July 11, 1995

Upholding New Jersey's child-support guidelines, the State Supreme Court today rejected a divorced father's arguments that his support payments should be reduced so he can spend the money as he sees fit when he is caring for his children. The ruling today, in a case involving James Pascale, a divorced father of three who pays $1,150 a month in child support, overturns a ruling by a state appellate court. More broadly, it runs counter to a trend in other jurisdictions to develop equations for child support that take into account both the time and the money contributed by a parent that does not have primary responsibility for maintaining the home for the children.

Sprawling across the second floor of a shopping arcade beneath the Manhattan Bridge in Chinatown, the Triple Eight Palace is a popular spot for dim sum. But in one of its private rooms on a February night in 1992, Federal prosecutors contend, the menu was revenge. The hierarchy of the Tung On gang had gathered there to plot retaliation for a rash of assaults by the rival Ghost Shadows. Participants told investigators that Paul H. K. Lai, a well-known businessman, complained angrily that the attacks on the gang that protected his gambling interests had diminished his status.

Genentech Inc. said today that its board had ousted G. Kirk Raab as president and chief executive after the disclosure that he had sought a personal loan guarantee of $2 million from the company's majority stockholder, Roche Holdings Ltd. of Switzerland, while the companies were in merger negotiations earlier this year. Genentech, a biotechnology company based in South San Francisco, Calif., said Arthur D. Levinson, who has been a senior vice president and the company's chief scientist, would succeed Mr. Raab, who is 60. The company said Dr. Levinson, who is 45, was appointed on Friday, after the board asked for and received Mr. Raab's resignation.

In one more sign that independent banking in New Jersey is fast becoming a thing of the past, the PNC Bank Corporation, based in Pittsburgh, announced yesterday that it would acquire the Midlantic Corporation, based in Edison, N.J., for $3 billion in stock. Just last month, the First Union Corporation of Charlotte, N.C., announced that it would buy the First Fidelity Bancorp of Newark for $5.4 billion and create a banking empire stretching along the East Coast from Connecticut to Florida.

It is unusual for a skipper to advise his passengers to remove their bright red life jackets in midstream to be safe, but the stretch of the Passaic River flowing through downtown Newark is no ordinary waterway. "I tell people to take their life jackets off because they make an easy target," said Paul J. Lerin, a self-appointed guide who hopes to turn his love of the river into an environmental cleanup business. "We are in a sniper zone here."