ACQUITTED. Rita M. Lavelle, 35, a former assistant administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency; of contempt of Congress for failing to testify in March about her management of the EPA hazardous-waste-cleanup fund on the ground that she was "emotionally and physically unable to attend," after less than two hours of deliberation by a federal jury; in Washington. Dismissed by President Reagan in February, Lavelle still faces possible perjury charges for earlier congressional testimony.

DIED. Frank Reynolds, 59, scrupulous, committed anchorman of ABC's World News Tonight; of viral hepatitis complicated by bone cancer; in Washington. A veteran of Chicago's competitive local journalism, Reynolds joined ABC in 1965 and covered the White House and other major beats before co-anchoring the evening news from 1968 to 1970, returning to that chair again in 1978. Widely respected by colleagues for his honesty, fairness and rectitude, he often brought an emotional edge to his work: showing pain at the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and sudden rage when he received conflicting reports on the condition of Press Secretary James Brady after the 1981 attempted assassination of President Reagan, exclaiming on the air, "Let's get it nailed down, somebody!" For many years the ratings of World News Tonight did not match those of its network rivals, but this year Reynolds' show pulled ahead of NBC to the second slot, then slipped dramatically after his illness forced him off the air in late April.

DIED. George Lichty, 78, creator and cartoonist (from 1932 to 1974) of the satirical Grin and Bear ft, syndicated at its peak in more than 300 newspapers; of a heart attack; in Santa Rosa, Calif. His distinctive one-panel series was neither comic strip nor editorial cartoon, though his jokes grew more topical. One regular character, the bombastic Senator Snort, was a favorite of President Harry Truman, who owned twelve original Lichty cartoons.

DIED. Arthur M. Wirtz, 82, hard-nosed real estate and sports magnate; of cancer; in Chicago. A policeman's son who made a Depression fortune by buying up bankrupt properties, Wirtz joined Grain Speculator James Norris to take control of Chicago Stadium in 1935, filling the arena with his own ice revues, his hockey Black Hawks and the basketball Bulls, of which he was part owner. The Wirtz-Norris interests gained such a stranglehold over boxing--promoting 90% of all championship bouts in the U.S. between 1949 and 1955--that a federal court ordered their International Boxing Clubs dissolved. Owner of a string of lakefront luxury high-rises that reportedly earned him more than $100 million a year, Wirtz once boasted, "I don't know how much I'm worth, and I don't care." This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.