A Freehold Raceway harness driver has been accused of rigging a race last summer by holding his horse back, letting two others finish first and second.          The case against the driver, Richard Wojcio, 35, of Freehold Township, was sent to a Monmouth County grand jury yesterday after he waived an appearance in  municipal court. Mr. Wojcio's racing license was suspended by the State Racing Commission when he failed to answer questions at an administrative hearing, said Frank Zanzuccki, its executive director.   

NEW JERSEY DAILY BRIEFING;Harness Race Investigated

The former owner of two investment companies pleaded guilty yesterday in Federal District Court to defrauding clients of $30 million from 1991 to 1995 and agreed to cooperate with Federal authorities.          The former businessman, Chuckles Kohli, 35, of Lawrenceville, admitted that  he lied to customers of Sigma Inc. and The Savid Group when he promised them a 100 percent return on their investments, even though both companies were losing  money.   

NEW JERSEY DAILY BRIEFING;$30 Million Fraud Admitted

The Clinton Administration issued its annual human rights report, finding China guilty of "widespread and well-documented" abuses. Page A10.   

China Cited for Abuses

INSIDE

Before her third-grade class waded into the Internet, Mary Anne Denner, a teacher at the Maugham Elementary School here, selected the White House home page as an engaging first exhibit where they might be able to extract information for future reports.         The first group of four pupils elbowed one another for space in front of the  computer screen, clicking the buttons to bring up a picture of President Clinton riding a horse or an image of Socks, the White House cat, that actually meowed through the speakers. "Meow!" the boys and girls shouted back.   

The Internet Goes to School;Bellwether or Bust? Educators Debate Value of Surfing

After months of resistance, House Republicans have dropped their plans for a  sweeping overhaul of the nation's civil litigation system in favor of a narrower effort by Senate Republicans that would only limit lawsuits involving faulty products.         Senior members of Congress and staff officials said this week that negotiators from the House and Senate had broken a deadlock that threatened to kill the Republicans' promise to force significant reductions in the number of civil lawsuits. As a result, a compromise bill closely resembling the version approved by the Senate last year may reach the floor for a final vote within the next few weeks, several lawmakers said.   

HOUSE G.O.P. QUITS TORT REFORM PLAN

Officials of three counties ravaged by floods in January plan to meet next week with representatives of the Federal Emergency Management Agency in the hope of obtaining assistance in making repairs, the public safety director for Warren County said yesterday.          The official, Robert DeGraff, said the state's request for disaster aid for  Hunterdon, Sussex and Warren counties was rejected last week on the ground that  no public utilities were damaged. But Mr. DeGraff said Warren County (pop. 96,000) suffered $1.7 million in damage, which he called a heavy burden for a rural area.    TERRY PRISTIN   

NEW JERSEY DAILY BRIEFING;Counties Seek Disaster Aid

Republicans in New York State go to the polls today to choose delegates in their Presidential primary.         The polls are open from 6 A.M. to 9 P.M. in New York City and in Nassau, Suffolk, Westchester, Rockland, Orange, Ulster and Erie counties. In other counties, the polls are open from noon to 9.   

Today, It's New York's Turn

The television airwaves are becoming part of the budget wars in Congress, with Senate Republicans taking a hard look at proposals to raise billions of dollars by auctioning off a part of the radio spectrum earmarked for advanced TV services.         The newest effort comes from the Senate Budget Committee, where lawmakers are looking harder for money to cut the deficit and have cast an eye on television licenses that are estimated to be worth tens of billions of dollars on the open  market.   

THE MEDIA BUSINESS;TV Airwaves Becoming Issue In Budget Battle

An Elizabeth woman who said she was raped by an inmate at the Union County Jail while being restrained by another inmate, and then changed her account of the events twice, was accused in an indictment yesterday of making false statements. The four-count indictment also charged the woman, Alveda Torrado, with failing to respond to a court order to appear yesterday before the grand jury.          Ms. Torrado, who had been arrested for failing to appear in court to answer  traffic violations, had recanted shortly after making the rape charge, saying she had consensual sex with one of the inmates in a jail bathroom on Feb. 15. But then she withdrew her statement and once again claimed she was raped.   

