Aurora

INDIANAPOLIS -- Arie Luyendyk wasn't interested in sitting around and waiting for someone else to make a move; he had been subjected to too much drama during last year's time trials for the Indianapolis 500. So, at 4: 30 p.m. yesterday, Luyendyk decided it was high time to make a run at the pole position.With track conditions ideal, Luyendyk, the 1990 Indy 500 champion who had been quickest all month at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, went out and captured the pole for the 81st renewal of the 500 when he toured the 2.5-mile oval in a four-lap average of 218.263 mph.Luyendyk, who also won the pole in 1993, will make his 13th Indy 500 appearance and fourth start on the front row, alongside Team Menard driver Tony Stewart (218.

It arrived a day late, but that blast of magnetic energy that erupted from the sun on Monday has finally blown past the Earth. It triggered changes in the Earth's magnetic field and brilliant auroral displays as far south as Boston, but no reported damage.Excited scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt said the solar storm's impact was first detected at about 8 p.m. Thursday, and continued to be felt for at least 18 hours. Its arrival produced a flood of data from a new fleet of satellites and ground stations.

"Kiss of the Spider Woman" is, by its very title, about accepting the kiss of death. But the core of the story is about two extremely different men who learn to accept and eventually respect each other.Cellmates in a Latin American prison, they have an intricate and layered relationship, and it's depicted in a magnificently intricate and layered musical, whose national touring production at the Mechanic Theatre is as grand as the Broadway original.One key to the way in which the show is constructed lies in its most beautiful song, "Dear One" -- the gem of John Kander and Fred Ebb's lush score.

Chita Rivera is a dancer who gets a kick out of life -- even when life kicks back.A positive attitude is a handy thing to have when you're playing a character who represents death. That's been Rivera's lot for more than three years as the title character in the musical "Kiss of the Spider Woman," which opens tomorrow at the Mechanic Theatre.Rivera, who won her second Tony Award for "Spider Woman," admits that when she's perched high in the Spider Woman's giant web, she often feels the presence of the many friends she's lost over the years.

CHICAGO -- In the first action of its kind in the nation, the U.S. Justice Department yesterday sued the state of Illinois and the city of Aurora, accusing them of violating the rights of workers with disabilities by denying them pension benefits.Justice Department officials say it is the first case in which the federal government has gone to court to enforce the employment provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, which took effect in July 1992.James Turner, acting head of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said the suit was intended to send a signal that the department was "serious about this responsibility."

Place-kicker Scott Bentley of Aurora (Colo.) Overland switched from Notre Dame to Florida State in the final weekend of college football recruiting.Florida State has lost two straight games to Miami because kickers missed field-goal tries in the final seconds.Quarterback Thad Busby, linebacker Daryl Bush, receiver Andre Cooper and defensive end Julian Pittman also are going to Florida State.Quarterback Ron Powlus of Berwick, Pa., signed with Notre Dame.Though Florida State had the best overall group, Notre Dame recruited the top offensive class and Michigan had the finest defenders.

THE EVENING STAR. By Larry McMurtry. Simon & Schuster. 637 pages. $23.FIFTY pages into "The Evening Star," Larry McMurtry's long sequel to "Terms of Endearment," I hated it. Fifty more pages and I began to think, well, maybe it isn't so bad after all. Another 50 pages and I was so enthralled with Aurora and Rosie and the General and Patsy and Melanie and Tommy and Teddy and Jane and Bump that I could hardly put the book down.The funny thing is, I was back to hating it again. Reading this book, I felt the way I do when someone convinces me I should watch the hottest new sitcom on TV. I am appalled that I'm wasting my time on such drivel.

THE EVENING STAR.Larry McMurtry.Simon & Schuster.635 pages. $23. Watching "Lonesome Dove" again on TV reminded me how much I liked it and the Larry McMurtry novel on which it's based. While I once more mourned Gus' death, I couldn't help but be thankful Mr. McMurtry chose to kill off the old guy. That way, he won't be tempted into writing a sequel.I should say a bad sequel, because Mr. McMurtry has written a couple of good ones. In its own cheery, haphazard way, his 1987 novel "Texasville" was as much of a lament for the passage of time and the passing of a way of life as its predecessor, 1966's elegiac but unsentimental "The Last Picture Show."

HOLLYWOOD -- The rights to novelist Larry McMurtry's new novel "Evening Star," the sequel to his best-selling "Terms of Endearment," will probably end up at Paramount Pictures, the studio that made the Oscar-winning 1983 film. "Terms of Endearment" starred Shirley MacLaine, Jack Nicholson and Debra Winger and won Oscars for MacLaine, Nicholson and writer-director James L. Brooks.A studio source confirmed that although the deal has not been completed, it would be shortly. Mr. McMurtry's agent also confirmed the imminent sale to Paramount.

AURORA, Ill. -- Dr. Aleksander Jakubowski, frequent target for increasingly violent attacks by anti-abortion demonstrators, takes a surprisingly mild view of the protesters who often clamor outside his office.The 53-year-old physician came to the United States as a Cold War refugee in 1968. And because he can remember the absence of freedom in the then-Communist bloc, he doesn't become deeply perturbed by the demonstrations."When you look out the window and see people protesting peacefully, you say, 'I'm in America,' " he said.