April 21, 2000

US Tennis Association says it sustained deficit of nearly $13 million last year, largely because of unforeseen expenses and setbacks in performance of its investments (M)

Bronx Museum of Arts offers free meal and guided tour to prospective jurors at nearby Bronx Supreme Court in hope that they will come back again; photo (M)

Paleontologists say they found heart of dinosaur in chest cavity of dinosaur's fossil skeleton uncovered in South Dakota, and that organ was more like heart of bird or mammal than any known reptile; finding could profoundly change theories of dinosaur physiology and place of at least some of those creatures in evolutionary history of life; scientists describe heart as size of grapefruit, fossilized into reddish-brown stone 66 million years ago; Dr Dale A Russell of North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, announcing discovery, says evidence for four-chambered heart with single aorta strongly suggests that this and perhaps many other dinosaurs had higher metabolisms than other reptiles; says they may have been warmblooded instead of coldblooded, like other reptiles, and thus could have engaged in more sustained activity in foraging and fighting; findings strengthen hypothesis that some dinosaurs were ancesters of today's birds, which are warmblooded; photo; map (M)

Growing number of states require or encourage engaged couples to take marital education course out of concern about high social and economic costs of divorce; other initiatives include Wisconsin's hiring of 'marriage czar' to urge clergy to set requirements for engaged couples, and Arkansas's exploration of tax credit for couples taking marital course; Utah includes marital skills in high school curriculums, and Florida makes marital course high school graduation requirement; critics of such initiatives say government is meddling in marriage; close to half of marriages end in divorce; photos (M)

Increasing number of bowlers are throwing perfect games largely because of advances in bowling-ball technology; American Bowling Congress says there were 905 perfect games in 1968-69 season and 34,470 in 1998-99 season; increase comes at time when number of people who bowl regularly has declined drastically; photos (M)