General Motors Corp raises quarterly dividend to 50 cents a share from 40 cents and sets $2.5 billion stock buyback; plans to buy back some 5 percent of shares outstanding over next 12 months (M)

G.M. Increases Payout and Sets Stock Buyback

Atlantic City casino operators report flat revenues over last year as casino fervor abates (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Casino Fever Cools a Bit

AT&T Corp sets modest foray into local phone business; will offer service to small- and medium-size business customers in California, leasing lines from Pacific Telesis Group; will offer to handle local outgoing calls for large business customers in 35 states that have dedicated lines connecting their offices to AT&T's long-distance network; analysts say plans are less ambitious than those of MCI Communications (M)

AT&T Is Venturing Cautiously Into Local Telephone Business

Article profiles career of Yonkers, NY, Mayor John D Spencer; his first term in office is seen by many as restoration of sense of calm to notoriously quarrelsome political arena; photo (M)

Mayor Restores Sense of Calm To a City Known for Conflict

New York State legislators are considering several different proposals that would allow parents to start tax-exempt savings accounts for tuition while their children are newborns or to pay tuition in advance at today's prices (M)

Tax-Free Savings Plans Urged in Albany for College Tuition

At the start of 1996, casino operators here were making money so fast that they audaciously began to suggest that this city was on its way to becoming the country's gambling capital.    ''We're outpacing Las Vegas,'' Donald J. Trump gushed then, as he pointed out that the total gross revenue for Atlantic City's 12 casinos in 1995 was more than that for the 18 largest casinos in Las Vegas.  

Atlantic City Casino Industry Is Facing a Chancier Future

Woman, ex-husband she said had threatened to kill her and former superintendent of state prison boot camp for juvenile offenders were killed in explosion and fire that leveled couple's home in Fieldsboro, NJ (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

3 Fire Victims Identified

 EXTREME ANGST  The promoter of an extreme fighting match in New York City doubts it will occur. B3.    BUDDING TALENT  New York State had almost half the winners in the Westinghouse Talent Search. B4.    SUBTERRANEAN ADS  Officials backtrack on plans to limit subway display space to those who buy large blocks of ads. Metro Business, B6.  

INSIDE METRO

Jersey City Police Director Michael F Moriarty says that long-ignored curfew for minors has been successful in cutting juvenile arrests (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Police Say Curfew Worked

 Simpson Case Winds Down  Plaintiffs and defense summarize their cases in the civil lawsuit against O. J. Simpson. Page A10.    A Candidate and Schools  Announcing his run for mayor, Fernando Ferrer focused on problems in New York City schools. Page B3.    Swiss Ambassador Quits  The Swiss envoy resigned and apologized after publication of a diplomatic cable criticizing Jewish groups and describing a dispute over Holocaust deposits as a war. Page A4.    Education Tax Breaks Urged  A plan to give tax breaks to parents who save for college tuition is getting support in Albany. Page B1.    Art Imitating Art?  Some art dealers charge that a Florida auctioneer plans to put dozens of fakes on the block. Page C9.  

INSIDE

The State Senate unanimously passed a package of bills yesterday that would prohibit ''drive-by'' mastectomies. Under the legislation, health insurance companies would be forced to pay for a woman to remain in the hospital for 72 hours after a radical mastectomy and 48 hours after a simple mastectomy. The bills would not apply to women who were covered by out-of-state insurance firms.  

Banning 'Drive-By' Surgery

World's business and political elite are set to gather for World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland; Davos meeting and smaller forums around world through year have become powerful attractions, with hundreds of business leaders paying $20,000 per company to attend and pursue contracts and contacts with top politicians and pundits; Prof Klaus Schwab, who created forum, set rules that chief executives represent their firms and that politicians not get honorariums; graphs; table; photos (M)

Political and Corporate Elite Soak Up Big Ideas at Davos

Barbara Bissell, widow of Nicholas L Bissell Jr, former Somerset County Prosecutor, must begin her 27-month prison sentence this week for her fraud and tax evasion conviction (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Mrs. Bissell Must Start Term

Clyde Haberman NYC column expresses support for requiring New York City police officers to reside in city (M)

An Invitation To City Police: Try City Life

Hilton Hotels Corp, in surprise move, offers to buy ITT Corp for $6.5 billion and assume ITT's $4 billion of debt; merger would make Hilton world's largest hotel and gambling company; Hilton president Stephen F Bollenbach comments, interview (M)

