March 28, 1994

At the Subway sandwich shop near his newspaper office in this small town, Michael G. Gartner, who may have been the least-liked network news chief in years, was talking about his experiences running two news organizations. One was NBC News, with its millions of viewers. He ran that one until he resigned -- or was pushed -- from his job a year ago this month.

The Economy New Federal Reserve figures show a weak spot in the recovery: a heavy burden of debt on the working middle class. While the household finances of the rich and the elderly have returned to normal levels, middle-class families remain stuck with unusually high debt payments as a portion of their income. [ Page A1. ]

After three months the debate over Gov. Mario M. Cuomo's proposed budget has finally swung full circle to where it was expected to conclude all along: an election-year scrap over how much to reduce taxes. Late last week, the Republicans who control the State Senate threw the budget talks into disarray by calling for tax cuts, mostly for businesses, totaling $700 million in the fiscal year that begins on Friday.

Seeking Answers After Blast Federal investigators sought to question the owners of an asphalt plant whose excavation work may have caused a gas pipeline to burst last week in Edison, N.J. Page B4. A Watershed in Italy Italians began voting in a two-day national election widely depicted by politicians and commentators as a watershed. But many voters are not so sure a new era is at hand. Page A3. No Room for Jane Bond? Women at the C.I.A. division where the spies work say they have been denied jobs as covert operatives because of their sex. Page A10. A Big Day for Arkansas With President Clinton watching, Arkansas beat Michigan to gain the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament Final Four. Florida advanced by topping Boston College. SportsMonday, C1.

At times, the Orlando Magic have not shown the Knicks much respect. So today, the Knicks showed no mercy. Playing the most-inspired game of their 13-game winning streak, the Knicks dominated the Magic, 111-90, sending much of the capacity crowd at the Orlando Arena home early.

This deep into March, the buzzers are more than final. The one that sounded this afternoon catapulted Florida into the Final Four for the first time. The Gators' 74-66 victory over Boston College in the East Regional final is the biggest achievement in the 75-year history of a program once known more for its rules violations. It began a celebration that was understandably imperfect for a school that had never before reached the final eight. After the Gators had climbed a ladder and claimed a net for their own, Lon Kruger, the Florida coach and team architect, had pointed out to his players that there was another net left.

United Airlines and its pilots' and machinists' unions are expected to announce today that Paul A. Volcker, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, and John Van de Kamp, a former California state Attorney General, will sit on the board of the airline if shareholders approve a $5 billion buyout proposal this summer. They are two of the four so-called independent directors whose names will be included in the final paperwork outlining the unions' concessions-for-equity swap, according to people familiar with its contents. Documents are expected to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission today. The names of the other two independent directors could not be learned last night.

The Federal Reserve is putting interest rates on an upward path, for the first time since 1989, with the stated aim of controlling inflation and quelling the market's fears that it will surge in the near future. But those fears may be groundless, based as they are on theories that have worked in the past and may now be outdated. There is little argument over the present: inflation is rising at an annual rate of only 3 percent, as measured by the Consumer Price Index, which is as mild as inflation has ever been over most of the last 15 years. But the mild inflation rate today has not quieted the fears that the country will soon be operating at full capacity, running short of factory space, materials, machinery and workers to produce all that people want to buy.

The children of the congregation were in the middle of a Palm Sunday play this morning when a tornado ripped into their small church in northeastern Alabama, wrenching the roof apart and toppling a wall onto the children. At least 18 worshipers, among them six children, were killed, and almost 100 others were injured. "It is the most horrible thing I've ever seen," said Leon Smith, one of more than 100 rescue workers who responded to the calls for help after the tornado hit the Goshen Methodist Church at about 11:30 A.M.

Michigan's bid for a third consecutive Final Four appearance came to an end this afternoon, and the final chapter of the Fab Five may have also been written as the new kids on the block -- Arkansas's tough, young Razorbacks -- upended the Wolverines, 76-68, at Reunion Arena. Arkansas (29-3) will face Arizona (29-5) in the National Collegiate Athletic Association semifinals Saturday in Charlotte, N.C. The Final Four will have two Southeastern Conference teams for the first time, with Florida facing Duke in the other semifinal.

In the photograph her mother and father cling to now, Lisa Bongiorno is wearing a black, sleeveless, floor-length dress, holding a bouquet of flowers and half-turning with a little girl's impish smile. She is pretty, in a shy way, with dark hair and a slender neck, and she seems to be gliding away from the camera, off the edge of the picture. This was last November at her sister's wedding. There were little sparks of excitement dancing in the centers of Lisa Bongiorno's eyes. Now her shattered parents, eager to recall their daughter's joyfulness, cannot stare at the picture hard enough. It is a lonely keepsake. What was behind those eyes? What inscrutable sadness did the parents miss? What more could they have done?

New figures from the Federal Reserve show a weak spot in the economic recovery: the heavy burden of debt being carried by the working middle class. While the household finances of the rich and elderly have returned to normal levels, middle-class families remain stuck with unusually high debt payments as a proportion of their income, according to the Fed figures. Families that are not rich or old are paying nearly a quarter of their income to creditors, up substantially from levels in previous economic recoveries.