March 24, 1995

Senate Moves to Halt Pornography Via Computers The Senate Commerce Committee approved a proposal that would subject people who transmit indecent or pornographic material over a computer network to fines as high as $100,000 and prison terms up to two years. The measure, attached to legislation to overhaul telecommunications laws, is intended to stop the transmission of sexually explicit images over on-line computer services and the Internet. Civil rights groups say the measure would create an enormous intrusion on privacy and free speech. A1. The overall telecommunications bill was then approved by the Commerce Committee on a 17-to-2 vote, after Republicans retreated from their plan to eliminate all regulation of cable television prices. They agreed to retain some restraints on prices charged for premium cable packages. D7. Dollar Continues to Fall The dollar continued its slide against the Japanese yen, slipping to 88.15 yen in another low in New York trading. The decline prompted the Bank of Japan to intervene. D15. Spectrum's Ex-President Indicted Peter T. Caserta, the former president of Spectrum Information Technologies, and nine associates were indicted on fraud charges. The Government said 300 companies in 23 states were bilked of $6 million. D5. Sandoz Plans to Sell Chemical Unit Sandoz plans to put its chemical business up for sale to focus on its food and pharmaceutical operations. Analysts said the unit could bring Sandoz about $2.6 billion. The company also reported that its earnings rose 2 percent, to $1.5 billion, last year. D7. Morgan Seeks Funds for Mexico J. P. Morgan is now seeking to raise $1 billion in financing for Mexico to help bolster its banking system, New York bankers said, scaling back from a $3 billion loan that had been proposed in January. D7. Morgan announced a reorganization that it said would bring to prominence its relationships with customers. Still, analysts remain wary of the investment bank's stock. Market Place. D8. I.B.M. May Not Wait for OS/2 I.B.M. executives say the company has decided to introduce its new line of PowerPC-based computers this spring without the OS/2 operating system, which may be delayed until early next year. D3. Simpson Trial Drains Infomercials Sales from infomercials are sagging as viewers forsake the program-length commercials to watch the O.J. Simpson trial. Estimates of the average decline in sales range from 10 to 50 percent. Stuart Elliott: Advertising. D4. Pfizer Teams With Biotech Company Pfizer has agreed to collaborate with Myco Pharmaceuticals, a privately held biotechnology company, in the development of antifungal drugs. Fungal infections are becoming a major health problem. D5. Big Three Sign Pact With Utility Michigan regulators approved a plan under which Detroit Edison will become the sole supplier of power to 54 Big Three auto plants for 10 years. In return for not dealing with other utilities, as businesses have proposed, the auto companies will get substantial savings on their electric rates. D3. Phillips Settlements Challenged Settlements for several victims of a 1989 explosion at a Phillips Petroleum plant in Houston are being challenged, a move that could expose Phillips to hundreds of millions of dollars in liability. B6. Unsolicited Fax Law Upheld A Federal appeals court has upheld a law banning unsolicited advertisements by fax. B6 New Pizza for Crust Eaters Pizza Hut will begin selling a pizza with a mozzarella-stuffed crust on Sunday. A $45 million advertising campaign will start April 1 during the N.C.A.A. basketball tournament's Final Four weekend. D3.

Intuit said a flaw in a popular tax preparation program, Macintax, has exposed thousands of Federal and state tax returns to unauthorized viewing, tampering or deletion. The software flaw enabled computer users with modems to gain access to the central computer that stores electronic tax returns filed by its customers. The announcement follows the disclosure of more minor flaws in the company's tax preparation software.

Combining elements of the sublime and the macabre, scientists have created flies that grow large, perfectly formed eyes on the most inappropriate parts of their bodies: on their wings, on their legs, on the quivering tips of their antennae. The experiment offers graphic evidence that scientists may have discovered what they call "the master control gene" for the formation of the eye, one of the most complex structures in nature. Researchers in developmental biology have been struggling, with scant success, to identify the genetic signals that initiate the growth of the body's specialized components, whether limb, liver or brain.

