May 2, 2000

Park Place Entertainment, in another round involving proposed casino for Catskills, announces that it has signed option to buy Kutsher's Country Club, oldest resort in Catskills, to create 1,400-acre entertainment complex and gambling hall that would be owned by St Regis Mohawks tribe; new agreement grants Park Place right to develop and manage Mohawk casinos throughout New York State; photo (M)

Show World Center, in effort to dodge New York City's attempts to rid Times Square of sex entertainment establishments, is undergoing gradual but thorough transformation; while video peep show booths and adults-only sex shop remain, vast-tract of stage has been made available to theater productions; photo (M)

Mayor Rudolph W Giuliani, in announcing that he has prostate cancer and urging all men to have test that reveals early signs of disease, spurs new discussion about blood test, which measures levels of protein called prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, which often rise when prostate cancer strikes; two new studies have provided strong, though not conclusive, evidence that PSA testing can reduce deaths, and most prostate cancer patients, like Giuliani, are glad they had test; yet many medical orgns and experts on prostate cancer remain equivocal about when, or even if, screening test should be given; their uncertainty reflects continuing debate about whether test is worthwhile given that, especially in older men, prostate cancer can be indolent disease unlikely to cause lasting harm to health, while its treatment can often produce serious side effects like impotence and incontinence (M)

Schools Chancellor Harold O Levy is planning series of lectures for enlightenment of Board of Education members; will also gather school system's 43 superintendents for group violin lesson at Carnegie Hall, taught by Isaac Stern; says music and poetry are among more esoteric parts of his plan to raise level of debate on education policy; Jonathan Levi, novelist, jazz violinist and Levy's executive assistant, says that his duties include bringing board members, school officials and students into 'secret society that is New York City's intellectual culture' (M)

Soft-money donations to political parties are on record pace this year, but many large corporations have quietly stopped giving them; senior executives say they want to distance themselves from what they describe as capital's unseemly culture of cash and influence; say their companies are not getting much in return for money; Federal Election Commission records show that 31 corporations that in each previous election cycle since 1993-94 contributed at least $100,000 in soft money have not donated any soft money in last 15 months; only few large companies, including General Motors and Time Warner, have formally announced that they have sworn off soft money (M)