November 2, 1995

NEW RULES ARE TO EASE JURY SERVICE The jury box may not be any more comfortable, or long-winded lawyers any more succinct, but under new rules, jury duty in civil courts in New York State stands to become less arduous and perhaps even shorter. [Page A1.]

F.B.I. Seeks Huge System For National Wiretapping The F.B.I. has proposed a national wiretapping system on a huge scale that would allow law enforcement officials to monitor 1 percent of the phone lines in some high-crime areas of the country, far exceeding the recent annual average of less than 1 in 174,000 lines.

The closer Election Day gets, the more campaigners show up at the State House, trying to win headlines and sway voters. Gov. Christine Todd Whitman appeared yesterday with groups calling for approval of a ballot question that would require the state to pay for programs it forces on local governments.

Promises to Placate Quebec

The F.B.I. has proposed a national wiretapping system of unprecedented size and scope that would give law enforcement officials the capacity to monitor simultaneously as many as one out of every 100 phone lines in some high crime areas of the country. Such a surveillance ability would vastly exceed the current needs of law enforcement officials around the country, who in recent years have conducted an annual average of less than 850 court-authorized wiretaps -- or fewer than one in every 174,000 phone lines.

Nobody's car is going to be confiscated. State officials want to make that perfectly clear. By yesterday, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman's office had logged more than 500 calls from people afraid they will lose their cars if they flunk a new state emissions test required to comply with the Federal Clean Air Act.

The American economy has slowed this autumn, several new reports showed today, but Federal Reserve officials said in interviews that the signs so far did not appear likely to lead them to lower short-term interest rates at their next meeting on Nov. 15.

With little more than three years to go before their scheduled monetary union, the Europeans have been sounding lately as if they will never make it to the altar. Germany has been sniping at Italy for its economic policies, and Italy has returned the favor. Just about everybody has been criticizing France. And in Britain, the Euro-skeptics were out in force last month at the Conservative Party conference.

TOMORROW should be quite a day for the Old Navy Clothing Company, as the store chain known for its inexpensive jeans and T-shirts adds three more locations. One will be in Rockford, Ill., another in Schaumburg, Ill., and the third in Manhattan. Manhattan? The store on the corner of 18th Street and Avenue of the Americas will be the first Old Navy branch in the city. New Yorkers will get their first look at the upbeat, down-home style of this younger, cheaper and more-fun-loving corporate sibling of the 894 Gap, 399 Gap Kids and 200 Banana Republic stores nationwide. There are now 111 Old Navy branches around the country, most of them either in malls or on the outskirts of big cities. But are bargain-hunting New Yorkers going to take to shrink-wrapped sweatshirts displayed in grocery freezers, jeans hung on railroad ties and baby clothes piled high on a vintage ice-cream truck?

All the big players had lined up behind the deregulation of America's financial markets, but on a cool, damp day in June, House Speaker Newt Gingrich had second thoughts. The Clinton Administration, most Congressional Republicans and Democrats, the Federal Reserve, big banks, and many insurers and securities firms all sought to dismantle the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law that established walls between the banking and securities industries. But numerous House freshmen had been hearing from another faction -- insurance agents who feared such an overhaul would put them out of business. And the House freshmen had relayed their constituents' concerns to the Speaker.

The executive director of the civilian agency that reviews reports of misconduct by New York City police officers resigned yesterday, saying he was driven out by political pressure. The resignation of the official, Hector W. Soto, comes as complaints about brutality and other police misconduct are rising, with thousands of cases backlogged at the short-staffed, two-year-old Civilian Complaint Review Board.

Representative Robert Franks accuses the Federal Aviation Administration of "inept handling of intolerable levels of airplane noise." The solution, he thinks, is an independent aircraft noise ombudsman. A measure sponsored by Mr. Franks to create such a position passed a House committee yesterday, a day after the F.A.A. issued a widely criticized decision on flight routes. SUSAN JO KELLER