George Vecsey Sports of The Times column contends that New York Rangers forward Pat LaFontaine, who has history of concussions, should retire following head injury suffered in game against Ottawa Senators (M)

Sports of The Times; LaFontaine Should Not Come Back

New York Knickerbockers defeat Philadelphia 76ers, 100-96; photo (M)

Knicks Reach Deep To Salvage a Victory

Mississippi, after 21-year court fight, unseals over 124,000 pages of secret files from State Sovereignty Commission; agency used spy tactics, intimidation, false imprisonment and other illegal methods to thwart activities of civil rights workers during 1950's, 60's and early 70's; although none of documents reviewed to date show direct state hand in numerous deaths of rights advocates in Mississippi in those years, they clearly reflect mindset of state's white supremacists: to maintain segregation at all costs; photo (M)

Mississippi Reveals Dark Secrets of a Racist Time

United Nations aid officials say people of Adet, Sudan, are victims of campaign by Islamic Government to starve people in rebel-held territories because they support guerrillas fighting for autonomous south; Government has banned relief flights to all but four airstrips in region; UN officials say ban has crippled relief operation at time when people have little food left in storage after two years of drought; say food is being stockpiled in places like Adet, while children in neighboring towns are beginning to starve; map; photo (M)

Sudan Hinders U.N. Aid as South Faces Famine

About New York column discusses comeback of Irish musician Adrian Flannelly from serious hand injury to record Ireland and Beyond, compiliation of Irish Classics and American standards that he performs on piano; photo (M)

About New York; A Comeback: Add Fortitude To Irish Song

 2 Top S.&L.'s Will Merge, Creating Formidable Giant  The nation's two largest savings and loan companies, once intense rivals in the takeover game, agreed to merge in a $9.9 billion stock swap that would create a West Coast behemoth capable of competing with the new giants of consumer banking.    The deal, in which Washington Mutual of Seattle agreed to buy H. F. Ahmanson of Los Angeles, would make the new company triple the size of the nearest competitor among savings and loans. [Page A1.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

National Transportation Safety Board will open hearings on what went wrong at Union Pacific Corp after it bought Southern Pacific in 1996; following the merger, snarled rail traffic cost shippers billions of dollars and a series of crashes last year left 11 people dead; Union Pacific denies merger compromised safety; Jolene M Molitoris, chief of Federal Railroad Administration, says she plans to tell safety board that to avoid further carnage, Government should have authority to revise or block major mergers that increase risks of harm (L)

Hearings Focus on Union Pacific Rail Safety

David A Ross, director of Whitney Museum of American Art since 1991, will leave Whitney to become director of San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; announcement comes on eve of unveiling of Whitney's $30 million renovation and expansion, which includes new galleries that for first time provide space for permanent collection; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is in midst of aggressive campaign to increase its permanent collections and its standing; photo of Ross (M)

Whitney Museum Chief Is Leaving for New Job

Federal Census figures show that more than 1 million New Yorkers moved out of New York City during 1990's, but new immigrants and children born to them have more than replaced those who left; city's total population in 1997 reached 7,342,636, half a percentage point higher than lowest point of decade; slight growth helped push New York State's population to 18 million last year, giving it 0.8 percent growth rate since 1990; chart (M)

Population Of New York Rises Slightly

New York Rangers injury report; Pat LaFontaine and Jeff Beukeboom to miss more time than first expected; photo (M)

Injuries to LaFontaine and Beukeboom Are Serious

Twenty years after Federal Government deregulated airline industry, there is growing debate over whether major carriers are unfairly reining in their smaller rivals, curbing their growth and even blocking their access to new markets; Justice Department has started antitrust investigation of biggest airlines and Transportation Department is on verge of issuing guidelines that would define for first time when Government might take action against carrier for competing unfairly; several bills have been introduced in Congress that aim to blunt dominance of big carriers and promote competition; charts; graphs; map; photo (Business Travel column) (L)

Business Travel: Open Skies, Closed Markets?; Growing Debate Over Keeping Airlines Competitive

Metropolitan Opera presents Gounod's Romeo et Juliette, with Angela Gheorghiu and Roberto Alagna; photo; Anthony Tommasini review (M)

Of Star-Crossed Lovers, In Art, Not Real Life

Chase Manhattan, the nation's largest bank, said yesterday that it planned to lay off 2,250 employees, or about 3 percent of the work force.    About half the layoffs will be in the New York metropolitan region and New York State. The cuts are part of a plan to eliminate about 4,500 of the bank's 69,033 positions over the next 18 months by laying off workers and by not replacing others who depart.  

Chase Will Lay Off 2,250 in Latest Cuts

Dow Jones & Co agrees to sell its troubled financial information business to Bridge Information Systems for $360 million in cash and $150 million in Bridge preferred stock; sale to Bridge, competitor of data business, Dow Jones Markets, will be far less than $1.6 billion that Dow Jones invested in operations when it bought it in 1980's (L)

Bridge to Pay $510 Million For Dow Jones Data Business

Alessandra Stanley surveys restaurant scene in Moscow; says that over last two years, newly rich Russians have confected dozens of restaurants that have less to do with haute cuisine than high concept--lavish gastronomic theme parks for rich adults; describes scene at Czarskaya Okhota, one of most popular new theme restaurants, where dinner for two is rarely less than $250; photos (L)

