June 8, 1995

With New York City's schools facing a double blow of city and state budget cuts, a senior Board of Education official has warned local districts that they may have to eliminate thousands of school jobs and make other reductions totaling $400 million. A cut of that size would be the largest to classrooms since the fiscal crisis of the 1970's and, the official said, could force the layoffs of teachers, principals and aides.

The voting machine showed that Mary Calabrese got 20 votes in the Democratic primary in the Ninth Assembly District. Trouble is, only 10 of the borough's 86 Democrats went to the polls. The problem, officials say, was not fraud. They suspect that someone forgot to reset the counter on the voting machine before the polls opened on Tuesday. [ More election news, page B4. ]

The Senate today approved broad counterterrorism legislation that would give Government law-enforcement officials expanded powers, make it easier to deport illegal aliens suspected of terrorism and limit most death row prisoners to one appeal in Federal court. Seven weeks after the Oklahoma City bombing and after four days of debate, the package of bills, the Comprehensive Terrorism Prevention Act of 1995, won passage on a vote of 91 to 8, with wide bipartisan support.

In their first face-to-face conversation since I.B.M. began its hostile takeover bid for the Lotus Development Corporation, the heads of the two companies met yesterday in Manhattan, according to an executive familiar with the meeting. While the meeting was described as merely exploratory on the part of the chairman and chief executive of Lotus, Jim P. Manzi, it is expected to continue today and is the first indication that Lotus is at least willing to hear I.B.M.'s case for acquiring the software company through a tender offer of $60 a share.

Kathryn Hattala was standing waist deep in the Hudson River, talking to a fish. "For the pleasure of being caught, you win a red tag in your side," Ms. Hattala, a state fisheries biologist, said to a slab-sided shad as she plunked it into a trough on a plywood stand.