July 29, 1995

A jury today decided that Susan Smith should not be put to death for the drowning of her two young sons, and instead should spend the rest of her life in prison, to remember. It took the jury two and one-half hours to reject the prosecution's request for the death penalty and settle on the life sentence. The jury's unanimous decision saved Mrs. Smith, 23, from death row, but left her alone in a tiny cell with the ghosts of her dead children, for at least the next 30 years, her lawyer said.

New Jersey lost and New York City won in a battle over aircraft noise, with an all-but-final decision by the Federal Aviation Administration on flight patterns from the region's three major airports. The F.A.A. rejected a New Jersey proposal to reroute air traffic away from northern New Jersey's suburbs and out over the ocean instead.

Dr. Michael C. Caldwell, the County Health Commissioner, became alarmed as soon as he heard the news. "Oh, no," he muttered to himself. The problem? The Town of Hyde Park was considering adopting as its official seal the famous silhouette of a debonair Franklin Delano Roosevelt with -- of all things -- a cigarette holder clenched between his teeth.

Death at a Brooklyn Bodega Perceo Melo died in the doorway of his newest bodega in an eruption of gunfire. His son Julio Antonio died a few steps away. Page 21. New Rivals for 'Jeopardy'? The F.C.C. will allow television networks to sell programs for an hour of prime time now dominated by syndicated game shows. Page 35. Growth Stalled in Quarter The economy barely grew in the last quarter, but economists and the White House pointed to signs of recovery in the second half. Page 35.

It was 3 o'clock one morning in late 1993, when Frank S. Ioppolo Sr. decided he had had enough. As the chief real estate negotiator for the Walt Disney Company, he had been meeting with New York City and state officials through the night about his company's interest in restoring the decrepit New Amsterdam Theater on 42d Street. But after several hours of trying to persuade the public officials to absorb more of the project's costs, Mr. Ioppolo grew incensed.

Fighting off temptation and habit, the Senate voted today to deny itself unlimited lobbyist-paid lunches and free trips to glitzy charitable golf, tennis and ski events. After wavering for a while, the Senate voted 98 to 0 to adopt rules that would forbid senators, their aides and other Senate officers from accepting privately paid travel to "recreational" events, and from accepting any gifts or meals worth more than $50, or more than $100 worth of gifts and meals from any individual in a year.

In environmentalists' first major victory in the House this year, Democrats and moderate Republicans joined today to narrowly reject a Republican leadership proposal that would have dramatically limited the Environmental Protection Agency's enforcement of pollution laws. The proposal was part of a spending bill that remains unacceptable to the Clinton Administration and the Administration's environmental allies because it would cut the agency's budget by a third.

Croatian forces were reported in Serb-held areas, to aid Bosnia but possibly also to regain Croatian land. Page 4.

John Shalikashvili was picked to fill the formidable shoes of Colin L. Powell two years ago largely because he is what his predecessor was not: low-key, self-effacing and apolitical. This is a man whose ambition after he retires from the Army is to own a country hardware store. As Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and President Clinton's senior military adviser, General Shalikashvili has brought his own strengths to the job. A meticulous military planner, he has won accolades for American-led missions to fight starvation among Rwandan refugees, to restore democracy in Haiti and to stare down Iraq's Saddam Hussein on the Kuwaiti border in 1994.

It was a day of blockbuster deals for New York's baseball teams yesterday as the Yankees braced for a pennant race and the Mets prepared for the future. The Yankees acquired last season's American League Cy Young Award winner, David Cone, from Toronto for three minor league pitchers, then sent the disgruntled slugger Danny Tartabull to Oakland for Ruben Sierra. The Mets traded Bobby Bonilla to Baltimore for Alex Ochoa, a talented outfield prospect.

A picture caption on July 21 with an article about the dispute over grazing rights on public land in the West misidentified the mountain range shown and the vantage point. The scene included the Lost River Range northeast of Sun Valley, Idaho, but not the White Cloud Mountains. The picture was taken from public land, not the private ranch of William Hewlett and David Packard.

An article on Monday about Yale University's investment portfolio misspelled the surname of the university's chief investment officer. He is David Swensen, not Swenson.