March 22, 1995

Attorney General Deborah Poritz said yesterday that she would immediately begin a new search for a Civil Rights Division chief. Her first nominee, Brenda Smith, said Monday that she did not want the job because of opposition from Hispanic groups. The Attorney General said she was saddened by Ms. Smith's decision, just one day before she would have been confirmed by the New Jersey Civil Rights Commission. Ms. Poritz promised an open process to select a new director, but she also said she had made a good choice in Ms. Smith, who heads the Somerset County Public Defender's office and is black.

A week after Brenda Wolf was shot dead in a botched jewelry store robbery, two more suspects are in custody, but the truth about what happened remains elusive. Missouri officials said yesterday that Robert L. Williams, 19, of Kansas City, Kan., and Michael W. Guhse, 17, of Independence, Mo., had turned themselves in. Each was charged with felony murder, conspiracy to possess firearms and robbery. The Somerset County Prosecutor, Nicholas L. Bissell Jr., said the two were offered $25,000 to take part in the robbery. He said they would be brought to New Jersey today.

The people who live near the post office where four men were shot to death this afternoon are not accustomed to bolting their doors and feeling imprisoned in their homes. Rarely if ever do they yank their children from streets that are typically trafficked by a steady parade of mini-vans and luxury sedans. But this evening was different. As the authorities pursued suspects in the slayings, police officers went house to house in a tense search that comforted some, frightened others and forced many to question long-held beliefs about their security in this prosperous suburb. If a quaint cubbyhole of a post office in Montclair becomes a target, then is anywhere safe?

Shares of Genetic Therapy Inc. surged 17.6 percent today after the company was assigned a broad patent covering a fundamental approach to gene therapy, a type of treatment that scientists hope will one day successfully combat hereditary defects like cystic fibrosis and diseases such as cancer. "Genetic Therapy Inc. now has a very important strategic position," said A. Paul Boni, a biotechnology industry analyst with the New York equity research firm of Mehta & Isaly. "I don't think people expected this patent. It's almost like patenting the idea of writing on paper."

To her Rockland County hamlet, she is Judith Engelhardt, a wife, a mother and an electrologist at a local beauty salon. But to the much larger community of computer users, she is Electrozap, a member of an on-line menopause support group that meets twice a week in a fast, furious and silent discussion about estrogen therapy, good iron sources and mood swings. "Our mothers went through menopause quietly, but knowing other women are experiencing the same thing validates what I'm going through," said Ms. Engelhardt, 50, of Nanuet, N.Y.