February 22, 1995

Was it a plane crash, a gas explosion or the end of the world? People across central New Jersey were startled awake at 5:30 A.M. yesterday, and hundreds of them called the police here and in neighboring communities. First there was a bright blue flash, said Capt. Kenneth Devuyst of the borough police. Then came the ear-splitting noise, he said, and "as it rolled on and on for seconds on end, I realized it was just thunder." Just thunder? DAVID STOUT

CAN women, with their deep, insatiable craving for chocolate, coexist with men, who long for meat and other high-fat high-protein foods? Researchers have long suspected that men and women do not crave the same foods. And now several unusually comprehensive studies seem to confirm that their tastes, when it comes to obsessions, really are different.

A public hearing attended by insurance brokers? It doesn't sound exciting, but dozens showed up here last night, and they were angry. Since New Jersey folded its state-run auto insurance pool in 1990 and left insuring up to private carriers, more than a hundred brokers in Hudson County have gone out of business because, they say, carriers are reluctant to underwrite policies in high-crime areas.

The Clinton Administration, declaring that rising oil imports threaten national security, intends to force a sharp increase in the number of cars and trucks that run on fuels besides gasoline, a senior Energy Department official said tonight. Under a plan that it will formally announce on Wednesday, state governments, energy companies and utilities will be required to buy hundreds of thousands more cars, vans and light trucks that use alternative fuels.

Is this the last stand for the Picatinny arsenal? The Pentagon is not releasing the list of military installations it wants closed or consolidated until March 1, but a rumor has spread that the arsenal in Morris County, the Armaments Research Development and Engineering Center, will get the ax. Several New Jersey Congressmen are to meet tomorrow with the Deputy Defense Secretary, John M. Deutch, to argue for keeping Picatinny open.

MICHAEL REAGAN has read his eight newspapers and gone through the day's stack of faxes. Now, five minutes from air time, sitting in the radio studio above Hollywood, he is painstakingly arranging three dozen articles and reports in stacks around the microphone. It's far too much material to get through during an ordinary three-hour talk show, but he prepares for the worst. "I want to be ready to talk for three straight hours if I have to," he explains. "I operate on the assumption that nobody is going to call me."

At first glance, Alan Greenspan appeared to offer Congress a relatively painless way to slash $150 billion from the Federal deficit over the next five years. But when it comes to saving money in Washington, nothing is ever quite as simple as it seems. Last month, Mr. Greenspan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, told lawmakers that inflation might be overstated by as much as 1.5 percentage points in official Government figures. He suggested that a simple fix in the Consumer Price Index could reap big savings. How? Trimming the inflation numbers would mean lower payouts to Social Security beneficiaries, other recipients of Federal benefit programs and retired Government workers.

The British and Irish Governments approved a common approach today toward reaching a settlement in Northern Ireland, providing a framework that could bring together Protestant and Roman Catholic leaders in an effort to end 25 years of violence. The joint position, approved separately by the British and Irish Cabinets, came after 14 months of talks between the Governments. It is intended to walk a line between reassuring the Protestant majority in Northern Ireland, which generally favors continued British rule, and making concessions to the Catholic minority, most of whom favor eventual unification with the Irish Republic.

The Transit Authority plans to lay off workers, close a subway station in Brooklyn, eliminate express buses to three boroughs and shut down tow shuttle lines late at night, among other service cuts, to make up for a loss of $112 million in support from the city, a transit official said.

Eighteen years ago, California reinstated capital punishment and with it the long and costly legal process involved in executing a criminal. Fifteen years passed before the first man was gassed to death at San Quentin. One other man has since been executed, while 397 men and 6 women await their fates on death row.

DEATH PENALTY CARRIES STEEP COSTS When a preliminary agreement was reached last week on restoring the death penalty in New York State, Governor Pataki rejected proposals for a study of the measure's costs because, he insisted, the law would deter crime and save tax dollars. But the experience of California and many other states offers a cautionary example of both the legal burdens and daunting expense of capital punishment. A1.

Julia Rivera, a registered nurse, left a job at a New York City hospital several years ago to work for a smaller one in this suburban village, even though she lost 13 years of seniority and took an $8,000 pay cut in the switch. The smaller hospital offered Ms. Rivera an imaginative enticement that many hospitals adopted to cope with the severe nursing shortages of the 1980's: offering nurses flexible work schedules.