September 17, 1999

In a last attack on the political system he once served, a former Mexican justice official who apparently killed himself on Wednesday rather than face money-laundering charges in the United States blamed Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo for both his own death and the 1994 murder of his brother. In a suicide note made public by his widow, Mario Ruiz Massieu charged that Mr. Zedillo had never forgiven his criticism of party officials after his brother, a party leader, was killed. He said the evidence against him was fabricated.

NYC & Co, formerly New York Convention and Visitors Bureau, formally approves Cristyne F Lategano as its next president amid suggestions that appointment amounts to patronage, since she has been communications director for Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani and lacks experience in tourism industry; Lategano and administration officials bristle at suggestion; city provides $5.6 million or organization's $13.6 million budget; bureau is hiring technical assistant to help Lategano with issues she does not have at her command (M)

United Automobile Workers and DaimlerChrysler AG reach tentative agreement on four-year pact, paving way for contracts covering nation's 400,000 unionized auto workers; deal calls for $1,350 signing bonus and pay increases of 3 percent a year on top of adjustments for inflation; package allows for heftier pension benefits and additional job security, even as company is allowed to continue to downsizing through attrition; four-year pact is unusual because no auto labor contracts have lasted longer than three years since 1950's; terms of agreement outlined; photos (M)

Hurricane Floyd rakes waiting and well-prepared New York region, delivering fierce winds and torrents of rain that flood highways, force hundreds to evacuate and cut off electricity to hundreds of thousands of people; there is little major damage, although bulk of region sustains untold inconveniences and sizable disruptions; in certain areas, particularly northern New Jersey and Westchester and Rockland Counties in New York, heavy rains turn tree-lined streets into raging rivers, flooding hundreds of homes and stranding hundreds of homeowners; all through the day, downgraded Tropical Storm Floyd, and fear of Floyd, generates host of disruptions that compromise life in New York region, with suspended operations by some transit systems, airports and railroads; heaviest rainfall in region, 13.7 inches, falls on Brewster, NY; Central Park records 5.01 inches; most services are expected to return to normal on day following storm; photos; map (M)

Revelation that CTB/McGraw-Hil miscalculated reading and math scores of thousands of New York City students shows pitfalls of standardized testing; error, which affected eight other school systems, came to light only because of persistence of Robert Tobias, city's own director of assessment; Schools Chancellor Rudy Crew says he sees no reason to abandon use of standardized testing in making high-stakes decisions like whether to promote students, but screening for summer school next year will also consider other factors under a new Board of Education policy; Crew's claim that reading scores for third, fifth, sixth and seventh graders have risen 4.9 percentages points from 1998 is met with skepticism (M)