The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 1

FBI TALKS TO TONYA HARDING ABOUT ATTACK ON KERRIGAN PACE A-14 (BAD 1:4 Spchts A A 4 WMtaai vow Debut speech stuns even GOP Whitman backs testing of school voucher program. A-10 Senate confirms nominations for attorney general, secretary of state. A-10 Excerpts from Whitman's inaugural address. B-9 Columnist Rod Allee says Whitman is ignoring Bergen, Passaic, and Morris North Jersey Florio shows no sadness on his last day in office. A-8 Whitman's call for a tax cut leaves some lawmakers concerned, others confident.

A-9 Senior citizens, social service groups applaud call to eliminate state income taxes for poor. A-9 North Jersey mayors cautious over Whitman's tax plan. A-9 By EUGENE KIELY Trenton Bureau Chief TRENTON Moving quickly to establish herself as a strong leader, Governor Whitman promised a 5 percent income tax cut retroactive to Jan. 1, in an inauguration speech Tuesday that shunned tradition and stunned her own party. Whitman, who was sworn as the state's 50th governor in a stately, hour-long ceremony at the Trenton War Memorial, had promised during the campaign to cut taxes 10 percent a year for three years, beginning July 1.

But in a 21 -minute inaugural address, Whitman surprised even Republican legislative leaders by calling for a retroactive income tax cut that would provide tax relief six months earlier than she had promised. In doing so, Whitman departed from the tradition of delivering a thematic speech on inauguration day in favor of a substantive address that laid out her agenda. "If President Clinton and his Congress can reach backward into time and raise See WHITMAN Page A-8 STEVE AUCHARO Back to life, not to normal "IT fl powerless agaimist cold. Thousands lose electricity Bin I i nWt i i Record Staff Photographer Tom Franklin documents the devastation in South-em California. PageA-12 INSIDE lj -i.

1111 I flfa 4 I1 4 Highway officials lost a race against nature they had undertaken 23 years ago. A-11 President Clinton says he will tour the region to-day. All Tuesday's commute was a nightmare for many motorists. A-3 Some advice for coping with icy roads. A-3 Record cold temperatures, snow grip much of the nation.

A-14 Elderly woman alive after being found frozen to floor. A-14 i A list of local relief agencies taking donations for the victims. A-11 By OVETTA WIGGINS and JERRY DeMARCO Staff Writers This region seems to have entered a new Ice Age. On sidewalks and roadways, on tree limbs and utility lines, everywhere you looked Tuesday, there was a glaze of ice. Falling temperatures turned Monday night's rain into sheets of ice, sending cars skidding, commuters' hearts racing, and North Jersey roadways into gridlock.

And there was more bad news: Barely one month into winter, supplies of road salt are running out. Schools and Route 287 were closed, and hospital emergency rooms were swamped. Public works employees toiled around-the-clock, straining to keep roads passable. "It's like pushing a mop if you try to plow," said Anthony Saf-fioti, Clifton's public works chief. "But if you salt, it gets washed away.

It just proves it's tough to fight Mother Nature." After reaching a high of 36 degrees at midnight temperatures had plummeted from 20 degrees to 16 by 3 p.m., the National Weather Service reported. The mercury was expected to continue its free fall, with temperatures remaining in the single digits today. "It's going to be cold until further notice," said National Weather Service forecaster Harry Wood-worth in Newark. Monday's storm dropped 13 inches of new snow at High Point, 10 inches at Belvidere. Just 2.6 inches fell at Newark, but combined with heavy rain for a total of 1.42 inches of precipitation, breaking the record for Jan.

17 of 1.05 inches set in 1978, Woodworth said. For utility workers, the chief See STORM Page A-3 .4 JtJim For the survivors, reality begins to set in. A-12 TOM FRANKLINSTAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Renee Cicero comforting a friend outside a tent pitched in her yard in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles. Californians gird for quake's lasting effects By JAMES ANDERSON The Associated Press. LOS ANGELES Under skies as bright and blue as ever, Southern Californians confronted a changed world Tuesday.

