Barbara Hafer

The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that elected state officials may be personally sued for damages if they violate the rights of their employees or others. The unanimous ruling strips officials of a legal immunity and means that they could be forced to pay huge damage judgments out of their own pockets. In recent years, the more conservative Supreme Court had made it more difficult for citizens to sue the government.

The pressure on the board of Walt Disney Co. continued to grow Thursday as public and private pension fund managers chastised the company's directors for standing by Michael Eisner. The board's decision to keep Eisner in the chief executive job -- after stockholders at the annual meeting here delivered one of the harshest snubs ever to a CEO -- was roundly criticized.

Dissidents on Wednesday stepped up pressure on Walt Disney Co. to release what they believe will be embarrassing data showing how rank-and-file employees voted earlier this month in a larger shareholder referendum on Chief Executive Michael Eisner. Lawyer David K. Robbins, who represents former directors Roy E. Disney and Stanley P.

What a difference two months make. Or don't. Although Walt Disney Co. Chief Executive Michael Eisner has enjoyed a run of good news lately, the nation's leading pension funds aren't cutting him -- or his board -- any slack. In an unusual meeting today, representatives from six public pension funds will pressure Disney directors to provide detailed plans on their company's long-term financial strategy and on how they intend to groom a replacement for Eisner.

Last spring, abortion was thought to be developing into one of the definitive issues of the 1990 elections. But except in scattered races, candidates have either ignored the issue, mentioned it in passing or lumped it among several issues they hope will attract support. The chief reason is that the economy, the Persian Gulf, crime and the threat of higher taxes have become more immediate concerns. "In general abortion has less of a chance to totally redefine a race in 1990," said Washington, D.

The delegates were beside themselves: * The same day the National Organization for Women opened its 24th annual conference here on Friday, President Bush vetoed a bill that would have guaranteed workers in larger businesses unpaid time off to care for seriously ill family members or newborn infants.

In a profession where candor and cockiness can mean riches and fame, outspoken political consultant Edward J. Rollins has found that too much of both can lead to the opposite: a breathtaking dive into oblivion. Rollins, who helped elect Republican Christine Todd Whitman this month as governor of New Jersey, was dumped this week by one of his most prominent clients, Pennsylvania gubernatorial candidate Barbara Hafer.

As head of the coordinating campaign for the Democratic state ticket, state Rep. Mark Roosevelt of Boston is not the happiest of fellows these days. "The mood of the electorate is angry," he said, and that means trouble for the liberal Democratic Establishment. "There's a vision of a state government that grew fat and lazy--and it's not totally wrong. People are demanding change." What's true in Massachusetts is true throughout much of the rest of the Northeast.

State and municipal officials fearful of becoming unwitting supporters of global terrorism are seeking ways to screen their stock investments. Pennsylvania, California and the city of New York are reviewing a new product called the Global Security Risk Monitor that identifies 260 firms doing business in six countries--Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Libya and North Korea--identified by the State Department as sponsors of terrorism, some of them suppliers of weapons. Though the U.S.

Left nearly destitute by her late husband's medical bills, Annis Bolivar was cleaning houses in Bakersfield for $15 apiece when she got the good news. Fifty-two shares of stock that had stopped paying dividends long ago, and that the 66-year-old woman believed worthless, were, in fact, worth a small fortune--about $125,000.