INSIDE

The central bank of Germany, faced with a stagnant national economy, unexpectedly cut official interest rates half a percentage point yesterday.         The move is expected to help the German economy, which appears to have contracted for a second consecutive quarter. And because Germany has Europe's largest economy, a rebound there could be expected to flow into neighboring countries.   

CURRENCY MARKETS;Sooner Than Expected, Germans Cut Key Rates

The Senate cleared the way tonight for passage of legislation that would make health insurance more accessible, narrowly defeating an amendment by Senator Bob Dole that opponents charged would have killed the bill.         Before adjourning close to midnight, the Senate disposed of all other amendments to the measure and scheduled a vote on final passage, which is assured, for Tuesday.   

Senate Defeats Dole Revision To Health Bill

Nobody ever said deregulation would be simple, especially when it comes to knocking down barriers to competition in the communications industry.         On Friday, acting in response to a sweeping telecommunications law signed recently by President Clinton, the Federal Communications Commission plans to issue a 100-page proposal for opening up the $100 billion local telephone business to new rivals.   

Deregulation Of Phones: The Hard Part

A former Congressman who was forced to resign more than two decades ago after being convicted of income tax evasion is scheduled to be sentenced in Federal court today on more recent fraud charges.          Cornelius E. Gallagher, 75, admitted last September that he lied on a loan application to Pamrapo Savings and Loan of Bayonne when he said that his son-in-law, Michael Brennan, worked for him. Mr. Gallagher also pleaded guilty to failing to report income from the sale of property in the Dominican Republic. Mr. Gallagher served in Congress from 1959 to 1973.   

New Jersey Daily Briefing;Ex-Lawmaker to Face Judge

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani suspended nearly three-quarters of New York City's  elevator inspectors yesterday, in what Federal investigators described as a broad investigation into a bribery conspiracy.         The Mayor would not specify exactly what misconduct led him to suspend 42 of  the city's 58 elevator inspectors without pay, including a vast majority of its  chief inspectors and supervisors. But law enforcement officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity said inspectors took money to speed up paperwork, approve work before it was completed and ignore minor safety violations.   

In a Corruption Inquiry, Giuliani Suspends 42 Elevator Inspectors

Gunmen with automatic rifles and pistols opened fire early today on Greek tourists outside their hotel, killing 18 people and wounding at least 17 others  in the most violent attack on foreigners since tourists became targets here in 1992.         Hours after the 7 A.M. attack, no group had claimed responsibility, nor did the Government officially accuse any party.   

GUNMEN IN EGYPT KILL 18 IN ATTACK AT TOURIST HOTEL

A sister and brother cope with their dying mother and their attachment to each other. A Deneuve showcase. .

FILM REVIEW;A Sister, A Brother And Mother

Ground will be broken today for two projects: a new 500-room hotel in a blighted area at the entrance to Atlantic City, and a Bally's Park Place casino  built around a Western theme. The $87 million Doubletree Convention Center Headquarters Hotel is a joint venture between the Casino Reinvestment and Development Authority and private developers. Bally Entertainment said it expected to open its new $100 million Western casino, entertainment complex and  shopping area by the summer of 1997.          Meanwhile, the Atlantic City Planning Board approved Trump Taj Mahal Casino  Resort's plans Wednesday night to build an 802-room hotel tower, a new arena and a 12-level garage. The company's proposal to convert the existing Mark Etess Arena into additional casino space must be approved by the state Casino Control  Commission. The entire project has a price tag of $200 million, the company said.   

New Jersey Daily Briefing;Hotel and Casino Going Up

A Lodi High School math teacher resigned yesterday after he was arrested for  abusing his position by photographing the nude torsos of male students, the authorities said.          Thomas Rizer, 55, gave the students clothing and other gifts to pose for the photos, which date back as far as 1983, said Charles R. Buckley, the Acting Prosecutor for Bergen County. More than 100 photographs were seized from Mr. Rizer's home, the Prosecutor said. Although none of the students were shown in explicit poses, Mr. Buckley said the teacher used the photos for sexual gratification.   

