News In Brief

Ferraro criticizes news story on racketeer's campaign gift

Democratic vice-presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro said Wednesday that a newspaper story raising questions about contributions to her congressional campaigns left an impression that is ''altogether inaccurate'' and ''offensive.'' She denied that a recent contribution was an illegal corporate donation, as suggested by the report in the Philadelphia Inquirer.

A bakery owned by convicted racketeer Michael LaRosa gave $500 to Ms. Ferraro's congressional campaign July 1. This was the contribution the Inquirer said would be illegal if the contributor were a corporation.

She gave extensive details on the contributions mentioned in the article, but she refused to go into any detail about LaRosa.