March 22, 1996

Last week, the pension fund of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters named what it called the 23 least valuable directors in corporate America, citing poor attendance, conflicts of interest or service at companies whose chief executives were underperforming and overpaid in 1994. The ensuing hubbub has not stopped. Some critics denounced the rating system as incomplete or out of date. Others, while lauding the goal, sprang to the defense of some on the list. They asserted that the contribution of some directors was not in oversight but in the business connections they provided. And some shareholder-rights activists are annoyed with the teamsters for potentially undermining their own efforts to rate individual directors. They want to proceed carefully, so whatever action they then take based on their own reviews will not be easily dismissed.

Donald DiFrancesco, president of the State Senate, said yesterday that he did not have enough votes to win passage of the latest proposal to pay for hospital care for uninsured New Jerseyans. Under the plan, so-called charity care would have been reduced by $125, and the state would have continued to draw upon the unemployment insurance fund. Mr. DiFrancesco, of Scotch Plains, blamed Democrats for blocking the plan but refused to say how many members of his Republican majority also failed to back the bill.

A Federal judge in Manhattan yesterday barred New York State from releasing the names and addresses of thousands of sex offenders who were convicted before Jan. 21, when a law allowing the practice took effect. The ruling, by Judge Denny Chin of Federal District Court, concluded that the law's community notification provision imposed extra punishment on people already sentenced for their crimes, violating the Constitution.

Two State Senators, Richard Codey, Democrat of West Orange, and Jack Sinagra, Republican of Edison, and the Medical Society of New Jersey called on Attorney General Deborah T. Poritz yesterday to join other states in a lawsuit against five major tobacco companies. The suit is seeking to recover the costs of Medicaid payments to people with cigarette-related illnesses. In New Jersey, that could amount to $20 million a year, a spokesman for the Medical Society estimated. One of the tobacco companies, the Liggett Group, has broken ranks with the other cigarette manufacturers and agreed to pay damages to states for the Medicaid costs.

Geeky 13-year-old girl suffers at home and school. Mordantly hilarious.