New Jersey Transit officials, in response to three deaths last year in Secaucus when train engineer missed stop signal, have approved installation of two automatic brake systems (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Safety Systems for Trains

Fourth annual Panasonic Village Jazz Festival is set to begin; festival features ten days of concerts in clubs around lower Manhattan; informational listing; photos (M)

Downtown Gears Up For Immersion in Jazz

Analysis: Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani's quick, severe response to charges that police brutalized Haitian immigrant in Brooklyn station house has strong element of political damage control; Giuliani built his popularity and re-election strategy on his identification with Police Dept; taking credit for its successes, like huge drop in crime, makes him the one held ultimately responsible for its failures; for last three years, black and Hispanic people have said that officers in Giuliani era, striving to reduce crime, are far more abusive than their predecessors; photo (M)

Giuliani's Quandary

Thousands of immigrants from India and Pakistan, countries that have been enemies since 1947, are living together peaceably in Jackson Heights, Queens; Indian and Pakistani immigrants share common story: they came to US in pursuit of life better than what they left behind; Indian immigrants will hold their 50th anniversary celebration of India's independence this coming weekend; Pakistanis held their 50th anniversary celebration on Aug 10; photos (M)

Indian and Pakistani Immigrants Honor 2 Homelands

Just before being sentenced to die for the Oklahoma City bombing, Timothy J. McVeigh, wearing prison khakis and a military haircut, stood at a lectern before a Federal judge in Denver and quoted from a 1928 opinion by a Supreme Court Justice,  Louis D. Brandeis.    Speaking in the controlled voice of a student giving a recitation, Mr. McVeigh said: ''I wish to use the words of Justice Brandeis dissenting in Olmstead to speak for me. He wrote: 'Our Government is the potent, the omnipresent teacher. For good or for ill, it teaches the whole people by its example.' That's all I have.''  

McVeigh's Remarks Are Brief and Cryptic

W R Grace Co will divest itself of its packaging business in complex, two-step transaction that culminates strategy of focuing on company's other main business, specialty chemicals; deal essentially involves purchase of Grace's Cryovac packaging business by Seal Air Corp, in deal valued at $5 billion; Sealed Air says merger will increase its annual revenue to $2.5 billion from $800 million, making it the world leader in flexible packaging; Grace name will be retained by specialty chemicals, which will be spun off to shareholders and has $1.5 billion in revenue; current Grace shareholders will own 63 percent of new packaging company, while Sealed Air shareholders will own the other 37 percent; current Grace shareholders will continue to hold 100 percent of stand-alone specialty chemicals company; chart (L)

In $5 Billion Deal, Grace Will Sell Packaging Business

Hearings are being conducted at Rutgers University to determine if Prof William K Powers should be dismissed for allegedly sexually harassing and assaulting student (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Professor Faces Dismissal

New Brunswick, NJ, police issue arrest warrant for Armando Negron Jr, suspect in murder of Lazara Cunha on Aug 12 (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Co-worker Accused in Death

Mamaroneck, NY, is playing host to Professional Golfers Association Championship at Winged Foot Golf Course; there are state troopers everywhere and traffic jams and horns bleating on usually quiet roadways; some residents say event is disaster, but others say it is bonanza; photos (M)

To the Least Trap and Tee, Westchester Welcomes Golf

H Carl McCall, New York State Comptroller and trustee for New York State public pension fund, sues 11 current and former Columbia/HCA Healthcare Corp executives and directors, saying that they allowed criminal fraud to flourish throughout the company; McCall contends company executives engaged in several unlawful activities, including illegal billing of Federal Medicare program, improperly offering jobs or perquisites to executives at hospitals Columbia was trying to acquire, and insider trading; suit names entire board, including current chairman Thomas F Frist Jr; it also names Richard L Scott, who resigned as chairman and chief executive last month; Columbia itself is only nominal defendant, meaning McCall is not planning to seek any financial settlement; suit is specifically trying to obtain compensation from 11 executives and directors (L)

Columbia/HCA Directors Sued By Pension Fund

 CASE DISMISSED -- The Campaign Finance Board dismissed a complaint that city-financed advertisements were little more than Giuliani campaign commercials. B3.    LEFT TO WONDER -- The family of a man charged in the shooting death of a firefighter could shed little light on a possible motive. B4.

INSIDE METRO

Commander Vasily Tsibliyev and flight engineer Aleksandr Lazutkin of troubled Russian space station Mir return to earth, after longest, most serious and most highly publicized string of disasters in 11-year history of space station; comments by Pres Boris N Yeltsin and Viktor Blagov, deputy flight director at Mission Control, suggest that Vasily Tsibliyev, the commander, will be held accountable; final judgments on crewmen will have to wait until next week, when other astronauts begin to repair damage to Mir when supply ship rammed into side of science module while Tsibliyev was guiding it; photos (M)

Hapless Crew Of Mir Station Back on Earth

 A Stroll at the Shore  About 117,000 years ago, someone strolling by a lagoon left what became the earliest fossil footprints of modern Homo sapiens. Page A8.    Delay in Cutting Class Sizes  New York City's schools will not be able to start reducing the most overcrowded elementary-school classes until September 1999. Page B1.