Hilton Makes $6.5 Billion Bid for ITT

Trial of Lemrick Nelson Jr and Charles Price for murder of Yankel Rosenbaum in 1991 violence in Crown Heights section of Brooklyn continues; Nelson's former girlfriend Travionne Shaw testifies that Nelson told her that he stabbed Rosenbaum (M)

Friend of Crown Heights Suspect Says He Confessed

Gennaro Dellamonica pleads guilty, Newark, NJ, to extortion and assault charges in connection with persuading gasoline dealer from dealing with company not linked to organized crime family (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Guilty Plea in Mob Case

In his first interview since the killing of his son, Ennis, Bill Cosby spoke of his family's anguish and said that he wanted to be able to grieve with dignity and still provide laughter.  

Cosby Seeks Dignity, And Some Laughter

Balloonists, with another season of failures behind them, are betting that many small improvements in technology will add up to victory in next few years; three balloon teams that tried in vain this month to circle the world spent total of more than $4 million, and as more teams enter the race in the future, price of admission will go up steadily; technology to fly as long and as far as possible discussed; diagrams (L)

Undaunted By Failure, Balloonists Vow to Try Again

Pres Clinton, in keeping with campaign promise, will soon ask Congress to provide tax credits to businesses that hire long-term welfare recipients, Administration officials say; critics have begun to express doubts about whether such credits will achieve their goal; economists say that similar credits in past have provided windfall to employers without significantly increasing number of poor people hired; under Clinton's proposal, which will be included in his budget, employers could take a credit equal to 50 percent of first $10,000 in wages paid to long-term welfare recipients, somewhat larger subsidy than has been available in past; tax credit would be available for hiring people who had been on welfare for at least 18 months (M)

CLINTON WILL SEEK TAX BREAK TO EASE PATH OFF WELFARE

Many American investors are deciding that they no longer need expert to find best investments; they are investing in mutual funds whose sole purpose is to mimic performance of stock market; known as index funds, these funds simply hold shares in all companies that make up popular stock market index; these funds run on autopilot, giving up chance to do any better than market average but also guaranteeing that except for nominal cost of running fund, they will do no worse; people who sell index funds say that many investors appear to be full of misconceptions about relative safety of their investment; graphs (M)

Riding Wall St. on Autopilot: Indexed Funds Draw Investors

Conservationists say stray cats are driving some indigenous birds and other species to extinction in Australia; say 12 million wild cats have been killing small creatures whose evolution has not taught them that cats are their enemy; Richard Evans, member of Parliament, is calling for eradication of cats in Australia by year 2020; he has drawn wide support with his proposal to kill all cats by neutering and spreading fatal feline diseases in wild; photo (M)

The Stray Cats of Australia: 9 Lives Seen as 9 Too Many

Dr Leon Gordis, chairman of expert panel that advises National Institutes of Health, says nothing prepared him for venomous reaction his panel got when it reported that there was no reason to recommend routine mammograms for women under 50; Gordis and others say reaction says more about politics and psychology of breast cancer than it does about science behind committee's decision (L)

Stand on Mammograms Greeted by Outrage

Archeologists discover ruins and monuments in Yemen that date from the time when frankincense and myrrh were among world's most coveted commodities; myrrh was ingredient of cosmetics and perfumes, a social kindness in cultures unaccustomed to daily bathing, and was applied medicinally in poultices and ointments; Egyptians used frankincese in embalming, and pharaohs believed that burning it allowed them to commune with the gods; maps; photos (L)

Ruins in Yemeni Desert Mark Route of Frankincense Trade

Police Comr Howard Safir says slowdown of ticket-writing by police officers in contract dispute has escalated sharply; he orders his top commanders to take measures against tactics, which have cost city several million dollars in Jan; some commanders say there is little hope that countermeasures can be effective; latest slowdown, by officers who have been without contract for two years, began around Jan 1 and has led to decline of 60,000 parking and moving violation tickets by Jan 19, compared with year ago; conservative estimates suggest that decline had exceeded 70,000 tickets by Jan 27; loss of revenue appears to be over $3.85 million (M)

January 28, 1997

Headlines from January 28, 1997

G.M. Increases Payout and Sets Stock Buyback

Casino Fever Cools a Bit

AT&T Is Venturing Cautiously Into Local Telephone Business

Mayor Restores Sense of Calm To a City Known for Conflict

Tax-Free Savings Plans Urged in Albany for College Tuition

Billboard 200

Tragic Kingdom

Romeo + Juliet

Falling Into You

Blue

Secrets

Historical Context for January 28, 1997