June 22, 1995

THEY park on the sidewalks and hide fire hydrants with their cars. They angle where they should parallel and turn normal streets into obstacle paths. They never seem to feed their parking meters, they rarely get tickets and they run red lights. Yes, they are New York City police officers, and yes, they do what most New Yorkers cannot. They drive to work and park at will just about anywhere they like.

A grand jury in Camden County indicted Leslie Nelson yesterday on two counts of murder in the April 20 slayings of two law-enforcement officers who had come to her home in Haddon Heights to investigate a child-abuse complaint. Ms. Nelson, a transsexual formerly known as Glenn Nelson, was also charged with the attempted murder of the brother of one of the slain officers, and with firing on seven other officers during a 14-hour standoff with the police before she was taken into custody.

Trade Deficit Deepens On Surge of Car Imports The nation's trade deficit widened substantially in April to a record $11.37 billion as a rush to buy Japanese luxury cars contributed to a new import peak. The surprisingly big deficit prompted analysts to pare second-quarter economic estimates. The stockpiling of Japanese cars appeared to reflect well-founded fear that Washington might take punitive action. [ Page A1. ]

Port officials said yesterday that they had finally found a way to open a long-dormant marine terminal on Staten Island that had become the focus of an environmental dispute. They said they would take the unusual and costly step of spending $17.7 million to send contaminated sediment that must be dredged from the shipping berths around the terminal to a landfill in Utah. The announcement means that by the end of the year, large freighters should be able to begin arriving at the terminal, Howland Hook, helping to revive the moribund maritime industry in New York City.

The Federal Communications Commission is preparing to scale back a program that gives preference to women and members of minority groups in awarding valuable licenses for wireless communications, agency officials said today. The move follows a recent Supreme Court decision that sharply restricts the use of Federal affirmative action programs to help members of minority groups.