Article on some automobiles that highlight New York International Auto Show at Jacob K Javits Convention Center in Manhattan; photos (L)0

Spotted in New York: Shiny Cars

Profile of St Joe Corp, which plans to build environment-friendly resort and residential communities as it develops its vast land holdings along Florida's panhandle; area, despite white-sand beaches, has lagged behind state's east and west coasts in growth and prosperity; company plans to build towns that will reshape Florida's demographics by appealing to families and job seekers, not just retirees; chairman and chief executive Peter S Rummell comments, interview; maps; graph; photos (L)

A Land Giant Is Stirring. Will Florida Ever Be the Same?

 Elusive Bosnian Serb  A campaign is under way to defend the Bosnian Serb wartime leader, even while diplomats say he is trying to negotiate his trial. Page 6.

INSIDE

Diana B Henriques column on outlook for universal banking in United States in light of planned Citicorp merger with Travelers Group; notes banks abroad that offer 'universal' range of financial services have not been as profitable as US banks and have been plagued by some awesome frauds and blunders; graph (M)

Citigroup: Plaudits Aren't Universal

Comment on cacophony of voices of would-be Republican leaders competing for attention within party; photos; disarray is particularly striken given that Pres Clinton, beset by scandal, has not had much opportunity to exert leadership himself or on behalf of Democrats (S)

Ideas & Trends: Hey! Over Here!; Desperately Seeking Attention in the G.O.P.

Human growth hormone hGH, developed to treat children with dwarfism, is latest anti-aging fad among wealthy New Yorkers and Californians obsessed with avoiding droops, dwindles and sags of middle age; youth elixir is injected by doctors such as Bruce J Nadler and Adrienne Denese of Manhattan, despite Government warnings of potentially dangerous side effects; photo; other treatments are high-priced vitamins, hormones and enzymes prescribed by Dr Alan P Mintz at his Las Vegas clinic (M)

Anti-Aging Potion Or Poison?

Census planned for year 2000 is generating firestorm of debate, strategizing in Congress and litigation aimed at blocking Census Bureau from changing way it does business; at issue is plan to substitute statistical sampling method for traditional method of trying to count every person in country; only all people in 90 percent of households in each census tract, comprising about 1,700 dwellings, will be counted with statisticians making subsequent adjustments to final total; Republicans say statistical sampling violates Constitution, which calls for actual enumeration every 10 years, and is much too complex for Census Bureau to perform successfully; Democrats staunchly support it, arguing that it is only way to obtain accurate tally of minorities--particularly inner-city blacks and Hispanic migrant workers who are traditionally hardest to count; despite assertions over fairness and constitutionality of statistical method, raw political fight based on race and redistricting underlies debate and outcome could be critical to which party controls House and state legislatures at beginning of next century; sampling would probably help Democrats since it could increase count of minorities, primarily blacks who are Democrats' most loyal voters in some Congressional and state legislative districts; photo (M)

Political Interests Arouse Raging Debate on Census

Interview with makeup artist Sam Fine on special cosmetics needs of black women; photo (S)

Say Black? Not So Fast

Comment on celebrity presence, perhaps excessive, at Fashion Week shows in New York; photo of Mira Sorvino (S)

Celebrity Overkill

77 disparate projects receive start-up funds from consortium of nonprofit groups called Rural New York Grant Program--all dedicated to goal of sustaining rural way of life in New York State (S)

POSTINGS: 77 Grants in 37 Counties; Helping Rural Areas Survive in New York

Actress Jane Alexander, who is returning to Broadway in play Honour, discusses frustrating experience of heading National Endowment for the Arts from 1993 through October 1997; Alexander says she considers it something of triumph that the agency survived at all, despite year after year of attempts by conservative Republicans to abolish it; drawing; photo (L)

Politics Is a Tough Act, Says Ex-N.E.A. Chief

Kentucky Derby scene changes quickly and dramatically after three important races are run within half-hour of each other; previously unbeaten Favorite Trick suffers first loss of his career in $500,000 Arkansas Derby behind Victory Gallop and Hanuman Highway; Favorite Trick's chances of running in Kentucky Derby are uncertain; future is uncertain for Lil's Lad, who is upset as 2-5 favorite in $700,000 Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland, Lexington, Ky; Halory Hunter wins Blue Grass; Coronado's Quest wins $500,000 Wood Memorial at Aqueduct; Coronado's Quest had been virtually eliminated from Derby consideration following his unruly pre-race behavior at Gulfstream Park; Coronado's Quest's owner says horse will not go to Kentucky Derby; chart; photos (L)

A Pre-Derby Shake-Up For Favorites

Nothing touches off panic in taxpayers more than the prospect of an audit. But there are wide disparities across the country in who gets audited. Newly released data from the Internal Revenue Service show, for example, that Los Angeles County taxpayers are four times as likely to be audited as those in New Jersey, even though the two areas have roughly the same population and the same average income.  

