October 15, 1995

Embedded in the vast legislation to overhaul Medicare and Medicaid are a series of narrowly focused, widely overlooked provisions that would relax Federal regulation of doctors and their laboratories, reimburse private hospitals for some local taxes and grant benefits potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars to manufacturers of prescription drugs and medical devices. The legislation would broadly reshape health care for millions of Americans. But in its fine print, it also serves as a vehicle for proposals pushed by segments of the health care industry, which have mobilized a small army of lobbyists to press their concerns. Republicans defend these measures, saying consumers will benefit if Congress lifts the heavy hand of Federal regulation from the industry.

FOR the last 40 years, whenever lower Manhattan needed a shot in the arm, it came in the form of enormous new projects, each larger than the one before: Chase Manhattan Plaza in the 1950's, the World Trade Center in the 70's, Battery Park City in the 80's. The approach in the 90's may be radically different, one that seeks to exploit the buildings that are already there. The administration of Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has been moving on a number of fronts to encourage residential and commercial reuse: tax breaks, zoning changes and landmark designations.

THE Police Emerald Society bagpipes played, the 319th Army Band from Fort Totten struck up the National Anthem and the pledge of allegiance was recited by a Civil Air Patrol cadet under brisk autumn skies as Westchester's long-delayed terminal was formally dedicated -- prematurely -- in a ceremony at the airport last Sunday. The building, delayed by years of litigation and community opposition, had finally been scheduled to open in the spring. Instead, it will be ready for public use in "about another month," County Executive Andrew P. O'Rourke said.

Special Today: Home Design Magazine Part 2

IN the McVeety household in Woodbridge, water pouring from the faucets has become a treat. In recent months, if one of the three children took a shower in the morning, that meant the rest of the family was out of luck for a couple of hours. One use of the dishwasher would render the water supply dry. And a washing-machine load that finished before the water ran out was a special event. The McVeetys are among people throughout the state who depend on their wells and have had problems getting sufficient water this year or have severely limited their use to avoid running out. Environmental officials said shallow wells and wells that are dug by hand or with backhoes, as opposed to drilling, are most susceptible to problems in extended dry periods like the one the state has been experiencing. The officials said that before spending the thousands of dollars to drill a new well, especially in the current tight economy, well owners should try to cut back on their water use.

THE bandwagon for Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March in Washington tomorrow is packed with a cross section of black America, from the militant to the mild. But where it is going and how far it will follow Mr. Farrakhan, the leader of the Nation of Islam, is much less clear and is the subject of intense debate in black barber shops, beauty parlors, corporate hallways and college campuses across the country.

It was one of the worst disasters in aviation history. On Dec. 12, 1985, an Arrow Air DC-8 charter crashed in Newfoundland, killing 256, most of them American soldiers headed home for Christmas. Investigators never found the cause of the accident. But they did find a lot of problems with the way Arrow maintained its planes. On the plane that crashed, adhesive tape had been used to hold shut some windows and panels. And in Congressional hearings after the accident, a former Arrow Air pilot said the company performed "only marginal maintenance."

PAUL ROSA stood on the bridge and stared at the Norwalk River, an insignificant trickle at the base of parched, rounded rocks. The summer's drought had taken its toll. The Canada geese upstream had to vie for a wet place. But Mr. Rosa's thoughts were focused on a time, four decades earlier, when the river unleashed its fury. On Oct. 15 and 16, 1955, the normally tranquil waterway, like so many others in western Connecticut, was transformed into a conduit of destruction.

THE ARRIVAL OF THE SAXOPHONIST Wayne Shorter's "High Life," his first recording in seven years, makes jazz fans tremble with fear. Mr. Shorter, 62, is arguably the most influential living jazz composer. Like his peers who inhabit jazz's loftier realms -- Herbie Hancock, Ornette Coleman, Chick Corea, Sonny Rollins -- he has spent the last quarter century flashing bits of his grand talent, then finding the nearest drain down which to dump the rest. And his "High Life," which will be released on Tuesday, turns out to be a pastel failure and a waste of his enormous talent; it is as if Picasso had given up painting to design greeting cards. Mr. Shorter was a composer who, 30 years ago, brought to jazz an entirely new harmonic vocabulary, one that is still the training ground for young musicians.

During the Clinton Administration's tense negotiations with Japan last spring -- with the looming threat of sanctions to cut off Japanese luxury car imports to the United States -- American trade officials were accompanied everywhere by a small team of intelligence officers. Each morning, they gave Mickey Kantor, the United States trade representative, and his aides inside information gathered by the Central Intelligence Agency's Tokyo station and the electronic eavesdropping equipment of the National Security Agency, sifted by C.I.A. analysts in Washington.

A COUPLE of years ago, a neighbor who is also a contractor did some work in my house. A small detail of the job bothered me, and I mentioned it casually a few times, but to no avail. Suddenly I was steaming. I knew that if I had to ask one more time, the thin veneer of civilization that reins in the raving lunatic inside me would crack, and with it would crumble an entire network of social relationships up and down the block. I did the only thing I could do. I sent my husband. And, to make it more casual, my daughter, too. They chatted pleasantly with the contractor's wife, and by the end of the week the job was done.

THE Police Emerald Society bagpipes played, the 319th Army Band from Fort Totten struck up the National Anthem and the pledge of allegiance was recited by a Civil Air Patrol cadet under brisk autumn skies as Westchester's long-delayed terminal was formally dedicated -- prematurely -- in a ceremony at the airport last Sunday. The building, delayed by years of litigation and community opposition, had finally been scheduled to open in the spring. Instead, it will be ready for public use in "about another month," County Executive Andrew P. O'Rourke said.