May 24, 1995

Moving to take the offensive in high-technology banking, Citibank said yesterday that it would eliminate almost all fees for electronic banking in New York. The fees had ranged from 35 cents for low-balance customers withdrawing cash at an automated teller machine to $9.95 a month for using a personal computer to bank and pay bills. Banks nationwide are looking for ways to encourage customers to conduct their routine business electronically, rather than using the more costly human tellers. Last month, for example, First Chicago bank began to charge $3 for each use of a human teller in excess of a certain number of visits each month. And numerous banks offer checking accounts with lower fees or balance requirements for customers who promise not to use tellers.

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani went to Albany yesterday in search of money for New York City, and after talking with state leaders he said he was optimistic. It was not clear whether his optimism was founded.

WHEN TEACHERS POOL THEIR TALENTS In rooms scattered down a borrowed hallway of Junior High School 206 in Long Island City, Queens, Renaissance is one of the few among the city's 50 or so small new schools to have been conceived and founded by teachers, and barely a moment passes when its staff is not talking about teaching, reading about teaching or actually teaching. [ Page A1. ] NEW YORK CITY

A man who said he could diagnose cancer, diabetes, depression and other ailments by looking into his patients' eyes has been charged with false practice of medicine. Two people treated by Mario Romero at a health food store here were undercover agents.

Today, the Police Department will begin grilling 7 captains, 15 lieutenants, 30 sergeants and hundreds of officers in an effort to break through the famed blue wall of silence and find out which officers participated in a drunken spree of mayhem and destruction in Washington a week ago. The questioning is part of an effort by Chief Patrick E. Kelleher, the head of the Internal Affairs Bureau, to prove that the department can police itself and change an institutional mindset that even senior Police Department officials say puts a higher priority on enforcing the law than obeying it. "This is a test of the department's will to take a strong stand on the whole respect issue," Chief Kelleher said this week, "not just the abuse of force, but how we treat people on or off duty."