Goldman, Sachs & Co partners vote overwhelmingly to sell shares in Wall Street's most profitable private investment bank; formally approve offering plan that values firm at $28 billion and promises employees a big cut of riches; partners anticipate selling 10 to 15 percent of its share to public, raising about $3 billion; offering will price whole firm at about $28 billion (Market Place column) (M)

THE MARKETS: Market Place; Goldman, Sachs Partners Vote to Take Firm Public

New traffic pattern begins at Columbus Circle in midtown Manhattan; new configuration described; map; photo (M)

Traffic on Columbus Circle Finally Comes, Well, Full Circle

James Oestreich reviews Mostly Mozart Festival appearance by Concerto Koln, at Alice Tully Hall; performances by contralto Nathalie Stutzmann and fortepianist Malcolm Bilson appraised; photo (M)

Late-Breaking Insight From Early-Music Subversives

Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNIPS), which are genetic variations in DNA that make each individual unique and are determinants of health and disease, are becoming widely accessible to researchers who have developed new 'snip chip' to help locate and identify variations in nucleotide pairs; chip is composed of multiple strands of DNA representing specific nucleotide sequences that correspond to pairs being sought; snips could yield troves of information for population geneticists in reconstructing size and timing of early human migrations that peopled globe, and for medical geneticists tracing elusive links between genes and disease, particularly common diseases to which many genes contribute; pharmaceutical companies could match drugs more precisely to individual's unique genetic makeup; diagrams (M)

In the Hunt for Useful Genes, a Lot Depends on 'Snips'

Section of masonry 12 feet high and 4 feet wide comes loose from 40th floor of office building on Lexington Avenue between 46th and 47th Streets, showering crowded midtown street below with thousands of pieces of brick, two of which pierce roof of commuter bus; no injuries are reported; photo (M)

In Midtown, Yet Another Shower of Bricks; Panic on Lexington Avenue, but No One Is Injured; Streets Are Closed

Two Chicago boys, ages 7 and 8, are charged with murdering 11-year-old Ryan Harris--striking her with rock, sexually molesting and suffocating her--apparently to take bicycle she had been riding; juvenile justice experts say they know of no case in which younger children have been prosecuted for murder in US; police say boys have confessed to July 27 killing; Juvenile Court Judge Gerald T Winiecki rules there is probable cause to try boys on juvenile charges and orders them held overnight at psychiatric hospital; Harris photo (M)

Chicago Boys, 7 and 8, Charged In the Brutal Killing of a Girl, 11

Black-owned companies in areas like beauty products, funeral services and insurance, which first thrived in segregationist era, are deciding that it makes more sense to merge with big corporations than fight them; and though blacks are steadily creating businesses in wider range of fields than ever before, some see recent acquisitions as unfortunate end of control by pioneers of black entreneurship in this country; study released by University of Georgia's Selig Center for Economic Growth calculates that black purchasing power will reach $533 billion in 1999, up 73 percent from $308 billion in 1990, compared with 57 percent increase projected for all Americans; Dr Jeffrey M Humphreys says such income growth should create tremendous opportunities for businesses that pay attention to needs and preferences of African-American consumers; some major mergers of black-owned companies between 1993 and 1998 noted; graph; photo of Terri Gradner, head of Soft Sheen, and her parents Edward and Bettiann Gardner, who build Soft Sheen into $80 million company and last month sold it to L'Oreal SA of France (M)

The Courtship Of Black Consumers; Corporate America Absorbs a Growing Number of Minority-Owned Businesses

