January 8, 1995

FOR more than 80 years, the state has forbidden commercial fishing in Raritan and Sandy Hook Bays and within two miles of shore in an effort to prevent overfishing of the area. And for most of that time, the law has been ignored by some of the fishermen based here and known widely as the Pirates of Belford. But lately, enforcement of the law has stiffened, the number of summonses issued has grown and state officials are considering drastically increased penalties against the fishermen whose large, heavy nets comb the bottom of the teeming bays.

IT was a chilly October night in 1984, at the end of a two-year recession and the start of a shakeout in Boston's medical establishment, when a dozen or so women -- all health care professionals -- got together over a dinner of chicken and shop talk in Brookline, Mass. The women, all in their 30's, most of them married with children, had been meeting monthly for seven years. During that time, they had navigated their way from middle management to senior positions at local hospitals and in state government and academia. And for the most part, their conversations focused on the nitty gritty of health care administration -- nursing shortages, obstreperous physicians, salaries.

BEFORE this city became the corporate headquarters of Westchester County, it was known as the city of 1,000 stores. And through all its recent economic troubles, involving corporate consolidations and one of the highest office vacancy rates in the country, White Plains has remained the hub of Westchester's retail scene. That reputation will be enhanced when The Westchester, a $250 million, 2.5 million-square-foot megamall (1 million square feet of retail space and 1.5 million for parking) makes its entrance into the already crowded retail field with a scheduled gala opening on March 17.

The finishing touches are being put on the new 34th Street entrance pavilion for the Long Island Rail Road at Penn Station in Manhattan. More lighting will be installed and focused. Granite bases will be added at the foot of the walls to prevent water seepage. An unsightly box will soon be removed from the top of the old clock that dangles like a pendant from the ceiling; the four-faced clock was salvaged from the original Pennsylvania Station, which was demolished in the early 1960's.

One of Ladies' Mile's most unusual and elaborate buildings -- the four-story terra cotta Beaux Arts confection at the southeast corner of 18th Street and Avenue of the Americas -- will be transformed this fall into Manhattan's flagship Old Navy retail store, a lower-priced offshoot of The Gap chain. The building at 604-612 Avenue of the Americas, and its two-story sister building around the corner at 50-58 West 18th Street, most recently housed a Honda showroom.