British Open golf tournament continues; table; photos (M)

French Qualifier Is Over Par, but He's Ahead of the Field

Legislative leaders and Gov George E Pataki reportedly agree on outlines of $73 billion New York State budget; Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Sen Joseph L Bruno recall legislators to Albany to draft detailed budget; deal rests in part on Pataki's pledge not to veto many budget items as long as Legislature remains within agreed-to boundaries; officials warn deal could fall apart on issue of how to calculate program costs; deal calls for saving $1.8 billion fiscal 1999 surplus to fund future tax cuts, would preserve prekindergarten program and make no new Medicaid cuts (M)

Agreement at Last in Albany On $73 Billion Budget Plan

Manhattan grand jury refuses to indict Dr Marco Zancope, veterinarian, who admitted giving friend Cara Beigel, who was dying of breast cancer, fatal dose of pentobarbital in Aug 1997 at her request (M)

Grand Jury Refuses to Indict in Assisted Suicide

YMCA of Greater New York plans to sell McBurney YMCA, ousting 34 men who rent rooms there cheaply, and build gym and health club elsewhere in Manhattan's Chelsea area; says renovation effort uncovered structural problems that would be too costly to fix; cites its longtime shift away from residences and increased stress on serving children and families; tenant advocates see larger trend by nonprofit organizations to end single-room-occupancy housing in Manhattan, where property values have risen; Sen Thomas K Duane and Councilwoman Christine Quinn protest to YMCA president Paula L Gavin, who says group will help residents find alternative housing; photos (M)

Y.M.C.A. in Chelsea Sheds Its Tenants; 34 Men Used to Single Rooms Know New Homes Will Be Hard to Find

William C Rhoden Sports of The Times column on New York Yankees fans' rancor at star pitcher Roger Clemens, who has yet to live up to his past fame; urges fans to wait for playoffs to gauge his worth; holds spark formerly provided by David Wells, traded for Clemens, is needed by New York Mets, who should try to get him from Toronto; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; Making A Case For Boomer

 Dueling Tax-Cut Plans  Republicans and Democrats in the Senate laid out different tax-cut proposals, but both sides said they saw room for compromise, in contrast to the tone in the House.   PAGE A10

INSIDE

US West Inc board meets to approve what is being called merger of equals with Qwest Communications International Inc, long-distance communications carrier, in deal valued at more than $30 billion; as result of deal, resolution of Qwest's battle against Global Crossing Ltd, to acquire US West and Frontier Corp, will probably begin to take shape (M)

Qwest's Deal For U S West Appears Set

 Strong Corporate Earnings Push Stock Gauges Higher  Stocks ended a week of record-setting sessions as Wall Street cheered good corporate earnings. The technology-laden Nasdaq composite index gained 25.11 points, or nine-tenths of a percent, to 2,864.48, its third consecutive record finish.  

BUSINESS DIGEST

Profile of what some call the spirit industry, which caters to more than 400,000 cheerleaders as well as school dance teams, pompom squads and dancers nationwide who attend camps, regional and national competitions; it is estimated that it costs $5,000 a year for each cheerleader for such things as summer camps, clothes and uniforms; photos (M)

School Spirit Inc.; Millions of Cheerleaders Create a Growth Industry

Atlanta Braves defeat New York Yankes, 10-7; photo (M)

As Steinbrenner Watches, Yanks Lose in 9th

Shares of Caterpillar Inc fall after company warns investors that profit growth will continue to decline; reports drop in second-quarter sales, to $5.1 billion, and sharp drop in quarterly profits, to $283 million (M)

Caterpillar Sees Profit Growth Slowing in '99

Jury in Federal District Court, Bridgeport, Conn, rules that Microsoft Corp did not violate antitrust law in its dealings with Bristol Technology Inc of Bristol, Conn, struggling little software maker; Microsoft was accused of befriending fledgling company when it suited its interests and then callously casting company aside when it was no longer useful, denying it access to Microsoft's technology on fair terms; case reviewed (M)

CONNECTICUT CASE FAVORS MICROSOFT

Worth of Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates, as result of remarkable performance of company's stock, rises to record $100 billion on July 16; company shares climb 5.4 percent to record high of $99.4375 on expectation that it will establish separate tracking stock for its Internet properties; photo (M)

Gates Hits $100 Billion Mark, More or Less

Leaders of both parties say that House plans to cut off money for Air Force's $70 billion F-22 fighter program, highly unusual decision that has stunned Pentagon and military contractors; stage for full House vote next week is set when House Appropriations Committee unanimously approves $268 billion spending bill that denies Air Force the $1.8 billion it sought to finance first six F-22's; cutoff is supported by Speaker J Dennis Hastert, minority leader, Richard Gephardt, and Republican leaders, who say fledgling fighter is simply too expensive to build at $200 million a plane (M)

HOUSE IS PREPARED TO CUT OFF FUNDS FOR F-22 FIGHTERS

After years sparring with Benjamin Netanyahu, President Clinton yesterday had warm words for Prime Minister Barak of Israel after the two leaders met at Camp David.    Article, page A3.  

