The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 1

I llll LI. Ay puzzled by long-distance bug which blocked an estimated 50 million calls on Monday, and offered to make amends with a day of discount service. Standing in the glare of camera lights and confronted by reporters crowded into the huge Worldwide Intelligence Network Operations Center in Bedminster, Chairman Robert E. Allen said: "We didn't live up to our own standards of quality. We didn't live up to our customers' standards of quality.

It's as simple as that." utility regulators to assure that the failure would be fully investigated and steps taken to prevent it from happening again. He said it would take at least a couple of days to pinpoint the exact cause and whether it resulted from human or mechanical error. Investigators have discounted but not ruled out the possibility of sabotage or a computer virus that might have infected the new software. He also said officials had contacted other long-distance carriers, such as MCI Communications Allen said would file an emergency petition with the Federal Communications Commission to offer a day of discount calling as "some small compensation to our customers." But Allen denied any "blanket liability" for monetary losses to commercial customers who rely heavily on long-distance and 800 lines to conduct business. Hotels, airlines, financial institutions, and telemarketers complained of slowdowns.

Allen said the company was meeting with major customers and By Susan Edelman and Corky Siemaszko Record Staff Writers BED MINSTER American Telephone Telegraph Co. on Tuesday narrowed the source of the worst breakdown in the history of long-distance service to a rapidly spreading "bug" in the company's new state-of-the-art computer system but was still trying to figure out how and why the malfunction occurred. officials apologized for the eight-hour computer glitch, Corp. and US Sprint Communica-j tions to discuss how the com-' peting telephone companies might cooperate to serve customers if the same problem arises again. The chairman confirmed that: operators at first refused to tell frustrated callers they could place their long-distance calls with other carriers by dialing access codes.

Later in the day, Allen said, the, company tried to switch at least one business customer that re-i See Page A-4 'Civil I WSL3 'Partly sunny, warm, war in snowers tonight. low: 40 I I. I.JI-JI.IL IM oviet Leftover cloudiness will Drevan 49th governor stresses need for new ideas yyk 1 High: 57 Low: 40 Ethnic fighting rages; 56 dead The Associated Press Spring came early to North Jersey Tuesday, with a record-tying high of 57 degrees. P3 A-8 Ci i '1 Doomed By David Blomquist Record Trenton bureau TRENTON Promising to build "a state that our children will be proud to inherit," James Joseph Florio was sworn to office Tuesday as New Jersey's 49th governor. As state Chief Justice Robert N.

Wilentz administered the oath of office, Florio placed his left hand on a 372-year-old Bible once owned by one of the five New Jer-seyans who signed the Declaration of Independence. Then he raised his right hand and softly 111 4 schools MOSCOW The Kremlin sent more than 11,000 reinforcements, including Red Army units, to the Caucasus on Tuesday to halt a civil war between Armenians and Azerbaijanis that has killed 56, people. New clashes were reported, and Tass said 2,000 people armed with anti-aircraft guns and other artillery were massing on hills around Nagorno-Karabakh, a disputed district that has become a flashpoint for the ethnic hatred between the neighboring groups. Combatants in the region had seized stores of hand grenades, the Interior Ministry said. In Armenia, "demands are being made to arm citizens and send them to Nagorno-Karabakh," Tass said, and the newspaper Izvestia reported that, Armenians hunting for guns had attacked 16 weapons depots in 24 hours.

In one raid, 3,000 people stormed a police station in Armenia's Artash region and seized 106 automatic weapons, 30 carbines, 27 rifles, more than' 3,000 cartridges, and a Izvestia said. "We can't bring ourselves to pronounce it out loud, but what is happening now in Karabakh, in; northern Azerbaijan, can unambiguously be termed a civil correspondent O. Shapovalov wrote in the newspaper Komso-molskaya Pravda. "The madness is an editor at Armenia's official Ar-menpress news agency said from Yerevan, the republic's capital. President Mikhail S.

Gorbachev declared a state of emergency in the strife-torn mountain area Monday night, empowering the government to deploy units of the Soviet army, navy, and KGB. Internal security troops already in the region have been incapable; of halting the most protracted ethnic conflict in Gorbachev's nearly, five-year tenure as Kremlin Izvestia said Tuesday that the violence threatened Gorbachev's entire campaign for perestroika, or economic and social reform. More than 6,000 additional internal security troops were sent Tuesday to reinforce existing Interior Ministry detachments, Tass said. To assist them, more than See SOVIET Page A-15 listed Mixed reaction in Bergen parishes By Elizabeth Llorente and Vera Titunik Record Staff Writers The Archdiocese of Newark has identified seven Catholic elementary schools in northern Bergen County that are most likely to close as part of a reorganization plan termed crucial to the survival of Catholic education in the county. Under the proposal, spurred by declining enrollment and financial problems, the K-8 schools with among the lowest enrollments in the county would close.

