December 14, 1994

Local school districts were shouldering their way to the front today in the race to claim shares of the billions of dollars left in Orange County's depleted investment fund. The scramble, which began after the county said it would sell off the remaining holdings in the fund, will pit the needs of schoolchildren against those of police officers, city bureaucrats and the providers of all services that make a county work. The fund's value is already estimated to have dropped by more than $2 billion, and forced the county to file for bankruptcy last week. It remained unclear how the proceeds of the sale would be divided among the many municipalities, government agencies and even individuals who have invested in the fund.

Undercover at Banks The F.D.I.C. will secretly survey banks to see if they are adequately disclosing that mutual funds are not federally insured. Page D1. Judge Charged in Bribery A Manhattan Housing Court judge was charged with accepting bribes of $1,000 to $1,500 to rule in favor of landlords and tenants. Page B3. Confusion for PC Buyers The outcry over a flaw in Intel's Pentium chip has complicated the choices facing buyers of personal computers. Page D1.

Bombings like the one that killed an advertising executive in New Jersey on Saturday are among the most diffiuclt cases to solve, because the explosion can obliterate much of the evidence and because the bomber can be far away when it goes off. In several famous cases, agents had to follow a trail of clues that streched back many years. Bearing a Grudge George P. Metesky, the Mad Bomber who terrorized New York through the 1940's and 50's, left a clue when he wrote a letter to The New York Journal-American revealing his grudge against Consolidated Edison, where he had worked years earlier. He died last May at the age of 90. Seeking Revenge Walter L. Moody Jr., whose bombs killed a Federal judge and a lawyer in the South in 1989, was tripped up when investigators determined that the bombs he used in 1989 were similar to one that had maimed his wife 17 years earlier. The judge was a member of an appeals panel that had refused to reconsider Mr. Moody's 1972 conviction.

Inflation at the producer level climbed by half a percentage point in November, while retailers posted very strong sales in the month, the Government announced today. But most of the increase in the Labor Department's Producer Price Index reflected rising energy prices, particularly gasoline prices, which tend to be volatile and do not always signal broader inflation trends. Excluding food and energy, producer prices rose one-tenth of a percent in November. Producer prices are the prices manufacturers and farmers charge for the products they sell to retailers, distributors or other buyers.

A harshly worded United States Senate committee report criticizes the construction of the $1 billion courthouse and office complex at Foley Square as over budget and unnecessarily lavish, including extras like private kitchens and showers, exotic wood paneling and terrazzo tile floors. The report, to be officially released today, is based on a six-month investigation by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. It looks at courthouse construction across the country, but singles out the Foley Square project, which is nearing completion behind the existing United States Court House, as the country's most expensive courthouse complex and the worst example of "uncontrolled and excessive spending."