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.