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)

Donna Hanover announces that she is postponing her performance in The Vagina Monologues because of 'personal family circumstances;'; announcement comes four days after her husband, New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, announced that he had prostate cancer (M)

Cable Dispute Halts Service To Time Warner Customers Millions of television viewers in major markets, including New York and Los Angeles, found themselves without access to ''Who Wants to Be a Millionaire'' and many other popular TV programs as Time Warner and Walt Disney fought over how much Disney should be paid for its cable programming. The dispute also involved issues concerning the distribution of news and entertainment programming, the growing competition between cable and satellite companies, and Disney's opposition to the proposed merger of America Online and Time Warner. ABC asked the Federal Communications Commission to restore programming. [Page A1.]

Time Warner Cable removes ABC stations from cable systems it operates in seven cities serving 3.5 million homes, including New York, Los Angeles and Philadelphia; move comes in midst of one of television's most competitive ratings periods; ABC asks Federal Communications Commission to force Time Warner to restore programming; dispute involves how much Time Warner should pay Walt Disney Co, which owns ABC, for carrying its cable channels; it also touches on larger issues including Disney's opposition to proposed merger between America Online and Time Warner; map (M)

Microsoft Corp, fighting to defeat government's proposal to break up company, plans to ask trial Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson next week for broad authority to obtain hundreds of pages of government records on case, and for permission to summon witnesses to argue that proposal is unwarranted and out of bounds; Government officials call company's action stalling tactic, possibly intended to delay ruling until next administration takes office; Microsoft denies intent, and outside experts note company might not gain any particular advantage from a delay (M)

New Jersey Devils defeat Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-1, to lead playoff series, 2-1; photo (M)

Clyde Haberman NYC column discusses use of Nazi metaphors to describe evil; New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani's calling Federal agents who grabbed Elian Gonzalez in Miami 'storm troopers', Giuliani being depicted as 'Hitler-like' in his opposition to art exhibit at Brooklyn Museum of Art, St John's basketball coach Mike Jarvis comparing National Collegiate Athletic Assn to 'Gestapo' and Ted Turner likening Rupert Murdoch to 'late fuhrer' (M)

Richard Goldstein, Unilever executive who is credited with clinching merger deal with Ben & Jerry's Homemade Inc, is leaving Unilever to become chief executive of International Flavors and Fragrances; as Goldstein was persuading Ben & Jerry's to join Unilever, Goldstein was himself a free agent; Unilever's spokesman John Gould says Ben & Jerry's co-founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield were assured by Unilever's Niall Fitzgerald that Goldstein's departure would not affect agreement; photo (Market Place column) (M)