March 23, 1995

Trade Deficit Soars, But the Markets Yawn The trade deficit jumped 68 percent in January to a record $12.2 billion amid strong evidence that the imbalance -- commonly caused by Asian exports -- is being worsened by Mexico's economic crisis. The gap with Mexico totaled $863 million, in contrast to a $19 million surplus in December, and it seems likely to worsen. The severity of the deficit, a result of a sharp decline in exports and a jump in imports, took the Clinton Administration by surprise. The White House is concerned that the trade figures could keep the dollar weak. A1.

A homeless man was killed when he leapt in front of a commuter train as it entered the station here yesterday morning. The police identified the victim as Felix Beretta, 19, and said he had been living in the Fort Monmouth Homeless Shelter in Oceanport.

The superintendent and the business administrator for the Lincoln Park school district in Morris County were charged yesterday with embezzling more than $20,000 and evading taxes on more than $180,000 in income, The Associated Press reported.

At 6 A.M. Monday, the sun was still weak in the sky but 35 actors had already lined up by the Actors' Equity Association building on West 46th Street, waiting to sign up for auditions that would begin at 8 A.M. First in line was Alexandra Kolb, who had risen at 2 A.M., driven an hour from Lacey, N.J., and parked herself at the building entrance at 4:30 A.M. "It just keeps getting earlier and earlier," sighed Ms. Kolb, who at 22 is a four-year veteran of the New York audition scene. "This month is the craziest I've ever seen it."

Residents of the Harlem apartment house that partly collapsed Tuesday, killing three people, said it was rife with conditions that independent experts say could have signaled structural problems. Some tenants even said they had alerted city housing inspectors, who frequently visited the building, to the potential warning signs. But the inspectors from the Department of Housing Preservation and Development, who went to the building in response to complaints like leaking pipes and a lack of heat, apparently did not report any potential structural problems to the separate city agency responsible for insuring that buildings are fundamentally sound.