May 13, 1993

There was a rude awakening for the Treasury market yesterday: The April jump in producer price inflation was much higher than expected and signaled that there is less hope now for a new rally based on declining inflation. The metaphorical slap in the face pushed prices lower, with the 30-year bond down 19/32 point and the yield up to 6.85 percent, from 6.81 percent Tuesday. The prices of two-year to five-year notes fell much less, however, because inflation, which erodes the value of fixed-income investments, has less impact on shorter-term securities.

IT is 12:03 P.M., Saturday, on the 17th floor of the CBS building on West 52d Street, and the Ingram mess, as Dan Ingram himself calls it, has begun to spread out for 60 miles on the FM band. The familiar beat of a 1965 Four Tops recording can be heard on the studio speakers. Mr. Ingram clears his throat, opens the microphone and speaks over the music: "This is the song of the midget and the smorgasbord, "I Can't Help Myself."

The Dinkins administration's proposal to create a new agency for homeless services -- a centerpiece in the administration's plans to overhaul the city's troubled shelter system -- has run into widespread opposition in the City Council. The City Council Speaker, Peter F. Vallone, who had been an early supporter of the plan to create a new agency, said yesterday that the city's current proposal fell far short of what he had in mind. He said the current plan would still leave homeless services fragmented among many different city departments.

Fifteen years after New York tourism officials imprinted the phrase "I Love New York" on the nation's collective consciousness and "New Jersey and You" seemed so perfect together, efforts to promote the metropolitan region as a travel destination are emerging from their darkest hour. New York and New Jersey, which had television promotion campaigns throughout the 1980's, went off the air in the early 1990's because of state budget cuts. Connecticut has not had an active statewide travel promotion for seven years, an eternity in building the kind of recognition that marketers say is needed to influence decisions on where to take a vacation.

The American dream holds nine families hostage here. The first thing 15-year-old Ivette Reyes does when she gets home from school is take aspirin for chronic headaches. Since her friends won't visit, she usually plays alone. And the children of the neighbors next door, Brenda and Louis Guarino, rarely get to see their grandparents, who don't like to visit at their home.