January 21, 1996

The elections of 1994 transformed Congress, giving Republicans control of both the House and the Senate for the first time since 1955. A look at the progress of major legislative initiatives of the last year, as the second session of the 104th Congress begins. Article, page 14.

The young surgeon had it all: degrees from the best schools, a thriving practice, rugged good looks, an active social life. Yet, it was not enough; he wanted much more. That, after all, was why he was sitting in this classroom at Harvard University's Kennedy Center School for Public Policy, half-listening to the professor hold forth on Colorado River water rights and half-watching the falling snow envelop the Cambridge campus outside. For his dream was to go into politics, starting with a seat in the state senate and ending, perhaps . . .

Students at Nontraditional Employment for Women, a nonprofit corporation that trains women for jobs in the building trades, will participate in a "practical exam" this year as they perform much of the work on a renovation of the organization's quarters in the old Chelsea Firehouse at 243 West 20th Street in Manhattan. In the mid-1980's, Nontraditional Employment for Women took over the abandoned, century-old firehouse after winning a 35-year year city lease on the property.

Voting in their first general election today, Palestinians gave a broad endorsement to Yasir Arafat's leadership in building their homeland. The results are to be announced on Sunday. But there is no serious question that Mr. Arafat and his Fatah movement will emerge as victors, he as chairman of the new Palestinian government and Fatah with a majority in the 88-seat legislative council.

When state inspectors were called into the Hudson County Correctional Center last fall, they found a jail seemingly without rules, where a steady traffic of drugs and weapons was overlooked or even aided by corrections officers. There were no written procedures for such basic security measures as counting inmates or searching visitors and employees for contraband. New corrections officers were often trained on the job by other officers, many of whom had received no formal instruction themselves.