The defining features of this region's life water, power, and freeways were suddenly uncertain. In their place: long lines, hellish commutes, and repeated earthquake aftershocks. A 16th body was found inside a collapsed apartment building in Northridge, near the epicenter of Monday's powerful earthquake, bringing the death toll from the quake to 34. At least 2,600 people were injured. But that was only the worst toll paid by people in this battered city.

Once again, the rhythms of life in Southern California were snapped by disaster, much as they were after last fall's wildfires and the Los Angeles riots 21 months ago. But the effects of this disaster on the day-to-day lives of residents were likely to reach further and last longer. "The days ahead will also be rough for us," Mayor Richard Riordan warned Ange-lenos, even as he praised them for a cool-headed response to the crisis. "Let's all stick together." A snapshot of a region in crisis Tuesday: Many offices, schools, and stores were closed, and workers were urged to stay home. But the closure of four of the nation's busiest freeways still made commuting a frustrating adventure.

Aftershocks, some as strong as 5 on the Richter scale, continued to jolt the region. About 100,000 homes remained without power, and between 50,000 and 100,000 were without water, almost all of them in the hard-hit San Fernando Valley. The Department of Water and Power said it could be a See EFFECTS Page A ll What are the worst road conditions you've seen lately? Where does it seem as though the ice will remain until spring? Where is it close to Impossible to park because of ice? Send your observations to the Road Warrior's Ice Patrol, The Record, 150 River Hackensack, N.J., 07601. ITtsTT Coming Sunday Inman withdraws as Defense nominee rc-8" Anrftandr3 Report: Reagan OK'd Iran-Contra coverup CM C-9 D-1 D-6 C-8 B-8 C-9 C-1 -C-8 B-8 8-1 C-10 B-10 Bridge Business Classified Comics Dear Abby Editorials Entertainment Food Horoscope Movies Obltuarlos Sports Television Woathor sii A Batrcssgcflve York Times columnist William Safire and Senate Republican leader Bob Dole of Kansas of plotting to undermine his nomination. "I did not want this job," Inman, 62, said in a rambling hour-long news conference in Austin, Texas.

"I'm at peace with myself," Even though Clinton had been given advance word of Inman's decision, tho dramatic exit sent shock waves through Washington and mystified lawmakers of both parties. "He's probably not qualified to be secretary of defense if he has fantasies like that," Dole said in a See INMAN Page A-S By TOM RAUM The Associated Press WASHINGTON Retired Adm. Bobby Inman withdrew on Tuesday as defense secretary nominee, saying he was "distressed and distracted" by attacks on his character and reputation. President Clinton accepted the surprise withdrawal and began a fresh search to fill the post Lea Aspin is soon to leave. The Texas businessman, a former deputy CIA director, accused his critics of "modern McCarthy-ism." In particular, he lashed out at the news media and accused New scandal from prosecutors and Congress.

Impeachment of Reagan "certainly should have been considered" by the congressional committees investigating the Iran-Contra affair, Independent Counsel Lawrence K. Walsh told a news conference. Reagan called Walsh's report a "vehicle for baseless accusations that he could never have proven in court." Walsh criticized Bush's pardons of former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger and five other Iran-Contra figures as either "an See COVERUP Page A 5 By PETE YOST The Associated Press WASHINGTON President Ronald Reagan acquiesced in a coverup of the Iran-Contra scan-dul that was headed by Attorney General Kdwin Meese and carried out at the top levels of the Reagan administration, the prosecutor concluded in his final report Tuesday. In two volumes that immediately were denounced by Reagan, Mcese, former President George Bush, and others, the Iran-Contra prosecutor declared that Reagan's aides withheld information on the section For home dollvery: 646-4270 1W4 SEMEN RECORD CORP..