November 4, 1995

Businesses tallying the effects of projected cuts in Government health care spending are beginning to worry that they will have to help make up the difference. At the heart of their concerns is cost-shifting -- the notion that as projected Medicare and Medicaid spending shrinks, hospitals and doctors will demand that employers and their insured workers pay a greater share of health care costs.

The economy generated new jobs at a lackluster pace in October, Government data showed yesterday. While the nation's unemployment rate slipped to 5.5 percent from 5.6 percent in September, a modest 116,000 jobs were added to employer's payrolls, less than what economists had expected.

To speak with her daughter and granddaughters in Los Angeles, Adila Glavovic must use the telephone of a friend who lives 10 minutes away, across a river in her hometown of Mostar. On the other side is also the apartment she once lived in, groceries that are more affordable and the medical care her husband needs. But the west side of Mostar is largely forbidden to Mrs. Glavovic and people who, like her, are refugees in their own city.

The State Education Commissioner, with strong support from the Board of Regents, proposed today that all students in New York be required to pass the state's rigorous Regents exams to earn a high school diploma. More than just changing a test, the plan would bring about fundamental revisions in high school education across the state, requiring every district to revamp its basic curriculum and raise its minimum standards to the college-preparatory level. In the process, the state would eliminate what is now the most common pathway to high school graduation on the ground that it leaves many high school graduates with skills insufficient for success in today's technology-driven society.

It is unlikely that most Americans will pay much attention when the United States Treasury introduces a redesigned $100 bill in January. The old bill will still be accepted everywhere of course, and it's not exactly as if hundred-dollar notes are the coin of the realm. But things couldn't be more different here, because Russians are completely obsessed with C-notes. They covet, hoard and trade them more than in any country other than America itself.