May 9, 1996

AT 11:52 A.M. on March 1, 1996, my wife, Renee, was initiated into the sisterhood of motherhood with the birth of our first child, Olivia Michelle. Not surprisingly, Mother's Day will hold a singular significance in our household as she revels for the first time in its sweeping ritual of maternal appreciation.

YOU could almost hear a collective gasp emanating from the portraits of venerable lawyers lining the walls of the City Bar Association meeting hall the other night when a speaker first uttered the term. "Superpredators!" It has shock value all right. And it solves a little puzzle. For those New Yorkers wondering why their Governor wants to get tougher on juvenile crime -- even though the headlines blare news of a persistently dropping crime rate -- here is one answer. It is fear of the future and of superpredators -- a term in vogue among some criminologists who are predicting a sharp increase in violent crime in the next few years as the number of teen-agers soars.

President Clinton and Senator Bob Dole blamed each other today for gridlock in Congress, as senators from both parties clawed for maximum advantage on obvious election-year issues like raising the minimum wage and reducing the Federal gasoline tax. Mr. Clinton said the only fair way to "break this logjam" was for Republicans not to "ruin these good bipartisan bills" by adding special provisions to them. He said those add-ons were "poison pills" intended to invite vetoes so the Republicans could maintain that he opposed the basic bills.

Gov. George E. Pataki proposed legislation today that would establish a broad range of protection for patients enrolled in managed health care plans. The State Legislature has struggled for several years to adopt tighter regulations on the rapidly growing managed-care industry, only to fail in the clash of competing special interests.

Economic Expansion Is Solid, Fed Survey Finds The economy picked up at a moderate pace in March and April, a survey by the Federal Reserve found, more evidence that expansion is generally solid again, except in the New York area. Furthermore, price increases were subdued, the central bank said.

South Africa adopted a new Constitution today, officially and peacefully completing the country's transition from centuries of white supremacy to a nonracial democracy. In the austere parliamentary chamber where many of apartheid's laws were created, the Constitutional Assembly embraced a document that renounces the racism of the past and guarantees all South Africans broad freedoms of speech, movement and political activity.

SHE frowns. "You're too timid." Maybe it's the apron. I am standing in David Letterman's mother's kitchen, and Dorothy Mengering, the sweetest, nicest mother in America (except you, Mom!) is losing her patience.

Few people have seen John C. Malone recently. But it seems that everybody is wondering what's on his mind. With the Federal Trade Commission threatening to block the merger of Time Warner Inc. and Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Mr. Malone and his cable company, Tele-Communications Inc., are once again the center of attention.

From pint-sized Jeep Wranglers to Chevrolet Suburbans the size of a garage, sport utility vehicles have been the mainstay of profits at Detroit's Big Three auto makers since the late 1980's. But now a small traffic jam of new models is emerging in the market, and auto executives predict that the profits, while still enormous, will start to erode. The Ford Motor Company plans to display its largest offering, the three-bench, nine-passenger Ford Expedition, at its annual meeting in Kansas City, Mo., on Thursday. In the last four months, Toyota has introduced the small RAV 4 sport utility and the Lexus LX 450, Nissan has completely redesigned its Pathfinder and Chrysler has come out with a new Jeep Wrangler.

Small businesses in 19 New Jersey counties that rely on sales to farmers may be eligible for up to $1.5 million in disaster loans because of financial losses resulting from last summer's drought, the Department of Agriculture said yesterday.

Asked yesterday which way stock and bond prices were going, Wall Street traders responded like the confused posse in a slapstick Western, shouting "Thataway!," and pointing in every direction at once. Thus began a day of extraordinary volatility on the New York Stock Exchange. Less than an hour after the start of trading, sharply falling stock prices triggered the Big Board's 50-point "collar," which attempts to quell volatility by restricting certain types of computer-driven trading.

Which Way Is Up on Wall St.?