January 31, 1998

New Yorkers adjust to recent series of incidents in which brick and masonry have fallen onto street; city officials insist that it is routine for buildings to shed pieces occasionally or to fall apart altogether even if they have been doing it with unusual frequency of late; photos (M)

William C Rhoden, in Sports of The Times, deplores continued absence of African-Americans in coaching and upper-management positions in NFL; interview with Jomills Braddock, who is chmn of sociology dept at University of Miami, and who has done research on subject (M)

Grand jury clears New York City police officer Michael J Davitt of all criminal charges related to fatal shooting of 22-year-old William J Whitfield in Brooklyn grocery on Christmas Day; found his actions were justified under law governing use of deadly force; incident, which ignited protests and prompted change in police procedure, recalled; photo (M)

SmithKline Beecham says it is in talks with a another British pharmaceutical giant, Glaxo Wellcome, on a possible merger that would be the biggest ever. SmithKline also said that merger talks with American Home Products had ended. A combination of Glaxo, which makes Zantac, and SmithKline, which produces Tums and Aquafresh toothpaste, would dwarf most of its competitors.

Allen I Questrom, former chairman and chief executive of Federated Department Stores, sues retailer for $47 million more in bonus pay for taking retailer from bankruptcy to profitability in his seven-year stint; Questrom received $16 million thank-you from the board for a job well done; that bonus came on top of roughly $2 million he made in 1996 in straight pay; the previous year, Questrom received $13.2 million; photo (L)