Clyde Haberman NYC column notes that anti-impeachment New Yorkers have begun speaking out on what to them is a crusade, with rightist zealots at its core, to ignore popular will and undo results of last two Presidential elections; says Clinton's fiercest accusers in Congress and news media include confessed or known adulterers, and no matter how much they say lying is the issue, not sex, it still boils down to lying about sex (M)

Protesting Critics' Zeal Over Clinton

Pentagon officials say US and British forces are taking care to avoid hitting Iraqi factories suspected of producing chemical and biological weapons; say that damage at military, intelligence and communications targets has been extensive; say strikes avoided plants out of fear of unleashing plumes of poisons and killing civilians; say attack, which represents Pres Clinton's biggest military operation, appeared to surprise Iraqis, who had done little to disperse troops or weapons; Defense Sec William S Cohen and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chmn Henry H Shelton outline mission intended to weaken Saddam Hussein's Government and military, including missile sites and bases central to launching chemical or biological weapons; map; photo (M)

JETS SAID TO AVOID POISON GAS SITES

General Motors takes steps to promote latest version of its EV1 electric car; also lowers cost of installing a home recharger by $1,000, to $500 (M)

G.M. Tries to Increase Appeal of Electric Car

Ben Brantley reviews musical Parade, at Vivian Beaumont Theater; play is inspired by story of Leo Frank, Jewish man who was lynched in Marietta, Ga, in 1915 for murder of 13-year-old girl; composer is Jason Robert Brown, playwright Alfred Uhry, and director Harold Prince; photo (M)

Martyr's Requiem Invokes Justice

Matthew L Wald report on test-driving Toyota RAV4-EV, small sport utility retrofitted to use electric power; photos (S)

The Electric Home-Drive Acid Test

New York State Senate approves Gov George E Pataki's plan to authorize creation of autonomous public schools, and leaders in Assembly agree to back bill also, after Pataki threatens to veto legislative pay raise; 38 percent pay raise will be first salary increase in decade; under school plan, state will allow unlimited number of existing public schools to convert to charter schools, which are run by parents, teachers and community groups; another 100 charter schools could be created from scratch; State Board of Regents would supervise charter schools, as they do public and private schools; Chancellor of New York City school system and city's Mayor will not be allowed to grant new charters; charter schools with more than 250 children are required to be unionized, provision meant to placate New York State United Teachers, which had vigorously fought Pataki over charter plan (M)

Senate Passes Charter Plan For Schools

Christmas songs are the great survivors of popular music. Holiday disks are once more bulging on the shelves. Some of the fare is old wine tricked out in new bottles, with a swing or reggae Christmas, some of it is determinedly traditional. Pop stars and ambitious unknowns shower the market with their versions of carols and seasonal songs. Whether your taste runs to Babyface or the Beach Boys, Celia Cruz or Celine Dion, you can find a rendering of holiday music filtered through their distinct sensibilities.  

Pop Go the Holidays (Jazz, Too)

 Pinochet Wins a Round In Extradition Case  In a step raising Gen. Augusto Pinochet's hopes of escaping extradition to Spain, Britain's House of Lords set aside its own ruling last month denying the former Chilean dictator immunity from arrest. Page A3.

INSIDE

House Republicans raise ghosts of Watergate and Vietnam to justify their decision to move ahead with impeachment debate in face of Democratic protests and continuing US military strikes against Iraq; Democrats condemn Republicans' plans to return to impeachment of Pres Clinton without waiting for military action to conclude; battle on House floor sets stage for first House debate on impeaching President in 130 years; even Democrats say Clinton will be impeached; Democrats fight Republicans' plan to move ahead while air strikes continue in Iraq; photo (M)

Bitter Clash on Timing of Impeachment

General Motors Corp opens Buick plant in Shanghai, China; GM is sinking $2 billion into 16 ventures in China, mostly for auto components; Shanghai plant is biggest of them all, with 1,700 employees and plans to build 100,000 Buick sedans a year; $750 million investment in factory represents single biggest American investment in China; graph; photo (M)

G.M. Opens Buick Plant In Shanghai

Financial markets around the world shrug off uncertainty posed by American military strikes on Iraq and looming impeachment vote in US House as investors view both events as potentially serious but have little doubt about outcome; stock prices rise in Asia, Europe and US, crude oil slumps nearly 11 percent in New York trading, to about $11 a barrel, dollar falls and bond prices slip lower; Dow Jones industrial average rises 85.22 points, or nearly 1 percent, to 8,875.82, while Standard & Poor's 500-stock index gains 18.04 points, or 1.55 percent, to 1,179.98; Nasdaq index climbs 34.52 points, or 1.7 percent, to 2,043.88; price of benchmark 30-year issue falls 11/32, to 103 24/32; yield rises to 5.01 percent, from 4.99 percent; graphs; charts (M)

Markets Shrug Off Air Strikes and Looming Impeachment Vote

Speaker-elect Robert L Livingston says at meeting of his fellow Republicans that he had carried on adulterous affairs in his past, but he stops just short of offering to resign his House leadership; admission is made after he led Republicans in decision to press ahead with impeachment charges against Pres Clinton for perjury and other alleged wrongdoing in covering up his affair with Monica S Lewinsky; Republicans say debate over Clinton's fate will go forward, drawing distinctions between Livingston's revelations and scandal that has put Clinton on brink of impeachment; Livingston photo (M)

