October 5, 1998

Article discusses how recent negative attention focused on Poughkeepsie, NY, through Tawana Brawley case and mass murder of eight prostitutes, has served to highlight economic problems that have affected city; once ideal, suburban community has become clouded with images of violent crime, prostitution, drugs and kind of suspiciousness that sometimes manifests as racial friction; Mayor Colette Lafuente comments; photo; map (M)

International Network Services Inc is in vanguard of new industry: dedicated network consulting; company solves other companies' network problems; clients include telecommunications and technology giants such as AT&T, MCI Communications, Sprint and GTE; market opportunity for companies like INS is huge, and estimated to grow to $52.7 billion in 2001 from $29.6 billion last year; corporate executives have been reluctant to involve outsiders in deployment and management of new technologies until large company validates idea that outsourcing is viable; that validation is being performed by outsourcing operations like AT&T Solutions, IBM Global Services and Bell Atlantic Network Integration; INS and other independent companies are now reaping benefits; photo; chart (M)

Article in ongoing series, After the Revolution, on effect of managed care on nation's health care system; even though managed care plans are entrenched in economy, enrolling 61 percent of population, they have lost luster as industry and as answer to nation's health care needs; while they have provided different way to pay for medical care, they have not offered better way to provide it; even though savings to large employers have been real, contributing significantly to current economic boom, they are likely to prove temporary since coverage has become more expensive for small businesses and self-employed and has shifted many consumers' concerns from cost to quality; recent New York Times poll finds 85 percent of Americans believe health care system needs fundamental change, compared with 90 percent in 1994 before Clinton Administration's health-reform plan died, and that although 68 percent say they are satisfied with quality of family's health care, 30 percent say they are not--up from 19 percent in 1994; percentage dissatisfied with cost of health care is practically unchanged at 46 percent; photo (M)

Japan's top financial officials tell American counterparts country's banking system is acutely short of capital, with top 19 banks in deeper trouble than Tokyo has ever before admitted; Bank of Japan Governor Masaru Hayami tells Treas Sec Robert E Rubin and Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan in Washington meeting that capital supporting banks has dwindled to dangerously low levels, such that they may be banned from operating internationally; other senior Japanese officials, in reflection of confusion surrounding Japan's financial crisis, dispute dispute Hayami's presentation; insist reserve levels have not declined to dangerous levels; conflicting explanations come as financial leaders of world's major economies hold annual meetings of International Monetary Fund and World Bank to grapple with economic crisis many fear has spun out of control; Rubin presses for changes at fund and bank that would improve their ability to head off crises; other officials, including World Bank president James D Wolfensohn, argue that countries should focus their energies on immediate crisis and postpone broader discussion of remaking global financial system (M)

New York Jets defeat Miami Dolphins, 20-9; photo (M)