July 3, 1996

When the deal freeing hospital rates is signed in Albany, hospitals across the state will find themselves consolidating departments, merging with other institutions to give themselves greater bargaining power, cutting programs and services that lose money and laying off employees. Which is to say, hospitals will continue along a course they've been traveling for the last several years, only now at a greatly accelerated pace.

NASA selected the Lockheed Martin Corporation today to build a futuristic experimental rocket that could lead to drastic cuts in the cost of putting payloads into space. The wedge-shaped re-usable vehicle, the X-33, will be the first major new spacecraft built by the United States in 25 years. It is a step toward replacing the space shuttle, and will be built under a program intended to move much of the initiative for developing high-risk technologies out of NASA's hands and into those of private industry.

Maureen Kaman is giving up the keys to the tax assessor's office, but she is not giving up the fight. Ms. Kaman, Montague's tax assessor since 1992, was dismissed last week after the Township Committee determined that her term had expired in 1994 and that she had never been officially reappointed. But Ms. Kaman contended that the township's failure to take action on her $13,000-a-year part-time post in 1994 amounted to a de facto four-year reappointment. She refused to turn over the keys to the office and filing cabinets, according to a lawyer for the township. Yesterday, a Superior Court judge in Morristown ordered Ms. Kaman to vacate the office. Her lawyer, Maurice J. Donovan of West Orange, said she planned to appeal.

In an announcement that took executives and analysts in the beverage industry by surprise, Pepsico Inc. said yesterday that Christopher A. Sinclair, head of its $11 billion worldwide beverage operations, had resigned for "personal reasons" after fewer than four months in the job.

NEW YORK is the best place in the world for people who like to eat. This city has never needed to apologize for the quality of its food. Reading old restaurant guides makes it clear that a hungry person has been able to find almost anything here for a very long time.