INSIDE

Auto industry is leading reversal of a European tradition of not working in August by keeping factories open or only partially shutting them down; change largely reflects growing emergence of European companies as multinational players; produced by year-round realities of global economy, many of these companies are finding that they must keep their offices and factories operating at all time, albeit often at a slower pace; shift on summer shutdowns began for most part with car makers, but has been spreading to other industries, including electronics and food processing, that also have extensive overseas operations; graphs; photos (L)

More Companies Shorten Summer Vacation

Clinton Administration announces changes in Government's affirmative action policies to comply with 1995 Supreme Court ruling that restricts use of race as consideration in awarding Federal contracts; changes will make it easier for white-owned companies to qualify for Government contracts that have been reserved almost exclusively for minorities; in last fiscal year, 6,115 companies, all but 27 of them minority-owned, were awarded Federal contracts totaling $6.4 billion as result of program, which is run by Small Business Administration; under changes planned by SBA, whites can prove social disadvantage, and qualify for contracts, through 'preponderance of evidence,' rather than more stringent legal standard of 'clear and convincing evidence' (M)

U.S. ACTS TO OPEN MINORITY PROGRAM TO WHITE BIDDERS

Camden Housing Authority, less than week after it became first housing authority in nation to defy Federal request to surrender control of its public housing, reverses its decision (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Housing Board Backs Down

 With Growth and Prices In Control, Bonds Gain  Growth is solid, inflation is subdued and Federal Reserve policy makers will probably stand pat for now on interest rates -- at least, that was what analysts drew from the latest economic reports by the Government.  

BUSINESS DIGEST

Market Place column on Federal Communications Commission's exepected approval of $25.6 billion merger of Bell Atlantic and Nynex; says long, torturous engagement has taken its toll, as grand vision of an East Coast supercarrier has collided with harsh realities of forcing two huge companies together; merger will result in nation's second-largest telecommunications company (L)

Bell Atlantic and Nynex: Match Made in . . . Where?

New York City's public schools will be unable to start reducing their most overcrowded elementary-school classes until Sept 1999, year later than legislators had proposed, because that is when money to hire additional teachers will first become available; one-year delay was approved by Legislature during its final frantic hours, but only discovered by Board of Education's highest-ranking officials in recent days (M)

Funds to Hire New Teachers Delayed to '99

State officials, responding to two recent accidents at Steel Pier boardwalk amusement park in Atlantic City, dispatch six state inspectors to check all 25 rides for mechanical problems (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Steel Pier Rides Inspected

Ben Brantley reviews musical 1776, with music and lyrics by Sherman Edwards; photos (M)

Singing the Course Of Human Events

Justice Dept report finds that New Jersey's parolee population continues to grow, but at slower rate (New Jersey Daily Briefing) (S)

Parolee Population Grows

Clyde Haberman, in NYC column, notes that in 1996 Amnesty International issued report describing what it called disturbing pattern of excessive force against criminal suspects by New York City police; maintains that Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani and Police Comr Howard Safir dismissed report as having no merit; contends that after appalling brutality that Abner Louima, Haitian immigrant, says he suffered at 70th Precinct station house in Brooklyn, New Yorkers have chance to make up their own minds if this was aberrant case, as Safir insists, or tip of menacing iceberg (M)

Crossing Into a Circle of the Brutal

Government will cut off disability benefits for 95,180 children, more than half of those whose cases have been reviewed under strict new standards established by 1996 welfare law; denial rate is higher than White House had expected; if rate continues as more cases are reviewed, 15 percent of one million children in program could lose their cash benefits; Social Security Administration data show most of children losing benefits have 'mental disorders'; Republicans who sought to tighten eligibility criteria said they had evidence that some parents coach children to misbehave or fake disabilities to get benefits; cash benefits average $436 a month and are paid under Supplementary Security Income program; children are all from low-income families; changes in program will save $4 billion to $5 billion from 1997 to 2002; chart (M)

After a Review, 95,180 Children Will Lose Cash Disability Benefits

Survey of Pakistan as it celebrates 50th anniversary of its birth on Aug 14, 1947, when it was carved out of British India as homeland for Indian Muslims; Pakistanis taking stock of their country have much to regret, but also much that makes them proud; country has large industrial base, skilled scientists who developed stockpile of nuclear weapons, armed forces that are among most modern and efficient in Asia and have acquitted themselves well as United Nations peacekeepers around world; country is in some respects more up-to-date than India, having never closed its economy to foreign trade and technology to extent India did; on negative side, Pakistan has endured military coups, assassinations, loss of half the country in civil war that created nation of Bangladesh, and string of civilian politicians who have been incompetent and corrupt; in addition, country is still heavily burdened by poverty; photos; chronology of events in last 50 years in Pakistan (L)

Pakistan's Bitter Roots, and Modest Hopes

Ida Gerhardt was a classicist and Dutch poet of a post-symbolist tradition.

August 15, 1997

Headlines from August 15, 1997

Safety Systems for Trains

Downtown Gears Up For Immersion in Jazz

Giuliani's Quandary

Indian and Pakistani Immigrants Honor 2 Homelands

McVeigh's Remarks Are Brief and Cryptic

Billboard 200

The Art Of War

No Way Out

Men In Black--The Album

Spice

Middle Of Nowhere

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for August 15, 1997