June 2, 1995

Gov. George E. Pataki said yesterday that he had reached an agreement in principle with legislative leaders on a budget for New York, but gave no details. Article, page B5.

Kathy Christiano says she has been seeing doctors since the explosion of a Lodi chemical plant on April 21 because she inhaled fumes emitted by the blast. On Wednesday, she filed suit against the plant's operator, Napp Technologies, in Superior Court here. A Napp spokesman said company officials had no comment on the suit, which seeks to represent everyone who suffered injuries or property damage in the explosion.

Mexico's 'Garage Sale'

When Bill Clinton sat down today to talk turkey with farmers at cedar picnic tables flanked by picturesque hay bales, he was a far piece from the 1992 campaign in which he made such settings famous. At the 7,000-acre wheat ranch of Les Auer, where President Clinton paused outside this central Montana city for a noontime chat and a lunch of "pitchfork fondue" and Rocky Mountain oysters with local politicians, farmers and cattlemen, his motorcade froze the narrow road solid and a security helicopter swept across the Big Sky overhead.

There are basically two ways to get to this town in northern Mexico -- by small plane or a trek over horrible roads. Twenty-five years ago the place hardly existed. Then the drug trade invaded the heart of the western Sierra Madre and transformed the lives of some of the most traditional of Mexico's Indian people. Now Baborigame (pronounced bah-bore-ee-GAH-may) is one of the biggest towns in the mountains, and probably the most dangerous. How it got that way is a story of violence, temptation and tragedy.

In its glory days, Atlantic City Race Course attracted such famous stockholders as Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope. Yesterday, the track opened for its 50th season, hoping it can continue to attract enough bettors -- and horses -- to survive competition from casinos, the lottery and other forms of wagering. Bettors responded to an experiment last year with Arabian horse racing, so that will be a regular feature this season. The highlight of the 57-day meet is the $500,000 Caesars International Handicap, on June 25.

Heavy fighting erupted today in the eastern enclave of Gorazde as Bosnian Government forces and separatist Serbs battled over posts that had been abandoned by besieged United Nations troops. The fighting left 400 peacekeepers marooned in the town, which the United Nations has declared a "safe area" but has been unable to protect. At the same time, the situation became more critical for the almost 300,000 people in Sarajevo, with water and electricity cut, bakeries running out of flour, and the main streets deserted because of intermittent sniping. The Bosnian Serbs' noose around the city tightened to the point where no international aid is getting in.

Sitting on his back porch in New Rochelle, N.Y., sipping Chivas Regal and fuming about graffiti, Bob Black had an epiphany. "Spray paint is made up of three things: a solvent that evaporates, a pigment and a glue that holds it on," he said, waving his hands and grinning at the memory. "And looking at my drink, I realized the alcohol in it would really mess up the glue."

On the windswept top of a 113-acre hill, New York State, Westchester County and local officials today joined with Hudson River environmentalists in celebrating the transformation of a toxics-tainted landfill in Croton-on-Hudson into a park. The man-made hill of garbage, which could fill five World Trade Center towers, had been a dumping site for Westchester's trash from 1926 until 1986. It sits on a peninsula that juts halfway across the Hudson 20 miles north of Manhattan.

Sentiment in Congress today was decidedly against sending American ground troops to fight in Bosnia, although members of both parties said they might support allowing United States forces to help withdraw United Nations peacekeepers. Even Senator Jesse Helms, the North Carolina Republican who is chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee and a pointed critic of President Clinton, said he would not object if the United States helped evacuate United Nations troops. But of the involvement of American forces for any other purpose, such as helping to move the peacekeepers to more defensible positions, Mr. Helms declared, "Not on my watch."

Shortly after being elected, Gov. George E. Pataki derided New York's annual budget-writing process as "three men and a budget" and vowed to make the negotiations more open. But in recent days, the Governor has been closed up in a room with the leaders of the State Senate and Assembly, completing work on the most significant changes to state criminal sentencing laws in at least two decades -- all without a single public hearing or any other form of public debate.

What is happening in Department 103 on the ninth floor of the Los Angeles County Superior Court Building downtown is not just the murder trial of O. J. Simpson. It is also the education of Judge Lance A. Ito. Almost five months into the Simpson trial, Judge Ito still wins high marks for his intelligence, his conscientiousness, his command of precedents and his familiarity with testimony. Lawyers say he has done the legal system a favor by keeping an extraordinary case from disintegrating into chaos or degenerating into farce.