December 25, 2000

People born on December 25 discuss sharing their birthdays with major holiday; photo (M)

New York Giants Coach Jim Fassel gives his players and assistant coaches three days off for holidays; says he will relax because team has bye for first round of playoffs; photo (M)

Sue Bird, point guard for Connecticut women's basketball team, profiled; photo (M)

250 million gallons of coal-mining sludge bursts from waste lagoon of A T Massey Coal Co in Inez, Ky, creating environmental disaster; swamps gardens and lawns along six-mile stretch of Coldwater Creek in eastern Kentucky and coated its banks and bottom and those of neighboring 15-mile Wolf Creek to thickness of up to six feet; suffocates aquatic life and worsens economic disaster in backwater pocket of Appalachia; photos; map (M)

Nina Bernstein's analysis of overhaul of Administration for Children's Services under commissioner Nicholas Scoppetta; agency is stronger and better financed, but there is lingering concern that when political and public scrutiny wane, reforms may come undone because fundamental problems have not been addressed (M)

Survey of mergers and acquisitions among Internet, telecommunications, information technology and mixed-media corporations reveals that deals between direct competitors tend to be rejected by regulators, but that mergers between companies in the same or related industries that do not compete directly are often approved; list of recent merger activity in communications and information technology industries (M)

Consolidation of hundreds of radio stations under mainstream embrace of giant broadcast corporations creates opportunity for Radio One, family-controlled radio company whose thriving business is built on serving urban African-Americans, an audience overlooked by broadcast giants; chief executive, Alfred C Liggins III, comments; photos (M)

Fuse magazine, conceived and edited by Lisa Gabor as a chic business lifestyle journal, publishes its first and, likely, only issue; Imagine Media has withdrawn its financial backing; photo (M)

Health care policy experts, union officials and executives say health care industry throughout New York is experiencing worst staffing shortages in decades; shortages are most acute among low-paid nurses aides who work in nursing homes, but have extended in recent years to many areas of health care; hospitals complain there are too few registered nurses and pharmacists who code medical records; home health care agencies say turnover among aides is at all-time high; difficulties in finding and keeping health care workers stem in large part from booming economy that has created surplus of higher-paying, less demanding jobs in other fields; experts also cite steady decline in nursing school enrollment and growing and sicker nursing home population whose more complex medical problems have transformed job requirements of people who care for them; say entire profession suffers from major public relations problem, with certain jobs often perceived as thankless occupations rather than labors of love; chart (M)

Jeff Zucker, who demonstrated ability to beat out the competition during his seven years as executive producer of NBC's Today show, hopes to do the same for network's sitcoms and dramas now that he has been put in charge of NBC Entertainment; move reflects not only network's concern about erosion of its prime-time leadership but also its desire to address persistent and sometimes damaging rift between NBC's East Coast and West Coast management; photo (M)

Bethlehem's Manger Square, traditional site of Christmas celebrations by Christians, remains dark after three months of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli troops; tourism, city's major industry, has been virtually destroyed; city has been sealed off by Israeli Army and many workers have been kept away from jobs in Israel; photos; map (M)

This Week column on cultural events; Bach Cantata Project of Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists, performing all 198 cantatas for composer's 250th anniversary, concludes with concerts at St Bartholomew's Church; Museum of Modern Art schedules noted; Peter Schickele sets P D Q Bach concerts; photos; Washington Opera to perform Gian Carlo Menotti's opera The Consul to mark 50th anniversary of work (S)