Article discusses return of Albanian-American rebel volunteers to US following service in Kosovo Liberation Army; they discuss their experiences in homeland; photo (M)

An Uneasy Return From Kosovo; Albanian Rebel Volunteers Drift Back Into U.S. Civilian Life

New York Mets defeat Colorado Rockies, 10-5; photo (M)

Agbayani Drives Mets Out Of Danger

Sens John McCain and Russell D Feingold, hoping to break long Senate stalemate on campaign finance, say they will strip down their bill to focus primarily on large, unregulated donations to political parties that were at center of controversy in 1996 election; it is not clear whether Senators' legislative tactic will achieve their aim of finding enough votes in face of filibuster by senior Republicans; Democrats object to scaling back comprehensive legislation, and most vociferous Republican critics of bill show no sign of being mollified (M)

2 SENATORS REVISE THEIR PLAN TO LIMIT CAMPAIGN FINANCES

Peter H Lewis column assesses Visor personal digital assistant to be offered by Handspring; device, fully compatible, slightly smaller and less expensive clone of Palm Computing's Palm Pilot, will let user plug in variety of matchbook-size modules that perform specialized tasks; drawing (M)

The Visor Seeks All Niches

William C Rhoden Sports of The Times column discusses New York Jets preparing for game against Buffalo Bills; reaction to loss of quarterback Vinny Testaverde for season noted (M)

Sports of The Times; A Sharp Jolt From the Jets And Johnson

Analysis of German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder's deepening political crisis; central issue is that Germany is running out of money, and proposed deep spending cuts that will affect most Germans are very unpopular; Schroder is trying to change conservative country deeply attached to its habits; his proposed budget, designed to open way for sharp cuts in corporate and personal tax rates, is intended to jolt Germans into rethinking their lives; Schroder is charting course of less state, more personal responsibility, less enveloping social protection, more entrepreneurship; recent election results show public reaction to his plan has been violent; photo (M)

How Schroder's 'Dip' Is Deepening

 Motorola Confirms a Deal To Buy General Instrument  Motorola confirmed that it would acquire General Instrument, a maker of cable set-top boxes, in a stock deal valued at nearly $11 billion. The move would make Motorola a key supplier of cable television equipment and allow the company to develop what it calls a ''home hub'' of products.  

BUSINESS DIGEST

Senate Banking Committee report says White House enlisted help of regulators from the Office of Comptroller of Currency who were auditing banks to find bank executives who would join Clinton Administration in opposition to Republican financial legislation; measure, which White House says Pres Clinton, would veto, would take regulatory authority away from Comptroller of Currency, unit of Treasury Department, and vest it with Federal Reserve; would also relax key elements of Community Reinvestment Act, which encourages lending to minorities and others historically denied access to credit; one of the more than dozen banks contacted by examiners complained to Senate committee, calling the solicitations for positive comments inappropriate, especially coming in middle of routine bank examinations; spokesman at Comtroller's office says agency made a mistake (M)

White House Used Auditors Against a Bill

Artists face eviction from Chicago's Tree Studios, turn-of-the-century artists' enclave declared one of world's 100 most endangered places, after Shriners agrees to sell complex to Steven Fifield, who plans to build an apartment complex; Fifield says he will save exterior and its courtyard in order to avert further landmarking, but not its interior, much of which still has its original stained glass and fireplaces trimmed with handmade tile; a moratorium has put demolition, lawsuits and landmark attempts on hold; photos (M)

Chicago Artists Battle the Clock

FOOTLIGHTS**Jazz at Lincoln Center opens its 1999-2000 season with small band music of Duke Ellington, performed by ensemble led by trumpeter Nicholas Payton; photo; tribute to lyric-and-book-writing team of Betty Comden and Adolph Green to be held at Carnegie Hall; exhibition of 19th-century European paintings, sculptures and works on paper opens at Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Conn; photo; famous Paris thoroughfare Champs-Elysees is transformed into outdoor art garden with Fields of Sculpture exhibition of 55 contemporary artists (Footlights column) (M)

FOOTLIGHTS

Some of Broadway's historic smaller theaters, once obsolete money-losers, are in new demand as venues for serious drama; at same time, as Times Square property values soar, real estate interests are eyeing these theaters for development; battles over Biltmore Theater and other houses discussed; map; photo (M)

Little Theaters Are Suddenly In Demand Yet in Peril

Ally Sheedy, in gender-bending twist, is taking over lead role of drag-queen from John Cameron Mitchell in Off-Broadway musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch; photos (M)

Reinventing Hedwig From Wig on Down; Ally Sheedy in a Man's World, the Gender-Bending Role of Drag Queen

Man with semiautomatic handgun walks into Wedgwood Baptish Church in Forth Worth, Tex, and begins firing, killing six people before turning gun on himself; eighth person dies later in hospital; police say pipe bomb exploded on balcony inside church sanctuary after the shootings; say bomb disposal officers in protective suits will try to cut open gunman's clothing to investigate suspicious bulge in his chest; gunman has not been identified yet; it is unmcertain how many people were injured in shootings; photo (M)

Gunman Kills 7, and Himself, At Baptist Church in Fort Worth

Local officials and emergency workers in NYC metropolitan area prepare for Hurricane Floyd; in New Jersey, Gov Christine Todd Whitman declared state of emergency because of concern about major coastal flooding; in New York City, Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani says he will open 20 emergency shelters; preparations on Long Island and in Connecticut discussed; photo; map (M)

