July 15, 1999

Rich artistic legacy of Spanish colonial New Mexico, much of it still crafted at home, has become increasingly visible in state where 40 percent of population is Hispanic; Traditional Spanish Market in Santa Fe, country's oldest and largest setting for traditional Hispanic work, will open on July 24, with 170 artisans exhibiting wide range of crafts; photos (M)

Market Place column on how companies capitalize on being placed on Standard & Poor's 500-stock index; focuses on Qualcomm Inc, which sold up to 4.8 million shares to index fund managers a few days after Standard & Poor's announced that company would be added to list; says offering is expected to raise more than $600 million for Qualcomm; holds some small shareholders are upset that they might lose quick gain; says they had come to view their company's addition to index, and price increase that comes with it, as reward for having stuck with company since it was small-cap stock; says some big investors like idea, even if it means less of short-term pop in stock price (M)

John Tierney Big City column on HBO-TV series Sex and the City; says now that show has unexpectedly become national hit, people across America are getting weekly glimpse at dysfunctional New Yorkers engaging in humanity's most brutal mating rituals; maintains that it is gratifying that outsiders care enough to pay attention to our parochial obsessions, but questions what this is doing to city's image (M)

William C Rhoden Sports of The Times column contends that first Women's National Basketball Association player who consistently dunks ball will become league's first icon (M)

Boston School Committee, in most powerful symbol yet that era of race-based busing is ending in America, votes to drop race as factor in deciding which school child attends; move will effectively end in year 2000 last vestiges of city's busing integration program, 25 years after its violent inception tarred city with reputation for northern racism and school busing strife; comes amid pressure from pending Federal lawsuit, which argues that current system discriminates against white children; city officials who encouraged vote to return to neighborhood schools say they acted out of awareness that affirmative action programs and other school admissions systems nationwide that take race into account have been rejected repeatedly in recent court rulings; chronology; photos (M)