December 17, 1993

Eager to expand its production capacity and exploit the favorable regulations under the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Ford Motor Company said today that it would build its new compact cars in Mexico, as well as the United States, and greatly increase its exports to Mexico. Ford's plans will touch off a series of production shifts in Mexican, Canadian and American factories, the company said, resulting in the creation of the equivalent of 550 jobs in the United States and Canada, and 300 jobs in Mexico. Ford projected that the total number of jobs, or "job equivalents," could climb to 6,000 when additional work at its suppliers' plants in the United States and Canada was taken into account, as well as overtime work.

The philanthropist Walter H. Annenberg, bestowing the largest single gift to public education in America, said yesterday that he would award grants totaling $500 million to several education groups involved in school reform. He said he was making the grants because of the growing violence in schools. "I kept on reading about so many youngsters with knives and revolvers and threatening the lives of teachers and that began to upset me," Mr. Annenberg, who has made billions of dollars in publishing, said by telephone from the Annenberg Foundation's office in St. Davids, Pa. "I felt I had to drop a bomb on the situation to show the public what needs to be done." Details Still Vague The gift is to be announced today by Mr. Annenberg, President Clinton and Education Secretary Richard C. Riley in a White House ceremony. It will be in the form of grants that will be paid out over five years and that will require matching contributions. The structure of the challenge grants, in which the recipients are required to raise additional money, is still under discussion, Mr. Annenberg said.

Consolidated Edison and two retired officials of the utility have been indicted on charges they concealed knowledge that a huge 1989 explosion of a steam pipe had released large amounts of asbestos into the Gramercy Park area of Manhattan. The Federal indictment, announced yesterday, alleges that the company and the officials did not tell Government officials for four days that the blast caused the release of 200 pounds of asbestos. It said the information was withheld in an attempt to save the company the cost of a cleanup.

Shuffling his deputies' powers even before he becomes Mayor, Rudolph W. Giuliani announced yesterday that he would broaden the duties of Ninfa Segarra, now a member of the Board of Education, putting her in charge of New York City's vast array of health agencies and social services. The announcement of Ms. Segarra's expanded portfolio as a deputy mayor came as Mr. Giuliani appointed Fran Reiter to be the third of what will ultimately be four deputy mayors. He said Ms. Reiter, the chairwoman of the state's Liberal Party, would be in charge of planning and community relations, assuming some of the duties that Mr. Giuliani had assigned to Ms. Segarra only two weeks ago.

More than a decade ago Bobby Ray Inman left Washington in a huff, vowing never to return. The city was too mean, the bureaucratic infighting too enervating, the backbiting too intense, he told intimates after serving 16 uncomfortable months as deputy to William J. Casey, who was then Director of Central Intelligence. Shucking a long Government career, Mr. Inman went home and set up a business in Austin, Tex. But his heart never left the Potomac. Using the tools he had acquired as a four-star admiral and a spy master -- stealth and discipline -- he managed to keep his finger on the pulse of power.