April 7, 1997

Jack Kent Cooke, who started out selling encyclopedias and went on to build empires in newspapers, cable television and sports, died yesterday at 84.

Women's ice hockey, which has gained international acceptance and authentication on its own terms over past 12 years will, for first time be Olympic medal event at 1998 Winter Games in Nagano, Japan; qualification by US team for Winter Games noted at recent women's world hockey championships noted; number of women playing hockey in US jumped from 5,533 to 20,555 during past decade, and, on college level, women's hockey is emerging sport on 25th anniversary of Title IX, which forbids discrimination on basis of gender; photos (M)

Oakland Athletics defeat New York Yankees, 3-0; photo (M)

Larry Flynt Publishing Inc, which is solely owned by its namesake, appears to be in financial difficulty; company has sold or closed handful of its more mainstream magazines within last 18 months, and will refocus on its sexually explicit publications; retrenching to its hard-core core is risky strategy at time when large chunks of readership are finding same photography and mindset through other media--often for less; other skin magazines have seen their circulations plummet also, and have diversified; but Larry Flynt has chosen to stay focused on print and on making his Hustler magazine 'the most outrageous magazine out there'; photos; graph (M)

About 90,000 Ocean County residents begin conserving water over weekend because tests are being conducted on water supply in Toms River area, where traces of carcinogens were found in November (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)