Speaker-Elect Informs Caucus Of Past Affairs

Union officials say investigators found evidence that fraud in 1996 contract vote by District Council 37, New York City's largest municipal union, was much more extensive than previously thought and included tampering to inflate vote tallies in numerous locals; say vote rigging took place in as many as dozen locals in addition to large local where union leaders have acknowledged that fraud occurred; say balloting was open to tampering because each local selected its own manner of voting and local results were tabulated at district council offices, process overseen by officials with heavy interest in outcome; investigation is being conducted by Kroll Associates, private company hired by council's parent union to review ratification vote; photo of Joseph DeCanio, former head of highway laborers' local, one of those who has admitted to knowing of vote fraud (M)

Investigators Said to Suspect Wider Vote Fraud in City Union

 The Impeachment    REPUBLICAN WORRIES -- Moving ahead on the articles of impeachment against President Clinton while American forces are engaged against Iraq is leading some Republicans to fear that their party will be perceived as being motivated by a searing partisanship. They worry that such perceptions could hurt the party in the long run. Page A27.

ON TWO FRONTS

George Vecsey Sports of The Times column discusses growing fear among baseball executives that recent signings of free agent players by high-profile franchises has caused serious lack of parity in game; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; Baseball Always Had Sad Sacks

House Republicans decide to begin debate on impeachment of Pres Clinton on Dec 18, when US warplanes will presumably be preparing for futher raids on Iraq; while there is no sign that any House Republicans are wavering on impeachment, it is evident that party leadership has been thrown off stride by strikes; Clinton's strategists concede that struggle in House has been lost, and turn to task of preparing for Senate trial; Clinton rejects suggestions from senior Republicans that he had ordered strikes to dissipate momentum toward impeachment; map; photo (M)

HOUSE TO DEBATE IMPEACHMENT TODAY AS U.S. CONTINUES AIR ASSAULT ON IRAQ

Article on New York Jets linebacker Bryan Cox preparing for game against Buffalo Bills; photo (M)

Cox, Unbowed, Heading Back to Buffalo

 Oil Prices Fall 10.9% As Fears Ebb About Iraq  With the air strikes on Iraq causing no damage to its ability to pump and ship oil, prices plunged, wiping out a large part of the gains of the last week.     The price of crude oil fell $1.27, or 11.2 percent, to $10.09 a barrel, on London's International Petroleum Exchange. It also plunged to $11.03 a barrel, down $1.35, or 10.9 percent, in trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The decline also reflected disappointment with a meeting in Madrid by the oil ministers of some of the world's largest oil producers -- Saudi Arabia, Venezuela and Mexico -- to initiate further production cuts. [Page C2.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

National Basketball Assn Comr David Stern, in an attempt to portray National Basketball Association as a good-faith bargainer and sway more than 400 players, mails out nine-page document detailing owners' latest collective bargaining proposal to union's membership; owners' latest proposal and response by union rejecting proposal outlined; photo (M)

Stern Sends Players Holiday Letter of Different Sort

Citigroup, shaken by leadership turmoil in its early days as America's largest financial services company, has sped up integration of its banking units in headlong effort to prove that commercial bankers and investment bankers can mix; in weeks since co-chairmen of Citigroup ousted their heir apparent, Jamie Dimon, from his post, investment bankers from Travelers' Salomon Smith Barney investment banking unit have been ordered to find a way to merge most of their operations with corporate banking side of Citicorp; photo (M)

Puzzling It Out at Citigroup; Commercial and Investment Bankers Try Working Together

New York Islanders defeat Los Angeles Kings, 5-4; photo (M)

After Making a Deal for Palffy, Isles Score and Win in Overtime

Article discusses report that son of leading International Olympic Committee member from Africa worked as an intern at City Hall while Salt Lake City was attempting to become host city for 2002 Winter Games; report raises questions about extent to which an effort was made to sway votes in landing of Olympic Games; photo (M)

More Reports Of I.O.C. Favors Emerge in Utah

Johnathan Lee Iverson, 22, is youngest ringmaster in history of Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus, and first black to hold that job; he is 31st person to be designated ringmaster since merger of Barnum and Ringling circuses in 1919; Iverson, alumni of Boys Choir of Harlem with lyric tenor voice, will sing four songs in circus spectacles in addition to announcing each act and controlling pacing of show; photos (M)

From Boys Choir to Big Top; Ringmaster Breaks New Ground in the Circus World

Federal Reserve, which will meet on Dec 22 to consider interest rate policy, will face economic outlook that while complex and bit confusing is more stable than it has been for months; Rosanne M Cahn, economist at Credit Suisse First Boston, says Fed will be on hold heading into 1999 unless there is another financial market disturbance; Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and a number of other Fed officials have remained concerned that financial market strains could put nation's long expansion at risk if not reversed (Market Place column) (M)

THE MARKETS: Market Place; U.S. Economy, Hotbed of Rest In Sea of Crisis And Confusion

E-mail pals in love on Upper West Side. Cozy romantic comedy.

hanks&ryan@romance.com

Lev Stepanovich Dyomin was a Soviet cosmonaut who flew on the Soyuz 15 spaceflight in 1974. This spaceflight was intended to dock with the space station Salyut 3, but the docking failed.

December 18, 1998

Headlines from December 18, 1998

Protesting Critics' Zeal Over Clinton

JETS SAID TO AVOID POISON GAS SITES

G.M. Tries to Increase Appeal of Electric Car

Martyr's Requiem Invokes Justice

The Electric Home-Drive Acid Test

Billboard 200

Double Live

These Are Special Times

'N Sync

Spirit

Garage Inc.

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for December 18, 1998