October 3, 1995

The parish demographics have changed wildly, even weekly, in the nine decades since German immigrants built St. Aloysius Roman Catholic Church in Queens. Last Sunday, a young Filipino woman's voice rang out from the Ridgewood church's choir loft, while down below a Vietnamese grandmother rocked her infant grandchild. Hispanic and Indian schoolchildren stood together, and older Polish and Italian men knelt with their thick arms and rosary beads hanging before them. "Mass here can feel like Sociology 101," Msgr. Eugene McGovern, the pastor at St. Aloysius, said.

Companies Propose Plan To Settle Implant Suits Three major manufacturers of silicone breast implants, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Baxter Healthcare and Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, proposed a new settlement that would both reduce a previous offer to thousands of women and make it harder for them to collect awards.

Movement on Medicare

The Mariners, Seattle's newest passion, are the Yankees' newest challenge. Seattle's 19-year-old baseball team qualified for the post-season for the first time yesterday by winning a one-game playoff from the California Angels to capture the American League West title. The Mariners' 9-1 victory earned them the right to face the Yankees, whose first post-season appearance in 14 years will be one of four games played tonight under a playoff format that includes a new tier of games and a wild-card team.

The Mashantucket Pequot tribe, which 10 years ago had been considered virtually extinct, was poised today to expand its three-year-old gambling empire, winning Gov. John G. Rowland's endorsement to build an $875 million casino in Bridgeport. The gambling hall would be less than an hour's drive from Manhattan. If the legislature accepts Mr. Rowland's recommendation, the Pequots will be taking a giant step beyond their casino in eastern Connecticut, the Foxwoods Resort, which is rated the most profitable gaming center in the Western Hemisphere.