May 4, 1996

The old-salt maritime culture of New London, Conn., has appeared headed for the history books in recent years. The whaling fleets are faded memories, the submarine bays mere shadows of their cold war height. Ten miles up the Thames River in Ledyard, the Mashantucket Pequot Indian tribe has surged from one triumph to another as owner of what is estimated to be the country's most profitable gambling enterprise, Foxwoods Casino. From hotels and golf courses to spas and gravel quarries, the tribe has poured its millions into the local economy, becoming the economic engine of the region and its largest private employer.

A day after the Government reported unexpectedly sharp growth in the economy in the first quarter, the Labor Department said today that the job market during April was lackluster. But the signs of more modest growth failed to dissipate the fears of a rise in inflation that rattled the financial markets on Thursday. The nation's unemployment rate eased to 5.4 percent in April -- an improvement from 5.6 percent in March and the lowest level in 14 months -- despite a meager growth in payrolls of only 2,000 jobs.

As Republicans gird for a convention battle over abortion, Ralph Reed, the executive director of the Christian Coalition, said today that he would accept changes in the party's platform and would "reluctantly" accept legislationthat, while banning abortion, would permitexceptions in cases of rape, incest and danger to the mother's life. Mr. Reed's comments, in a telephone interview, put him squarely at odds with other anti-abortion forces within the Republican Party, who view any modification in the platform as a retreat.

The vision was a grand one: a state university system to rival California's, offering inexpensive education to students from Buffalo to Long Island and training a skilled work force to attract business to the state. But three decades after Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller pushed the establishment of the nation's largest public system from a patchwork of teachers colleges and specialized schools, representatives of a new Republican governor say that the State University of New York does not work.

Moving with unusual speed and over the protests of its four most liberal Justices, the Supreme Court agreed today to decide the constitutionality of some of the limits a new Federal law has placed on state prison inmates' access to Federal court. No lower court has yet decided the questions the Supreme Court framed today for its own review, with the Justices unexpectedly choosing as their vehicle a Georgia death row inmate's request for a stay of execution. His petition reached the Court only Thursday. The law the Court will review, the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996, was signed by President Clinton nine days ago.