April 1, 1996

When Shaquille O'Neal rose up over Patrick Ewing and force-fed the rim with the basketball late in the game, not one of his teammates went overboard with emotion. When Anfernee Hardaway spotted up over Derek Harper, keeping his elbows in while knocking down a third-quarter 3-pointer, the dueling floor leaders ran back down the court as if it were another day. The changing of the guard in the Atlantic Division, after all, occurred a year ago. Before a national television audience today, all the Orlando Magic did was drive home its point more emphatically.

Struggling to end the deeply unpopular Chechen war before pivotal elections in June, President Boris N. Yeltsin said today that all major military operations in the secessionist republic in southern Russia would stop at once. In a speech broadcast to the nation tonight and in comments to journalists after it, Mr. Yeltsin said for the first time that he would approve peace talks with the main rebel leader, Gen. Dzhokhar M. Dudayev. He also said he was ready to grant Chechnya almost any new freedom short of Mr. Dudayev's stated goal of total independence.

Jersey City will turn over the management of its municipal Water Department today to the privately owned United Water Company. The city is expected to make a net profit of $38.5 million over the five-year life of the deal, officials of Jersey City and United Water said last week. United will pay the city a $2.5 million concession fee plus a portion of its net revenues and will assume operating costs. But the city will continue to control rates. All 139 employees of the department will be guaranteed jobs for at least one year, officials said.

The driver of a stolen tractor-trailer truck led the police on a 50-mile chase up the New Jersey Turnpike yesterday until he was arrested after stopping at the George Washington Bridge tollbooths, The Associated Press reported. The truck, which was reported stolen Saturday in Virginia, was loaded with electronics equipment. It was spotted by New Jersey state police near Cranbury. The police said the driver, Eliezer Martinez, was part of a robbery ring that was to unload the goods in New York City.

Members of the public will also get a chance tomorrow to express their views on Governor Whitman's proposals to overhaul the state's welfare system. The Department of Human Services will hold a series of hearings at three locations: the Hudson County Administration building in Jersey City, Thomas Edison College in Trenton and the Educational Information and Resource Center in Sewell. The Governor's plan would place a five-year limit on welfare benefits, require recipients of Aid to Families With Dependent Children to find work, and force teen-age recipients to live at home. Mrs. Whitman is counting on approval from the Federal Government for the changes, which would save the state an estimated $100 million. The hearings are required when states apply for waivers from existing Federal law.