March 27, 1995

Years ago, Nicole DeCombe told relatives and friends again and again that she feared that her abusive boyfriend might someday kill her. Prosecutors say that is just what happened in January 1983. They say Jose Machado, then 23, stabbed his 22-year-old girlfriend more than 20 times. Today, after years of jousting between prosecution and defense, Mr. Machado will go on trial for the second time for murder.

With all the touching, talking and soothing, the gesticulating and the restless dashing about, Public School 64's new boss, Felix Polanco, seemed like an anxious conductor whose orchestra was threatening dissonance at any moment. It was no accident that at a contentious parents' meeting last month, the Bronx school's chief administrator cried out, with some desperation, "Harmony! Harmony!" It has become his daily preoccupation -- and a utopian one indeed -- at one of the city's worst schools.

Line-Item Veto's Impact On Spending Is Debated Will the line-item veto act as a brake on Federal spending, as its proponents say? Will it shift power from Congress to the White House, as Constitutional traditionalists argue?

To sell hundreds of New York and Connecticut landowners on the idea of a high-pressure gas pipeline passing across their properties, Iroquois Gas Transmission Systems promised "a pipeline of exceptional safety" and pledged to take dozens of expensive measures to avert a calamity. That's why Neil Baumann of Schoharie, N.Y., was startled in 1991 to see a crew dumping tons of large rocks back into the 1,000-foot trench splitting his farmland. The Iroquois company had assured him -- and government officials -- that rocks larger than 18 inches would not be used in refilling the trench after the pipeline had been laid. Rock, after all, can scratch or dent a pipe's steel wall and heighten the potential for an explosion.

If ever a team appeared ripe for the picking, it was the Oklahoma State Cowboys at halftime of their East Regional final against Massachusetts this afternoon at Byrne Meadowlands Arena. Through a grueling 20 minutes, the fourth-seeded Cowboys had limited second-seeded UMass to 28.6 percent shooting from the field and had contained Marcus Camby and Lou Roe to a combined 9 first-half points. It was Coach Eddie Sutton's brand of basketball at its best, except for two problems.