Barak Charms Clinton

Article discusses efforts by Chinese Government to transform mainly Muslim frontier region of Xinjiang into cities and farms; Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, which has led China's drive to settle region, has built whole cities and hundreds of farms and factories producing more than one-third of Xinjiang's cotton and other goods; Muslim Uighurs, while wanting economic progress and benefitting from regional development, express concern over future of their culture and many resent Chinese domination of politics, water resources and production; photo; map (M)

Remaking a Vast Frontier in China's Image

Australian tennis players Lleyton Hewitt and Patrick Rafter defeat Americans Todd Martin and Jim Courier in singles play at Davis Cup quarterfinal; photos (M)

Heat Is On U.S. Team as Australians Win Twice

United States House approves far-ranging American economic initiative for Africa that offers enhanced trade benefits in exchange for adoption of free-market practices by African nations; bill, passed by vote of 234 to 163, would authorize quota-free and duty-free imports from 48 sub-Saharan African countries, including some of world's poorest nations, for 10 years, with particular focus on textiles and apparel; African-made textiles currently face import taxes of 15 percent to 25 percent; if legislation, known as African Growth and Opportunity Act, becomes law, it would be first major trade-promotion measure enacted in United States since 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (M)

House Supports Trade Benefits To Aid Africa

New York City, barely recovered from deadly heat wave that plunged whole neighborhoods into darkness 11 days ago, braces for more scorching weather this weekend with its Emergency Operations Center on alert to assure jittery population that its engineers could avert a blackout this time; photo (M)

11 Days After the Blackout, City Nervously Watches Mercury Rise

At least three public television stations in biggest markets in country say they have been trading their lists of contributors with Democratic fund-raising groups, practice that may be legal but that some Congressional Republicans suggest could jeopardize public financing of all public television and radio stations; officials from Corporation for Public Broadcasting have condemned practice and say they are trying to determine extent of stations' swapping, selling, renting or otherwise providing their donor lists to political parties in preparation for emergency Congressional hearing set for July 20; public television stations in New York, Washington and Boston acknowledge that they had sold or swapped their lists but say they stopped doing so; Boston and New York stations say they had fired those responsible; stations are WNET in New York, WGBH in Boston and WETA in Washington (M)

PBS Stations Shared Donor Lists With Democrats, Stirring Trouble

Margarita Rosario, fixture at protests against New York City police brutality since her son Anthony and nephew, Hilton Vega, robbery suspects, were killed by police in 1995, clashes with Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani on his weekly radio show, after claiming she called about unrelated matter; charges he mischaracterizes son's case; Giuliani lectures her about taking responsibility for raising children properly; defends detectives who shot youths; autopsy showed boys were lying face down when shot multiple times (M)

Radio Caller and Giuliani Clash On Son's Death at Hands of Police

It was a master swindle: hire a painter down on his luck to forge works by artists like Giacometti and Braque. The forgeries were easily detectable, but the fake provenance wasn't, and therein lay the genius. The art world may never know how much damage was done. A report by Peter Landesman, in The Times Magazine.  

COMING ON SUNDAY: BEYOND FORGERY

Lawyers and health policy experts say that despite all the talk about protecting people in health maintenance orgns, most people in HMO's would gain no tangible benefit from many of consumer-protection standards approved by Senate this week as part of bill to define patients' rights; many of bill's basic consumer protections would apply to 48 million people in group health plans regulated by Federal Government; few HMO's are in that category; most of 48 million people, it appears, get their health care through traditional fee-for-service arrangements or through loosely organized forms of managed care that are less restrictive than HMO's whose decisions about care have angered many consumers (M)

MOST IN H.M.O.'S WOULDN'T BENEFIT FROM SENATE BILL

American Airlines and Allied Pilots Assn reportedly will consider agreement proposed by federal mediator George Nicolau in seven-month-old pilot wage dispute predicated by AMR Corp's acquisition of Reno Air (M)

Settlement Is Reported Near By American and Its Pilots

Brief sports articles yesterday and on Tuesday about the trial of a Mets minor league player charged with sexual battery misspelled his given name. The player, who was acquitted, is Vicente Rosario, not Vincente.  The article on Tuesday also misspelled the surname of his lawyer and referred incompletely to where the lawyer conducts business. The lawyer is Harvey Slovis, not Slovin: he has an office in Manhattan as well as one in the Bronx.    

July 17, 1999

Headlines from July 17, 1999

French Qualifier Is Over Par, but He's Ahead of the Field

Agreement at Last in Albany On $73 Billion Budget Plan

Grand Jury Refuses to Indict in Assisted Suicide

Y.M.C.A. in Chelsea Sheds Its Tenants; 34 Men Used to Single Rooms Know New Homes Will Be Hard to Find

Sports of The Times; Making A Case For Boomer

Billboard 200

Significant Other

Millennium

Ricky Martin

Wild Wild West

Tarzan

Historical Context for July 17, 1999