Eating Out in Moscow: Theme-Park Cuisine

KCBS-TV news dir Larry Perret says Los Angeles region is premier helicopter market in country; local CBS affiliate like almost every other station in town operates its own helicopter at cost approaching $1 million a year; Perret says massive area creates all sorts of logistical problems in terms of coverage of breaking news; same challenge applies to law enforcement, fire and other emergency services; Los Angeles Police Dept has 16 patrol helicopters and one transport, largest municipal fleet in world; LAPD pioneered in use of helicopters nationally in 1957; photo (M)

Vigilant Eyes Fill Skies Over Los Angeles

The Ways of Gentleness, new British novel by psychotherapist using pseudonym Elizabeth Vickers, is thought by some to be based on life of Princess Diana; Errol Morris's 1997 documentary Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, which profiles obsessive workers, has won acclaim and prizes, but was not nominated for Oscar; photo; Larry Weinstein's film Solidarity Song: The Hanns Eisler Story, wins $8,000 top prize at fifth festival of filmed music at Louvre in Paris; National Library of France begins moving books from its old home in city center to new site in Tolbiac district in southeast Paris; photo (M)

Footlights

Washington Mutual Inc and H F Ahmanson & Co, nation's two largest savings and loan companies, agree to merge in $9.9 billion stock swap that will create West Coast behemoth capable of competing with new giants of consumer banking; Washington Mutual, largest savings and loan association in US, says it will buy H F Ahmanson & Co to create new company with $149.2 billion in assets; that will make it seventh-largest company in entire banking industry; Ahmanson chmn Charles R Rinehart says he will leave company when merger is completed in third quarter; Washington Mutual chmn Kerry Killinger comments (M)

Biggest S.& L.'s In Merger Deal Of $9.9 Billion

Chase Manhattan Corp to lay off about 2,250 employees, or 3 percent of its work force, as it consolidates administrative and business functions; about half of the layoffs, or 1,125 jobs, will be in New York metropolitan region and New York State; cuts are part of plan to eliminate about 4,500 of bank's 69,033 positions over next 18 months by laying off workers and by not replacing others who depart (L)

2,250 Layoffs Set at Chase, Or 3% of Staff

 Willey Talks Acknowledged  A book publisher acknowledged that he had negotiated with Kathleen E. Willey's lawyer to print her memoirs but disputed the lawyer's description of events. Page A18.

INSIDE

Senate Budget Committee chmn Pete V Domenici proposes Republican fiscal blueprint for next year that rejects nearly all of Pres Clinton's calls for increased domestic spending but provides smaller tax cuts than sought by many Republicans; proposal is first detailed Republican budget plan this year and appears likely to be adopted by committee over Democratic opposition; plan calls for Federal spending of $1.73 trillion, increase of 3.6 percent over 1998, but turns aside Administration's proposals for new education, child care and health care initiatives; it provides for tax cuts worth $30 billion over five years, and it goes along with Administration's insistence that any budget surpluses be set aside until nation agrees on way to shore up Social Security; one of Domenici proposal's main features is earmarking of any proceeds from legislated settlement with tobacco industry over illnesses caused by smoking to help Medicare; photo (M)

G.O.P. FISCAL PLAN REJECTS PROGRAMS SOUGHT BY CLINTON

Marian Burros reports on proliferation of hot, spicy sauces; recalls time when there was just Tabasco sauce, a gentleman's condiment for raw oysters and gumbo; says hot sauce is now a $180 million a year business, with more than 1,000 sauces on market; photos (L)

The Heat Is On; Hot sauces are burning their way across America.

Schocken Books is publishing new translation of Franz Kafka's The Castle by Mark Harman; it is first volume in vast retranslation of Kafka's novels, diaries (including previously expurgated sections) and correspondence; new work is based on fresh compilation of manuscripts by Sir Malcolm Pasley, scholar at Oxford University; it shows a modernist Kafka, a precursor of Beckett, colloquial, even playful; for Harman, the work is also an expression of Kafka's increasing preoccupation with his Jewishness; photos (M)

Newly Translated, Still Kafkaesque; A Comic Style Emerges in 'The Castle'

Article discusses growth of new, upscale communities throughout country consisting of estate subdivisions, instant neighborhoods of supersized tract houses built on relatively small lots; home building industry officials comment; examples cited; photo(M)

Suburbs' Mass-Market Mansions; Baby Boom Luxury: Huge Home, Often on a Tiny Lot

Molly O'Neill reports on polenta served in traditional Tuscan style, on tableclothe, or even bare table, sometimes in table-size communal presentations; earlier this winter, Romana Tamani, chef and owner of acclaimed Ambasciata restaurant in Quistello, Italy, spent week preparing polenta on tables at Le Cirque 2000; photos; recipes (M)

From Pot To Plank: Polenta Eaten Off The Table

Emmanuel Clase is a Dominican professional baseball pitcher for the Cleveland Guardians of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Texas Rangers, making his debut with the team in 2019.

March 18, 1998

Headlines from March 18, 1998

Sports of The Times; LaFontaine Should Not Come Back

Knicks Reach Deep To Salvage a Victory

Mississippi Reveals Dark Secrets of a Racist Time

Sudan Hinders U.N. Aid as South Faces Famine

About New York; A Comeback: Add Fortitude To Irish Song

Billboard 200

Titanic

Ray Of Light

Let's Talk About Love

My Homies

Savage Garden

Notable Births

Historical Context for March 18, 1998