March 15, 1996

The 4200 block of Ridgeway Avenue is a monument to the remnants of the storied Chicago Democratic Machine. Every single house, on each side of the street, displays a jauntily angled sign proclaiming "Blagojevich for Congress '96." At the other end of the district, closer to Lake Michigan, Rod Blagojevich's chief Democratic rival, Nancy Kaszak, boasts that she is "unbought and unbossed" and that she plays the piano badly. Her campaign reflects a new generation of political power brokers, with techniques taught and money raised by Emily's List, an organization that seeks to elect to Congress more Democratic women who support abortion rights.

Two police officers were shot last night, one fatally, in a gun battle that erupted after the officers tried to thwart a carjacking in the Fordham section of the Bronx. The wild gunfight also left four others wounded, including three bystanders. The slain officer, Kevin Gillespie, a member of the elite Street Crime unit, died at St. Barnabas Hospital from a gunshot wound to the chest despite frantic efforts to save him.

ASKING Jose Alvarez if he is worried about his future is a bit like asking if he is alive. Why waste the question, that's how obvious the answer is, he said. For 16 years, he has been a maintenance man at Farberware, the century-old maker of pots and pans in the South Bronx. But now the company has been bought by a Boston silverware manufacturer, and the 700 jobs at its squat, red-brick plant -- sandwiched between Bruckner and Southern boulevards -- are more in doubt than the future of Middle East peace talks. Worried?

A woman was killed yesterday afternoon when she drove onto a busy street in Newark's North Ward heading in the wrong direction and smashed into a New Jersey Transit bus, said Detective Daniel Collins, a police spokesman. The bus driver and five passengers were injured, none of them seriously, said Ken Miller, a spokesman for the transit company.

Hamas, the main force behind the suicide bombers who have thrown the shaky Middle East peace talks into crisis, is an organization with deep roots, a popular base that feeds on misery and resentment, an international support network, and a clear goal: to turn the nascent Palestine into an Islamic state.