June 5, 1995

Many Contractors Underpaying Their Workers Dozens of New York City contractors are increasing their profit by illegally underpaying hundreds, and perhaps thousands of their nonunion workers.

It used to be that one-room schoolhouses allowed children in different grades to have the same teacher. Now, students at the Cedar Creek Elementary School here are taking a step back to those simpler days, as first- and second-grade students are being grouped in the same class.

Gregory McCall entered St. Anthony High School four years ago absolutely certain that his basketball skills, sharpened by the competition around the projects, assured him a spot on the championship basketball team. They didn't.

The numner of new businesses in the region rose sharply last year, a sign of continuing economic recovery. The trend continued in the first quarter of 1995, in contrast to the rest of the country, where business starts fell 9.1 percent from the same period last year. Start-ups in financial services, insurance and real estate rose across the region in the forst quarter of 1995, compared with the same period last year. manufacturing and construction starts surged in New Jersey and Connecticut. Business start-ups are a good measure of the health of the local economy. Analysts say the biggest benefit to the area is obvious: new firms equals new jobs.

The Indiana Pacers can hold onto their vision, the one in which they keep playing until the light is dying on the asphalt and everyone else has left the playground for the summer. Shaquille O'Neal and his magical young teammates secured something with more permanence tonight: They got the Dream.

When Enrique Arrosa-Penagaricano first saw Apartment 1B seven years ago, it resembled a bombed-out shell more than a home. Its rooms, he said, were buried under "a mountain of rubble," a charred legacy of arsonists and vandals who had stripped the six-story building at 541 East 13th Street in the East Village. There were no windows, electrical wires, or bathroom or kitchen fixtures left in the building. There was no roof.

The season's first Tropical Storm is brewing off the Florida coast, and while there is no indication yet that New Jersey is in its path, the storm season puts everyone on a heightened alert along the Jersey coast. This week, public officials from the state's beach areas will hold a "New Jersey Shore Summit" to discuss how to rebuild the beaches destroyed by past storms, and how to reinvigorate businesses near the beach.

If you are a bank customer who always meets minimum balance requirements, never bounces a check and even took out a car loan, you might think that the bank would be eager to have your business. Not so. Even worse, if the tellers know you by name and ask about your children every couple of days when you cash a check, the bank president probably would like you to move your account elsewhere.

IN CONSTRUCTION, ILLEGALLY LOW WAGES Hard pressed by the deep recession in the construction industry, dozens of New York City contractors are increasing profits by illegally underpaying hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of their nonunion workers. City officials say there has been a threefold increase in the last six years in the number of formal complaints by laborers contending that construction companies are shortchanging them. [ Page A1. ] IS BUDGET A BLUEPRINT FOR FUTURE ILLS? Having just ended one of the longest and most bitter budget fights in state history, Governor Pataki and the Legislature have now embarked on a course toward an even more caustic and protracted conflict next year. The reasons lie buried in the budget agreed to by the Republican Governor and legislative leaders. By many accounts, the spending plan fails to address many of the state's long-term financial problems and has created new pitfalls that could worsen future budget shortfalls. [ A1. ] NEW YORK CITY SCHOOL POLICING: CONTROL AT ISSUE In Los Angeles, school security officers are armed and receive as much training as regular police officers. In many other large cities, school systems are working more closely with police departments as parents and educators become alarmed by rising school violence. With school violence in New York City having risen sharply, Mayor Giuliani has called for the Police Department to take over school security. Schools Chancellor Ramon C. Cortines fiercely opposes that plan. [ B3. ] WAITING . . . AND WAITING . . . FOR THE TRAIN It may be small consolation to people who found that their subway trains were more crowded than usual, made more stops than usual or did not run at all. But if the riders thought that something was amiss, they were right. The replacement of a major crossover switch in Queens forced changes in service on F, E, G and R trains through much of that borough and between Queens and Manhattan. [ B3. ] A SUBURBAN ETHOS SCUTTLED RAIL PLAN Cost alone is rarely the entire reason something fails to happen in New York. The airport railway will not be built because not enough of the political establishment in New York and New Jersey wants to build it. The politics of the time mitigate against it -- a politics of shrinking government, reducing taxes and embracing policies that smile on the suburbs and their mostly Republican voters, not on Democratic cities. Metro Matters by Joyce Purnick. [ B3. ] REGION MANAGED CARE DELAYED A YEAR In the new state budget, Governor Pataki left undone one of his most sweeping proposals to cut the cost of government: to require nearly three million poor and disabled people to receive their medical care from managed-care plans. While that might initially seem to be a major setback for the Governor, Mr. Pataki ultimately neither wanted nor needed to pick a fight with the Democrats this year on mandating managed care. [ B4. ] A REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR SETTLES FOR LESS Even as other Republican governors are pushing through ideologically charged laws to reduce welfare benefits and strictly limit how long people can stay on the welfare rolls, New York's Democratic-controlled State Assembly has defended the state's liberal tradition and forced Governor Pataki to settle for incremental change. [ B4. ] CHALLENGING NEW YORK'S ADOPTION LAW One couple appearing before the state's highest court is heterosexual, the other lesbian. But they have an issue in common: because they are not married, one partner cannot adopt the other's biological child. New York is the fourth state in the country to address the question of adoption by an unmarried mate. And by requesting that the cases of unmarried heterosexual and lesbian couples be heard in tandem, the Court of Appeals has shifted its focus away from sexual orientation and toward the state law's requirement that an adoptive couple be married. [ B5. ] RAIL OFFICIALS REJECT RUMOR OF WALKOUT For the second time in 10 days, rumors of a wildcat walkout by Long Island Rail Road engineers raced among commuters and transportation officials. But union leaders and transportation officials insisted that this time there would not be one. [ B2. ] Parking rules B2

On Wednesday morning, a few hours before President Clinton's speech to the Air Force Academy, his national security adviser was aboard Air Force One refining the key phrases that would spell out the Administration's response to the seizure of hundreds of United Nations peacekeepers by Bosnian Serbs. Earlier that morning Mr. Clinton -- his voice intense, his jaw clenched -- had made clear that he intended to make no permanent commitment of American troops to Bosnia, his aides say.

It has been almost half a year since Gov. Christine Todd Whitman called for another 15 percent cut in the state's income tax. Today, the proposal will have its first formal consideration, when the Assembly's Policy and Rules Committee takes up the plan.

After meeting with his manager and coaches Saturday night, following the Yankees' fifth straight defeat, George Steinbrenner sat in the middle of the Yankee clubhouse before yesterday afternoon's game and made a prediction: "I think you're going to see some changes. I made that clear to the coaches." No one was exactly sure what Steinbrenner was talking about. The team's owner mentioned something about more discipline and added, "We've got to get out the attitude of feeling sorry for ourselves."