Basketball star David Robinson's $5 million gift has put daunting new pressures on Carver Community Cultural Center in San Antonio; center is set to begin work on $6 million renovation and expansion and 280-student independent elementary school to be known as Carver Academy; center's director, Jo Long, suffered breakdown under strain of gift, leaving center leaderless at key time; center's historical significance to city's small black population noted; photos; rendering (M)

You May Get What You Wish For, but Then . . .; A Cultural Center Finds That a Basketball Star's $5 Million Gift Brings Daunting New Pressures

Article in series Summer Places focuses on Red Apple Rest, sprawling cafeteria along Route 17 in Southfields, NY, that in 1950's was popular way station for summer pilgrims--mostly Jewish--journeying to and from Catskills, but now is shadow of bustling place it once was; photos of cafeteria and original owner Reuben Freed (M)

Empty Tables and Full Memories; Lines Are Gone at Fabled Cafeteria on Way to Catskills

About a dozen art dealers are swindled out of works worth a total of about $1 million by two Italian men who posed as buyers who persuaded the dealers to leave the works with them in Venice pending completion of sale; most had stands at Maastricht Fine Arts Fair in Netherlands; photo (M)

In Venice, Art Deals as Masks for Theft

Bristol, Conn, was best known for manufacture of clocks and bicycle bells before it became home of ESPN Inc twenty years ago; sports network started with 70 employees and now has 2,100, 1,500 of whom work in Bristol; Mayor Frank N Nicastro Sr and other city leaders praise ESPN, which now earns over $1 billion a year, for staying in Bristol, city of 60,000 people in central Connecticut; map; photo (M)

ESPN Celebrates Big Success in a Small, Grateful Town

Tiger Woods wins World Golf Championships NEC Invitational, leaving Firestone Country Club in Akron, Ohio, with $1 million winner's check; photo (M)

Woods Wins Again, but Mickelson Makes It Interesting

 N.F.L. Ignored Drug Tests, Videotapes of Union Show  Videotapes of an N.F.L. union meeting four years ago show officials revealing that they persuaded the league to ignore failed drug tests and offering to help players beat the salary cap. SPORTSMONDAY, PAGE D1

INSIDE

Analysis of continuing effort to create new system for global Internet governance; notes fledgling Internet Corp for Assigned Names and Numbers, which met last week in Chile, faces criticism that its structure and orientation favor business and government interests over nonprofit groups and individuals; Icann's interim board grapples with creating structure for at least 5,000 at-large members with power to elect half of board; photo (M)

Democracy Tugs at Internet Agency

Mel Farr, the former Detroit Lions football player who is now a car dealer in Detroit, is willing to lease autos to people with no credit or bad credit. A payment of at least $50 is due every Friday night, and customers must pay up each week to get a code they need to punch into a device attached to the dashboard. Otherwise, the car won't start. It isn't cheap. Mr. Farr's interest rates run as high as 25 percent.     Article, page A15.

A Car, With a Catch, When Credit Is Bad

Analysis of Jamie Tarses's embattled tenure as television's first female top programmer in light of her resignation as ABC entertainment division president; cites her failure to turn around ABC programming slump and view that her creative talents do not offset her management limitations; photos (M)

TV Executive: Young, Female and Unemployed

New York Yankees beat Seattle Mariners, 11-5; photo (M)

Stumbling Mariners All Too Human In Error-Filled Loss to the Yankees

Newspapers, which see on-line classified advertising as major threat to their profits, have been scrambling to compete in fast-growing world of on-line classifieds; geometric expansion of on-line competitors has coincided with disturbing dip in newspapers' help-wanted ads in some markets that has more than offset gains in other classified ads; graphs of newspaper classified advertising revenues; photo (M)

