April 2, 2000

Tom and Ray Magliozzi, hosts of National Public Radio show Car Talk, survey listeners about worst performing cars of millennium; they comment, interview; list of worst cars; list of best-engineered models of each decade of 20th century; photos (M)

Everywhere in New York City home prices keep climbing--from rarefied heights of Manhattan were 11 apartments have sold for $10 million or more so far this year, compared with six in all of 1999, to every single ZIP code area in city's other boroughs; prices of apartments and homes in specific areas of city detailed; graphs; map; photos (M)

America's business leaders say their soaring salaries and stock options are justified by their companies' rising stock value; claim promise of wealth, in form of stock options, inspires them to create efficient companies that are driving longest economic expansion in American history; executives' huge stock options worry some analysts, who warn of potential for long-term problems that could undercut economic growth; say as top executives exercise their rising pile of options over next decade, other stockholders will see their stakes watered down; notes that companies are already spending billions of dollars, and taking on rising levels of debt, to buy back shares to minimize dilution; drawing (M)

Aching Heartland, special report on worsening conditions for America's ranchers and farmers; remarkable gains in farming and ranching efficiency have increased productivity to point where prices have fallen for produce and livestock; Freedom to Farm Act, signed in 1996, was intended to promote exports to make farming profitable without government aid; everyone agrees that measure has not worked; with seemingly little notice from rest of nation, there are historic changes under way in American agriculture, with growing cost of federal farm programs, replacement of small family farms with huge factory farms, and fading of rural hamlets; cattle ranchers in McPherson County, Neb, talk about their hard life; county is poorest in country, measured by per capita income; many scholars say that increasingly, livestock and crops alike will be produced under contract to large food companies, relegating family farmer to role of laborer; photos; map (L)

Coping column on Stacey Patton's allegation that she was mistreated and injured by New York City police officers following arrest during protest over shooting of Amadou Diallo (S)