NEW JERSEY DAILY BRIEFING;False Rape Report Is Charged

Officials from both the Democratic and Republican parties have begun to acknowledge that the Federal lawsuit that opened up New York's Republican primary to more candidates could also force the Legislature to loosen rules for  entering most other races, ending a system that has long been criticized as a tool that political bosses use to control elections.         The officials said the rulings, handed down late last month, affect a host of contests, including votes for the New York City Council, the State Legislature and Governor. They said the decisions would come into play as soon as this fall, when primaries are held for seats in the Legislature.   

POLITICS: BALLOT RULES;Two Rulings Seen Affecting Many Contests

The City Council Speaker, Peter F. Vallone, said yesterday that the Council would block the Giuliani administration's plan to dismantle the city's fire-alarm box system because the proposal would leave thousands of New Yorkers  with no way to report fires quickly.         Mr. Vallone introduced a bill yesterday that would require the Fire Department to restore more than 4,000 alarm boxes that have been disconnected since last October under a pilot program. The bill would also force the department to keep the entire network of 16,300 sidewalk fire-alarm boxes in place, at least until the city can come up with an alternative to the system.   

Council to Bar Elimination of Alarm Boxes

Animal rights will be the theme of a State Senate committee hearing today as  lawmakers consider a number of bills intended to protect animals and those who try to help them. One measure would increase the penalties for selling stray animals in shelters for medical research, and another would require proper ventilation of vehicles used to transport animals. Another bill before the Citizens, Veterans' Affairs and Agriculture Committee would protect people from  being sued when they try to rescue abused or neglected animals.   

NEW JERSEY DAILY BRIEFING;Panel to Hear Animal Issues

Resnick, an asset management firm in Beverly Hills, Calif. "If you've made a  mistake, mark it down and get it out of there. Merry-Go-Round kept denying this  strategy and building inventory, and it killed them." The company went out of business this year.         Wet Seal/Contempo, a survivor of the 1980's shakeout, is trying to avoid the  problems of Merry-Go-Round. Wet Seal started in 1962 as a bathing-suit company and became a big hit with teen-agers in the mid-1980's before falling on hard times in the early 1990's because of a bad mix of fashions and the troubled economy.   

Scenes of Rebirth at the Mall;New Stores for Juniors Succeed by Moving Quickly

The faces of the Bucknell University class of 1970 gaze out from the yearbook with a wide-eyed hopefulness untarnished by time. Though their hairstyles and clothes may look ever more dated, the class members remain forever 22 years old  and unbowed, captured by the camera at a singular, ascendant moment of their youth.         They came here in 1966 from farm country Pennsylvania, from the suburbs of New York City and from the shores of Chesapeake Bay, children of America's middle class and of the great post-World War II economic boom. Born mostly in 1948, they had known nothing but prosperity, and it had imprinted upon them a pattern of belief and behavior as profound as the one that the Great Depression  had left upon their parents.   

In the Class of '70, Wounded Winners

Fears of confrontation rose today after China's announcement that it would conduct a week of missile tests near two of Taiwan's leading seaports, threatening a partial blockade of the island's commercial shipping.         A senior Chinese official said today that China had decided to test-fire surface-to-surface ballistic missiles beginning on Friday near the northern harbor of Keelung and off the southern harbor of Kaohsiung to curb what it saw as continuing efforts by Taiwan's President, Lee Teng-hui, toward independence for the island.   

BEIJING STEPS UP MILITARY PRESSURE ON TAIWAN LEADER

In a announcement that took the $200 billion worldwide pharmaceuticals industry by surprise, two Swiss drug giants, Sandoz Ltd. and Ciba-Geigy Ltd., announced yesterday that they would merge, forming a biotechnology powerhouse that would be the world's second-largest pharmaceutical maker.         At first glance, one analyst put the value of the combined company at $62 billion, which would rank it as one of the largest mergers ever, if not the largest.   

2 Swiss Drug Giants In a Surprise Merger To Be 2d in World

SUSAN SOROS, wife of the financier George Soros, the man who manages nearly $11 billion in assets, the man known for winning $2 billion by betting against the British pound, moves through Manhattan enveloped in a skein of mystery. When her car pulls to a curb, her chauffeur jumps out and carefully scans the landscape for danger.         Mrs. Soros, 40, is so cool and private that she makes even the most basic question -- for instance, where does she go on weekends? -- seem like an intrusion.   

