January 30, 1995

In a major shift for the Republicans, Gov. George E. Pataki and legislative leaders are in general agreement on a weakening of the 1973 laws that mandated stiff sentences for drug offenders but that have also propelled prison costs and quintupled the number of inmates since then. The laws, enacted under another Republican Governor, Nelson A. Rockefeller, have survived two decades despite wide criticism and increasing attempts by Democrats, especially Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, to overhaul them. But over the last week Mr. Pataki, the new Republican Governor who ran on a platform of getting tough on crime, has floated the idea of an overhaul and, for the first time, leaders in the Republican-controlled State Senate -- who have been the main obstacle in the past -- said they could support revision.

A decade after being left for dead, the expensive foreign-made cigar is back. Imports of premium cigars have surged 29 percent in the last three years, even as cheaper machine-made cigars have been sinking in popularity. Long the ensign of the fat cat and the power wannabe, premium cigars, which generally cost a few dollars and are nearly always handmade outside the United States, account for less than 6 percent of all cigars sold.

All afternoon, the two women sat in a small examining room at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in Manhattan and waited -- anxiously but patiently -- for the bleeding and cramping that would signal that the French abortion pill was working. The 21-year old college student, six weeks pregnant and referred to Columbia-Presbyterian's obstetrics and gynecology department by her college health service, was convinced it would work: she had had some nausea and bleeding since taking the three small white pills two days earlier. And two hours after taking the second round of pills, after 15 minutes of intense cramping, the tiny sac the doctors call "the products of conception" passed out of her, and relief washed across her face.

Bruised by criticism of his abrupt dismissal of the Police Department's chief corruption fighter, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton has pledged to escalate the fight to root out rogue officers. He guaranteed that several investigations that have languished in recent months would soon bring a large number of arrests. In an interview Saturday afternoon, Mr. Bratton said he ordered Deputy Police Commissioner Walter S. Mack Jr. to leave his post at the Internal Affairs Bureau by Feb. 10, largely because of what he described as Mr. Mack's inability to inspire investigators under his command.

One day, Harry Taubenfeld turned on the television in his daughter's house in Westchester County and discovered something that really ticked him off. "I looked over her channels," Mr. Taubenfeld recalled. "She's got the Comedy Channel, this channel, that channel. Two C-Spans! She shows me the bill -- and she was paying one dollar less than me. For 60 channels! And I've got only 27!"