September 23, 1993

MOST evenings, weather permitting, Robert Kelly emerges from his two-story home in Northwest Washington to engage in a little porch sitting, a type of old-fashioned neighborliness analogous to putting out the welcome mat. From there Mr. Kelly, 68, who is known to friends and neighbors just as "Kelly," can see and be seen. For nearly 35 years he has been the eyes and ears of the 700 block of Nicholson Street. When a neighbor dies, Mr. Kelly has details on the wake. If a younger resident wins a college scholarship, Mr. Kelly is the first to trumpet it. If there are new faces on the block, anything out of the ordinary or anything in need of fixing, Mr. Kelly is the one to turn to.

THE architecture is by Thomas Jefferson, in the Palladian style. But the decor is by Virginia Norton, in English Garden. Ms. Norton is a fourth-year student who lives in one of the colonnaded buildings lining the University of Virginia's original campus, the venerable Lawn. An ivy-patterned doormat sits before her threshold swaybacked by generations of students who have lived there since the school that Thomas Jefferson designed opened in 1825. The walls of her 10-foot-square cube of a room are bordered with rose-pattern paper. The floral motif continues in the curtains, dried flowers and a bowl of potpourri that sits beside copies of Martha Stewart Living and Antiques. On the mantel is a tiara, a remembrance of Ms. Norton's participation in a Miss Virginia pageant.

New Jersey Tax Fight Rises Governor Florio said the tax cut plan of his opponent, Christine Todd Whitman, was a "voodoo" program meant to help the wealthy. Page B1. A Flight With Demjanjuk Flying to the United States, John Demjanjuk was reminded by passengers that he would forever be linked to the mass killing of Jews. Page A3. Primerica wants to buy Travelers for $4 billion, in a move that would create a financial-services giant. Page D1.

Like something out of "Star Wars," it will prowl the streets of New York City taking the measure of cars as they pass by unaware and taking pictures, too, that could be used to summon the drivers to make amends. The enemy: tailpipe pollution.

President Clinton rode to power on the economic anxiety of the middle class and the promise that the Government could do something about it. Tonight, standing before the nation with a health security card in his hand, he tried to deliver, pledging a vast new benefit for all Americans. "With this card, if you lose your job or you switch jobs, you're covered," Mr. Clinton declared, holding aloft the freshly-minted red, white and blue card. "If you leave your job to start a small business, you're covered. If you're an early retiree, you're covered."