Newspapers Seek Cyberpartners To Fight On-Line Ads

 In France, Banking Rivals Could Be Ripe for Takeover  Now that French bank regulators have rejected a bid by Banque Nationale de Paris to keep its shares in Societe Generale and scuttled its effort to form a European giant, both banks could become takeover targets.    The big loser in the bank battle appeared to be the head of the French central bank, Jean-Claude Trichet, who had strenuously backed a three-way deal. The very French notion that the central authorities could dictate the shape of the banking system was badly wounded in the process as well. [Page C2.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

White House and Senate Democrats gird for pitched battle with Republican-controlled Senate over nuclear test ban treaty, one of top foreign policy goals of Clinton Administration; Democrats--armed with public opinion polls and support of many scientists, military commanders and arms control groups--are threatening to bring Senate to standstill when Congress returns from summer recess unless Republicans agree to hold hearings in 1999 on Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, which 152 nations have signed; Administration may need to satisfy both Republicans and Russians on related arms-control issues; Republicans are balking at approving new treaty without assurance that country will quickly build limited defense against long-range missile attack; Russia wants US to slash nuclear arsenal before it will consider changes to landmark treaty barring such a missile shield (M)

DEMOCRATS READY FOR FIGHT TO SAVE TEST BAN TREATY

Pres Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton end their weekend stay on Long Island with $25,000-per-couple dinner at Bridgehampton home of Democratic fund-raiser Craig Hatkoff; event is expected to raise $900,000 for Democratic National Committee; Clintons raised nearly $2 million from four events, including $400,000 for Mrs Clinton's probable US Senate run, during weekend (M)

Eyeing Senate (and a House), Clintons Get a Hectic Vacation

Gate Theater of Dublin will perform all of Samuel Beckett's 19 plays in 18-day event in London; Mingei International Museum, San Diego, opens exhibition on North American Indian adornment; Venice Film Festival is set to open; Best of Imax: A Giant Screen Film Festival is set for New York City and Jersey City; photos (M)

THIS WEEK

US Open tennis tournament begins on Aug 30 at National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens; photo (M)

The Ultimate Torture Test Of Tennis Hits Town

Slow metamorphosis in mood and method in Japan, particularly in technologies that make life more convenient and alter way companies do business, has been obscured by overall economic and financial catastrophe; Japanese companies are scrambling to race ahead of rest of world in effort to recapture technological prowess by reaching into millions of homes with futuristic devices that alter all aspects of life in aging society; hope new gadgets, with original applications and snazzy designs, may once again recaptivate world; prototype for computerized house of future described; photos; diagram (M)

Japan Bets on a Wired World to Win Back Its Global Niche

Fringe of Hurricane Dennis lashes Carolina coast with gusts and rain; prompts pre-emptive evacuation of more than 30,000 vacationers and residents from North Carolina's barrier islands; forces swimmers from water as far north as Long Island; changes course, turning east-northeast, paralleling coast 150 miles off Wilmington; forecasters expect center of storm, with 105-mile-per-hour winds, to stay at least 30 miles off shore; North Carolina Gov James B Hnut Jr declares state of emergency and state of disaster; map; photos (M)

HURRICANE CHASES THOUSANDS INLAND

Special report, The Last Landfill, on planned closing of Fresh Kills landfill on Staten Island in December 2001, even though New York City has yet to develop plan for disposing of estimated 13,000 tons of garbage generated by residents each day; host of political and legal challenges face city's latest trash management plan--which assumes that all of garbage can flow to distant landfills smoothly by rail, truck or barge; current and former city and state officials and executives of nation's top waste hauling companies suggest proposals and timetable announced suddenly by Mayor Rudolph Giuliani in 1996 were shaped more by politics than by thorough analysis of city's needs and options; some accuse Giuliani of failing to involve leaders of all five boroughs to develop rational plan for city's waste and warn current proposals are likely to leave some trash without home; sanitation officials say they will invoke emergency measures--such as hiring large fleet of private trucks without environmental reviews or community hearings--to keep trash moving if interim proposals become bogged down in legal battles; Giuliani denies political motivation; says issue is fairness since residents of other four boroughs owe Staten Island debt of gratitude for what they have endured for past half-century; while recent headlines have focused on battle between city and states like Virginia, squabbles within city and in New Jersey seem more likely to derail city's garbage plans since many rural counties and municipalities with modern landfills or costly incinerators are eager to take city's refuse and millions of dollars in fees; dispute underscores political clout and dominance of city's garbage policy by Giuliani supporter and longtime Staten Island Borough Pres Guy Molinari, lifelong Republican whose constituents helped insure electoral victories of Giuliani and Gov George E Pataki; his success over last three years in securing plans to close Fresh Fresh Kills has made him hero to local officials and inflamed passions in other parts of city, whose trash burden will inevitably grow with closing of landfill; photos; maps (L)