AT HOME WITH: SUSAN SOROS;A Private Life, A Public Passion

AFTER weeks of headlines and controversy, the case of Judge Lorin Duckman has landed in the hands of a state commission that has one half-time investigator in New York City, takes two years to resolve a serious case and operates in officially sanctioned secret.         The State Commission on Judicial Conduct has such a low priority with its Albany political benefactors, including Gov. George E. Pataki, that it cannot afford its March rent. But the Governor turned to the commission anyway, urging  it to remove the judge from Criminal Court in Brooklyn for his handling of domestic violence cases.   

Metro Matters;Low Priority For the Judging Of the Judges

IF spare adobe walls and Navajo rugs are the yin of Santa Fe, Ford Ruthling's house is the yang.         Notice the iron trees in the garden, the tray of antique butterfly specimens  converted into a coffee table in the library.   

Santa Fe Soul, Stamped in Tin

State legislative leaders are discussing a proposal to allow the New York City Schools Chancellor to temporarily block the winners of school board elections in May from taking their seats on four boards that are now under suspension.          The Assembly Speaker, Sheldon Silver, said the proposal was a compromise in  response to a request by school officials that the Legislature delay all local board elections while officials investigate allegations of corruption and patronage on several boards.   

New Plan Would Block School Election Victors

    Sandoz and Ciba Of Switzerland to Merge Sandoz and Ciba agreed to merge, subject to shareholder approval, forming a new  company, Novartis, "based on the concept of a merger among equals."   

BUSINESS DIGEST

When Diana met Charles, she appeared to have simple tastes, favoring frilly modest-maiden dresses, a modified bowl-cut hair style and makeup that could not  have been hard to maintain.         But given a royal title, relentless public scrutiny, some lunch money and 15  years to develop a real resentment for her husband, she understandably spent more.   

What's Left Over For Bath Mats?

Bob Dole is not quite there yet. He lost a pair of adversaries today, but two others hang on, notably Patrick J. Buchanan, who is apparently determined to harry him, the same way J. E. B. Stuart harried McClellan, all the way to the Republican convention in San Diego in August.         Gone are Lamar Alexander and Senator Richard G. Lugar, and the Presidential nomination will be within Mr. Dole's reach if he can defeat Steve Forbes in the  New York primary on Thursday. Given his huge organizational edge, that should be relatively easy, despite the endorsement of Mr. Forbes this afternoon by Jack F. Kemp, a member of George Bush's Cabinet and a champion of supply-side economics.   

POLITICS;Dole's Troubled Horizon

Despite the heavy volatility in the stock and bond markets in February, mutual fund investors remained unshaken, continuing to pour plenty of fresh cash into funds investing here and abroad, according to estimates released yesterday  by the Investment Company Institute.         Equity mutual funds recorded an estimated $21 billion of net inflows in February, down from $28.9 billion in January but still the second-largest monthly total ever. The combined $50 billion of net inflows to equity mutual funds in the first two months of this year exceeds by 30 percent the net cash invested in stock funds in all of 1991.   

Market Place;Money Keeps Pouring Into Market Funds

Liam Francis Peadar Donnelly is a Northern Irish professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for Scottish Premiership club Kilmarnock.

Liam Donnelly, Northern Irish footballer

Liam_Donnelly_(footballer)

Pablo José López Serra is a Venezuelan professional baseball pitcher for the Minnesota Twins of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Miami Marlins. He made his MLB debut in 2018.

March 7, 1996

Headlines from March 7, 1996

NEW JERSEY DAILY BRIEFING;Harness Race Investigated

NEW JERSEY DAILY BRIEFING;$30 Million Fraud Admitted

China Cited for Abuses

INSIDE

The Internet Goes to School;Bellwether or Bust? Educators Debate Value of Surfing

Billboard 200

All Eyez On Me

Jagged Little Pill

Waiting To Exhale

Daydream

(What's The Story) Morning Glory?

Notable Births

Historical Context for March 7, 1996