May 23, 1995

A Long Island grand jury has indicted a mechanic and his employer for criminally negligent homicide in the death of the tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis, who the authorities said died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty swimming-pool heating system. The mechanic, Bart Torpey, and the swimming pool company he works for, Recreational Concepts of Water Mill, L.I., is to be arraigned today in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead, L.I., their lawyers said yesterday.

Today was liberation day for the United States Congress. By nullifying term limits imposed by the states, the Supreme Court in effect handed each member of Congress a "get out of jail free" card. If the court had upheld state-imposed term limits, 72 House members from seven states could not have run for re-election after next year. Now, for the time being anyway, they can all run more or less forever.

They work and they pay their bills with some help from the Federal tax code. Today, members of three New Jersey households will join Senator Bill Bradley at a news conference to protest a Republican plan to cut the earned income tax credit for low-income families. They are Linda Bailey of Elizabeth, Michael Thompson of Newark and Deborah Hammerstrung of Barnegat.

Students from Governor Livingston Regional High School here carried the torch for New Jersey in the National Science Olympiad. The competition last weekend at Indiana University involved such events as cell biology and the science of fitness. More than 12,000 schools participated in the Olympiad; 52 made it to the finals, where Governor Livingston finished 25th. SUSAN JO KELLER

In an important policy shift, Mexico's President has ordered the military to take a greater role in the anti-narcotics fight. Page A3.