 With Investors Defensive, Small-Cap Stocks Skid  After last week's stock market rout, investors seemed defensive and uncertain. Drug company shares rose, but financial stocks were weak, as the Dow industrials gave up 23.17 points, to close at 8,674.85.     After rallying late last week, small-company shares faltered, leaving the Russell index of 2,000 smaller-company stocks below its level of a week earlier. The index fell 4.16 points, or 1 percent, to 411.64.   [Page D8.]    Treasury bond yields fell to one-month lows on expectations that Asian financial turmoil would bolster demand at the Treasury's $37 billion quarterly debt sale this week. The benchmark 30-year bond rose 2/32 , or 67.5 cents per $1,000 bond, to 1076/32 , nudging its yield down a basis point to 5.62 percent.   [D8.]    Wall Street passed a preliminary test of its computer readiness for the year 2000 ''with flying colors,'' the Securities Industry Association said.   [D7.]    H.M.O.'s Said to Overbill Medicare  Health maintenance organizations have been receiving more than $1 billion a year in overpayments from the Medicare trust fund because they bill the Government for administrative costs attributable to their private customers as well as their Medicare patients, Federal investigators said.   [A14.]    A New State Lure: Wage Rebates  The competition among states and even Mexico to attract companies has spawned a new incentive, one strikingly uncharacteristic for a market economy: wage rebates. For example, Whirlpool will get back 4.5 cents of every dollar paid in wages to the 1,100 workers it hired for a stove factory in Tulsa, Okla.   [A1.]    Ford Cutting Prices for 1999  Ford Motor, for the first time in over 30 years, cut the average price of its 1999 model cars and trucks. The decrease averages three-tenths of 1 percent, or about $61, from comparably equipped 1998 models. The prices of Ford's highest-volume cars, the Ford Taurus and Mercury Sable, will fall by $1,000 to $1,800.   [D2.]    Oxford Pressed on New York Plan  The New York State Insurance Department has asked Oxford Health Plans to increase its reserves for its New York plan by $152 million to insure that it has sufficient funds to pay medical claims over the next year.   [B6.]    Bell Atlantic Strike Is Felt  The strike by Bell Atlantic workers affected customers from Maine to Virginia who were unable to get a telephone line installed or repaired or reach directory assistance.   [B1.]    China's Firm Stance on the Yuan  Asian markets have seesawed as traders play on concerns that China, like the Asian nations roiled by financial crisis, will reduce the value of its currency, the yuan. But China's leaders have repeatedly promised they will not, and the traders overlook the fact that China responds more to politics than to market pressure. News Analysis.   [D4.]    New Editors for Glamour and Cosmo  Ruth Whitney is retiring after more than three decades as editor of Glamour, just 18 months after Helen Gurley Brown left Cosmopolitan. Succeeding the leaders whose sensibilities defined the two women's magazines for a generation are to be Bonnie Fuller, Cosmo editor, at Glamour, and Kate White, editor of Redbook, at Cosmo. Advertising.   [D6.]    A Free Fix for Vulnerable E-Mail  Sendmail, whose software routes electronic mail, plans to announce a simple and free fix for a security flaw found in Microsoft and Netscape E-mail programs.   [D5.]      The Fortune Rubin Left Behind  When Robert E. Rubin left Goldman, Sachs, where he held one of the largest ownership stakes, in late 1992 to join the Government, he may have left a half-billion dollars -- or even $1.5 billion -- on the table. As Treasury Secretary, he earns $99,500 a year.   [D7.]  

BUSINESS DIGEST

Microsoft Corp asks Federal court to narrow or toss out Government's suit against company--latest effort to derail landmark antitrust case before trial begins in September; legal experts say Microsoft's request for summary judgment can be seen as routine step in major antitrust case; they add company's motion does indicate how much confidence Microsoft'as legal team has gained from Federal appeals court ruling in June in earlier narrower case; in ruling on earlier case, appeals court said Microsoft could assert that its Internet browser program for navigating World Wide Web was integral part of its industry-standard Windows operating system (M)

More Jockeying To Pare Back Microsoft Suit

New York Mets defeat St Louis Cardinals, 4-2; photo (M)

Home Run Lifts Hundley and Mets

Federal officials have broken up $60 million food-stamp fraud ring in New York City; it is largest food-stamp fraud ring ever in city; officials say individuals sold their food stamps to Chinese takeout restaurants, which in turn sold them to bodega owners, who then redeemed coupons from Government; say some stores with $200,000 in annual sales redeemed $2 million worth of food stamps; 18 people have been charged with conspiring to defraud food-stamp program and launder money; nine suspects have been arrested; large sums of money from scheme ended up in banks in Dominican Republic; case is unusual for its vast scope and for fact that scheme cut across ethnic lines, involving individuals, Chinese-owned restaurants and Hispanic-owned grocery stores in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Bronx (M)

FOOD STAMP FRAUD CITED IN NEW YORK

Strike by 73,000 Bell Atlantic workers enters its second day with repercussions being felt yesterday by customers from Maine to Virginia who were unable to get telephone line installed or repaired or reach directory assistance; company says that about 23,500 managers have been assigned to field duty; about 2,000 union members stage rally in downtown Brooklyn; negotiators for both sides say that contract talks are continuing and that they are hoping for swift resolution; photo (M)

Consumers Feel Service Delays From the Strike At Bell Atlantic

Competition among states to attract companies has spawned new incentive, one strikingly uncharacteristic for free market economy: wage rebates; wage rebates allow companies to lower their labor costs through taxpayer-financed subsidies; state reimburses company for part of wages paid for each job created by relocated or existing company; Council of State Governments says these subsidies, offered by only 8 states in 1989, are now offered by 21 states, mostly in South and Midwest; robust economy that is pushing unemployment rate to its lowest level in decades is raising questions about value of taxpayer-financed wage rebates; map shows states that reimburse private employers for part of wages of newly created jobs (M)

Taxes Help Foot the Payrolls As States Vie for Employers

Michael Janofsky's Arts in America column discusses Beach Blanket Babylon, musical homage to popular culture that has been part of San Francisco theater scene for past 24 years; show, which plays eight times per week for 51 weeks each year and is always sold out, is brainchild of onetime street performer Steve Silver, who died in 1995; photos (M)

High Jinks, Big Hair And a Spirit That Lasts

Art dealer Andrew Crispo, who became living symbol of excesses of 1980's when he was investigated for, but not charged with, sadomasochistic murder as well as pleading guilty to tax evasion charges, discusses his plans to emerge from personal bankruptcy to create new art business in Greenwich Village; photo (M)

Art Dealer Returns With a Fresh Canvas; Crispo Survives Bankruptcy, Scandal and Prison to Create a New Gallery

