Interview with Joseph C Lewis, little-known currency trader who has amassed huge fortune by winning bets that have shaken number of currencies; his role as speculator highlights increasing economic impact of currency trading in world of computerized, global finance; graphs; photos (L)9

Into the Island Lair of a Currency-Trading Tiger

Flow of rental apartments into Manhattan's financial district continues with $20 million partial conversion of office building at corner of John and Gold Streets; Moinian Group plans to use upper 23 floors for apartments and lower 13 floors for offices (S)

POSTINGS: Apartments Above, Offices Below; Slicing Up Wedding Cake

Robert Lipsyte Coping article on efforts of Jane Mattes, single mother, to provide male role models for son; Mattes, psychotherapist, wrote book and founded organization for single mothers; drawing (M)

Single Mother's Helpers

Former tenants, local elected officials and community activists score New York City's rush to raze Lower East Side tenement in January after bricks fell from building's century-old facade; city officials defend decision; tenants, evacuated without their possessions, are still living fractured, uncertain lives; map; photos (M)

The Angry Urban Refugees

Leonard M Apcar assesses Jaguar XJ8 sedan; photos (M)

BEHIND THE WHEEL/Jaguar XJ8; A V8 and an Exorcism Lift the Spirit of the Cat

The education of Venus Williams continues, and today's semifinal match at the Italian Open against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario confirmed that she is no innocent abroad.    In her first appearance in this prestigious clay-court event and only her second clay-court event as a professional, Williams reached the final, and though she did not face a seeded player until today, there is no question that she has now earned the right to face Martina Hingis on Sunday at the Foro Italico.  

Williams Reaches Italian Final Only to Meet Hingis

Queen Elizabeth has had four of her cars converted to run on cleaner-burning liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), as well as on conventional gasoline; cites concern about London air quality; conversion is part of national drive by LPG industry; photo (S)

The Queen Goes Green: Cars of H.R.M. Will Run on L.P.G.

Several ad agencies suggest promotions for products, actual or imaginary, that have been featured on television program Seinfeld; photos of ads for Senior Mints, Elaine Benes Dance Studio, Soup Nazi franchise and catalogue of great talk show sets (S)

Seinfeld & Associates: A Portfolio

Middle-income people of retirement age are getting wider choice of independent-living accommodations in New York area; expansion is also under way in pure assisted-living developments, in which residents usually get meals and help with daily living tasks; most active-adult leisure communities in area are in New Jersey beyond typical commuting distance to New York City; new retirement communities have recently opened closer to northern New Jersey's population centers; photos; rendering (L)

New York Area Retirees Get More Housing Choices

Article by Bernard Holland on sophisticated amplified sound systems being used in Broadway musicals, including The Capeman, Chicago, Titanic, The Scarlet Pimpernel, Ragtime and The Lion King, in effort to attract audiences that are used to near-perfect digital recordings of the shows; says these shows are telling us that music is not the reason they exist and that a good show need not necessarily have good music; holds so just as acoustically delivered sound has been devalued on Broadway, so has musical information it conveys; says Broadway now copies the digital recording, making it both the model and the ideal; diagram; drawing (L)

Theaters Alive With a New Sound of Music

Skill of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler Corp in winning government patronage recalled in light of praise for their planned merger as marriage of free enterprise champions (M)

Capitalism Victorious (Thanks, Everyone)

The vulnerable star center at Madison Square Garden yesterday was Rik Smits, as he stood there in the paint like the last slice of pizza in the box. Someone was bound to attack a guy who was all but baked with five fouls and six minutes left in the game.    And yet, the Knicks had passed up opportunities to push the Indiana Pacers off the cliff in the first two games of their second-round playoff series. It might have been a silly offensive foul, a missed rebound or a turnover. For some reason, fourth quarters, and the pressure of the moment, had been sending the Knicks into a state more mindless than meticulous.  

Knicks Keep Their Cool, and Keep the Series Up for Grabs

The New York Liberal Party selected Lieut. Gov. Betsy McCaughey Ross, a former Republican whose ideological credentials are suspect among many Democratic leaders, as its gubernatorial candidate, insuring her a place on the November ballot.    The selection could give a lift to the re-election prospects of Gov. George E. Pataki. If Ms. McCaughey Ross fails to win the Democratic primary, the anti-Pataki vote will be divided between two candidates.   

