May 10, 2000

Article on growing number of chief information officers known as 'techies,' who are getting new respect and power; recent survey by Egon Zehnder International, executive search firm, found that companies are increasingly looking to new generation of chief information officers to be business strategists, and that these 'new' CIO's spend at least half their time outside information-technology department on efforts like developing and incubating new prospects for electronic commerce; found that 15 percent of new chief information officers now serve on boards of their companies and 70 percent are on their companies' high-level management teams; careers of H John Lockow of Tech Data Corp, Michael D Capellas of Compaq Computer, Sharon D Garrett of Zyan Communications, Edward M Rafter 3d of Prudential Property and Casualty Insurance and William W Wilson 3d of ClientSoft, discussed; chart; photos (M)

Actual vinyl master discs used in recording music of Charlie Parker in late 1940's are being cleaned up at Denon Digital plant in Madison, Ga, where Paul W Reid III and his colleagues are preparing CD package of Parker's early studio years, recorded on Savoy label; photo of Reid at work, and members of Charlie Parker's quintet in 1947 (M)

A bank employee was released in Manila after being held as a suspect in the ''I Love You'' computer virus. Page C1.

American Ballet Theater celebrates its 60th annivesary, with gala performance at Metropolitan Opera House; Tipper Gore, honorary chairwoman of gala, is introduced by Caroline Kennedy and Sen Charles E Schumer; Anna Kisselgoff reviews performance; photo (M)

Nicola Barker, 34-year-old British writer, wins $115,000 Impac Dublin Literary Award; 53d Cannes International Film Festival gets under way on May 10; photo of French director Luc Besson, who heads 10-member jury; exhibition Wade in the Water: African-American Sacred Music Traditions runs May 11 through June 24 at American Bible Society, Broadway and 61st Street; exhibition of 20 large-scale paintings by contemporary artist Donald Sultan begins at Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington; photo (M)

Matthew Purdy Our Towns column describes scene on bus traveling to Albany for annual rally against New York State's drug laws (M)

Article discusses uncertain future of outfielder Rickey Henderson after New York Mets place him on major league waivers; photo (M)

Shares of AT&T Wireless Group are back down to their offering price of $29.50 a share and, judging by trading pattern on May 9, they may not be heading back up again any time soon; nearly flat line on wireless unit's stock chart results from strong show of support from investment banks that underwrote $10.6 billion offering; it is considered bad form on Wall Street to allow client's first-time stock offering to quickly fall below its initial price without putting up a fight; traders at few big investment banks say Goldman, Sachs & Co, one of three lead underwriters, is buying lot of stock back at offering price on behalf of syndicate of underwriters, which includes almost every major investment bank; more than 12 million shares of AT&T Wireless change hands on May 9 for total of about $360 million; graph (Market Place column) (M)

Germany's BMW, for symbolic sum of 10 pounds or about $15, sells its money-losing Rover subsidiary to British consortium called Phoenix Consortium that wants to maintain troubled British automaker as mass producer of cars and guarantor of thousands of British jobs; purchase price is offset by better promise of $767 million loan from BMW to enable Phoenix Consortium to take over company, currently losing $3 million a day; terms of deal show how desperate BMW is to cut its losses; photos (M)

Kenneth A Walton, who put painting up for auction on eBay Internet site for 25 cents and ended up making $135,805 deal, admits he concocted part of story he used to describe work and is willing to let buyer, Rob Keereweer, out of deal if work is not by Richard Diebenkorn; speculation that work might be by Diebenkorn sparked bidding frenzy, even though description did not name painter; Walton is currently listing four other paintings on eBay (M)

Article discusses growing number of older investors becoming involved in minute-to-minute movements in their investment portfolios; growing number of on-line brokerages and increasing number of financial television stations are seen as main reason for this trend; photo (M)

Growing number of Libby, Mont, residents are reeling from medical, psychological and financial consequences of vermiculite mining operation W R Grace & Co shut down in 1990 after providing desperately needed high-paying jobs over 67 years; ore contained tremolite, toxic form of asbestos that causes lung disease and several forms of cancer; mine is being blamed for scores of respiratory illness cases and deaths; Environmental Protection Agency plans to spend some six months and $3 million to clean up area, while negotiating payment with Grace; Grace has settled dozens of suits by residents; other cases are still pending; photo (M)