5. RELEASED RAPIST ORDERED INTO HOSPITAL A New Jersey judge ordered the temporary commitment of a released rapist to a hospital. Psychiatric reports said that the man was likely to strike again within a month of his release and would probably kill his victim. B5. Our Towns by Andrew H. Malcolm B5 Neediest Cases B3 Chronicle B4

The Cuomo administration said yesterday that it would begin sending state mental health workers into New York City's homeless shelters in an effort to identify residents who are dangerously mentally ill and place them in state mental hospitals, in some cases against their will. The policy, which was ordered by the State Mental Health Commissioner, Dr. Richard C. Surles, came in response to the case of a mentally ill homeless man who drifted in and out of homeless shelters and was charged with bludgeoning an 80-year-old Bronx woman to death on Sunday near the shelter where he sometimes lived.