Big Disparities Seen In Income Tax Audits

Fred Couples shoots a 71 and will enter Masters' final round with two-stroke lead; Couples comments; leader board; photo (L)

With One Round to Go, Couples Holds an Uneasy Lead

1998 may be third year of strong sales of vacation properties, with strong economy, soaring stock market and low interest rates resulting in diminished inventory; brokers selling in beach communities say record prices are being paid for waterfront properties and that in many instances 1998 is outpacing record totals for 1997; photos (M)

Vacation Home Sales: Water Adds Heat

Coping column on continuing warfare in Housing Court between tenants at 230 East 167th Street in the Bronx and building's owners, Stuart Morgan and Steven Finkelstein; Geovanny David is fighting eviction for nonpayment of rent (S)

Whose Building Is It Anyway?

New York Knicks player John Starks comments on impact of his grandmother's illness on his performance recently; Starks has appeared uncharacteristically distracted and mentally tired the past two months; Knicks could use dose of old Starks as it faces Miami Heat, a game team needs to block any challengers for seventh spot in Eastern Conference playoffs; photo (L)

Starks Admits Impact of His Grandmother's Illness

Planned $6.6 million restoration of John Harms Center for the Performing Arts in Englewood, NJ, discused; renovation will modernize old theater while recapturing way it looked in 1926, when it opened as premier vaudeville house; photo (M)

POSTINGS: $6.6 Million Restoration of an Englewood Theater; An Up-to-Date Recapturing of the Past

Profile of Douglas F Groat, former Central Intelligence Agency employee charged with espionage in one of strangest spy cases in memory; his peculiar perfectionism so antagonized his bosses that he lost jobs he loved best--first with Glenville, NY, police department, then with CIA; he has been accused of revealing US code-breaking abilities to foreign governments, crimes that constitute treason and carry threat of death; Groat's supporters say indictment may have grown out of terrible misunderstanding, a personnel dispute that escalated into kind of warfare between disgruntled spy and his superiors; photos (L)

A Straight-Arrow Policeman Turns Loose Cannon at C.I.A.

Current US economic boom compared with one in Japan in 1980's, which has long since collapsed; graphs of stock market performances; Japan's booming exports, lavish corporate entertainment and raw hubris washed over serious discussion of country's weaknesses; American investors now may also be overconfident, but America's underlying economic strengths today run considerably deeper than Japan's ever did: nation has already endured wave of downsizing, job-shifting and retooling that Japan has yet to tackle (M)

The World: East and Eden; America Is Prosperous and Smug, Like Japan Was

Lincoln division of Ford Motor Co unveils its most ambitious weapon for wooing affluent baby-boomers, in US and abroad, who are entering their peak earnings years: the LS series of medium-sized, understated, German-inspired luxury cars; photo (L)

There, on the Autobahn, Could It Be a Lincoln?

Article by Michael Brenson on the future of the National Endowment for the Arts; says if the agency disappears, the pressure on the art world to see itself as part of larger American picture will be sharply diminished, and entire fabric of American art will be weakened; holds endowment is the only agency in US whose mandate is to build and maintain arts infrastructure and to secure place of the artist in society; urges partnership of private and public support to keep endowment alive; drawing; photo (L)0

Washington's Stake in the Arts

Women of Women's National Basketball Assn chose last year to settle for modest money and little power for privilege of playing professional ball in United States and for greater good of starting new league; league succeeded and now, with second season scheduled to begin on June 11, players are wondering if they should ask for more; players are chafing at economic limitations they agreed to last year and eager to garner greater rewards in light of league's success; they are debating volatile issue: whether to form union; league officials are wary, noting that league has only one season under its belt; photos (M)

In W.N.B.A., Hope for Union Of Their Own

First article in series, Does Workfare Work?, finds scant evidence that New York City's ambitious workfare program, instituted in 1994, has accomplished central goal of moving significant number of people from welfare to full-time work; workfare has provided limited job training for many poorly skilled and educated New Yorkers on public assistance, but much of work is so menial that it offers few, if any, skills that employers demand; participants receive little help looking for permanent job, and half get none at all; there is little evidence that many people have been able to use workfare as springboard to real job; state survey found that after three months off rolls, fewer than third of those who left welfare in New York City found legitimate full- and part-time jobs; photos; chart (L)

Evidence Is Scant That Workfare Leads to Full-Time Jobs

George J Mitchell gave up comforts of retirement from United States Senate to spend three years trying to wring peace agreement out of feuding political leaders of Northern Ireland; all sides are praising him for his stewardship during 22 months of talks it took to produce peace accord; there is general agreement that without his guidance and forbearance no accord would have emergered; Mitchell says he was motivated by belief that children of Northern Ireland deserve same peace and political stability that his children enjoy; photo (M)

Can-Do American's Patience Paid Off With an Ulster Pact

Robert Arthur Douglas Ford, was a Canadian poet, translator and diplomat.

April 12, 1998

Headlines from April 12, 1998

Spotted in New York: Shiny Cars

A Land Giant Is Stirring. Will Florida Ever Be the Same?

INSIDE

Citigroup: Plaudits Aren't Universal

Ideas & Trends: Hey! Over Here!; Desperately Seeking Attention in the G.O.P.

Billboard 200

Titanic

Let's Talk About Love

The Pillage

Ray Of Light

Savage Garden

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for April 12, 1998