November 7, 1997

35 families who work cranberry bogs of New Jersey's pinelands want to expand their 3,800 acres of fields into adjacent wetlands--including portions of Pine Barrens; proposal has support of state environmental officials and some state conservation groups, but it is oppposed by Federal environmental agencies and national environmental groups, who fear that loss of wetlands to agriculture will damage sensitive ecology of state's pinelands; New Jersey is third-largest cranberry producer in world; photo (M)

Ben Brantley reviews Neil Simon's play Proposals; photos (L)

Direct marketers retreat from tentative deal with state officials over collecting sales taxes after being deluged with calls from angry customers; LL Bean issues statement saying it has no plans to begin collecting sales taxes from out-of-state customers; proposed pact reached beetween state tax authorities and Direct Marketing Assn would have cost consumers estimated $1.2 billion annually in sales taxes; under terms of deal, companies that collected sales tax would get several benefits, including protection against multiple audits and right to maintain limited business presence outside their home state; direct marketers seriously misjudged how their customers would take news; they now face threatened loss of business if they proceed with sales tax pact (M)

Faced with protests from angry consumers, mail-order companies are backing away from a tentative agreement on sales taxes that their trade association had reached with tax authorities from a number of states. Under the agreement, which had been expected to be announced as early as today, many merchants would have begun collecting sales taxes from out-of-state customers on catalogue and other direct-mail sales.

New Jersey Republican legislative leaders say they will push through major proposals to reduce automobile insurance premiums; say solution will not be Gov Christine Todd Whitman's plan, and it will probably not happen until 1998; say one plan they are seriously considering would essentially abolish state's no-fault insurance system; Assembly majority leader Paul DiGaetano comments (M)