March 15, 1995

Attorney General Janet Reno has concluded that Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros misled Federal agents about payments he made to a former mistress and has asked a judicial panel to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the matter, according to court papers unsealed today. In effect, Ms. Reno said Mr. Cisneros lied to investigators before his appointment in 1993, significantly understating how much money he had given to Linda Medlar, his former mistress. While Mr. Cisneros had earlier acknowledged making such payments, he told F.B.I. agents that he had never paid her more than $10,000 a year. In fact, Ms. Reno said, he paid her $42,000 to $60,000 a year.

General Motors. I.B.M. Westinghouse. Eastman Kodak. Is Kmart next? Take one look at the once powerful discount chain, and it is easy to see why Joseph E. Antonini, Kmart's chief executive, might soon become the next corporate chieftain to be ejected in a board room coup. All over the country -- everywhere the company's relentless archrival, Wal-Mart, has gone -- Kmart has lost ground.

Attempted murder, assault, carjacking, weapons possession and robbery. With charges like these against a 17-year-old Montclair youth, officials want to try him as an adult in the shooting of a woman in her West Caldwell driveway. The Essex County Prosecutor, Clifford J. Minor, filed a request yesterday to waive juvenile status for the youth.

It was a surprisingly good day on Wall Street yesterday, although the dollar remained under pressure. The spark came from the new report on retail sales, which declined in February for the first time in almost a year. The five-tenths of 1 percent drop signaled that the economy might be slowing, thus encouraging traders and investors into believing that the Federal Reserve will not raise interest rates soon. [ Page D2. ]

A man accused of strangling his girlfriend in a North Bergen motel room on Sunday was arrested yesterday in Miami. Prosecutors said that Carlos Cevallos, 22, of West New York, caught a bus south shortly after killing Irma Sanchez, 29, of Jersey City.