Republicans in Congress leave for their summer vacation deeply divided, fighting themselves as hard as they fight Democrats and unable to fill policy vacuum left by hobbled Clinton Presidency; Republicans have been unable to agree on budget with only one month left in Congressional session before mid-term elections that will decide control of House and Senate; they have yet to send White House one of 13 spending bills needed to keep Government running when new fiscal year begins in Oct; divisions among social conservatives, moderates and party's business wing have resulted in prominent broken promises and stalled spending bills (M)

As Vacation Begins for Congress, Problems Follow the G.O.P. Home

Article on Octopus, invertebrate descendant of shelled mollusks that date back 500 million years; was revered by Minoans and early Hindus and abounds in earth's oceans; stands above other invertebrates in capacity to elicit human affection and fascination; drawing; photo (M)

At Love and Play Under the Sea In an Octopus's Garden

Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently exhibiting retrospective of 31 works by late journeyman artist Judith Rothschild; many curators, artists and other experts say Met had ulterior motives in scheduling show, that it is less interested in her art than in works by 20th-century masters that she left behind; when Rothschild died in 1993, she put her own artworks into Judith Rothschild Foundation, along with passel of paintings that she inherited from her parents; critics say there is no explanation for show except that museum is hoping to receive Rothschild collection; photos (M)

Questions Over Met's Show of Minor Artist

US offers $2 million reward for information about US embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; eyewitnesses say they saw truck that may have carried bomb that wrecked embassy in Nairobi; CIA and FBI officials are evaluating other leads in attacks; leads include terrorist manifesto delivered in Cairo that praises Osama Bin Laden, Saudi financier whom US officials have identified as possible suspect, and vague warnings picked up by foreign intelligence agency that Islamic terrorist group might have been planning attack in Kenya; bombings killed over 200 people and wounded nearly 5,000 others; photos (M)

REWARD IS OFFERED AND CLUES STUDIED IN AFRICAN BLASTS

Livent Inc, producer of Brodway shows, announces that internal investigation has found serious accounting problems involving millions of dollars; company's new managers, led by Michael Ovitz, says that they are virtually certain that company's financial results dating back to beginning of 1996 will have to be restated; company suspends chief creative director Garth H Drabinsky; Drabinsky had been in charge of creative and financial sides of company before Ovitz and other executives took over on June 12; also suspended is Myron Gottlieb, vice president, who founded company with Drabinsky; Drabinsky and Gottlieb, in written statement, say they are surprised and dismayed at concerns raised by new senior management; chart on company's finances; photo of Drabinsky (M)

Broadway Producer Has Big Accounting Woes

New York Yankees defeat Minnesota Twins, 7-3; photo (M)

A Letup By Yanks? The Twins Only Wish

Article on Society for the Preservation and Encouragement of Barbership Quartet Singing in America; 60-year-old fraternal organization of men who love to harmonize has more than 34,000 members in 809 chapters in US and Canada, and may well be largest singing organization in world; has annual budget of $5.5 million, which it uses to hold competitions, publish magazine, run educational programs and support amateur singing groups; photos (M)

Just a Bunch of Guys Who Har-mo-niiiiize; The Sound of Barbershop Quartets Echoes Happily Through the Land

Law that created independent counsel has come under attack as Kenneth W Starr's investigation of Pres Clinton has moved from scrutiny of tangled Whitewater case to allegations of sexual affair with White House intern; interviews with seven of people who have held job since law, Ethics in Government Act of 1978, was adopted produced broad consensus that statute is needed but might have to be overhauled if it was to be renewed by Congress when it expires next year; former counsels say law covers too many officials and too many potential acts of wrongdoing, and leaves Attorney General too little discretion about when to invoke it; Lawrence E Walsh says law should be limited to misuse of Government power and should not include personal mistakes or indiscretions; other former counsels interviewed are Whitney North Seymour Jr, Arthur H Christy, Robert B Fiske Jr, Joseph DiGenova, James C McKay and Alexia Morrison; list of independent counsels shows year of their appointments and results of their investigations (M)

Former Special Counsels See Need To Alter Law That Created Them

Harvey Araton Sports of The Times column discusses career of Iranian tennis player Mansour Bahrami, who is currently playing on senior tour; he discusses how his career was harmed by politics of his country; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; The Legend No One Has Heard Of

 Another Shower of Bricks  In an all-too-familiar scene in Manhattan, pedestrians fled in fear and streets were closed when masonry fell from a skyscraper. Page B1.

August 11, 1998

Headlines from August 11, 1998

THE MARKETS: Market Place; Goldman, Sachs Partners Vote to Take Firm Public

Traffic on Columbus Circle Finally Comes, Well, Full Circle

Late-Breaking Insight From Early-Music Subversives

In the Hunt for Useful Genes, a Lot Depends on 'Snips'

In Midtown, Yet Another Shower of Bricks; Panic on Lexington Avenue, but No One Is Injured; Streets Are Closed

Billboard 200

Hello Nasty

Armageddon -- The Album

Jermaine Dupri Presents -- Life In 1472 The Original Soundtrack

The Swarm

City Of Angels

Historical Context for August 11, 1998