Cincinnati Reds defeat New York Mets, 6-2; photo (M)

Mets Still Seek September Victory

 No Strike but More Recalls  Bridgestone/Firestone and its union reached a tentative settlement, but in Venezuela, the company ordered 62,000 tires recalled.   PAGES C1, C2

INSIDE

Members of Republican-controlled Congress, aware that actions over next few weeks may help determine who controls federal government next year, are returning from recess for final session compressed by election campaigns and dominated by tax cuts, education, health care and government spending; majority's first step will be to try to override Pres Clinton's vetoes of its top tax priorities, repealing marriage tax and estate tax; efforts, which have little chance of success, are meant to provide fodder for political campaigns; Democrats are pressing for concessions on bill to expand patients' rights in dealing with insurers and to add prescription drugs to Medicare program for elderly; Speaker J Dennis Hastert's interest in brokering deal on patients' rights noted; other election-year issues facing House and Senate discussed; photo (M)

Fall Campaign Raises Pressure On Capitol Hill

Harvey Araton Sports of The Times Column discusses success of tennis player Martina Hingis; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; Hingis Leads By Example In Anonymity

Avid readers are taking part in travel vacations led by favorite authors; self-help authors and writers with spiritual bent head list of writers leading such tours; photos (M)

Seven Days, Six Nights, One Author; If You Liked the Book, You'll Love the Tour Guide

Latest research indicates that even people who do not yet have heart disease or strong propensity for developing it could benefit from taking cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins, which have revolutionized treatment of heart disease; experts are divided, with some citing drugs' benefits and apparent safety and others citing high costs and possible risks; diagrams; photos (M)

More Fans For Drugs That Fight Cholesterol

John Sculley, former chief executive of Apple Computer, and his brothers Arthur and David run small venture capital firm that finances Internet start-ups; Sculley focuses on start-ups like TechSmart, company founded by entrepreneur Dennis M Lynch, and serves as mentor and friend as well as investor; so far, Sculley Brothers has invested in 26 start-ups; four are either profitable or breaking even; three of five companies they backed that have gone public now trade at rock-bottom prices; graph; photos (M)

Where Blood Is as Thick as Money; The Sculleys Forge New Careers Financing Internet Start-Ups

Negotiators for Bridgestone/Firestone and United Steelworkers of America reach tentative settlement, averting strike that could have deepened tire maker's crisis; settlement gives most union members a large pension increase and pay raises ranging from 12 percent to 25 percent over three years; Bridgestone is struggling to repair its image and to recall and replace 6.5 million tires linked to accidents; union officials say strike would have badly delayed company's efforts to produce replacement tires, process company says will take at least six months; photo (M)

Bridgestone, Averting Strike, Reaches Accord With Union

Kartchner Caverns near Benson, Ariz, is first major 'show cave' to open in United States in several decades and a de facto experiment in whether it is possible for thousands of people to visit fragile cave environment without disrupting cave's natural conditions; Arizona park system seeks to balance interests of visitors and preservationists and has spent over $28 million on monitoring systems, visitor's center, man-made entrances, tunnels and trails; cave, which opened to public in November 1999, is already showing signs of drying out; graphs; maps; photos (M)

Glories of Underworld Are Under Siege; Science Armed a Cave For Its Public Debut

Free outdoor concert, Broadway on Broadway, will mark opening of new theater season; Art Students League, marking 125th anniversary, to open exhibition of works by current instructors; University of Texas, Austin, art museum to open exhibitions of lithographs and etchings of James McNeill Whistler; New Jersey Shakespeare Festival to present Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, Madison; photos (M)

FOOTLIGHTS

Senate candidates Rick Lazio and Hillary Rodham Clinton, choosing two starkly different Labor Day celebrations at different edges of state, kick off final phase of their campaigns; Lazio attends volunteer firefighters' parade in Clarence Center in western New York and Clinton marches in West Indian parade in Brooklyn; photo (M)