BY now so much has been said about this year's Whitney Biennial that you might almost think the show has come and gone. First there was the early hoopla when the museum identified the artists to be included and even showed slides of their works. Then came the inevitable backlash, the published lists of those neglected, the complaints about the ones chosen: that there aren't enough young and hip artists, that there is too much painting and not enough Conceptual and political art, that some artists are too well known, others are completely unknown and a few are just friends of the exhibition's curator, Klaus Kertess. Critics agreed about only one point: that the 1995 biennial isn't like the politically top-heavy 1993 show. Biennials are the art world's Rorschach tests. They are what you bring to them. I like this one, despite the eccentric and occasionally pallid choices Mr. Kertess has made. The show, which opened yesterday, is low key. It feels spacious and respectful: each work has room to breathe and a viewer has room to think, since the emphasis is on art that doesn't harangue you with its message.

Last October, a city housing inspector found and reported a crack in a wall of the Harlem apartment building that partly collapsed on Tuesday, a defect that private experts say could have been a sign of structural problems. But word of the crack never reached the city agency that is responsible for insuring buildings' structural integrity. The city's Department of Housing Preservation and Development released the inspector's report yesterday, along with scores of others that read like a catalogue of decay and hazardous conditions. At the same time, lawyers for the department were in housing court arguing for large fines and a jail sentence for the building's owner, Marcus Lehman, and his former partner, Morris Wolfson.

In a vote that moves the battles over pornography and free speech onto the electronic frontier, the Senate Commerce Committee approved a proposal today to ban smut in cyberspace. The measure, attached without any debate to a sweeping proposal to overhaul the nation's communication laws, would levy fines as high as $100,000 and prison terms up to two years on anyone who transmits material that is "obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent."

Just a few steps from the Cafe du Monde, a popular tourist spot here, is Frank's, a casual, Italian-style restaurant that not long ago caught the eye of a different class of sightseer -- the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The restaurant's habitues included some intriguing characters with nicknames like Noogie, Mr. A and Muffaletta Frank. And their table talk was not limited to food. Based largely on F.B.I. surveillance, Federal prosecutors won indictments last year of 17 suspected members or associates of the Marcello crime family here and the Genovese and Gambino families in New York.

Nothing in Christopher Green's background, his acquaintances say, offered any hint that he would some day be arrested for a horrible crime in his hometown. He was a well-regarded electrician's helper for a small electrical company in South Orange in the 1980's, and in the last two years a dependable laborer for Montclair's Department of Public Works at a salary of $26,600 a year. Last October he passed a statewide police entrance exam and his name was placed on a waiting list for departments with openings for patrolmen.

More than half the people who ride trains each day between here and Philadelphia are coming to work or play in this city's casinos. And although the casinos won't provide subsidies to keep the unprofitable line running, Nicholas Amato, head of the Casino Association of New Jersey, said his group might be interested in helping New Jersey Transit promote the 67-mile line. New Jersey Transit is trying to figure out whether it wants to keep the line running once Amtrak stops helping out in April.

The last time a lawyer tried to take on the Aum Shinrikyo religious sect, he and his family disappeared. That was six years ago, and the lawyer, Tsutsumi Sakamoto, his wife and a 1-year-old boy have not been heard from since. Now, partly in memory of their friend, Yoshiro Ito and four other lawyers have taken on his cause, becoming virtually the only legal team bold enough to challenge the sect in court.

The Salem I and II nuclear reactors here have been plagued by equipment failure and human error. But the trouble is not bad enough to shut the plants down nor is the public in danger, Federal officials say.

With wide bipartisan support, the Senate today voted to give the President unprecedented control of the Federal purse -- the power to veto specific items in spending bills and some future tax benefits. The Senate passed the bill, on a vote of 69 to 29, nearly eight weeks after the House had approved a different version of the line-item veto. A central piece of the Republican agenda, the veto is being pushed as a budget-cutting tool.