January 4, 1994

A NEW study on asthma adds to the evidence debunking a myth that children usually outgrow the common and sometimes fatal lung disease, which is an increasing public health problem in the United States and many other countries. The incidence of asthma and deaths from it have risen sharply in recent years, but the reasons are not known. For decades, doctors have told anxious parents that their children's symptoms of wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and difficulty in breathing were likely to disappear as the children grew older.

Toys "R" Us Inc., the nation's largest toy retailer, reported yesterday that its Christmas sales had exceeded analysts' expectations and that it was giving more responsibility to two senior executives as part of a management succession plan. Michael Goldstein, 52, was named chief executive, effective on Feb. 1, becoming the heir apparent to Charles Lazarus, the company's 70-year-old founder, who remains chairman.

Rudolph W. Giuliani's administration settled in yesterday for the first full day at work at City Hall, searching for furniture and learning new phone numbers and new relationships. And if proximity is power, the new office layout was, if not a map of influence, certainly one of the first hints about the inner workings of the new administration. Deputy Mayor Peter J. Powers, longtime friend of Mr. Giuliani, settled in the most prestigious work space, the one First Deputy Mayor Norman Steisel had, near the Mayor, and at the end of the main hallway with a view of all the comings and goings of City Hall.

Despite a decade-long push by private and government organizations to market older people as reliable and mature workers, advocates for people 55 and older say their efforts have largely failed. They say that employers continue to view age not in terms of experience or stability but as deterioration and staleness. People who have worked to promote the older labor force say that 10 years ago they were confident that, through intensive public relations and educational efforts, American businesses would recognize and harness what they argued are the skills of older workers. Although it is impossible to tally how much money went toward that end, people who work in the field estimated that tens of millions of dollars were spent nationwide on studies, job fairs, seminars for executives and advertising.

R. H. Macy & Company reacted coolly yesterday to efforts by Federated Department Stores, a longtime rival, add Macy to its stable of stores, which already includes two other New York mainstaysx Bloomingdale's and Abraham & Straus. Allen I. Questrom, Federated's chief executive, visited the flagship Macy's store in Herald Square yesterday to make a personal appeal to Myron E. Ullman 3d, Macy's chairman and chief executive, to keep discussions from turning hostile.

WINTER STORM MOVES INTO REGION The fringe of what the National Weather Service said was a major winter storm moved into the New York metropolitan region from the south with a mixture of snow and rain. Communities throughout the region were sanding and salting highways as the service predicted a few inches of snow turning to rain along the shore and from six inches to a foot north of the city. Weather summary, page B7. HAZARDS SEEN IN LYME-DISEASE TREATMENT Health experts and officials are warning that overdiagnosis of Lyme disease and complications from long-term antibiotic treatments may pose as great a danger to public health as the disease itself. A1. NEW YORK CITY SETTLING IN AT CITY HALL Rudolph W. Giuliani's administration settled in for the first full day at work at City Hall, searching for furniture and learning new phone numbers and new relationships. And if proximity is power, the new office layout was one of the first hints about the inner workings of the new administration. A1. A GET-TOUGH MAYOR? TELL IT TO ANDREW Andrew Giuliani, the 7-year-old first son of New York, held the town in thrall with his antics at the inauguration, utterly eclipsing the earnest but less playful display put on by his father. A1. MACY IS COOL TO MERGER R. H. Macy & Company reacted coolly to efforts by Federated Department Stores, its longtime rival, to add Macy to its stable of stores. A1. Mayor Giuliani promoted a top-level uniformed police official to be the second-in-command in the Police Department. B4. A brief, intense fire incinerated a Brooklyn shantytown, killing two people, hospitalizing a third and effectively ending the fringe life of an encampment in Red Hook. B3. The World Trade Center bombing trial resumed with prosecutors presenting several bits of evidence, most of them on the role of Mahmud Abouhalima, one of the four defendants. B3. It has become a sort of New York City given that somewhere in Brooklyn is a place called East New York where mayhem reigns. B6. REGION WHITMAN NAMES STATE TREASURER Governor-elect Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey named Brian W. Clymer to be state treasurer, the post most critical to keeping her campaign promises to shrink state government and cut state income taxes. A1. RETHINKING THE PROPERTY TAX New Haven's Mayor, John DeStefano, has become a leading spokesman for a growing number of people who believe Connecticut's reliance on the property tax is harming not just the state's cities, but its entire economy. B5. BAIL IS DENIED FOR SUSPECTS IN BOMBINGS Two suspects in bombings that killed five people in upstate New York were denied bail. B7. MATURE WORKERS WELCOME Hazel Rathbun, 73, has been a desk clerk at the Days Inn hotel in Ledgewood, N.J., for six years. The Days Inn hotel chain is one of the few businesses that has seen the advantage in welcoming workers 55 and over. B6. Neediest Cases B7 Chronicle B7

President Clinton took the offensive today in the fight over his health care plan by casting his opponents as obstructionists who lack a commitment to universal health coverage and challenging them to defend their own plans. After a weekend of increasing Republican criticism, Mr. Clinton called in most of his Cabinet and all of his senior health care advisers, including his wife, Hillary, for a meeting that White House officials hoped would shift public criticism away from the health care plan the President introduced with much fanfare in September and onto the alternative plans that others have proposed.

As the American economy heads into the new year, it is consumers -- rather than business or government -- who are fueling growth. But while most economists expect consumers to slow down at least a little this year, most forecasters say their spending should help sustain the economic expansion in 1994. Despite white-collar layoffs, higher taxes and cuts in military spending, little has dampened Americans' eagerness in recent months to buy everything from washers to wall units -- as well as the houses to put them in.

Almost two decades after Lyme disease was detected in Old Lyme, Conn., health experts and officials are warning that overdiagnosis of the disease and complications from long-term antibiotic treatments may pose as great a danger to public health as the disease itself. In one instance cited by the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 14 children had to have their gallbladders removed, and 22 suffered bloodstream infections because of complications from long-term treatment with intravenous antibiotics at the Jersey Shore Medical Center. Though the children's doctor defends their treatment, the centers found no evidence that most of the children had Lyme disease. 'Obsessively Diagnosing' In another case, a New Jersey doctor's license was suspended for "obsessively diagnosing late-stage Lyme disease" in patients lacking clinical evidence of the disease, falsifying records and collecting fees for referring patients to companies that provide intravenous antibiotics in the home. The Board of Medical Examiners says it is investigating links between other physicians and such companies as well.

Joao Alves would like you to believe that he is the world's luckiest man. To explain how he came to deposit $51 million in his bank accounts since 1989, the Congressman, whose annual salary is $84,000, told investigators recently that the answer was simple. He had won 24,000 lotteries.

The long dividend drought is finally ending. A rush of dividend increases in the final month of 1993 made December the best one since 1983 in terms of the number of companies raising payouts to shareholders and helped push the payout on the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index up significantly.

Criticism on Radiation Data The Clinton Administration assailed its Republican predecessors for failing to take action after disclosures about research in which humans were exposed to radiation. Page A10. Big Push by Consumers Consumers are fueling economic growth, and most forecasters say their spending should help sustain the economic expansion in 1994. Page D1. Clinton Asks Rise in Gun Fee The Administration plans to propose a sharp rise in the Federal licensing fee for gun dealers and better tabs on gun and ammunition sales. Page A8.