The plan has drawn a mixed reaction from parishioners and parents. It calls for the remaining schools to absorb students from those that would close. Clusters of parishes would subsidize and manage the consolidated schools in their areas. The archdiocese on Tuesday identified the schools that have been recommended to close as: Our Lady of Mount Carmel School in Ridgewood, which has 76 students. Nativity School in Midland Park, 124 students.

St. Luke's School in Ho-Ho-Kus, with 117 students. (Tentative plans call for students from the three schools to attend St. Catharine's School in Glen Rock. At present, St.

Catharine's has approximately 200 students but a capacity for 550, said Michael Hurley, an archdiocese spokesman.) St. Andrew's School in Westwood, which has 80 students. See DOOMED Page A-7 but firmly spoke the 71 words that made him governor. With those words, Florio inherited one of the nation's most powerful governorships, a post that for the next four years gives him sweeping influence over taxes, pollution, health, development, and virtually every other critical issue facing the Garden State. "When I leave here, I want to be remembered as the governor who brought new ideas to preserve old ideals," said Florio, 52, the 26th Democrat to become New Jersey's chief executive.

"We have a real chance to shape the future, not only for the next decade, but clear into the next century." Florio told the audience of more than 2,000 packed into Trenton's ornate War Memorial Building that he wants to get straight to work, beginning with steps to bring down the soaring price of automobile insurance in the state. He said legislative leaders have agreed to call a joint session of the Legislature on Monday to hear his pro- 1 posals for change. "We will bring back fairness to a system that has abused the drivers of New Jersey for entirely too long," the new governor said. Florio's address, greeted with a standing ovation, offered no specifics about his plans for the next four years. It focused instead on the values that he said he hopes his administration will embody.

His inauguration brought to an end eight years of Republican rule under Thomas H. Kean, the former Assembly speaker with a distinctive patrician voice who gained a national reputation by rebuilding and renewing New Jersey's state pride. In his 23-minute address, interrupted eight times by applause, Florio spoke of ideals that he said were responsible for New Jersey's growth "old ideals," he said, "like opportunity, community, security, family, leadership." But Florid said those ideals are threatened by the "new realities" of pollution at the Jersey shore, drug-related crime, and failing economies that have caused the state's cities to fall further behind its more prosperous suburbs. "So what, then, is to become of the old ideals?" the new governor asked. "Do we cast them aside because they're too hard to reach? That's not the New Jersey way.

We find new ideas, new ways to get where we want to go and we will." See FLORIO Page A-12 STEVE AUCHARDTHE RECORD Governor Florio parading to State House with wife, Lucinda, who carried grandchild. Movers and shakers celebrate the new administration at the Inaugural ball. A-13 A look at 15 key men and women who will help the new governor govern the state. A-12 Columnist Carol Ann Campbell explores Florio's Brooklyn roots. NORTH JERSEY $259,000 for meddling Family that fought for neighbor girl is penalized 1 jii'W II Ann Landers, Dear Abby D-2 Campeail appoints SSL -K ormcf resiu7 tecre- ciassitied a chairman.

Comics c-ii Business B-6 1 Entertainment D-8 TyiOn-Holyf leld HLftp nl bout set for Atlantic Obituaries e-7 City in June. Opinion B-7 SportS Sports, C-1 Television D-14 weather c-12 Exxon tpiH cleanup 1te0 SERQEN RECOM) CORP. A-3 bora, David and Mary Elizabeth Burdick and their daughter, Shana.j The jury awarded $259,000 in compensatory and special damages to the Burdicks for their suffering. The tale of the two families dates to 1986 and is centered around another Burdick daughter, Heather, who was then 16. The Sheas led a campaign to "free" Heather from the DeSisto School in West Stockbridge, a private boarding school for problem children.

The Sheas claimed Heather was victimized by poor parental judgment and received hideous treatment from New Jersey welfare agencies. The Burdicks said it was none of the Sheas' business. To publicize Heather's plight, the Sheas organized a "Free Heather" campaign. Heather's neighbors and former classmates at Madison Central High School wrote letters, went on protest marches, and tied yellow ribbons around trees on the street, where the Burdicks, who are now divorced, once lived. Heather's parents had sent her to the DeSisto School because of her emotional and substance-abuse problems.

But after twice running away from the school, Heather left DeSisto in 1987. During the five-day trial, See VERDICT Page A-5 By Dean Chang Record Staff Writer OLD BRIDGE The Shea family had always believed they were the good guys, the white knights who had right on their side. But a six-member jury sitting in Middlesex County Superior Court didn't see it quite that way. They viewed the family not as do-gooders, but as meddlers who forced their way into another family's private life and exposed that family to unwanted public attention. On Tuesday, the jury found the Sheas guilty of intentionally in- flicting emotional distress and vio-v lating the privacy of their neigh- tf Mil I Barbara Bush says women should be used for combat duty If they're physically capable.

SS9 P3 A-n cm Sibling rivalry runs amok In the National Hockey League as a fired coach Is replaced by his brother. Spsrts.