June 22, 1994

Olive Branch From Jordan Jordan's leader said he was ready to move toward normal relations with Israel without waiting for general progress in Mideast talks. Page A6. The Judgment of the Masses Long before California v. O. J. Simpson is ever played out in a courtroom, Simpson v. People will be tried in the court of public opinion. Page A12. Gang Members Arrested Members of the Latin Kings gang in New York were charged with a series of crimes including the murders of eight of their own members. Page B1. McNeil Stuns Graf Steffi Graf, a five-time Wimbledon winner, was defeated in the opening round by Lori McNeil, who is ranked No. 22 in the world. Page B9.

Rick Sabo came from a family in which all three sons went to work selling life insurance for the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. So immersed were the three brothers in the business that they joked about tattooing themselves with the Met Life logo, and their parents in this town near Pittsburgh began collecting Met Life memorabilia. The work offered a good living. "The money kind of lured me into the industry," recalled Mr. Sabo, now 30 years old. "My brother was driving a Mercedes and bought a five-bedroom house."

COUNCIL CHIEFS BACK GIULIANI'S BUDGET Mayor Giuliani and the leaders of the City Council agreed on a $31.6 billion budget that would curtail growth in spending for the first time since the city fiscal crisis of the 1970's and begin to wrench down the size of city government. A1. The first major test of a Republican Mayor surrounded by Democrats barely rose to the level of a confrontation. News analysis, A1. From longer lines to reduced service, the budget will cause significant pain for New Yorkers. B4.

State legislative leaders announced agreement today on a bill that would require police officers to arrest anyone suspected of seriously beating a spouse, a change the bill's sponsors said would sharply reduce police discretion in such cases and remedy spotty enforcement of domestic violence laws. Experts in domestic violence say police officers now often fail to arrest abusive spouses because victims decline to press charges or because officers do not view the crime as serious. In either case, lax enforcement often opens the door to future violence, the experts say.

The dollar fell below 100 Japanese yen today for the first time in the post-World War II history of currency trading. The fact that the dollar broke through the psychological barrier of 100 yen after taking a battering on Monday against the German mark is both economically troubling and politically embarrassing for the Clinton Administration. No President likes to preside over the fall of the dollar to record lows.

The House of Representatives gave final Congressional approval today to a bill reinstating the independent counsel law, which expired two years ago. One consequence of the measure is that President Clinton and others in his Administration may become entitled to reimbursement for part of their legal fees growing out of the Whitewater investigation. The House approved the final version of the bill by a vote of 317 to 105. It cleared the Senate with bipartisan support last month and now goes to the President, who has promised to sign it.

The Microsoft Corporation, having emerged as the loser in a closely watched patent infringement suit brought by tiny Stac Electronics Inc., made its first big settlement in a patent case today by agreeing to license Stac's technology and acquire a minority equity stake in Stac. On Feb. 23, a jury in Federal District Court in Los Angeles found that a feature included in Microsoft's MS-DOS versions 6.0 and 6.2 computer operating system software infringed Stac's patents for data compression, which is a popular technology for doubling the data storage capacity of personal computer disks.

JUST try tempting Susie Cox to name the film stars, politicians and members of the British royal family whose charts she reads. As the astrologer at the Canyon Ranch Health and Fitness Resort in Tucson, Ariz., she refuses to comment when asked to confirm reports that she saw Julia Roberts just before she broke her engagement to Kiefer Sutherland. And that's without even asking about the dirt. Just the names would be enough. "From a professional viewpoint, it is unacceptable," Ms. Cox insists. "It's the same as a psychiatrist: a breach of ethics."

With relatively modest but politically sensitive changes, the leaders of the New Jersey Legislature today gave Gov. Christine Todd Whitman the budget that she had requested. The Republican-controlled Legislature released its version of a spending plan that embodies the Governor's 10 percent cut in the income-tax rate; gives the state a $450 million surplus for the year beginning July 1 and limits the state's spending to $15.28 billion, a shade less than even the Governor had proposed.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and the leaders of the City Council agreed yesterday on a $31.6 billion budget that would sharply curtail the growth in spending for the first time since the city fiscal crisis of the 1970's and begin to wrench down the size of New York City's government. The Mayor and the Council leaders struck a tentative deal at 3:30 yesterday morning -- toasting it with champagne -- after two weeks of talks and a final day and night of haggling about what spending to cut and whether to merge the city's three police forces, which in the end was given the green light by the Council.

Japan's economy grew at an unexpectedly strong annualized rate of 3.9 percent in the first quarter of this year, providing new evidence that the long slump here is finally fading. "The worst period is over," Tsutomu Tanaka, vice minister of the Economic Planning Agency, said today in releasing the figures. But Mr. Tanaka and many private economists said it was too early to proclaim a complete recovery.

A major cigarette manufacturer secretly developed a genetically engineered tobacco that would more than double the amount of nicotine delivered in some cigarettes, the Commissioner of Food and Drugs said today. The Commissioner, Dr. David A. Kessler, told a Congressional hearing that the Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation developed the tobacco, grew it in Brazil and last year used it in five domestic brands of cigarettes, including three labeled "light."