Campaigning On Main St. And to a Beat

Caryn James reviews Robert Hughes's six-part PBS television series Australia: Beyond the Fatal Shores; photo (M)

An Australia Beyond Shrimp on the Barbie, Mate

St Louis Rams defeat Denver Broncos, 41-36; photo (M)

Speed Helps Rams Squeak by Broncos

Second consecutive summer of chronic flight delays and cancellations ends with no relief in sight despite expenditures of billions of dollars, and repeated warnings over past decade that air traffic system is approaching gridlock; most experts predict delays, which have risen nearly 50 percent in last five years, will become worse, not better; Federal Aviation Administration, which runs air traffic system, predicts that by 2010 number of airline passengers will rise by 59 percent, to one billion; 70 percent of increase is expected to occur at country's 28 largest airports; current crisis is result of airline deregulation, one of government's most successful economic initiatives, and one of its longest and most expensive blunders, namely, ill-fated attempts to develop new air traffic control system; airlines blame FAA, attributing delays and cancellations to antiquated air traffic control system that cost more than $5 billion in 1999 alone; FAA blames airlines for knowingly scheduling more takeoffs and landings at major airports than system can handle; both criticize Congress for not appropriating enough money to fix system, and localities for preventing building of new runways at congested airports; photo; diagrams; charts (L)

GRIDLOCK IN THE SKIES: A special report.; Crisis for Air Traffic System: More Passengers, More Delays

Executives of ABC and CBS, television networks snubbed by Republican presidential nominee Gov George W Bush in plan to impose his own schedule of televised debates, say they will not carry debates sponsored by rivals, as Bush proposal throws work of Commisson on Presidential Debates into turmoil; Bush plan is unveiled after intense negotiations with officials of six cable and broadcast networks, and after commission announced in January plans for three 90-minute debates in October on college campuses which Vice Pres Gore quickly endorsed; Bush plan includes debate in St Louis but would replace two others with encounters on NBC's Meet the Press and CNN's Larry King Live; calls for 60-minute forums; Bush says Gore, who has rejected proposal, is ducking debates and is reneging on promise to debate him at any time; Gore camp accuses Bush of trying to tailor debates to his own liking, then blaming Gore for rejecting them; commission asks officials of both campaigns to attend meeting in Washington to work out agreement under which Bush would consent to its schedule; was created in 1987 by Democrats and Republicans to avoid squabbling over debates; no candidate has gone as far as Bush in efforts to circumvent its work (M)

TV Networks Jilted by Bush Won't Take Part in 2 Debates

Profile of Naoya Tsukahara, Japanese gynmast who will attempt to win gold medal in Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, by performing difficult 'moon' somersault devised by father Mitsuo Tsukahara, who used it in Munich in 1972 to win his first individual gold medal on horizontal bar; somersault, which revolutionized event of vaulting for men and women, consists of cartwheel with quarter-turn followed by back somersault; photos; diagram (M)

For a Japanese Gymnast, Honor Thy Father

Pres Clinton reportedly plans diplomatic whirlwind in New York City over next three days while attending opening session of UN General Assembly; will make effort to jump-start failed talks between Israel and Palestinians; may confront China's Pres Jiang Zemin over Beijing's continued missile sales to Pakistan; will announce American support for plan to strengthen UN's peacekeeping department; will use assembly session to insert himself into array of simmering world conflicts; activities represent one of his last opportunities for major foreign policy accomplishments in waning months in office; photos (M)

CLINTON PLANNING DIPLOMATIC WHIRL ON NEW YORK TRIP

DaimlerChrysler, which has based its hopes for Asian expansion on partnership with Mitsubishi Motors of Japan, is demanding more control in the wake of a scandal over defective cars that has engulfed Mitsubishi; Daimler executives say they want more control over Mitsubishi, in which Daimler has been planning to pay $2 billion for 34 percent stake; but they refuse to say what form that control might take; Japanese television reports Daimler executives are demanding that their stake be increased at no extra cost to 40 percent; police again raid Mitsubishi offices in search of documents that might provide basis for charges of criminal cover-up; photo (M)

