August 29, 1993

Smuggling Suspect Arrested Hong Kong officials have arrested the reputed leader of a New York Chinatown gang involved in smuggling immigrants, authorities said. Page 29.

SUFFOLK officials, unwilling to await the results of a state pilot program, are advancing plans to require fingerprinting of county welfare recipients to reduce fraud. But as the County Legislature nears a vote on a bill requiring the fingerprinting, the state is warning that Suffolk has no authority to proceed on its own, even if the county pays for its program. County officials disagree, and appear ready for a court fight. Backers of the bill have also tried to enlist Nassau County in the effort, but to no avail. Nassau officials say they will wait to see how Suffolk fares.

WHEN her husband pushed her into a tropical-fish tank, a Suffolk County woman suffered back lacerations. When the husband of a Nassau County woman attacked her with a claw hammer while she slept, she lost her eye Despite such incidents, increased public awareness and community, legal and medical changes may be slowly helping to stop the pain of domestic violence on Long Island.

It is the stuff of television mini-series. Street-smart dad faces off with Harvard M.B.A. son over who is in charge of family business. Dad called philanderer by wife of 45 years. She wants divorce. Younger son sides with dad, older son with mom. Midnight confrontations. Dueling lawyers. Millions at stake. In the dog days of August, the capital is mesmerized by Haft vs. Haft, the messy, titillating, back-stabbing, power-grabbing, name-calling, finger-pointing court case of the Haft family, owners of a retail and real estate empire known for getting big profits out of discounted goods.

THE increased production of oysters and clams -- in a state with 250 miles of shoreline, agriculture is also aquaculture -- is being achieved through a cooperative effort between the shellfish industry and state government. "Connecticut was one of the first states in the country to formally recognize aquaculture as a form of agriculture and farming," said John H. Volk, the director of the aquaculture division of the State Department of Agriculture, quoting the 1981 act that defined aquaculture as "the farming of the waters of the state and tidal wetlands and the production of protein food, including oysters, clams, mussels and other molluskan shellfish on leased, franchised and public underwater farmland." Tending Submerged Plots The state, which owns the sea floor up to the middle of the Sound, leases more than 50,000 acres of submerged land to more than 100 companies and individuals who tend their plots as a land-based farmer would, marketing the product and paying taxes that go back into the program -- a $50-million industry in all.