February 24, 2000

Long-simmering civil war between New York and New Jersey members of Port Authority of New York and New Jersey has created impasse, halting major development projects that could generate billions of dollars; at issue is allocation of Port Authority expenditures, which have amounted to $14 billion over the years; New York City Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani has publicly lacerated agency as unaccountable and unnecessary anachronism that should be dismantled; board is top-heavy with members politically tied to two governors; chairman, Lewis M Eisenberg, talks of need for outside study to see if major changes must be made in compact or whether alternatives to agency are needed; graph; chart (M)

Upscale home furnishings retailers, such as Crate & Barrel, Target and Williams-Sonoma, are going after estimated 44 million members of Generation Nest--consumers between ages of 20 and 34 with disposable income of approximately $125 billion; are introducing new divisions and hiring trendy designers; photos (M)

European Parliament report finds two instances in which American companies gained advantage over Europeans through communications intercepted by cold-war eavesdropping network called Echelon; suggestions of commercial spying have surfaced regularly in recent years, infuriating many Europeans who suspect that military espionage systems developed in cold war would now be used to help businesses in English-speaking nations; Echelon is network of surveillance stations stiched together in 1970's by United Stations National Security Agency with Australia, Britain, Canada and New Zealand; Clinton administration and Prime Min Tony Blair of England quickly reject idea that they might be using any secret information to bolster their own economies (M)

Gerowing number of companies like NetZero, World Spy and Freei.net are now allowing anyone with perconal computer and modem to browse Web at no charge, and, through aggressive advertising campaigns, aim to lure Web users from fee-based services like America Online and Earthlink; evidence that trend is accelerating is evidenced by established Web names Alta Vista and Juno joining their ranks last January; free access has been slower to catch on in the United States compared to other countries, such as Britain; industry analyst predicts 13 percent of Net users will gain access via free providers by 2003--healthy amount, but not likely enough to scare AOL; brief description of some free Web providers and their site addresses (M)

Some foundations are paying federal excise tax at 2 percent rate on investment income for failing to maintain or increase their level of giving, instead of 1 percent rate paid by those that meet criteria; foundations have long complained that two-tier tax is poorly designed and overly complicated, discouraging large increases in giving; little-noticed provision of Pres Clinton's 2001 budget would replace two tiers with flat 1.25 percent tax; some charity advocates hold change would eliminate only incentive to keep giving in line with rise in value of invested assets (M)