January 12, 1999

New Govt data show growth of Medicare slowed to virtual halt in 1998 as spending in health insurance program for elderly rose by just 1.5 percent, smallest increase since its inception in 1965; slowdown shows effects of Congressional curbs on payments to hospitals and home health care agencies, and results of Federal crusade against Medicare fraud; spending rose by average of $12.8 billion, or 10 percent per year, in past decade; grew only $3.1 billion in 1998, to total of $213.6 billion; number of beneficiaries grew in 1998 by slightly more than 1 percent, to 39 million, which budget experts say makes increase in spending for each beneficiary almost zero (M)

Olympic officials report that relatives of International Olympic Committee members from Ecuador and Finland were employed by Salt Lake City bid committee while it pursued 2002 Winter Games; these revelations are latest in growing scandal involving cash payments, tuition aid and lavish gifts as part of alleged vote-buying scheme by Salt Lake City officials (M)

New York Times is revising some stock and commodity tables (S)

Article discusses problems besetting New Jersey Reservoir System; system, known as Wanaque South, relies heavily on number of large pumps that pull water from Pompton and Ramapo Rivers and tranfer it to reservoir as needed; because rainfall has been so sparse in recent months, rivers have been too low to provide meaningful amounts of new water; state water officials are starting to wonder whether calculations used in early 1980's to predict stream flows into Pompton and Ramapo during long dry spells were too optimistic; scene at Wanaque Reservoir described; photo (M)

Focus on dispute over duration of toilet training between John Rosemond, syndicated family psychologist and best-selling author of parenting books, and noted pediatrician Dr T Berry Brazelton; Rosemond, who favors simple and straightforward approach, says increasing tendency for parents to leave timing of toilet training up to child is largely responsible for rise in toilet-training difficulties and other discipline problems; Brazelton says parents should be flexible and that toddlers should not be rushed; says parents who force toilet training can cause lasting problems; disagreements have fed multibillion-dollar diaper industry, which had training-pant sales of $545 million in 1998; have spurred introduction of giant-sized diaper, designed for toddlers well past two years of age; over last few decades, age at which toddlers become diaper-free has been creeping upward; 92 percent of children in 1957 were toilet-trained by age of 18 months, compared with 4 percent for current two-year-olds; Philadelphia study finds only 60 percent of children have achieved mastery of toilet by 36 months, and 2 percent remain untrained at age of 4 years; photo (M)