April 13, 2000

Article on Rao's, tiny 104-year-old restaurant in East Harlem that is both unpretentious and phenomenally exclusive; Rao's is establishing its first offshoot three miles to south in Manhattan's theater district; new restaurant, to be named Baldoria, will be operated by Frank Pellegrino Jr, son of Rao's owner Frank Pellegrino Sr; photo (M)

Major and minor league baseball teams are going digital to lure fans to technically sophisticated new ballparks that use fiber optic networks to handle torrents of data; even older parks are adopting new technologies; costly innovations, including Internet access and smart seats, are being used to squeeze more money out of fans and sponsors; photos (M)

New York State Senate leaders say they will pass bill requiring tobacco companies to modify cigarettes to lower fire risk they pose; New York would be first state to have such a law; bill would represent major, long-sought victory for antismoking advocates and some firefighters' groups, who contend that it would prevent hundreds of fires set by careless smokers each year; cigarettes are leading cause of fatal fires in state, resulting in 48 fire deaths statewide in 1997; New York bill would require that cigarette snuff out rather than keep burning down when no one puffs on it for mandated time; industry officials say proposed changes do not affect cost of making cigarettes; antismoking advocates expect Gov George E Pataki to sign bill, if for no other reason than not to be seen as Capitol's only defender of tobacco industry interests; drawing (M)

Nasdaq composite index drops 7.06 percent, or 286.27 points, to 3,769.63; slide is sixth largest in percentage terms and second largest in points in index's history; Nasdaq has fallen 25.3 percent from its peak on March 10, sinking into territory of 20 percent or greater retreat that Wall Street designates as bear market; Dow Jones industrial average closes down 161.95 points, at 11,125.13; Standard & Poor's 500-stock index plummets 33.42 points, to 1,467.17; graph; chart; photo (M)

Bruce Weber reviews Olympia Dukakis in Lincoln Center Theater presentation of Rose, play-length monologue by Martin Sherman at Lyceum Theater; photo (M)

Peter H Lewis column assesses preview version of Netscape's next-generation Internet browser; drawing (M)

Federal Trade Commission is on the verge of announcing settlement of its large antitrust case that has blocked BP Amoco from completing its $30 billion acquisition of Atlantic Richfield Co; two companies agree to sell one of crown jewels of deal--Atlantic Richfield's large oil and natural gas holdings in Alaska--to Phillips Petroleum for about $7 billion (M)

Housing experts say that while home prices in New York metropolitan region, and particularly in Manhattan, have skyrocketed in last two years, they have not reached stratospheric levels of late 1980's when adjusted for inflation (M)

Home becomes less of a private sanctum as people balk at heavy, detailed and costly draperies and opt instead for sheer curtains or no curtains at all; photos (M)

Victor Manuel Tafur-Dominguez, student at Pace University Law School, is accused of financing multi-million dollar shipment of cocaine seized at Colombian port; Drug Enforcement Administration says that he would be first Colombian extradited home under treaty that his father, slain former Colombian Senator Donald Rodrigo Tafur, helped write; Tafur-Dominguez and his family say charges stem from legal financial transaction that went awry; photo (M)

JDN Realty, once top-performing real estate investment trust, has been under fire since it first reported discrepancies in its accounting that may date to 1994; JDN has disclosed that it has been making under-the-table payments to two of its own executives for years, that it improperly billed its two largest clients, Wal-Mart and Lowe's, that it defaulted on its main bank loan and that it would have to restate all of its earnings since 1994; management experts say JDN's problems offer case study of problems that can befall public company that continues to operate like a private one; at core of JDN's problems is a board that is too closely aligned with management to be effective advocate for shareholders; directors are small inbred group--mostly men who have business ties to JDN or personal ties to J Donald Nichols, the founder, and his wife, Elizabeth; Nichols resigns as chairman; he had already stepped aside as chief executive in February; graph; drawing; photos (M)

Works of lyricists Betty Comden and Adolph Green will be celebrated at 30th anniversary season of Lyrics and Lyricists at 92nd Street Y; photo; Amherest College Orchestra will present premiere of Two Orchestral Sketches by Lewis Spratlan, whose composition Life Is a Dream recently won Pulitzer Prize; National Song and Dance Company of Mozambique wil present program of dances poetic recitations and choral and instrumental music at Town Hall on April 15; Japan Society will present 10-part film series examining Japanese swordplay films from silent era to present; Carlisle Floyd Opera, Cold Sassy Tree, will be given world premiere by Houston Grand Opera; photo (M)