INDUSTRY-BY-INDUSTRY OUTLOOK : The Year in Preview

California came several years late to the nation’s economic recovery party, but the state should be celebrating all through 1997.

Here is what key industries will be up to:

TOBACCO: The smoking wars are likely to heat up. Tobacco companies face 19 lawsuits by states seeking to recover billions of dollars in tax funds spent treating smoking-related illnesses. The first of these cases is scheduled for trial in Mississippi in March. Claims by individual smokers are also scheduled for trial next year. The possibility of a sweeping settlement of tobacco related claims--an idea floated briefly during the fall--may come before the new Congress.