Daimler Seeks More Control Of Mitsubishi

Several thousand Latino evangelicals wait nearly all afternoon in South Bronx park for Rev Yiye Avila, former bodybuilder turned faith healer who is widely known as Spanish-speaking Billy Graham; scene in park described; photo (M)

Hispanic Evangelicals Flock To Hear a Force in Their Faith

New York City's 1.1 million public-school students will return to classes after Labor Day to faced worsening shortage of fully qualified teachers, even as tougher standards, including newly required Regents mathematics exam, make path toward graduation more arduous; new Chancellor Harold O Levy, has promised to intensify recruiting efforts and on-the-job training for teachers, and is scrambling to meet recent court order that all new teachers in 94 lowest-performing schools be certified; he predicts first few weeks of school will run smoothly; is beginning first year on job without political rancor that caused demise of predecessor Rudy Crew; still appears to have strong support of seven-member Board of Education, which appointed him over protests of Mayor Rudolph Giuliani; faces other major hurdles; expiration of contract with teachers' union and stated plans to overhaul board's sprawling bureaucracy noted (M)

New York Heads Back to School As Shortage of Teachers Worsens

Dr Seth Lloyd, in article in journal Nature, describes ultimate laptop commuter, plumbing limits nature sets on computation; effort, part of relatively new discipline called physics of information, gives computer engineers ideal to aim for and may help deepen understanding between physics and information and explore idea that natural processes can be thought of as computations; drawing (M)

The Ultimate, Apocalyptic Laptop

Article in series on primary elections throughout New York State examines Democratic race for 141st Assembly District in Buffalo between incumbent Assemblyman Arthur O Eve and Crystal D Peoples; map; photo (M)

Contest for Albany Seat Hinges on a Veteran Legislator's Relevance

Convicts drawn from state prisons are fighting devastating fires in West in an enterprise that may be benefitting all concerned; federal officials say inmates have been invaluable, providing much needed, well-trained and well-supervised reinforcement to resources that have worn thin; at wages averaging $1 per hour, their use has been bargain that might ease taxpayers' burden in year in which federal firefighting costs will exceed $1 billion; many inmates say they are blessed, regarding fire as vehicle bringing not only taste of freedom but opportunity to redress old wrongs; map; photo (M)

Inmates Battling West's Fires Help States and Themselves

National Grid Group, British energy company, reportedly agrees to acquire Niagara Mohawk Holdings, upstate New York power concern, for about $3 billion in cash and stock; move would catapult National Grid into role as major player in energy market in US; deal would allow National Grid to leverage Niagara Mohawk's business with its other units--New England Electric Systems and Eastern Utilities Association--creating one of largest power companies in region and ninth-largest power company in country; Niagara Mohawk has 1.6 million electric customers and serves 540,000 gas customers (M)

British Utility Is Said to Acquire Niagara Mohawk

Burning Man festival, annual alternative-arts fair, is held in Black Rock Desert, Nev; festival, showcase for art of obscure, outrageous and just plain odd, has become yearly pilgrimage for thousands of performers, artists and others; photos (M)

Neon Surrealism Required; Clothing Optional

Roy Clifton Fredericks was a West Indian cricketer who played Test cricket from 1968 to 1977. He was a member of the squad which won the 1975 Cricket World Cup.

September 5, 2000

Headlines from September 5, 2000

Mets Still Seek September Victory

INSIDE

Fall Campaign Raises Pressure On Capitol Hill

Sports of The Times; Hingis Leads By Example In Anonymity

Seven Days, Six Nights, One Author; If You Liked the Book, You'll Love the Tour Guide

Billboard 200

Country Grammar

Oops!...I Did It Again

The Marshall Mathers LP

Now 4

Human Clay

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for September 5, 2000