November 18, 1993

A senior executive with the Prudential Insurance Company of America has filed court papers accusing the company of systematically defrauding institutional investors in one of the real estate funds it manages. The executive, Mark Jorgensen, who in 1992 began managing three Prudential real estate funds, contends in a lawsuit that company executives improperly inflated values of certain properties over a period of years in the Prudential Property Investment Separate Account, or Prisa.

Mayor-elect Rudolph W. Giuliani urged David N. Dinkins yesterday not to complete major agreements before he leaves office, but the Mayor said he would push to close several deals, including the expansion of the tennis center in Queens where the United States Open is held. In recent days, Mr. Giuliani has repeatedly warned against making agreements with unions, developers or others that would tie the hands of the new administration. His pointed remarks and the Mayor's stubborn response were a clear sign that the decorum and friendliness that initially marked the transition were wearing thin.

IT'S tempting to seize upon the seeming contradictions in Bernadine Dohrn's life, to look at snapshots frozen in time, frozen in place. Here she is in 1969, a leader of the Weathermen who set off four "Days of Rage" in Chicago, smashing downtown store windows to strike at capitalist oppressors. Flash to the pearls-and-pin-stripe-suited legal advocate for children and families in 1993, the concerned mother fixing stewed cherries and instant noodles for a teen-age son with a scratchy throat. Yet, talking with her in her Hyde Park living room, it didn't take long to discover that these images are caricatures, ones that disguise her long and complex journey but also force her to adopt a defensive wariness.

The last New York City school closed for asbestos cleanup is to reopen today, school officials said, marking the beginning of the end of a crisis that at one point shut down 115 schools and disrupted hundreds more and has so far cost $119 million. At the last school to reopen, Public School 164 in Borough Park, Brooklyn, teachers were dusting desks and hanging bulletin boards yesterday, preparing for classes today. But in a reminder of the disruptions that students across the city have endured throughout the asbestos cleanup, the school's 400 children stood through a chilly drizzle, waiting for buses to ferry them one final day to the alternate schools they have attended since September.

President Clinton scored one of the biggest triumphs of his Presidency tonight when the House of Representatives voted to expand trade with Mexico and turn North America into the world's largest free trade zone. Legislation to put the North American Free Trade Agreement into effect starting Jan. 1 and to gradually abolish nearly all trade barriers between the United States, Mexico and Canada was adopted by a vote of 234 to 200, with three-fifths of the Democrats voting against the President and most Republicans supporting him.