November 22, 1993

The National Weather Service will issue its 90-day forecast next Monday giving a first indication of how high home heating bills will be this winter. The price of natural gas, which all states regulate at the distribution level, is steadier than that of heating oil. Last spring's cold snap prompted a temporary rise in gas prices. Oil prices soared after a cold winter in 1989-90 and the Persian Gulf war in 1990-91 but two warm winters back to back have brought them back down. Prices also vary by region because of differences in local business costs, transportation and competition. Home heating oil now fetches about $1.13 a gallon on Long Island; in the Albany area, it's 92 cents.

Some of the city's more violent drug gangs, particularly in upper Manhattan, are demonstrating a willingness to kill not only their rivals but also witnesses to their crimes, investigators say. The trend, which sends an emphatic message that silence is survival, was illustrated in a Manhattan courtroom on Saturday, when a jury found the leader of a Harlem drug gang guilty of murdering a man who cooperated with prosecutors looking into the gang's activities.

New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania stand to reap tens of millions of dollars from a revamping of the Government survey from which unemployment rates are calculated, according to Federal and state officials. The extra money would result mainly from the states' greater share of Federal aid for job training, job placement and other programs tied to the severity of unemployment in a state or locality. Since the total pool of aid is more or less fixed, other states, like California and Texas, would lose.

METRO DIGEST GOOD NEWS ON UNEMPLOYMENT SPENDING New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania stand to reap tens of millions of dollars from a revamping of the Government survey from which unemployment rates are calculated, according to Federal and state officials. The extra money would result mainly from the states' greater share of the billions of Federal money spent on training, job placement and various other programs tied in some way to the severity of unemployment in a state or locality. Since the total pool of aid is more or less fixed, other states would lose. New York might also gain disproportionately from an extension of emergency unemployment benefits, which are triggered by rate of unemployment. A1. NEW YORK CITY CABDRIVER KILLINGS LEAVE EMPTINESS Rene Rodriguez, who is 7 years old and proud of learning to rhyme words, insists that he does not keep going to the window to look for a father who never comes. His 10-year-old sister says he does. When the father died behind the wheel of his livery cab in central Harlem in March 1992, he left behind a wife and three children and not much else. He was one of 186 cabdrivers killed in the last five years. The fundamental equation is that $75, the average take in a livery cab robbery, is worth a driver's life to the ones who kill them. But to the families of those slain, almost always poor immigrants, the loss is incalculable. A1. ANOTHER OFFICER COMMITS SUICIDE An off-duty New York City police officer killed himself in an Atlantic City hotel, the eighth to commit suicide this year, the police said. The dead officer, Frank Astralla, 24, was a three-year veteran assigned to the 104th Precinct in Woodside, Queens. His suicide was the fourth by a uniformed member of the New York Police Department since Oct. 30, which has prompted Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly to call for increased suicide efforts. B3. GIULIANI GIVES SOME SUPPORT TO MAYOR After a week of jousting between Mayor David N. Dinkins and his successor, Rudolph W. Giuliani, the Mayor-elect offered a bit of an olive branch to Mr. Dinkins, saying that he was willing to support the Mayor "in any tough decisions" so long as "problems not be made worse." Mr. Giuliani also gave his support to the Mollen Commission, formed to investigate police corruption. But he reiterated his request for the Dinkins administration to refrain from making long-term deals before leaving office, referring specifically to contract talks with the city's sanitation workers. B3. Thirteen people, including Arthur Miller, head of the Dance Theater of Harlem, and the philanthropist Brooke Astor, will receive New York City's highest cultural honor. B6. The death of Robert F. Wagner Jr. deprives Mayor-elect Rudolph W. Giuliani of an important voice on urban issues. Metro Matters, B3. REGION AIDE ATTACKS ROLLINS'S CLAIMS The campaign aide responsible for building support for Gov.-elect Christine Todd Whitman among minority voters has vehemently denied Edward J. Rollins's account of a conversation they had about countering Democrats' efforts to gain the support of black ministers. The aide, Lonna Hooks, said she was never told to offer the ministers any money or to suggest what they should say from the pulpit. Instead, she said, her efforts to win black voters to Mrs. Whitman involved bringing Mrs. Whitman to meet black community leaders and ministers and arranging for her to talk with delegates to the annual meeting of the N.A.A.C.P. During this time, she said, the Florio campaign was largely ignoring black voters and their concerns. A1. ADOPTIVE PARENTS SHARE EXPERIENCES Six years ago, Lisa Kearney wrote down on a slip of paper the reasons why she could not keep her son, to remind herself in moments of weakness. "I wasn't ready," she said. Her child's adoptive parents could offer him many opportunities, she felt. Such exchanges of curiosity and experience were the purpose of the 13th annual conference of the Adoptive Parents Committee, which drew 2,000 people to the State University of New York at Purchase. Adoptive parents and those who thought they wanted to be shared their experiences and talked about the hardships and joys of the adoptive process. B4. Chronicle B6

The hottest new stock offering of 1993 is a company run by a football player. If the market prices hold, Lawrence Taylor, the star linebacker for the New York Giants, stands to make millions on an investment of a few thousand. It is hard to tell whether the amazing performance of All-Pro Products Inc. reflects the popularity of Mr. Taylor or the excesses of a bull market that has gone wild. Probably it is a little of both.