  Markets  The Dow Jones industrial average surged past the 4,000 mark, closing at 4,003.33, up 30.28 points for the day. The rally may mean a reduced chance for an economic recession and an enhanced possibility of what economists call a soft landing, or a slowing but still-growing economy with little inflation.  [ D1. ]

BUSINESS DIGEST

  EVERYBODY wants to eat in expensive restaurants, but nobody wants to pay the price. At least, that's the usual stumbling block for the sizable portion of the restaurantgoing public that is unwilling or unable to empty its wallet to fill its stomach in the most refined sort of way.   But in an unlikely fit of collective wisdom, New York restaurateurs in the last few years have come up with a novel way to overcome this resistance: charge less.

Bargains at Expensive Restaurants

  Twenty-five years can seem like an inconceivably long time or only yesterday. Twenty-five years ago today this place was in the headlines. The Kienast quintuplets were born on Feb. 24, 1970, and when their parents, Margaret and William, took them home, they were the toast of New Jersey. Sara, Amy, Ted, Gordon and Abby Kienast have gone their separate ways. Their mother now lives in Virginia. Their father committed suicide a decade ago. PETER S. YOUNG

Remembering 5 Little Ones

  Five months after he negotiated an agreement that averted an invasion and restored President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power, Jimmy Carter returned today to the scene of one of his diplomatic feats. But instead of receiving a hero's welcome, he was plunged into the turmoil of Haitian domestic politics.   Invited by Mr. Aristide and scheduled to receive an honorary degree at the Groupe Olivier Collaborateur University, Mr. Carter landed here to find the walls of the capital covered with graffiti denouncing him.

CARTER RECEIVED COOLLY IN HAITI

  Joseph C. Salema, a close friend and former top aide to Jim Florio when he was Governor of New Jersey, pleaded guilty yesterday to sharing in more than $200,000 in kickbacks from a bank for municipal bond business in late 1989.  Mr. Salema faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. A1.

Ex-Florio Aide Pleads Guilty

  THE painter Camille Pissarro was pivotal to the avant-garde in late 19th-century France. An avuncular, big-hearted man of immense curiosity, he absorbed ideas from older and even much younger artists, and passed them on. He became patriarch and confidant to generations of painters, among them Cezanne, who called him "le bon Dieu," by which he meant a kind of genial god.   It's revealing that Pissarro served this function, as he was, in several senses, an outsider. He was a Jew, and this was during the era of the Dreyfus Affair (a fact not lost on the anti-Semitic Degas, who slighted his former collaborator even while Pissarro continued to champion Degas's art). Pissarro was also born and reared not in France, but on the Caribbean island of St. Thomas. And he was an anarchist. What all this seems to have added up to is that he viewed everything from enough distance to avoid the apathy of the insider.

Pissarro: The Outsider In Constant Search of the New

  About half of all the people who are murdered each year in the United States are black. Yet since 1977, when a firing squad in Utah initiated the modern era of capital punishment, the overwhelming majority of people who have been executed -- 85 percent -- had killed a white person.    Only 11 percent had killed a black person.

Studies Find Death Penalty Tied to Race Of the Victims

  The administration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced yesterday that it would try to sell three of New York's 11 municipal hospitals and would soon eliminate 1,000 of the system's 8,000 beds as part of the most sweeping restructuring of the city's public health system in at least a generation.    Saying the city could no longer afford such a large public hospital system, Mayor Giuliani said he would seek offers from private hospitals or other nonprofit organizations to buy Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, Queens Hospital Center and Elmhurst Hospital Center in Queens.

Giuliani Seeks to Sell 3 Hospitals And Shrink Public Health System

  Television and radio news, listings and advertising appear today on pages B13-14.

Today's TV Listings

  After several weeks of speculation about his future, Howard Stringer announced yesterday that he was leaving his position as president of CBS to accept a job as chairman of a new media venture created by a consortium of three large telephone companies.   The network immediately named Peter Lund, who had held the second-highest management position at CBS, to succeed Mr. Stringer, who has been president since 1988.

A Top CBS Executive Is Leaving

    A Top CBS Executive Quits   Howard Stringer said he was resigning as the president of CBS. The move comes at a time of uncertainty about the network. Page D1. Race and the Death Penalty    Statistics suggest that racial factors may influence how the death penalty is imposed -- but not in the way some people had suspected. Page B1. Olympics Bar AIDS Tests    Despite an admission by Greg Louganis that he has AIDS, the International Olympic Committee will not test athletes for H.I.V. Page B7.

INSIDE

  Joseph C. Salema, a former top aide to Jim Florio when he was Governor of New Jersey, pleaded guilty yesterday to sharing in more than $200,000 in kickbacks from a bank seeking municipal bond business. Two other men were charged in the same case.    The case was described by Federal prosecutors as the largest so far in the Government's campaign against influence peddling in the $1.5 trillion municipal bond market. The effort has already resulted in criminal charges against two Florida men and is continuing in jurisdictions across the country. The campaign began two years ago when questions were raised about Mr. Salema's relationships with various Wall Street firms doing bond business in the state.

Ex-Florio Aide Pleads Guilty in Kickback Scheme

  With reporters staking out the courthouse for a glimpse, a girl who said she had sex with the television star Kelsey Grammer when she was 15 was called before a grand jury Thursday. The girl, now 17, said the encounter occurred while she was baby-sitting his daughter in 1993. Prosecutor Nicholas Bissell said the findings would be released today.