New Jersey Daily Briefing;Teacher Quits After Arrest

    Microsoft Profit Rises 42%, Topping Analysts' Forecasts Microsoft reported a 42 percent earnings rise to $562 million, beating analyst estimates and belying reports of a slump in the personal computer industry.   

BUSINESS DIGEST

A dead whale found floating in the Delaware River yesterday was towed by tugboat to a United States Army base for an autopsy, officials said.          The animal, believed to be a fin whale, was a female about 30 feet long, weighing up to 20 tons, said Bob Schoelkopf, director of the Marine Mammal Stranding Center in Brigantine. An Army Corps of Engineers tugboat towed the whale to Fort Mifflin, near Philadelphia. The last dead whale in the Delaware was found about three years ago, said Jason Kennedy, a technician at the center.   TERRY PRISTIN   

New Jersey Daily Briefing;Dead Whale Found in River

I MOVE a track ball across a computer screen, clicking on "Jurassic Park," and a video monitor fills with rampaging dinosaurs hunting humans cowering in a  kitchen. But it's eerily silent at points. It's up to me to add the sound effects. A ladle drops, and I insert a frightening clang. But what sound for a rapacious raptor? I choose a kitten's "meow." Changed the scene, that did.         There are nine such interactive work stations, and many other striking new displays, at the redesigned American Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, where a large new long-term exhibition, "Behind the Screen," opens tomorrow after years of planning and $3 million in reconstruction.   

Anyone Can Become a Star in Astoria

Prime Minister Shimon Peres expressed regret today over the deaths of at least 75 Lebanese civilians in an Israeli artillery strike and said Israel was prepared to accept an immediate cease-fire if its Islamic guerrilla opponents did too.         But Mr. Peres defiantly insisted that Hezbollah guerrillas had provoked the attack on a United Nations base where the civilians were seeking shelter. He said Israel responded to guerrilla fire from near the base, not knowing that it  was packed with civilian refugees.   

DEATH IN LEBANON: ISRAEL;Voicing Regret, Israeli Leader Offers a Cease-Fire

The shark-nosed 1968 Plymouth Road Runner is alive again. Rick Tomlin, a middle-aged civil servant, had been working in his spare time to help his son restore it, but that project was cut short when a truck bomb tore through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, killing Mr. Tomlin and 167 others one year ago.         Jeremy, his 22-year-old son, finished the work himself. Now and then he steers the old car out onto one of the thin black ribbons of tar and gravel that link the wide, windswept country around Piedmont, just 30 minutes outside Oklahoma City, for what begins as a slow Sunday drive.   

A YEAR OF SORROW -- A special report.;Blast Toll Is No Longer in Deaths, but in Shattered Lives

A grim distinction for Jersey City: It is now second only to Washington in numbers of AIDS cases per 100,000 population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. Jersey City's rate in 1995 was 138.1 cases, down from 148.7 in 1994. Most of the cases resulted from drug abuse, Irene Hunt, the city's AIDS coordinator, said yesterday.          For the first time, Newark -- where the rate was 86.8 per 100,000 people --  was among the five cities with the highest AIDS rate.   

New Jersey Daily Briefing;Jersey City's Grim AIDS Toll

Accusing Gov. George E. Pataki of improperly trying to force his pro-death-penalty views on the state's prosecutors, District Attorney Robert T.  Johnson of the Bronx went to court yesterday to sue the Governor for removing him from a case involving the murder of a police officer.         Mr. Johnson, who was taken off the case when he refused to promise to seek the death penalty, argued in his suit filed in State Supreme Court that the state's capital punishment law does not require district attorneys to consider execution in first-degree-murder cases if they choose not to.   

District Attorney Sues Pataki Over Ouster From Case

Injecting its voice into the debate over economic insecurity, a lobbying group representing the nation's manufacturers issued an analysis today that it said rebutted "the conventional wisdom that wage stagnation and job loss represent reality for American workers."         The National Association of Manufacturers said in its report that there were  valid reasons why workers might feel uneasy about the future, reciting what has  now become a familiar list to employees of almost any company: global competition, the fast pace of technological change, demands on the labor force to continually upgrade its skills and the bigger bite taken out of paychecks by  taxes.   

