Newsday from New York, New York • 25

Trade Deficit Has A Record Month TRADE from Page 5 included the purchase of $1.1 billion in gold by Taiwan, which significantly boosted the months record export total of $29 billion $5.4 billion higher than in February. That news also helped dampen early enthusiasm on Wall Street, where many first expected the trade news to start a rush to buy stocks. Ortner said quarterly averages are more important. The monthly trade deficit in the first quarter of 1988 averaged about $12 billion, compared to $15.4 billion in the third quarter erf last year and $14.3 billion in the final quarter. The healthier trade figures may make it politically easier for Reagan to follow through on his promised veto of sweeping trade legislation currently awaiting actum at the White House.

Todays news emphasises what, weve been saying all along, that this is not the time to be imposing restrictions on trade or reducing incentives far free, open markets or dosing job opportunities, the president said at his brief afternoon news conference. But Congressional leaders are more pessimistic than ever that a new trade bill can emerge this year if Reagan ve-toes the version that received bi-partisan support in both houses. Reagan has threatened to veto the trade bill because of a provision requiring larger employers to notify workers 60 days before plant elnrinp or mqjar layoffs. In recent days, however. Republican sources said Reagan backed off from singling out the worker-notification measure after the issue began to be used effectively against Vice President George Bush in the campaign.

White House sources said yesterday that they expect the veto message to contain more than just the advanced-notice provision and a second obscure measure on restricting export sales by newer Alaskan refineries. President On Defense REAGAN from Page 5 astrologer helped decide on the time of his 1985 cancer operation or the signing last December of the UA-Soviet arms treaty. Nothing of that kind was going on, said the president. Indeed, he mJ, referring to astrology this was all, once again, smoke and mirrors and we made no decisions on it and were not himling our lives to this. But asked if he believed in astrology, he not tied my life by it, but I wont answer the question because I dont know enough about it to say is there something to it or not However he explained that after I had been shot on March SO, 1981, which was quite a traumatic experience for my wife it was a trauma the AP Photo Dads a Pink Plastic Flamingo Eleven baby ducklings sit in the garden of a Somerset, home by the lawn statue of a duck that they've adopted as a mother.

Poll: Astrology Minor Influence STARS from Page 5 may be on the decline. A Roper poll in 1985 showed 23 percent believed in astrology, the same percentage at those who believe in UFOs. While there was no group that showed an overwhelming belief in astrology, there was a slightly higher percentage of belief in it among women, people aged believers, again by a small margin, were men, whites, college graduates, political independents and midwesterners. Nancy Reagans approval rating dropped from 58 percent to 53 percent in uus new poll. Her disapproval rating rose from 23 to 31 percent.

The previous rating was taken in April, 1987, about the time die was receiving wide publicity fin convincing the President to fire chief of staff Donald Rgn It was Regans book that revealed the first ladys astrological interests. An overwhelming 70 percent of those surveyed said Nancy Rewgen had more influence on the president in policy and political matters than other first ladies. For 19 percent of the respondents, the reports of White House star gazing affected the overall opinion of President Reagan and 75 percent said it made no difference. Of those who said it made a difference, nearly all said they had a less favorable opinion as a result. Reagans approval rating is currently 46 percent and has dropped 10 points since March.

The poll of 1,204 voters was conducted May 13-15 and has a margin of error of 3 percent. And when he was scheduled for i tain events, he said, the first lady consulted with her astrologer-friend to ask what does it look like now? Former White House Chief of Staff Donald Regan disclosed the first ladys use of astrology in his book, For the Record. And Reagan had a parting shot for Regan. Asked if Regan had damaged his reputation, the president said: Well, 1 was worried about his. non-union household members.

Democrats, easterners and those living in major metropolitan areas. The heaviest percentage of non City May Remove Street Fire Alarm Boxes bered actual fire calls last year by 50.000, cost the city millions in wasted labor, fuel and vehide wear-and-tear in addition to endangering lives and property according to city officials. False alarms had been dedining for the most part since 1978, when the department hit an all-time high of 285.000. The dedine is attributed to a modified response plan instituted in 1978 in which engine companies do not respond, during certain noun of the day, to alarms from several thousand voice alarm boxes unless the person speaks to the dispatcher. The voice alarms, which have been increasingly installed to replace the.

pull alarms during the past 18 yean, require that the person push a button and then speak directly to a dispatcher. Tudor City a Landmark ALARM from Page 4 lies safety. But he said the administration has no predisposition on the issue and that he and Mayor Edward Koch raised our eyebrows in skepticism when the idea was first proposed during budget negotiations this year. The burden of proof is the other way, Brezenoff said. He said critical questions to be answered are whether there are an adequate number of street corner telephones and whether the vast majority of them are in working order.

A Fire Department spokesman, John Mulligan, said he was not sure when the department would submit its recommendation on the issue. Brezenoff said if the city decides to move to remove the boxes, which have been a fixture on city streets since the late 19th Century, it would most likely test the efficiency of a telephone reporting system through a pilot program first. Consideration of the proposal comes in the wake of the first dramatic rise in false alarms in three years. The Fire Department responded to nearly 141,000 deliberate false alarms last year, a 9 percent increase over 1986. The fidse alarms, which The modified response plan is based on the theory that those filing legitimate fire reports will speak up to the dispatcher, but pranksters will not.

The plan last year enabled the department to ignore more than 100,000 alarms In which the person made no voice contact with the dispatcher. Those alarms are not counted as nffMl false alarms because the department did not respond to them. Recently, however, fire officials became disturbed by a significant increase in the number of fidse alarms in which the prankster has reported a bogus fire over a voice alarm. During the first four months of this fiwl year, there was a 32 percent inamw in this type of false alarm. Fire officials in cities that have done awqy with their street alarm boxes sqy that there has been no impact on fire safety.

The street boxes were a great idw once, said Chief Gerald Stesiak of the Detroit Fire Department, which has seen false alarms drop 90 percent since removing its street alarms in 1980. But the struct box outlived its practical use. I cant think of a way LANDMARK from Page 9 in the buildings lease-back agreement with the current owner, Teachen Insurance and Annuity Association. Seagram sold the 38-story tower in 1980 to Teachen far $86J million, and leases back 20 percent of the office space with legal provisos that require Teachen to maintain many mimu'I of the building, which architects have described as a 20th-Century masterpiece. One, William Jordy, has nailed it fer its austerity of form coupled with oif a i i -lj Among the leases stricter provisions is one requiring the owner to obtain written approval of the Museum of Modem Art before placing any sculpture or other art.

The agreement also sets strict standards and procedures for maintaining the building, which Philip Johnson, one of the buildings architects, told the commission was designed with solid not slapped-on bronze. The commission will vote on the Seagram Building; and Lamberts request for stricter-than-normal provisions, at a future date. to defend it. tf'Jiiii-u' i'j ue.