February 22, 1998

Robert Lipsyte interview with Philip Reed, lifelong advocate and agitator on discrimination, housing and HIV issues and freshmen City Councilman from district that takes in parts of East Harlem, Upper West Side and South Bronx; Reed, who is child of interracial marriage, gay and HIV positive, decided to seek office after completing 18 months of chemotherapy for bone-marrow cancer; drawing (M)

Special Today: Fashions of The Times Magazine Part 2 This spring, there's a new forward motion in fashion.

Alex Witchel article on a reading she and a friend had with James Van Praagh, who wrote the best-selling Talking to Heaven: A Medium's Message of Life After Death and who claims his psychic ability allows him to communicate with the dead; photos (L)

One of the most secret documents of the cold war is out, 36 years after it was written. It is the Central Intelligence Agency's own inquiry into the Bay of Pigs fiasco, the invasion to overthrow Fidel Castro that caused the deaths of nearly 1,500 raiders. With brutal honesty, the report put the blame squarely on what it described as arrogance, ignorance and incompetence within the C.I.A. itself. The report painted a picture of an agency shot through with deadly self-deception, and concluded that its secret operations were ''ludicrous or tragic, or both.'' The document also warned those who would use the C.I.A. to overthrow enemies that such efforts belong to the Pentagon.

Robert Lipsyte comment on implications for women's sports of gold-medal victory by American women's team at Nagano Olympics in stereotypical male sport of ice hockey; cites hope that women will replace morality and passion lost from men's sports; photos (M)1

Security cameras are proliferating in New York City with few objections; cameras have been installed at toll plazas, subway platforms, traffic lights and in apartment buildings and office towers; Police Dept installed cameras in Washington Square Park in Jan, and city is preparing to install them in housing projects; many people feel that cameras are acceptable price to pay for increased safety; handful of groups led by New York Civil Liberties Union have begun to question proliferation of cameras; photos (M)

New condominium, with 41 apartments and 20 floors, is rising on south side of West 86th Street east of Amsterdam Ave in Manhattan; average apartment will sell for $1 million; buyer of building, and current developer, is Israeli-owned development company called Tishray Realty, based in Fort Lee, NJ; drawing (M)

Ross Perot, in three months since taking over as interim chief executive of Perot Systems Inc, has adopted numerous changes in response to sharp drop in earnings in 1997 first half; has campaigned around nation to rally employees and sign new accounts; discusses plans to stay on while he trains and tests successor, interview; graphs; photos (L)

Many Afrikaners are groping for honorable berths in new South Africa nearly four years after white supremacist Government was forced to hand over power to black majority; none of Afrikaners are finding it easy; many feel humiliated and powerless and think their very existence is under attack; compared with hardships they imposed on blacks, complaints of Afrikaners seem slight, but they are nonetheless painful for them; significant numbers of Afrikaners, who call themselves white tribe of Africa, are emigrating; others, determined to remain, expect uphill battle; photos (M)

Summer rental fees in beach areas of Northeast seem to holding steady or going up 5 to 10 percent; about 90 percent of properties in New Jersey and Long Island were booked by mid-February; photos (L)

Interview with Marlo Thomas, star of That Girl television series back in 1966-71, who has re-emerged as a foul-mouthed fashion photographer in The Real Blonde, a new film; photo (M)

Roberta Kraft is $38,700 in debt. She owes money on her Visa card. She owes money on her American Express card. She owes money to her parents and to her best friend from college. She and her husband have not bought new clothes in two years and live in a cramped one-bedroom apartment because they have spent all their discretionary income -- and a good chunk of their future earnings -- in a single pursuit: trying to have a baby. In her still unsuccessful quest, Ms. Kraft has economized in ways she never imagined. She bought fertility drugs from a pharmacy in Mexico because they were cheaper than those sold in her Upper East Side neighborhood. She withdrew money from a retirement account, paying steep penalties. She sold a pair of diamond earrings she had inherited from her grandmother, tearfully rationalizing that her grandmother would have given her blessing.