February 9, 1994

The Congressional Budget Office said today that President Clinton's health care proposal would slow the growth of national health spending, but at the same time its report gave ammunition to critics who have called the plan too big and too reliant on Government. Robert D. Reischauer, director of the Congressional Budget Office, said the Administration had underestimated the premiums needed to pay for the President's plan, and the size of the subsidies to businesses needing help to pay for their workers' coverage.

Abortion Law Takes Effect Nearly two years after the Supreme Court upheld most of its provisions, Pennsylvania's Abortion Control Act is about to take effect after Justice Souter refused a stay. Page A14. A U.S. Rebuff to Japan The Clinton Administration said that Japan's economic stimulus package is unlikely to resolve a trade imbalance, making friction likely at the coming summit meeting. Page A3. Through Autism's Mirror Until death ended his 27-year career, Dan Bailey's work among New York City's autistic school children was a pioneer's journey into a neglected corner of public education. Page B20. Witold Lutoslawski Dies The Polish composer, whose music is central to the modern repertory, drew freely on avant-garde techniques but prized beauty and long-lined melodies. He was 81. Page B8.

After more than four months of testimony, the Government rested its case yesterday against the four defendants in the World Trade Center trial. Given the 207 witnesses the prosecution called to the stand and the 1,003 exhibits presented to the jury, it is clear what the prosecutors have attempted to do: they have produced an avalanche of circumstantial evidence with which they have tried to bury the defendants. But the Government's avalanche has seemed uneven, crushingly thick and heavy in many places, thin in others, and weighing differently on each defendant.

With its neatly kept plaza, well-stocked shops and brightly painted homes, this market town in the southern state of Chiapas seems remarkably distant from the peasant uprising that has torn through the highlands and the rain forest not far away. "Until yesterday, Teopisca was the calmest town in the state," the Mayor, Hector Alvarez Gordillo, said today.

A new Republican Party flier features photographs of Ronald Reagan, Bob Dole, Margaret Thatcher and Bret Schundler. Bret Schundler? "I looked at it and just started laughing," said Mr. Schundler, whose claim to fame is that he was elected Mayor of Jersey City last year.

State Comptroller H. Carl McCall released an audit today showing top executives at 96 state-financed, nonprofit mental health organizations with salaries that he called "potentially excessive." The audit shows that the 96 executives make more money than the Mental Health Commissioner, who is paid $102,335 a year. Six of those executives in New York City earn more than $200,000, the audit says.

Seeking to inject New York City into a looming debate over the future of Ellis Island, a City Council committee unanimously voted yesterday to make the famous entry point for immigrants a city historic landmark, virtually assuring that the entire Council will pass the measure today. Although the Federal Government has final say over what happens on the island, the Council's expected action today will throw the city into the middle of a complicated legal battle between New York State and New Jersey over which state has jurisdiction over much of the island. The case is now pending before the United States Supreme Court.

ED WETSCHLER couldn't believe his luck: he finally met a woman who intrigued him, and she wanted their first date to be at a sports bar. "It was Oct. 26, 1986," Mr. Wetschler said. "I remember because the Jets were on a hot streak, heading towards their sixth win of the season." As they walked in, there were the Jets -- life-size and dazzlingly green on one of the largest video screens in town. "Naturally, I couldn't take my eyes off them." Mr. Wetschler, who is now the executive editor of Diversion magazine, a travel magazine for doctors, recalls that his date was less than awed by his charm and savoir-faire. Still, he persuaded her to meet him for dinner the following week. While he was waiting for her, he realized he had no idea what she looked like. "I did, however, remember each of Pat Leahy's field goals," he said.

California regulators are seeking to compel Prudential Securities to repurchase soured limited partnerships it sold to a large number of investors in the state as part of a settlement of fraud charges, regulators and executives said yesterday. The proposal, which is among the harshest terms sought by any state regulator in settling the partnership scandal, would involve only customers for whom the partnerships were inappropriate investments.

A surprisingly furious snowstorm descended on the New York City region yesterday, closing airports, abbreviating work and school schedules and turning lunch hour into rush hour. New York City and the immediate vicinity caught the brunt of the storm, which extended from central Pennsylvania to southern New England. By 8 P.M., nine inches of snow had piled up at La Guardia Airport and seven inches in Central Park. Those totals had not risen further by midnight. The storm halted midday traffic at the region's three major airports and hastened the evening rush hour, as businesses started to close in the late morning so commuters could begin their treacherous treks home.

When Joseph Stiglitz was invited to join the President's Council of Economic Advisers, many wondered whether the ivory-tower theorist from Stanford University could possibly navigate the currents of real world policy-making. The council's role, played mostly behind the scenes, is to inject as much economic rationality into Administration proposals as politics allow. Mr. Stiglitz, 51, had written hundreds of papers on the economics of information, public finance and economic development, won the prestigious John Bates Clark medal in 1979 and was widely expected to collect a Nobel someday. He was also the quintessential absent-minded professor, who has dashed into class and lectured on the wrong subject, and often turned up with his tie or shirt collar seriously askew. Repairing Markets In fact, as the council's chairwoman, Laura D'Andrea Tyson, must have recognized when she chose Professor Stiglitz, he and Washington circa 1993 were made for each other. He has spent his professional life focused on the idea that markets are imperfect and need to be repaired. "What ends up in the Government's portfolio are the things where the market is having problems," Mr. Stiglitz said, "Government can make a major difference for the good if you structure policies appropriately."

The Federal Communications Commission extended a temporary freeze on the revenue growth of cable television companies today, in an effort to hold down rates while it prepares to impose a strong new set of permanent price regulations later this month. Operators of cable systems quickly announced plans to fight the freeze in court, arguing that they were being punished while the Government continued to revise its rules.