Liberals' Candidate Is McCaughey Ross

Profile of Jeffrey A Citron, 27, chief executive of Datek Online Holdings Corp and pioneer in electronic stock trading; securities firm's murky and blemished record of questionable trading practices threatens to undermine his status as Wall Street's golden boy as he prepares to take on-line venture public; Citron seeks to distance self from Robert E Brennan, penny stock promoter barred from brokerage industry, from whom he bought house and jet; denies Datek has been involved in any wrongdoing, interview; has tightened management controls, outlawed many trading practices, hired major accounting firm and spun off trading unit that was at center of most of questioned practices since taking full charge last year; chronology of events; table; graph; photos (L)

Golden Boy?; He's Dazzled Wall Street, but the Ghosts Of His Company May Haunt His Future

State governments and major industrial groups are challenging new Environmental Protection Agency policy intended to insure that minority neighborhoods are not saddled with unfair share of incinerators, dumps and other sources of pollution; agency's policy addresses mounting complaints by civil rights and environmental advocates that state agencies are guilty of racial discrimination in granting pollution permits; opponents of policy are urging Clinton Administration to withdraw it, arguing that it would hamstring state and local governments, encouraging frivolous lawsuits and discourage companies from investing in depressed cities (M)

POLLUTION POLICY IS UNFAIR BURDEN, STATES TELL E.P.A.

 Knicks Win Game 3  Shaking off the rust, Patrick Ewing scored 19 points as New York beat Indiana, 83-76. The Knicks trail in the series, 2-1. SportsSunday, section 8.    

INSIDE

Growing number of people have rediscovered the labyrinth as path to prayer, introspection and emotional healing; those who walk a labryinth often say it focuses the mind, slows breathing and can induce peaceful state or help them confront their problems; labyrinth builders are copying patterns from floors and walls of medieval Christian churches; some labyrinth walkers comment; photos (L)

Reviving Labyrinths, Paths to Inner Peace

Unrest deepens in Indonesia; it is gravest political crisis Pres Suharto has faced in his 32 years in power; almost nobody believes Suharto will step down voluntarily; his decision to attend summit meeting of 15 third-world countries in Egypt on May 11 is seen as defiant show of confidence in his control of country (M)

Unrest Deepens in Indonesia, But Suharto Offers Defiance

Floyd Norris Market Watch column on contentious audit of Baan Co that raised questions about Dutch software concerns profits and complicated transactions between affiliated companies; lauds auditor, Moret, Ernst & Young, for forcing Baan to make disclosures and change accounting for some transactions; graph of Baan stock price (M)

An Audit Uncovers Soft Profits In Software

PLEASE don't ''Willis Reed'' him anymore. Please don't make his whole career hinge on whether he finds his form and leads the Knicks into the next round.    ''I'm just trying to blend in,'' Patrick Ewing insisted yesterday after leading the Knicks with 19 points in their 83-76 victory, his first game back in Madison Square Garden since his wrist was badly injured in December.  

Sports of The Times; Don't Make This a Test Of Ewing

Prof Sherwin B Nuland article on changes in character of medical innovation and in society's reaction to such progress; says medicine has moved from focus mainly on cure toward one increasingly concerned with life enhancement, and society has abandoned attitude of skepticism in favor of wholehearted and largely uncritical embrace of medical advancement; says boundaries have become blurred, between research that will alter approach to disease and research that will alter approach to life itself; photo (M)

Ideas & Trends: The Rush to Enhancement; Medicine Isn't Just for the Sick Anymore

Photo of marketing efforts by chicken restaurant on Manhattan street with six other restaurants

The Chicken-Bagel War

Many experts on children and family life wonder whether changes in way Americans work, live and take in information are making childhood obsolete; childhood is as much a cultural construction as a biological one; for most of history, children past age of 7 or 8 have been treated as little adults; notion of a period of childhood innocence first took root with Enlightenment of 17th century, and reached its high-water mark in United States at beginning of this century; child labor laws, mandatory universal education and juvenile justice system codified as never before way children were differnt from adults; now, much of that seems to be coming apart; changing nature of childhood reflects general and often contradictory flux in all states of life; photo (M)

The Nation: Growing Pains; No Room for Children in a World of Little Adults

Article on election-year wrangling as Connecticut General Assembly approves tax rebates and reaches compromise on education spending (M)

Tax Relief ? It Must Be An Election Year Session

Hospice care for people on brink of death has boomed, but so has new brand of fraud and abuse that is straining regulatory system that was never designed to handle expanding services to nation's growing aging population; hospice care has emerged as fastest-growing segment of Federal Medicare budget; in last fiscal year, hospice care cost Medicare $2 billion, nearly double amount paid four years earlier; new Federal report concludes nearly 1 of 3 nursing home patients receiving hospice care is ineligible; Department of Health and Human Services was so concerned that it issued special fraud alert in March, warning that patients who were not terminally ill were receiving services and that some hospices may be making illegal payments to nursing homes for patient referrals; chart shows how Medicare costs have boomed for hospice care (M)

May 10, 1998

Headlines from May 10, 1998

Into the Island Lair of a Currency-Trading Tiger

POSTINGS: Apartments Above, Offices Below; Slicing Up Wedding Cake

Single Mother's Helpers

The Angry Urban Refugees

BEHIND THE WHEEL/Jaguar XJ8; A V8 and an Exorcism Lift the Spirit of the Cat

Billboard 200

Titanic

One Step At A Time

City Of Angels

Let's Talk About Love

Savage Garden

Historical Context for May 10, 1998