June 26, 1996

Defying advocates for animal rights, the State Fish and Game Council voted last night to allow a coyote hunting season in New Jersey for the first time next winter, from Feb. 1 to Feb. 17. Roger R. Locandro, chairman of the council, said that coyotes, once extinct in the state, now number around 1,200 and pose an increasing menace to domestic animals. "They'll kill anything," Mr. Locandro said: "sheep, chickens, cats, dogs."

Until now, only private companies have made money from billboards visible from the New Jersey Turnpike, but not built on its property. Now, the Turnpike Authority wants in, and yesterday its board voted to erect billboards on toll road property for the first time. The authority will put 12 two-sided billboards along the turnpike north of Interchange 10 in Edison, said Lynn Fleeger, aspokeswoman for the agency. Annual revenues are expected to range from $750,000 to $1.5 million, she said.

IT was 1988 during the intifada, or uprising, in the Israeli-occupied territories. Tempers were short. The police officer who stuck his head into David Turnley's car was in no mood for pleasantries. They were in a West Bank town in what the Israelis called a no-go area, banned to the news media. Mr. Turnley, a photographer for The Detroit Free Press who went on to win a Pulitzer Prize two years later, was where he wasn't supposed to be, and he knew it.

Consumers felt markedly less confident about the economy this month, displaying a pessimism that could herald a slowdown in economic growth during the second half of the year, the Conference Board's monthly sampling of households showed today. The business research group said its overall index of confidence skidded nearly 6 points, to 97.6, the lowest since January, and the second consecutive decline since reaching a six-year high of 104.8 in April. The rating was lower in seven of the nine geographic regions, with New England and the Southwest showing improvement.

Western Resources Plans A Hostile Bid for Utility Kansas City Power and Light rejected a sweetened takeover bid of $1.9 billion from Western Resources, and the spurned utility immediately countered that it would take its $31-a-share bid directly to Kansas City Power shareholders.