Amid Uncertainty, Area Braces for Floyd's Hardest Punch

Hurricane Floyd skirts Florida and Georgia and aims itself at low-lying coastal border of Carolinas, where its eye is expected to come ashore early Sept 16; it has already prompted greatest evacuation in United States history; storm's sustained wind slows to 115 mph from top speed of 155 mph; gusts up to 79 mph knock down power lines and blow billboards across roadways along South Carolina coast; at least 200,000 residents are without power in Charleston region; most homes are empty, as are others in dozens of counties from Jacksonville, Fla, to Wilmington, NC; evacuation orders are in effect for 2.6 million people; track of storm leaves open possibility that hurricane's strong winds and rain could continue north past Carolinas into Washington, New York City and even New England, even if storm is not a hurricane at that point; photo; map (M)

Hurricane Aims at Coast of Carolinas

Isabella Blow, influential stylist and fashion powerhouse, gives a tour of her newly renovated home in London, a former hatter's; Ferhan Azman and Joyce Owens are the architects; photos (M)

AT HOME WITH: Isabella Blow; A Playhouse for a Mad Hatter

New York City school officials revise number of students mistakenly assigned to summer school upward to more than 8,600; Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani and Board of Education officials argue that parents of those children should be happy for mix-up because faltering children were given chance at more schooling; board now says that 48.5 percent, not 44.6 percent, scored at or above national average in tests; David Taggart, president of CTB/McGraw-Hill, which made scoring mistake in tests it designed, apologizes for error; photos (M)

Board Now Says Summer School Was Wrongly Ordered for 8,600

Eight electronic stock trading networks (ECN's), MarketXT Inc, Archipelago, Tradebook, Brut, Instinet, Redbook, Strike and Island, sign letter of intent aimed at creating single market of after-hours stock trading that would include sharing of price information and other market data; preliminary agreement could reduce the fragmentation that has developed as new electronic trading systems compete for customer orders, helping to make the new trading systems fairer and more efficient; eventual aim is to enable customers of any one of trading systems to see prices being bid and offered for stocks on each of other seven systems (M)

Stock Networks Agree to Share Trading Data

Michael M Weinstein (Economic Scene) column discusses weak American dollar vis-a-vis strong Japanese yen in terms of the impact on the economies of both countries and related issue of trade; says that despite dollar's woes and country's huge trade deficit, impact on economy of dollars' slide against yen is minimal because dollar has not dropped against most other currencies; notes same condition does not hold for Japan; says despite having Government that is running huge fiscal deficit of nearly 10 percent of its gross domestic product and has poured nearly $200 billion into country's banking system, Japanese economy grew at paltry 1 percent annual rate between April and June; notes real problem is that Japan suffers from insufficient domestic spending, causing deflation (M)

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS: Economic Scene -- Strong Currency, Weak Economy; As the Yen Soars, Japan Has More at Stake Than Does U.S.

John Tierney The Big City column discusses controversey over use of pesticide Malathion by New York City health officials to attack mosquitoes following outbreak of St Louis encephalitis; notes UN is discussing proposal for global ban on use of DDT to fight malaria (M)

Public Beliefs, Global Politics And Pesticides

New York Yankees defeat Toronto Blue Jays, 6-4; photo (M)

Leave It to Williams: Another Homer Puts Yanks on Rebound

Boom that has spurred the American economy is now four years old and thus far the much anticipated rise in inflation has yet to make an appearance; Labor Department's consumer price index in August showed just three-tenths of a percent rise, with gasoline prices the only noticeable exception so-called core inflation (excluding food and energy) rose only 0.1 percent in August and 1.9 percent over the last year; coinciding with low inflation is emerging view among top Federal Reserve officials that stronger economic growth is possible without rising inflation; graphs on inventory-sales ratio and consumer prices (M)

Inflation Is Missing Despite Four Years of Boom

Exotic plants like the arundo are wreaking havoc with habitats of America's native species, and about half of the invaders are escapees from the garden; governments on Federal and state level are moving to control distribution of non-native species, but exotics are the lifeblood of horticultural world; nurseries are pressing for voluntary, regional controls, arguing that an exotic that may be invasive in one part of the country could be perfectly docile in another; photos; drawing (M)

What's Eating America? Weeds

David Bouley, the chef, has taken on the decorator's role in his latest restaurant, Danube, which is in the style of fin-de-siecle Vienna; worked with the decorator Jacques Garcia; photos (M)

The Zsa-Zsa Decor War

Article on Felix Trinidad Jr training for his welterweight bout against Oscar De La Hoya in Las Vegas; photo (M)

The Father Speaks As a Son Punches

Braeden Tkachuk is an American professional ice hockey left winger and captain of the Ottawa Senators of the National Hockey League (NHL). Tkachuk was chosen by the Senators as the fourth overall pick in the 2018 NHL entry draft. Prior to turning professional, Tkachuk played one season for the Boston University Terriers, earning All-Hockey East Rookie Team honors. He is the brother of Matthew Tkachuk, a forward for the Florida Panthers.

September 16, 1999

Headlines from September 16, 1999

An Uneasy Return From Kosovo; Albanian Rebel Volunteers Drift Back Into U.S. Civilian Life

Agbayani Drives Mets Out Of Danger

2 SENATORS REVISE THEIR PLAN TO LIMIT CAMPAIGN FINANCES

The Visor Seeks All Niches

Sports of The Times; A Sharp Jolt From the Jets And Johnson

Billboard 200

Fly

Christina Aguilera

Millennium

Supernatural

Significant Other

Notable Births

Historical Context for September 16, 1999