Group Asserts U.S. Workers Are Better Off Than Thought

The Mayor of New Jersey's poorest city announced a plan yesterday to clean up more than a dozen contaminated sites in the hope of attracting developers to Camden. Mayor Arnold Webster said the city will use $1.3 million in state grants to target 14 sites that are currently unusable because of ground contamination from hazardous waste, The Associated Press reported.          Mayor Webster said several developers had expressed interest in the sites and that one proposal was for a supermarket. At present, the city of 87,000 has  only one supermarket.   

New Jersey Daily Briefing;Cleanup Planned in Camden

FOR whatever reasons, the time seems ripe for a smart, cheeky, buoyant revival of "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum," and the spiffy new  Jerry Zaks production, which opened last night at the St. James Theater, is it.          This brazenly retro Broadway musical, inspired by Plautus, is almost as timeless as comedy itself. Here's a glorious, old-fashioned farce that, with its vintage Stephen Sondheim score and its breathless book by Burt Shevelove and Larry Gelbart, celebrates everything that man holds least dear but can't deny himself: lust, greed, vanity, ambition; in short, all of those little failings that make man human.   

THEATER REVIEW;Nathan Lane In Sondheim's Roman Romp

IF this were pro football, they would be talking about getting pumped up for  the big one. Instead, it is the more rarefied, if no less commercial, world of auction houses, where they note in reserved fashion that the excitement is palpable. It amounts, however, to the same thing.          They are really pumped up at Sotheby's.   

NYC;At Sotheby's, A Yard Sale Like No Other

The Israeli Army fired an artillery barrage into a United Nations peacekeeping camp today, killing at least 75 Lebanese civilians and wounding more than 100. The attack, which Israel said came in response to rocket and mortar fire by guerrillas near the base, was by far the deadliest yet in the eight-day-old offensive in southern Lebanon.   

DEATH IN LEBANON: LEBANON;ISRAELI BARRAGE HITS U.N. CAMP IN LEBANON, KILLING AT LEAST 75

The Port Authority, which has tried for decades to build a direct connection  between Manhattan and Kennedy International Airport, is proposing a new $1 billion plan for a rail link between Pennsylvania Station and the airport.         Although the authority declines to discuss the project except in general terms, a draft version was presented to Gov. George E. Pataki several weeks ago. The Governor's top aides said he wants broad support for it before he endorses it.   

Rail Link Proposed From Penn Station to Kennedy Airport

On Tuesday morning, in Maureen Coleman's third-grade classroom at Public School 19 in the Bronx, 25 or so 8-year-olds stood up to take an oath. They were enthusiastic about what they perceived to be a ritual, though it seems fair to say they didn't know what they were about to swear to.         Ms. Coleman herself sat at the back, watching as the visiting teacher, Doug Berlizzi, importuned the pupils to raise their right hands and recite after him:   

Youthful Pawns With Dreams Of Royalty;Chess's Popularity Booms In New York Public Schools With Regular Lessons

More than 40,000 Metro-North commuters were delayed last night when a brush fire in the Bronx caused the railway to shut off service on the New Haven line.  The problem also caused major delays on the Harlem line.         The disruption left thousands of frustrated commuters milling around Grand Central Terminal, many standing in long lines at public telephones to call home.   

April 19, 1996

Headlines from April 19, 1996

INSIDE

CURRENCY MARKETS;Sooner Than Expected, Germans Cut Key Rates

Senate Defeats Dole Revision To Health Bill

Deregulation Of Phones: The Hard Part

New Jersey Daily Briefing;Ex-Lawmaker to Face Judge

Billboard 200

Jagged Little Pill

Falling Into You

The Score

Anthology 2

Tiny Music...Songs From The Vatican Gift Shop

Historical Context for April 19, 1996