July 19, 1996

For the sixth year in a row, New Jersey's bonds have received an AA+ rating, the second-highest, from the Standard & Poor's Corporation. The state is a good risk because of its "demonstrated ability to balance its financial operations and maintain adequate balances in an environment of slowed economic growth," Standard & Poor's said Wednesday. Moody's Investors Service also gives New Jersey's bonds its second-highest rating, Aa1.

Under a blazing sun and against otherwise peaceful waters, the United States Coast Guard laid an imaginary grid over 240 square miles of the Atlantic Ocean today to help in the meticulous recovery of the airplane shards, personal effects and bodies that rained from the sky Wednesday night when a Boeing 747 exploded off eastern Long Island. Coast Guard officials said their mission was threefold: to search for survivors, to recover the remains of the dead and and to recover every piece of T.W.A. Flight 800, from passenger seats to the flight data recorder, so that investigators could reassemble the craft and learn the cause of the deadly blast.

Federal law enforcement officials said yesterday that the most likely explanation for the fiery crash of T.W.A. Flight 800 was that a bomb or, perhaps, a missile sent the airplane plunging into the Atlantic Ocean off Long Island on Wednesday night, killing all 230 people on board. By yesterday evening, the remains of more than 120 people had been recovered, and investigators had begun examining pieces of the plane that were fished from the crash site and brought to land.

Never mind. That, at first glance, is what the stock market seems to be saying now about the severe case of the jitters it suffered early this week over the outlook for corporate earnings. The disappointing results reported last week by Hewlett-Packard and Motorola, which had helped prompt investors to dump stocks, were overwhelmed by reports of strong profits from investor favorites like Merck & Company and the McDonald's Corporation.

At noon on Wednesday, a Susquehanna Trailways bus stopped in front of the high school here to take 16 students from the French Club and 5 chaperons to John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York City to begin a 10-day trip to France. Luggage was loaded. Hugs, kisses and farewells were traded. Less than 24 hours later, two buses donated by the same company pulled up in front of the school to make the same five-hour trip, this time to carry grief-shattered relatives to the airport to identify the bodies of the travelers. All of them were presumed lost when Trans World Airlines Flight 800 plunged in flaming shards into the Atlantic.