January 23, 2006

When the crew from Fire Engine Company 22 raced off at 7:50 a.m. the other day for the first call of their 24-hour shift, a woman reporting chest pains, their big red rig was primed for action but missing a typical feature: a man. The four members of Engine 22, Division A, a captain, an engineer, a firefighter-paramedic and a firefighter, protect the Point Loma neighborhood of San Diego, an affluent peninsula on the Pacific Ocean. They are one of the few crews in the nation made up entirely of women, winding up together last October, as the captain, Joi Evans, said, because of ''the way the cards fell.''

New Leader magazine is closing after 82 years of publication; was founded in 1924 as vehicle of American Socialist Party; was initially weekly, then bi-weekly and since 2000 bi-monthly; circulation has dropped off and, like most magazines of its kind, it has run at loss for most of its existence and funding has finally dried up; executive editor Myron Kolatch comments; photos (M)

If Robert A. Iger, the chief executive of The Walt Disney Company, and Steven P. Jobs, chief of Pixar Animation, played characters in a movie, it could well be Pixar's own computer-animated ''Toy Story.'' As Buzz Lightyear, a space-age superhero who can seemingly fly, Mr. Jobs is the perfect foil to Mr. Iger, whose smoothly coiffed hair and earnest intentions bring to mind the amiable cowboy Woody. And like the two characters, Mr. Iger and Mr. Jobs, who is also chief executive of Apple Computer, are friendly and sometimes cautious rivals, but that relationship could change substantially.

In his first major move as governor of New Jersey, Jon S. Corzine has removed the president of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, which is under federal oversight in connection with allegations of widespread cronyism and financial fraud. The president, John J. Petillo, agreed to step down by the end of February as part of a severance package that will pay him about $600,000, or the equivalent of a year's salary, after less than two years in the post.

As a result of pro-industry regulations, the nation's taxpayers have missed much of the recent energy bonanza.