September 6, 2000

Police in Ithaca, NY, team up with mental health specialists to halt rampage killings by deranged individuals, spurred by fatal stabbing of Inspector Michael A Padula by Deborah Stagg in 1996; collaboration is hailed by some policing experts, who say it is unmatched elsewhere in country because of focus on pre-empting problems in addition to responding to crises; even Ithaca police officers, initially cynical about approach, now say there has been steep decline in number of chronic callers tying up phone lines and time, and fewer untreated mentally ill people on streets; city has dared to move beyond 'hands are tied' response, emphasizing prevention and devoting police resources to following up on people with chronic problems who do not always want to accept help; photos (M)

Health insurance premiums are increasing by 10 percent to 30 percent nationwide, suggesting that apart from most restrictive, bare-bones health maintenance organizations, managed care is no longer keeping medical costs down; increases are spurring many companies, which in past encouraged employees to join managed-care plans, to turn away from HMO's toward insurance that does not entail high administrative costs of managed care; corporations, especially smaller companies in low-margin businesses, may force employees to absorb increasing costs, or even stop offering health insurance altogether; graphs; charts (M)

Michelle Slatalla column on Food Network's fall lineup of shows; notes network is growing by replacing instructional cooking shows with shows thate are purely entertainment; photos (M)

Martina Hingis and Venus Williams advance to women's singles semifinals at United States Open; photo (M)

Article describes massive gridlock in New York City streets on day after Labor Day weekend as United Nations begins its summit meeting and New Yorkers return to work; photo (M)