Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani sets up political committee to collect largely unregulated donations known as soft money, and is asking supporters of his Senate candidacy to give as much as $50,000 per couple to attend committee's inaugural dinner; fund-raising arm, called Giuliani Victory Committee, allows Giuliani to skirt strict federal rules governing donations to his separate Senate campaign committee--practice already embraced by his Democratic opponent, Hillary Rodham Clinton (M)

Giuliani Adds a Soft-Money Arm In an Effort to Fight Fire With Fire

Man in the News article on Horst Kohler, veteran German banker now expected to run International Monetary Fund; he was born Feb 22, 1943 in Skierbieszow, Poland; photo (M)

Man in the News; In the Midst of Upheaval, Yet Out of Public Sight: Horst Kohler

Ben Brantley reviews David Rabe's new comedy The Dog Problem, presented at Long Wharf Theater, New Haven; Scott Ellis directs; photo (M)

Mutt Obedience, Mafiosi Style

Michael Skakel appears in court for first time to face charge that he murdered Martha Moxley, his friend and next-door neighbor, in Greenwich, Conn, nearly 25 years ago when they were both 15 years old; Skakel, nephew of Ethel Kennedy, is being charged as juvenile; scene outside courtroom described; photo (M)

Slain Girl's Mother Is Told 'You've Got the Wrong Guy'

New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver says that there will be no state budget this year until Pataki administration commits to building Second Avenue subway for full length of Manhattan as well as big increase in state's contribution to project's cost (M)

Assembly Speaker Links Subway to Budget Vote

Dave Anderson Sports of The Times column discusses poor performance of New York Rangers as they try to qualify for playoffs despite more than $61 million payroll; job of general manager Neil Smith seen in jeopardy; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; The Ice Gets Thinner For Smith

Matthew Purdy Our Towns column discusses plight of 9-month-old Vincent Tobin and his family's battle to receive health insurance from US Navy; Tobin is victim of severe assault by his father Sean, Naval hospital corpsman (M)

Our Towns; After Injury, Added Insult Of Late Aid

Gov George E Pataki proposes sweeping package of gun controls, including mandatory trigger locks with gun sales, ban on assault weapons and steps to make it easier for police to trace guns used in crimes; gun control advocates say measures are among strictest in country; one of measures would require ballistics fingerprinting, which would record unique markings from all new guns so that bullets and shell casings could later be traced to them; Pataki calls for raising legal age for gun purchases to 21 from 18; would require background checks on buyers at gun shows (M)

PATAKI PROPOSES A BROAD PACKAGE OF GUN CONTROLS

Federal authorities accuse 19 people of making $8.4 million in illegal tips from part-time graphics clerk John J Freeman on Wall Street who passed some of information through private chat rooms and America Online's instant messaging system; it is first criminal case involving swapping inside stock information over the Internet; Freeman, who had temporary jobs at Goldman, Sachs & Co and Credit Suisse First Boston, pleads guilty to sharing confidential information on corporate mergers in exchange for $70,000 to $110,000 in kickbacks from trading profits; Mary Jo White, US District attorney for Southern District of New York, comments on case; Federal officials say charges represent largest criminal insider-trading case ever in terms of number of people who made illegal trades and number of business deals for which inside information was stolen; Freeman and 18 other defendants also face civil securities fraud charges filed by Securities and Exchange Commission; federal authorities say Freeman first offered to supply inside information to James Cooper, Kentucky insurance agent, and Benton Erskine, owner of computer supply store in West Virginia; Cooper, who also pleads guilty, and Erskine also passed Freeman's tips on to chains of relatives and friends, including stockbrokers in Tennessee and Kentucky who are charged with trading on information for themselves and their clients (Market Place column) (M)

THE MARKETS: Market Place; 19 Charged With Insider Trading Using the Internet and a Clerk

 Home-Equity Lender Profits With Wall Street's Help  First Alliance, a national home-equity lender, has been sued by more than a dozen consumers who contend the company has used a deceptive sales pitch to lure homeowners into loans that expose them to the threat of foreclosure and financial ruin. The company has also been sued by regulators in four states.  

BUSINESS DIGEST

Orbital Sciences Corporation, one of country's leading satellite companies, is finding it extremely difficult to set up satellite system that will pinpoint location of all buses in Manhattan; main problem is seen as too many skyscrapers, which cause 'urban canyon effect', that block or distort signals from satellite to buses; photo (M)

Out of Touch In the City's Canyons; Satellites Become Blind Eyes in the Sky Trying to Spot and Track Buses

 Mixed Media Is the Message  Executives at The Chicago Tribune, where reporters work closely with the Internet and other media, say the trend offers a glimpse of the newsroom of the future.   PAGE A21    Cleaning Up Diesel Fuel  The Environmental Protection Agency has decided to sharply reduce the level of sulfur allowed in diesel fuel, citing diesel emissions as a health hazard.   PAGE A14

INSIDE

Profile of Lewis E Platt, former chief executive at Hewlett-Packard Co who retired after 33 years with company and immediately took job as chief executive at Kendall-Jackson Wine Estates; Platt comments; chart; photos (M)

MANAGEMENT: The Afterlife Of a Powerful Chief; 'I'm Actually Back Doing Things,' Says One Starting Anew

Pres Clinton and British Prime Min Tony Blair say sequence of human genome should be made freely available to all researchers; statement leads to sharp sell-off in stocks of biotechnology companies; genomics companies, which are racing to produce database of human DNA, are hit hardest, with some off over 20 percent; drop is not confined to biotechnology sector; Nasdaq composite index closes at 4,706.63, down 200.61 points, its second-largest point loss ever; statement by Clinton and Blair is outgrowth of rivalry between public consortium of US and British academic centers and Celera Corp to complete sequence of human genome (M)