Actor's Accuser Is Questioned

  Police officers in riot gear threw up a protective phalanx around City Hall this afternoon after a brief spasm of street violence by youths angry over the shooting of an unarmed teen-ager during a police narcotics investigation Tuesday night.   Usually busy streets, including the major commercial district along Market Street, took on a ghost-town atmosphere after police cordons rerouted traffic away from City Hall, which was closed down, and most neighborhood merchants pulled iron gates over their storefronts.

Unrest Follows a Police Shooting in Paterson

  Time Warner Inc. appears to be close to a deal to sell its 19.4 percent stake in the Turner Broadcasting System to Turner and Tele-Communications Inc. for about $1.6 billion, several people with knowledge of the negotiations said yesterday.   At that price, Time Warner would reap an an impressive profit on its total investment of $500 million in Turner.

Time Warner Could Reap $1.6 Billion for Turner Stake

  Two more Democrats today joined the ranks of senators who support a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution, and even opponents conceded that proponents were within an ace of the 67 votes needed to adopt the measure and send it to the states for ratification.   But in Congress, close is still a synonym for trailing. And even as it was clear that the amendment drive had gained new momentum, other senators widely viewed as supporters showed signs of having second, third and maybe fourth thoughts.

BALANCED BUDGET NEARS 67 VOTES NEEDED IN SENATE

  Movie makers descended yesterday on the Franklin Avenue Shuttle line in Brooklyn. They put fresh paint on the Franklin Avenue station and mounted new signs. There were scenes to be shot, and the crumbling, decrepit place had to appear to be a functioning subway terminus. The title of the work in progress: "The Money Train."   "Great joke, huh?" said a conductor.

Life and Hard Times Of a Brooklyn Shuttle; No Respect for Franklin Avenue Line

  The Sabbath candles will be lighted tonight at Congregation M'kor Shalom, but without its founder and senior rabbi. In a letter to the congregation, Sheila Goodman, the synagogue's president, said Rabbi Fred Neulander was granted paid leave to "seek counseling and be with his family." Prosecutor Edward F. Borden has refused to comment on press reports that Rabbi Neulander is a suspect in the beating death of his wife, Carol. The rabbi said he came home on Nov. 1 and found his wife's body.

Rabbi Takes Paid Leave

  File this between "Bank Examiner" and "Ponzi Schemes": For more than two years, official-looking faxes emanating from Lagos, Nigeria, flowed into businesses around the world. Auto dealers received invitations to sell a thousand cars to the Nigerian Police Force. Financiers were invited to handle a $38 million investment for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation. All that was needed to seal the deals was a "good faith" deposit -- say, half a million dollars.

A Fraud Perpetrated by Fax

  GIULIANI SEEKS TO SELL 3 HOSPITALS    The administration of Mayor Giuliani announced that it would try to sell 3 of New York's 11 municipal hospitals and eliminate 1,000 of the system's 8,000 beds as part of the most sweeping restructuring of the city's public health system in at least a generation. Mr. Giuliani also announced the formation of an advisory panel to recommend changes to the Health and Hospitals Corporation, the independent agency that operates the public hospital system, in light of national trends in health care and the city's financial problems. A1.

METRO DIGEST

  Wall Street got ready for a big party yesterday, and almost had to cancel it. First the bond market's euphoria faded, and then the stock market slipped.   To be sure, the Dow Jones industrial average did close above 4,000 for the first time, and the 30-point gain for the day was impressive. But the late weakness -- the bond market ended down for the day after rallying strongly -- may indicate that confidence in the new, rosy economic forecast is limited.

Market Place; Wall St. Has a Big Party, But Eyes Are on the Exit

  Pamela Harriman, the Ambassador to France, who is enmeshed in two lawsuits brought by heirs of her late husband, W. Averell Harriman, has consigned three works with a value estimated as high as $20 million for auction.

Harriman Sends 3 Works to Christie's

  From the testimony, you can't say there wasn't enough to go around. A businessman who said he paid councilmen $23,000 to grease a towing contract testified Thursday that he handed over an additional $12,000 for zoning board members. The cash was supplied by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as part of a corruption sting.

A Little Cash Can Do Wonders

  With voters in Quebec expected to vote this year on a referendum on sovereignty, President Clinton eased away today from a policy of American neutrality and sent an unambiguous signal that the United States would prefer that Canada remain intact.   That the Administration would rather not contend with a separate Quebec was not a surprise. But in an address to the Canadian Parliament, Mr. Clinton injected a rare American appeal into the debate over whether Quebec should go its own way.

Clinton, in Talk to Canadians, Opposes Quebec Separation

  Presidential candidates these days stage elaborately choreographed nonannouncements as they seek the maximum fanfare and publicity.   First, they coyly suggest that they might run. Then they announce "exploratory committees." Then they hint even more strongly that they will run. Then, when everyone knows what they have decided, they finally make it official.

February 24, 1995

Headlines from February 24, 1995

BUSINESS DIGEST

Bargains at Expensive Restaurants

Remembering 5 Little Ones

CARTER RECEIVED COOLLY IN HAITI

Ex-Florio Aide Pleads Guilty

Billboard 200

The Hits

II

Balance

Dookie

Hell Freezes Over

Historical Context for February 24, 1995