September 12, 2000

Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission charge that Chicago Board Options Exchange, American Stock Exchange, Pacific Stock Exchange and Philadelphia Stock Exchange agreed for years to restrain competition by not asking to trade options already traded on other exchanges; exchanges sign consent decree with Justice Department and accept censure by SEC but do not admit any wrongdoing; existence of investigations, coupled with entry of another competitor, International Securities Exchange, has already broken down barriers that regulators complained about, and most major options are now traded on multiple exchanges; it its not year clear whether competition is benefiting investors or just brokerage firms that send orders to exchanges (M)

Analysis of government decision to accept plea bargain in case of Wen Ho Lee, former Los Alamos National Laboratory scientist accused of mishandling classified nuclear information; Government investigators say that they are prepared to accept plea bargain in which Lee would plead guilty to one count of improperly downloading secret information on computer; investigation that began eight years ago as effort to determine how China obtained highly classified information about one of America's most advanced warheads appears back where it started, with mystery still unsolved; prosecutors have ended pursuit of Lee as possible source of stolen warhead data without clear answers about how Chinese obtained warhead data or from whom (M)

Article on New England Patriots Coach Bill Belichick in view of his return to Giants Stadium and Patriots 20-19 loss to New York Jets; photo (M)

Whirlpool Corp sends group of new hires to live together in large house, where during course of their stay they prepare more than 900 plates of food, wash no fewer than 120 bags of laundry and perform countless hours of loading and reloading of company's refrigerators, dishwashers and dryers; graph; chart; photos (M)

Many health experts and veterans of past Medicare wars say last decade has shown immense difficulties in making changes to Medicare program, like those proposed by Republican presidential candidate Gov George W Bush and Democratic rival Vice Pres Al Gore; say philosophical differences between both parties over how to reshape program are large and enduring; note health maintenance organizations and other managed care insurance plans, which could play central role in Bush's proposal, are no longer viewed as easy cure-all that can both control health care costs and deliver better care; Bush proposal revolves around how much Medicare should be turned into a competitive marketplace, in which beneficiaries are given fixed amount each year and are expected to choose among variety of health plans, much as federal employees do; Gore supports 'modernization' plan advanced by Clinton administration in 1999, but has focused campaign on shoring up traditional program and adding prescription drug benefit to it; many Democrats are convinced that Republicans cannot abide huge, government-run social insurance program and have always wanted to privatize it; Republicans say Democrats are less interested in policy improvements than in creating concern among elderly voters every election year with dire warnings about what Republicans will do to Medicare (M)