February 28, 1997

Peter S Knight, chairman of Clinton-Gore re-election campaign, organized White House coffee last summer that was explicitly intended to bring in $500,000 from 10 wealthy Texans; they had already contributed total of $500,000 in unregulated donations, or soft money, to Democratic National Committee; Texans and their corporations contributed additional $132,800 to committee in days after White House coffee, according to analysis of Federal Election Commission records by Campaign Study Group; Pres Clinton says fund-raisers never solicited contributions at White House or sold admission to coffees, but Knight refers to coffee as 'fund raiser' in July 14, 1996 memorandum; among guests who attended coffee was American Income Life Insurance Co CEO Bernard Rapoport, who contributed $153,000 to DNC (M)

A corporate financing maneuver that had exploded in popularity in the last month has been banned by the I.R.S., which called it a tax dodge that threatened a major loss of revenue for the Treasury. The action halted billions of dollars of transactions that had been arranged for dozens of corporations.

Carlstadt (NJ) officials sue to stop project in which state, as part of development with Japanese developer, would move Route 120, which bisects site at Meadowlands, where developer hopes to build $265 million sports theme park and shopping mall; Carlstadt officials argue that taxpayers should not have to pay for $92 million road-moving project that benefits a private developer, Kajima International (S) (New Jersey Daily Briefing)

New Jersey Legislature approves bill requiring state's 3,016 day care centers to test every five years for radon, odorless gas that is second-leading cause of of lung cancer in country, after smoking; state cannot force centers to remove radon from their buildings, but new law requires them to post test results as well as any plans to remove radon (S) (New Jersey Daily Briefing)

Michael Kimmelman reviews photomontages of late German Dadaist Hannah Hoch, at Museum of Modern Art in New York; photo (M)