March 30, 1995

First, a passel of background papers comes by overnight mail. Then, about a week before directors of Megamicro Inc. are to meet, an inch-thick "board book" arrives, outlining the knotty issues on the agenda. Tucked in with the binder is the customary invitation to cocktails and dinner with the chief executive on the eve of the meeting -- when the role-playing begins. It may not be a murder-mystery weekend at the Mohonk Mountain House. But the board meeting of the fictional Megamicro is about as close as corporate America gets: Participants in the Directors' Institute, a 48-hour course run by the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania for directors and director-wannabes, are cast in this corporate drama so they can learn the ins and outs of the board room. At a time when the burdens on boards are growing, this is Wharton's attempt to cash in on directorial insecurities.

A Franklin Township dentist was identified yesterday as a mastermind of the March 14 jewelry store holdup that left the owner's wife dead. The Somerset County Prosecutor, Nichols L. Biddell Jr., said that the dentist, Harry Insabella, was the local contact for four men who flew in from the Kansas City area to rob Jeffrey Scott Fine Jewelers. During the holdup, the owner, Jeffrey Wolf, fired several shots. One killed his wife, Brenda, the authorities said, and another injured a robber. Dr. Insabella was arraigned on murder, robbery and weapons charges and was being held at the Somerset County Jail on $1 million cash bail.

Gov. Christine Todd Whitman said yesterday that she stands behind a $310 million bond issue for land preservation that includes $30 million for a so-called blue acres program to acquire property at risk of flooding. After appropriate legislative action, permission to issue the bonds would require voter approval.

IT seems absurd to remove a garden to make a movie about saving a garden," said Martha Danzinger, the district manager of Community Board 3. But that's what's happening to the ABC garden on Eighth Street between avenues B and C. About two months ago, a film company called Roachco Inc. got a city permit to shoot a movie called "Joe's Apartment," about a man in the East Village who falls in love with a community gardener. He builds a garden out of a rubble-strewn lot, and dancing roaches save the day.

A nonpartisan legislative research group predicted that New Jersey would take in $680 million less in revenue than Gov. Christine Todd Whitman has anticipated, raising questions about her ability to deliver another round of tax cuts. The prediction represents the widest forecasting discrepancy with a Governor's budget in at least a decade.