July 24, 1998

Environmental Protection Agency study finds that 'hot spots' of PCB contamination in upper Hudson River are not being buried in protective layers of silt as some scientists have contended, but instead are disgorging fresh streams of industrial PCB pollutants into water, where they can accumulate in fish and pose cancer threat to people who eat fish; EPA officials say it might be necessary this fall to conduct accelerated cleanups of some hot spots; General Electric Co, which operated two factories that legally released over million pounds of PCB's into river before Government banned such discharges in 1977, contends that contaminated areas are mainly dormant and that time and currents will steadily bury them; map (M)

Collapse of Conde Nast building elevator tower in Times Square has forced four successful theater productions to shut down; most prominent and imperiled is Cabaret at Kit Kat Klub on 43d Street; other shows are You Never Can Tell and Side Man at Criterion Theater and Smoke On the Mountain at Lamb's Theater; officials with Roundabout Theater Co, producers of Cabaret, say they have no official word on how long show will be shut down (M)

Boeing Co stuns investors with news of steep drop in second-quarter earnings and even more unexpected warning that results for both this year and next will be about 40 percent below Wall Street estimates; earnings fell 46 percent, to $258 million compared with $476 million in year-earlier quarter; revenue rose 9 percent, to $13.4 billion, from $12.3 billion in 1997; shares fall $6.5625, to $41.1875; chart (M)

Some residents of Andrews, NC, are rooting for bombing fugitive Eric Robert Rudolph to elude camouflaged G-men and ther bloodhounds; there is a degree of local pride in ability of ninth-grade dropout from area to outwit more than 200 investigators equipped with electronic motion detectors and helicopters with heat sensors; additional factors are an underlay of antiabortion sentiment and distrust of govt that is native to mountains of western North Carolina; photos (M)

Republican leaders in Senate decide that it would be futile to push for big tax cut this year, infuriating conservatives in House and Senate who hoped prospect of huge Federal budget surpluses would lead to swift passage of sweeping tax reductions; split within party complicates and perhaps dooms efforts by party's tax-cutting wing to ram through election-year tax package that would set up potent confrontation with Congressional Democrats and Pres Clinton (M)