October 17, 1995

Here in the shadow of the Golan, Hala Mutab Abo Saleh is waiting for the day when the soaring heights captured by Israel 28 years ago will become Syrian again. A year ago it seemed possible to the 58-year-old woman and her neighbors that that dawn might be near. But on surrounding mountaintops, Israeli posts stand as commanding as ever, and across the rocky volcanic soil, Syria's southwest corner, the feelings now expressed are those of a bitter resolve.

FROM silken-petaled roses to popping snapdragons to a willow tree's fuzzy catkins, the plant world offers a dazzling array of flowers. Yet the difference between all this blooming beauty and a plain green shoot appears to be nothing more than the flicking on of one master genetic switch, according to two new studies. Using genetically engineered plants, researchers were able to show that either of two genes, on its own, could turn on the cascade of thousands of genes that produces a flower. Researchers were able to use the genes, known to biologists as Leafy and Apetala1, to produce blossoms where there should instead have been leafy shoots in plants as diverse as Arabidopsis, a roadside weed, tobacco and aspen trees.

Buyouts of 6,300 homes and businesses built in the Passaic River flood basin do not qualify for Federal financing under current rules, according to an Army Corps of Engineers report released yesterday. The buyout plan, favored by some critics of a corps proposal to build a $2 billion tunnel to divert river floodwater, would cost $2.3 billion, the report said. Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, an opponent of the tunnel project, said she would "act expeditiously" on the matter once a 60-day comment period on the report ended. Governor Whitman has proposed buying 800 homes in the most heavily flood-prone areas at an estimated cost of less than $200 million.

The Newark school district has known since last spring that it has a budget surplus of $43.9 million, its chief financial officer, Joe Cappello, said yesterday. But Beverly Hall, the state-appointed Acting Schools Superintendent, said that the district has to wait until an audit is completed next month before deciding how to spend the money. Peter Peretzman, a spokesman for the New Jersey Board of Education, said the Newark surplus is so big that it probably exceeds limits set by state law. In a related development, lawyers for the city's former school board members said in an appeals court that the state had failed to give them a fair chance to defend themselves before their ouster, The Associated Press reported.

Saying that children cannot learn when they do not feel safe, the State Education Commissioner, Leo F. Klagholz, yesterday announced $1.53 million in grants to 21 school districts that have developed formal plans to deal with violent students. The grants are going to districts with the most clearly defined plans outlining problems and solutions.