September 20, 1998

Machinery of government and policy making has not ground to halt despite energy expended on Pres Clinton's woes; Congressional move toward impeachment threatens efforts to set nation's course on big, evolving issues that require strong Presidential leadership; some Administration officials admit it is all but impossible to get attention of Clinton or his top aides; photos (M)

Overseas Private Investment Corp, Government agency that funds overseas investment to spur American foreign policy goals, has used promise of big returns and protection of Government guarantees to lure American investors to emerging markets; OPIC's investment funds are leading tool in Clinton Administration's efforts to get fresh capital quickly to emerging democracies; program, expected to swell to $4 billion by end of year, is making big bets that its investment formula will pay off either politically or financially; critics say OPIC funds spur excessive risks at taxpayer peril, while replicating what private sector funds are doing without Government protection; maps; tables; photo (M)

Interview with Bill Fischer, travel agent-to-the-stars who specializes in getting clients into sold-out hotels, onto overbooked flights and into restaurants with unlisted numbers; photo; clients pay $10,000 just to get him to answer their calls to Fischer Travel (M)

Dave Anderson's Sports of The Times column on record home run derby between St Louis Cardinalsd Mark McGwire and Chicago Cubs' Sammy Sosa; photos (M)

New Rochelle Center, retail/entertainment complex in heart of downtown, is adding four-story extended-stay hotel and office building; developer is New Roc Associates; drawing (M)

Article on specialty equipment market for adapting vehicles for people with physical disabilities discusses specialty's specialities within the market (S)

Falling interest rates mean new problems for banks and brokerage firms in their mortgage lending businesses and trading of mortgage-backed securities; number of consumers refinancing home mortgages is rising; graph (M)

Pres Clinton, struggling with sex scandal, is unlikely to turn to any of Washington's fabled wise men, informal cadre of emeritus politicians and lawyers, for confidential, nonpartisan aid; Clinton's chief confidential adviser, his wife, is now handicapped by having to share strain scandal has imposed on their marriage; Clinton has most notably turned for advice to television figure Harry Thomason (M)

Fundamentals of commercial real estate market in New York area have been robust in first nine months of year with vacancy rates declining, rents rising and some tenants opting to move either to suburbs or to parts of Manhattan that were once avoided; survey by Julien J Studley company shows overall vacancy rate for office space in Manhattan fell to 5.8 percent in third quarter, from 6.8 percent in second quarter, while average rents rose to $31.29 a square foot annually from $28.97 a foot; gyrations of stock market are having impact on sales of property, with decline in price of real estate investment trust stocks removing them, at least temporarily, from acquisition scene and forcing other financing sources to re-evaluate their plans; graphs; charts; photos (M)

Money & Business section of Sunday New York Times introduces group of new features and reorganizes its pages to reflect variety of economic and financial life; photos (S)

Plan by Wildwood, NJ, to establish tribal casino turns into major legal battle; town offered to give 2.2 acres of city land back to Oklahoma's Delaware Indians, whose ancestors were pushed out of New Jersey in 1830's, if tribe would open casino on property; Delawares initially favored plan, but then filed Federal lawsuit claiming all of Wildwood as their ancestral land, and State of New Jersey brought another lawsuit seeking to block any deal that might undermine Atlantic City casinos; now Delawares are raising the stakes, insisting that unless state drops its opposition to an Indian casino in Wildwood, tribe will sue for thousands of acres outside the town; photo; map (M)

Elizabeth Hayt comment on sprucing up one's wardrobe and hair for Jewish holidays, as she recalls doing each fall in suburbs; reports that tradition is still alive and well in Great Neck, New York, where she grew up (S)