October 19, 1997

Penn State defeats Minnesota, 16-15, in college football; photo (M)

Car and truck prices are dropping in response to industry's excess production capacity; manufacturers are cutting suggested prices or keeping them flat and offering rebates, even on newly redesigned models; prices are expected to drop further through 1998 (M)

Diverse array of civic, religious, business and labor groups are actively engaged in often-arcane debate over unregulated soft money, issue advertisements and political action committees; interest groups have had pivotal effect on changing shape and content of McCain-Feingold bill to overhaul campaign finance; Common Cause has led forces for change, while unlikely coalition, including American Civil Liberties Union and National Rifle Association, has aligned itself with legislators fighting bill; one side's efforts to curtail Washington's chase for campaign dollars represents threat to other side's ability to spend as much money as it wants to exercise its right to political free speech (M)

F.Y.I. 2 MAKING IT WORK 3 Peter Stuyvesant originated the quality-of-life campaign in a wild city.

Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu in mid-1980's decreed that large part of Danube delta be transformed into grain fields; he sent 6,000 men to build dikes and pump land dry; water plants died and animals were driven from over 240,000 acres and new grounds were flattened and planted with wheat and rice; by time Ceausescu was executed by firing squad in 1989, delta scheme was failing; scientists and engineers from several countries are trying to restore delta; they have punched gaps in half dozen dikes and dams and let river spill back over more than 9,000 acres; other drained areas are set to be reflooded; map; photos (M)