June 3, 1996

No Sweep at Tonys

The political war over the future of Medicare, a cannonade of oratory and statistical rotten tomatoes that has already thoroughly spattered both parties, is about to resume. And with near-religious fervor, for this time, control of both Congress and the Presidency could turn on the outcome. On Wednesday, the trustees of the $200 billion-a-year Medicare system are expected to confirm warnings by the Congressional Budget Office that the program is going broke faster than ever.

When Dr. Paul I. Dantzig moved from Utica, N.Y., and bought an $825,000 home here in 1994, he wanted to make a few changes. The house for one. It had to go. So he had it torn down and began work on another. Then, there was the forested yard. An unattractive mess, he thought. So he tore 95 trees down, too, to make room for his vision of flowering magnolias, fruit trees and rhododendrons that would, Dr. Dantzig said, turn his two-acre property into "the nicest lot in Greenwich."

LIKE most people, Kimberli Rothwell has mixed feelings about welfare. She considers it demeaning, and thinks it fosters dependency and is riddled with fraud. She also knows something else about welfare. She knows it made it possible for her to be what she is today, which is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, winner of a scholarship for her doctoral studies in sociology, graduating with honors this week from Queens College.

A former Merrill Lynch bond processor could receive five years in prison and a $1.1 million fine at his sentencing on Aug. 26, after he pleaded guilty in Federal court on Friday to embezzling more than $550,000. Beginning in 1993, the authorities said, Ronald F. Hart, 45, of Queens, identified bond accounts whose owners had not collected interest for years -- most of them managed by Charles Schwab, the discount brokerage firm -- and forged requests for payment, according to the United States Attorney's office. JOE SHARKEY

Silicon Valley, held in the Internet's thrall, has found a new religion. Its symbols are everywhere -- including the slide that David Hancock recently used to illustrate a sermon to his management team. "Speed is God," read the slide, as Mr. Hancock, chief executive of the Hitachi Corporation's new portable computer division, began preaching the need to rush out the group's first product. "And time," Mr. Hancock said for emphasis, "is the devil."

A man who was with a New York City police detective accused in the beating of a young black man outside a nightclub here said through his lawyer today that there were no other police officers in their group of four. He has also agreed to testify without immunity before a grand jury. As the man, Austin Offen, laid out considerable new details about the beating, the detective, Constantine Chronis, also contended in an account he related to a jailhouse visitor that no other officers were among the people he was with that night.

Scott Reed, Bob Dole's campaign manager, sits at his desk at campaign headquarters here in a classic Reed pose, with eight rows of papers strung out neatly before him, arrayed like spokes on a bicycle wheel. On top of the papers are two pads of lined white paper, with two lengthy lists running down each pad. Mr. Reed will have eliminated each paper from each row before he leaves.

The percentage of New York City high school students graduating in the traditional four years has reached a five-year low, according to the Board of Education. But with the dropout rate also falling over the same period, there are now more 19-, 20- and 21-year-olds than ever in classrooms. These students, according to a report from the board, have confronted a variety of obstacles to finishing high school on schedule. Many incoming freshmen are already behind academically and are older than their peers. A growing number of students are recent immigrants with limited fluency in English. Others face a gamut of social and family problems. This year, about 10 percent of the city's 300,000 high school students are over 18, officials said.

Nightly curfews for teen-agers, like those recommended last week by President Clinton and Senator Bob Dole, have shown encouraging signs of reducing juvenile crime in several cities across the nation. Yet a number of experts and law-enforcement officials say that while the curfews are overwhelmingly popular with politicians and the public, they may produce only temporary benefits and do not resolve the fundamental problems of restoring family discipline or providing young people with better schools or job opportunities. The critics also point out that most juvenile crime occurs after school, from 3 to 6 P.M., not late at night when most of the curfews are in force.

Sending conciliatory messages in all directions in his first speech since his election as Israel's Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu today issued ringing calls for harmony at home and peace with the Arabs. "This evening I stretch out my hand in peace to all the Arab leaders and all of our neighbors, our Palestinian neighbors," Mr. Netanyahu declared. "I call on you to join us on the road to real peace with security."

'Skeletal' Models Cause a Furor A day after the Swiss watch manufacturer Omega said it had suspended its advertising in the British version of Vogue to protest the magazine's use of what Omega called skeletal models in a fashion layout, Omega's chairman overruled the company's marketing manager and said the advertising would continue.