June 24, 1995

In a highly unusual move almost a year-and-a-half before the next election, President Clinton is buying television time to begin broadcasting campaign-style commercials. The advertisements deal with the issue of crime and will be shown starting next week in crucial electoral states like Florida, Michigan and California. "It's unprecedented," said Tad Devine, a Democratic political consultant who has worked on several Presidential campaigns. "For an incumbent President, this is much, much earlier than anyone has ever thought of going on the air."

Dr. Jonas Salk, who in the 1950's developed the first successful vaccine against poliomyelitis, the viral illness that had gripped a fearful nation with images of children doomed to death or paralysis, died yesterday at Green Hospital in the La Jolla section of San Diego. He was 80. The cause was heart failure, said a spokeswoman for the Salk Institute, which Dr. Salk had established to carry out medical research.

The Republican balanced-budget proposal unveiled with some flourish on Thursday evening is a compromise that, on most of the issues that count, bears the stamp of the House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, more than that of his Senate counterpart, Bob Dole, the majority leader. But the important thing to remember is that it is only a Republican proposal. In a Republican Congress, it is an impressive work of political deal-cutting. In the two-party world beyond Capitol Hill, it stands no chance of becoming law without major changes.

A well-dressed saleswoman knocked on the front door of Jovanni Davila's home in the Bronx this spring and delivered a frightening message: the state was ending Medicaid coverage in June, Ms. Davila says the woman told her, and like millions of other poor people she would have to look elsewhere for medical care. Why not protect yourself right now, the woman asked, and sign up for the managed-care organization she represented? If Ms. Davila did not enroll, the woman warned, the state would only sign her up later.

State to Hire for Javits To break the grip of mob-influenced unions, New York State is to hire its own permanent work force for the Javits Convention Center. Page 21. Data on Dismissed Jurors Judge Lance A. Ito said he would release documents relating to the dismissal of 10 jurors in the O. J. Simpson case. Page 6. Raiders Leavingg Los Angeles The Los Angeles Raiders said they would return to Oakland, leaving the nation's second-largest market without professional football. Page 27. Daly Says No to Knicks Chuck Daly, the Knicks' top choice to replace Pat Riley as coach, said he would not take the job. Page 27.

Japanese and American negotiators agreed early this morning to keep talking through the weekend in an effort to head off the imposition of $5.9 billion in sanctions against Japanese imports that loom just four days away. But officials from each country said neither side gave much ground in a day and night of intense talks. Long after this city had shut down for the night, the Japanese and American teams remained holed up in a small American trade office on the edge of Lake Geneva, arguing over the demands from Washington for fundamental changes in the way Japan regulates its economy and organizes it industry to keep outsiders -- both foreign and Japanese -- at bay.

Little more than a week after the Supreme Court ruled that Federal preference programs based on race must be held to an exacting constitutional standard, the Clinton Administration is beginning, occasionally with fits and starts, to develop its response. Administration officials said today that the Justice Department would provide legal guidance on affirmative action to Federal agencies next week and ask them to review their programs to make sure of meeting the standard laid down by the Court.

To the thickset Afrikaner who lectured an American visitor in a hotel bar, one thing was to be understood: "Rugby, for this country, is not a sport -- it is a religion." And for decades, an unwritten tenet of the creed has been that whites are specially suited for this bruising game. "Blacks just don't like contact sports," said the Afrikaner, J. J. Pretorius, who spoke before the start of the Rugby World Cup, which is being held in South Africa this year. The tournament began last month in Cape Town and ends with the final here on Saturday.

When he was posted here last fall, the United States Consul General was pleased to find an attractive villa in a new development called Elegant Garden. Warned about high rents, the consul got what he thought was a good deal: $7,500 a month for a four-bedroom house with a lawn and a driveway. Even before he moved in, the new consul, Joseph Borich, noticed that his name and position were being used in brochures to attract new tenants. But after other villas filled up at rents higher than his, the management announced that he was no longer welcome.

Because of an editing error, a front-page article yesterday about the discovery of a gene that predisposes people to various cancers omitted the name of the scientific journal that published the paper about the finding. It was Science.

A picture caption on June 14 about a Senate subcommittee hearing on the American Association of Retired Persons misstated the location of Senator John B. Breaux, Democrat of Louisiana. He was the man seated at the right of Senator Alan K. Simpson, Republican of Wyoming. The person standing and talking with Mr. Simpson was Chuck Blahous, Mr. Simpson's legislative director.

A brief front-page summary on Wednesday for an article about the uprising at an immigration detention center in Elizabeth, N.J., misstated some elements of discussions between immigration officials and James F. Slattery, chairman of the company that ran the center. While Mr. Slattery said he had discussed tensions at the center with the officials, he did not characterize those discussions as a warning. And Mr. Slattery did not say the officials had asked him not to speak publicly about the incident.