September 21, 1993

ON a recent Monday night the library of the Block Island, R.I., school was standing room only, filled by anxious residents who had come to hear four scientists offer them a new experimental vaccine against Lyme disease. Beginning early next year, volunteers will be given the vaccine as part of a clinical trial, and people here are weighing the risk of side effects from an unknown vaccine against the chance that they will contract Lyme on this island where exposures are common. Scientists are optimistic that this vaccine will help reclaim the wilderness for human use in the many parts of the country where fear of Lyme has kept residents indoors during tick season.

Curbing Chemicals in Food In a fundamental environmental policy shift, regulators will propose sharply reducing the use of the agricultural chemicals that find their way into Americans' food. Page A19. First Tailhook Case Dropped The Navy dropped charges against the first officer scheduled to go on trial in the Tailhook sexual harassment case. Page A14. C. L. Sulzberger Dead at 80 C. L. Sulzberger, a prize-winning foreign correspondent for The New York Times for nearly 40 years, was the author of two dozen books. Page B9. Empire May Not Get Increase New York's Insurance Commissioner said Empire would probably not get a rate increase next year. Page B1.

The bond market gave its strongest signal to date yesterday that the rally that pushed yields to their lowest level in 25 years could be over. The price of the 30-year bond dropped 24/32 of a point. And its yield, which moves in the opposite direction, jumped to 6.09 percent, its highest level since Aug. 21, and up from 6.04 on Friday.

NEW YORK CITY DISORDER ON DAY 1 IN NEW YORK SCHOOLS Most of New York City's public schools reopened smoothly amid a general sense of relief that the asbestos delay was over, but for thousands of students still locked out of class and their parents, the day brought continued confusion, disappointment and frustration. A1. Parents and educators agree that the asbestos problem is only a symptom of a much more serious ailment: deferred and nonexistent building maintenance. News Analysis. A1.

The acting head of the Lucchese crime family in New Jersey and one of his top associates admitted today in Federal Court here that they bribed or tried to bribe jurors in two other Federal organized-crime cases in the last five years. The admission came unheralded in a series of pleas that resolved a multimillion-dollar racketeering case involving a plan to plunder the budget of the Newark Division of Sanitation through false invoices and kickbacks to mob-controlled businesses. Along the way, the defendants acknowledged widespread extortion and more than a dozen murder conspiracies going back two decades.