May 24, 1996

WILLIAM MORRIS is an eminent Victorian (his life roughly spanned Queen Victoria's reign) whom everyone understands to be a pivotal figure of modern times, though most people nowadays don't actually know much about him beyond his namesake chair or his chintz designs. He is like his hero Ruskin in that regard, a household name yet, oddly, obscure. Who today reads "Sigurd the Volsung," the Morris poem that George Bernard Shaw declared "the greatest epic since Homer"? With the possible exception of his utopian novel "News From Nowhere," his works go virtually unread.

Ever since he was elected, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani has derided New York's public hospitals and vowed to turn some of them over to private hospitals, which he says will provide the poor with better care and save the city money. Three hospitals are on the auction block and the administration predicts a deal this summer. But as the Mayor and his advisers try to spin off large chunks of the system to the private sector, so far unsuccessfully, critics say they have so neglected the hospitals that patient services and building conditions are worse than at any time in recent years.

In a major victory for the beleaguered tobacco industry, a Federal appeals panel in New Orleans unanimously dismissed a giant class-action lawsuit brought against the nation's cigarette makers on behalf of millions of smokers. The three judges' ruling overturned a 1995 decision that would have permitted almost any cigarette smoker in the United States to join a suit that could have cost the industry billions of dollars in claims. The lawsuit, which would have been the largest class-action case in American history, accused tobacco companies of concealing evidence that smoking is addictive and of manipulating nicotine levels in cigarettes.

The state trooper who was critically injured when he lost control of his cruiser during a chase died yesterday, the State Police said. The trooper, Francis J. Bellaran, 32, was the 58th trooper to die in the line of duty in the 75-year history of the State Police, said John Hagerty, a spokesman for the department. Trooper Bellaran crashed into a clump of trees Monday while chasing a speeding motorcycle that may have been stolen, The A.P. reported. A suspect, Louis D. Goodman, 19, surrendered Wednesday and was charged, before Trooper Bellaran's death, with aggravated assault, a Monmouth County Assistant Prosecutor, Alton Kenney, said.

Vinik Quits as Manager Of Fidelity Magellan Fund Jeffrey N. Vinik, the embattled portfolio manager of the Fidelity Magellan fund, the country's largest mutual fund, resigned, sending some tremors through the mutual fund industry.

The entertainment giant that convinced the world that mice can talk and elephants can fly is joining forces with the fast-food giant that convinced the world that adding a "secret sauce" to a hamburger sandwich makes it big and adding a toy to a children's meal makes it happy. The Walt Disney Company and the McDonald's Corporation announced a landmark, decade-long cross-promotional agreement yesterday that underscores how familiar brand names are increasingly being wielded like powerful weapons by huge global marketers.

State Police troopers will begin pulling out of Camden before the week's end, a spokeswoman for Gov. Christine Todd Whitman said yesterday evening. The State Police were sent in Jan. 5 to beef up patrols in high-crime areas of the impoverished city. In a letter to the Mayor of Camden, Arnold Webster, the Governor wrote that the troopers would be withdrawn as Camden officials begin to put new crime-fighting suggestions from the state into effect, The Associated Press said. Several state task forces will remain in the city after the State Police leave, the Governor wrote. Mayor Webster did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The United States and its NATO allies have failed this week in an effort to remove from power the Bosnian Serb political and military leaders, who have been indicted for war crimes. While insisting that the West would continue to press for the arrest of Radovan Karadzic, the political leader, and Gen. Ratko Mladic, the military commander, several senior Western officials said they would probably end up accepting an arrangement under which both continued to wield power in Bosnia.

The president of Rutgers University has decided to abolish the position of provost of the New Brunswick campus, a move that will eliminate about 25 jobs. Some faculty members said that President Francis L. Lawrence was trying to consolidate his own power, but the ousted provost, Joseph Potenza, described the decision yesterday as "an efficiency move." Many of Dr. Potenza's duties in overseeing Rutgers' colleges will be assumed by Joseph Seneca, university vice president for academic affairs, and Richard Foley, dean of the faculty of arts and sciences.

After eight weeks of Democratic pressure, the House today overwhelmingly passed legislation to raise the Federal minimum wage to $5.15 an hour from $4.25. The final vote was 281 to 144, with 93 Republicans joining 187 Democrats and 1 independent in favor, and 6 Democrats and 138 Republicans opposed.

In a sign that the Hudson is again a bountiful, swimmable river and no longer an open sewer and convenient dump site, Westchester County officials have announced that the county's only public beach on the river, at Croton Point Park, will open for swimming for the first time since 1987, starting on the Fourth of July. For decades, the beach had been shunned and then closed because the water was tainted with sewage and the graceful half-mile arc of white sand was only 100 yards from the county's smelly, seeping landfill.

Federal Election Commission records released yesterday showed that in the heated race to fill Bill Bradley's United States Senate seat, Dick Zimmer raised more money than his fellow Congressman, Robert Torricelli -- $571,948 in the reporting period from April 1 though May 15, compared to $536,040 for Mr. Torricelli. But Mr. Zimmer, a Republican who unlike Mr. Torricelli has to contend with a June 4 primary, outspent the Democrat by a margin of $382,858 to $214,233, The A.P. reported. Mr. Torricelli's spokesman said the figures do not include $500,000 from a Jersey City fund-raiser attended by President Clinton.