A Call for Sharing of Research Causes Gene Stocks to Plunge

Christian Delouvrier, executive chef of Lespinasse in Manhattan, describes making a quick risotto (Third of eight columns); recipes; photo (L)

THE CHEF; Minute Risotto (Almost)

Ross Stretton, an Australian and director of Australian Ballet, is chosen to become director of Britain's Royal Ballet, the first non-Briton to hold post; will succeed Sir Anthony Dowell in August 2001, after company completes its first two seasons in richly reconstructed Royal Opera House in Covent Garden; Stretton photo (M)

An Australian Will Lead the Royal Ballet

A Florida judge ruled that the state's Constitution barred students from using taxpayer money for private school tuition, blocking the state's eight-month-old voucher program, the nation's boldest experiment in using market forces to improve failing schools.    The decision, which the state says it will appeal, is the second major setback for voucher proponents in recent months, following a federal judge's ruling that Cleveland's program violates the separation of church and state.  

Florida Judge Blocks School Voucher Plan

Kaduna, Nigeria, has become epicenter of national battle that on surface is over states' right to adopt Islamic law, but which is really about raw political power in Africa's most populous country; future of Nigeria, most fragile of democracies, might be decided in this battle; Pres Olusegun Obasanjo, who has surprised many by aggressiveness of his democratic reforms, is facing most serious threat to his 10-month presidency; some members of northern Muslim elite--which ruled Nigeria for most of its history but has found its power greatly diminished under Obasanjo, a Christian--seem to have seized on religion to galvanize their forces and challenge government; hundreds of people have been killed in clashes between Muslims and Christians in Kaduna in recent weeks; map; photo (M)

New Strife Tests Nigeria's Fragile Democracy

Profile of Hunts Point Terminal Market, New York City's giant wholesale produce market in South Bronx; photos (L)

Found a Peanut And More at Hunts Pt.

Lisa Belkin's Life's Work column on George Washington University Prof Naomi Cahn's belief that women cannot achieve true equality in workplace without giving up some control in home to their husbands; admits she has not allowed her husband to assume more of responsibilities at home; drawing (M)

The Grapes of Marital Wrath

Article on Furnimex manager Jake Williams, who organizes office betting pool for NCAA basketball tournament; Williams says his role as numbers man is good for business, good for workplace morale and even good for his family life since he enlists help of his wife and son in tabulations; photo (M)

How Big a Part Of G.D.P. Are Office Pools? Make a Bet?

Kenn Harper book Give Me My Father's Body details plight of Minik, a young boy who was one of six Greenland Eskimos brought to New York City in 1897 by Arctic explorer Robert E Peary; Eskimos were to be studied at American Museum of Natural History at request of anthropologist Franz Boas; had no resistance to germs in New York, and four of them, including Qisuk, Minik's widowed father, died of tuberculosis; another returned to Arctic, leaving only Minik; Harper's book contends that until 1960's, museum lied about still having remains of Minik's father and other Eskimos; portrays Peary as egotistical and duplicitous; photos (L)

An Eskimo Boy And Injustice In Old New York; A Campaigning Writer Indicts An Explorer and a Museum

Federal prosecutors reportedly are seeking death penalty against Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-'Owhali, one of defendants in bombings of two US Embassies in East Africa in 1998; he is one of three suspects who could face death penalty; other two defendants are Mohammed Saddiq Odeh and Khalfan Khamis Mohammed; decision by US Atty Mary Jo White, which has not been made public, is subject to approval by Atty Gen Janet Reno; prosecutors accuse al-'Owhali of being would-be suicide bomber in explosion of embassy in Nairobi, Kenya (M)

EXECUTION SOUGHT IN EMBASSY BLASTS

Article on questionable management style of Mark H Willes, Times Mirror Co's chief executive and self-appointed publisher of Los Angeles Times, in light of Tribune Co's acquisition of Times Mirror; says during Willes's tenure, executives came and went with alarming regularity as well as strategies; says newspapers were closed, businesses sold, hundreds of employees laid off and costs cut, leaving trail of bitter bystanders; photo (M)

A General Whose Time Ran Out

Cigarette smoking persists at a number of New York City restaurants despite law banning it in restaurants with more than 35 seats; underground network of restaurants would rather risk a health inspection than alienate valued customers; photos; list of some prominent restaurants cited for smoking violations in 1999 (M)

Law? What Law? Diners Keep On Puffing

Kristian Konstantinov Kostov is a Bulgarian-Russian singer. He was a finalist in season one of The Voice Kids Russia and a runner-up in the fourth season of X Factor Bulgaria. He represented Bulgaria in the Eurovision Song Contest 2017 with the song "Beautiful Mess", finishing in second place. In January 2018, Kostov won the EBBA Public Choice award. In January 2019, he was one of seven singers who performed in the seventh season of Singer.

March 15, 2000

Headlines from March 15, 2000

Giuliani Adds a Soft-Money Arm In an Effort to Fight Fire With Fire

Man in the News; In the Midst of Upheaval, Yet Out of Public Sight: Horst Kohler

Mutt Obedience, Mafiosi Style

Slain Girl's Mother Is Told 'You've Got the Wrong Guy'

Assembly Speaker Links Subway to Budget Vote

Billboard 200

Supernatural

BTNHResurrection

Machina/The Machines Of God

Dr. Dre -- 2001

The Truth

Notable Births

Historical Context for March 15, 2000