July 28, 1999

On Pro Football column examines speculation that running back Barry Sanders will retire from Detroit Lions; photo (M)

New Jersey Gov Christine Todd Whitman, expressing concern about integrity of criminal justice system in Essex County, strips County Prosecutor Patricia A Hurt of power and orders Atty Gen John J Farmer to take over office; Farmer cites continuing budget problems, indictment of Hurt aide on brutality charges, other factors that together call her leadership into question; chronology of Hurt's swift rise and fall; photos (M)

Profile of two lives of Dr David Sulzer, who is asst professor of neurology and psychiatry at Columbia University's medical school, and who in his off hours is Dave Soldier, prolific composer and arranger, and a busy violinist, guitarist and banjo player; his two principal ensembles are Soldier String Quartet and the Kropotkins, acoustic country blues sextet; photos (Article in series on lives of working artists in New York) (L)

Strategies that have been successful for individual investors in 1990s may be losing steam; include buying well-known companies, stocks that have already been big winners and index funds; smallest companies in Standard & Poor's 500-stock index have recently outperformed formerly hot stocks, which are down from recent highs; index fund returns lagged behind those of many managed funds in second quarter; graph of S&P 500 returns; tables of S&P 500 leaders and laggards (M)

Umpires strategy of resigning, effective Sept 2, in effort to induce Major League Baseball to bargain with them has completely unraveled; 16 umpires have rescinded their action and 8 never resigned; remaining 42 umpires announce that they are withdrawing their resignations; photo (M)