November 24, 1995

Authorities have yet to assemble a definitive portrait of Alisa Izquierdo's six years on this earth, but they know this much, and related it yesterday in voices trembling with outrage: The girl lived her final weeks, and probably several years before that, in agony and horror. Her corpse told the secrets that she apparently could not tell. From head to toe, she was pockmarked with cigarette burns, about 30 in all, the police said. They said the bruises were just as ghastly, and made clear that whatever tortures she endured in her family's apartment in the Rutgers Houses project on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, she had suffered them for some time.

HOLIDAY HELPS DEFY THE STING OF DISASTER At a house on Herkimer Street in Brooklyn, a Thanksgiving meal was prepared. There were spices and drinks, and because one child wasn't present, there were tears to go with every serving. But there wasn't surrender, and across the city there were scores of other people celebrating Thanksgiving in a kind of solemn comfort. On a day given over to gratefulness, theirs was the tiny, but growing gratitude that the greatest hurt their lives had ever known was maybe starting to hurt a bit less. [Page A1.] NEW YORK CITY

The Monmouth County Prosecutor is beginning a criminal investigation into the recent death of a 64-year-old patient at the Marlboro Psychiatric Hospital. Hospital officials said Regina Killen of Maplewood fell early on the morning of Nov. 1, and died a day later. But the autopsy report listed three broke vertebrae, seven broken ribs and a spinal cord injury, along with hemorrhaging and bruising from her chin to her knee.

With the Republican Congress moving to slash many Federal social programs, an odd hush has fallen over Washington: the sound of liberal advocacy groups that have been unable to create much of a clamor against the most drastic cuts in decades. "If you compare what's going on now to the health care debate two years ago, you can't help but wonder why there is such an eerie silence on issues that are so central to so many people's lives," said Alan Ehrenhalt, the executive editor of Governing magazine. "There's so many important things going on in Congress, with Medicaid, Medicare and welfare reform. I read the paper, and I think, Where's the noise?"

Authorities have yet to assemble a definitive portrait of Alisa Izquierdo's six years on this earth, but their voices trembled with outrage as they described what they know: the little girl lived her final weeks, and perhaps years, in agony and horror. Her corpse told secrets that she apparently held inside. Cigarette burns and bruises indicated that she had endured beatings for some time, the police said. Alisa's killing evoked memories of another 6-year-old, Lisa Steinberg, whose death in 1987 drew attention to child abuse.