March 6, 1996

RJR Nabisco Holdings, in its escalating proxy battle with the investors Bennett S. LeBow and Carl C. Icahn to win the hearts and votes of shareholders at its annual meeting this spring, announced yesterday that it would raise its annual dividend 23 percent, to $1.85 a share. The dividend, which had been $1.50 annually, will be increased to 46.25 cents a quarter from 37.5 cents. The shares of the tobacco and food conglomerate rose a modest 25 cents on the news, closing at $34.875 on the New York Stock Exchange, where Mr. LeBow's holding company, the Brooke Group Ltd., was down $1.125, closing at $9.

Beyond Mendel's Pea Pods

A Federal judge who was widely criticized for throwing out drug evidence agreed yesterday to listen to prosecutors' arguments that he should change his mind, saying that a rehearing is "in the interests of justice." In a decision that lawyers on both sides agreed was unusual, Judge Harold Baer Jr. said he would hold a hearing next week to consider prosecutors' request that he reverse his decision to toss out as evidence 80 pounds of cocaine and heroin that New York City police officers seized from the trunk of a car driven by a Detroit woman last year.

Nervous New Jersey residents have been calling state health officials, worried about the recent sudden deaths of two high school boys from meningococcal disease, the A.P. reported. Officials said yesterday there is no need for students to be alarmed because meningitis is spread only through close contact. Andre McRae, a senior from Ewing Township, died on Sunday of meningococcal meningitis, an inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. The other student, John McDonnell, a sophomore from Manalapan Township, died on Saturday of a bloodstream infection called meningococcemia

Through two campaigns and the start of a third, Bob Dole was the man who could hardly win a Presidential primary. Now, presto change-o, he has turned into the man who can hardly lose one. His clean sweep of the most closely watched of today's contests -- in New England, the Rockies, a Border State and the Deep South -- demonstrated broad geographic appeal. Exit polls indicated broad demographic and ideological appeal. The results made him the strong, if not overwhelming, favorite to win the Republican nomination unless he stumbles in the New York primary on Thursday, which now seems much less likely.