THE LAST LANDFILL: A special report.; As Deadline Looms for Dump, Alternate Plan Proves Elusive

Amazon.com will adjust new 'personal circles' marketing tactic in response to critics who raised privacy concerns; says it will let customers request that their buying habits not be included in on-line lists of books and music popular with various groups of people (M)

Amazon Moves To Ease Worry About Privacy Of Customers

Roller-coaster car at Ocean City, NJ, amusement park loses its traction and plunges 30 feet backward, hurling Kimberly Bailey and her 8-year-old daughter, Jessica, out to their deaths; investigators focus on bizarre double mechanical failure on roller coaster at Gillian's Wonderland Pier; chronology of recent roller coaster accidents; diagram; map; photos (M)

Roller Coaster Hurtles Wrong Way, Killing 2

Many voters say their affinity for, or curiosity about, Republican Presidential frontrunner Texas Gov George W Bush has not yet ossified into rock-solid support, despite seemingly irreversible groundswell of support for his candidacy; have favorable but diffuse impressions of Bush, but say they want to know more; are in no hurry to decide, noting election is long way off; many who have already decided on Bush, or are leaning sharply in his direction, have difficulty articulating why; usually cite either respect for father and former President, or determination to put Republican in White House; say Bush seems to have developed enough momentum that he seems to be Republican with best shot; photos (M)

Many Voters Feel Vague Affinity For Bush, but Say Time Will Tell

Microsoft Corp bolsters team working on creating so-called tablet computer with two legendary computer innovators, Butler Lampson and Chuck Thacker; portable, wireless, keyboardless device would be about size and weight of writing tablet and serve most of person's everyday computing and Net-surfing needs; Thacker, Lamson and Microsoft vice president Dick Brass, who formed team, comment; photos (M)

Microsoft Brings In Top Talent To Pursue Old Goal: The Tablet

Videotape of National Football League Players Association's annual meeting in 1995 shows that union informed its members that number of players had failed drug tests but were not punished or suspended because of secret agreement between league and union; league official says decision was concession NFL gave to union as part of negotiations on more comprehensive drug policy; puts number of players who failed tests and should have been suspended at 16; photo (M)

Tapes Show That N.F.L. Looked the Other Way on Drug Tests

Correction: caption of photograph on August 27 describing commuters walking across Brooklyn Bridge because of subway disruptions misidentified commuter

Corrections

Reindert Johannes Brasser also known as Jan Brasser was a Dutch athlete who competed in the 1936 Summer Olympics.

August 30, 1999

Headlines from August 30, 1999

You May Get What You Wish For, but Then . . .; A Cultural Center Finds That a Basketball Star's $5 Million Gift Brings Daunting New Pressures

Empty Tables and Full Memories; Lines Are Gone at Fabled Cafeteria on Way to Catskills

In Venice, Art Deals as Masks for Theft

ESPN Celebrates Big Success in a Small, Grateful Town

Woods Wins Again, but Mickelson Makes It Interesting

Billboard 200

Millennium

Significant Other

...Baby One More Time

Ricky Martin

Now 2

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for August 30, 1999