January 16, 2001

Harvey Araton Sports of The Times column discusses links between New York Giants and old Baltimore Colts personnel (M)

Profile of treasury secretary-designate Paul H O'Neill; former Alcoa chief executive deftly engineered company's financial turnaround during his 13-year tenure even though rest of industry struggled; rose to prominence through arcane world of systems analysis as Pres Gerald Ford's deputy director at Office of Management and Budget, where he cemented friendships with Alan Greenspan, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld; photo; chart; graph (M)

The confirmation hearings for John Ashcroft, who has been nominated for attorney general, open the first big political battle of the Bush administration, and the issues at stake when he appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee today extend beyond a confirmation vote. Article, Page A18.

Clinton administration will issue last-minute call to police airline industry more closely, in wake of recent deals that would consolidate it in hands of few giant carriers; departing Transportation Sec Rodney E Slater will release studies criticizing state of competition within industry, and laying out blueprint for how government can improve situation; will stop short of issuing guidelines first proposed three years ago that would have put carriers on notice about how aggressively they could respond to low-fare competitors; findings of three studies, that accuse airlines of using wide variety of tactics to suppress competition, discussed (M)

New generation of screenwriters is making their traditionally dismissive treatment by producers and studio executives prominent issue in current contract talks as strike by Writers Guild of America looms for May 1; is seeking to overhaul system that elbows them out of possessory credit, and to limit use of such credits; wants to be employed while film is in production to be able to make needed changes to script, rather than have directors and stars tinker with their lines; wants names included on cast and crew lists for their films so they will be invited to events like premieres; other demands noted; photo (M)

Panel discussion on state of new music in New York follows first concert of festival of music at Merkin Concert Hall by living New York composers; cellist Fred Sherry is director of festival; participants include John Zorn, Charles Wuorinen, Peter Schickele and Jesse Mills; photos (L)

Two-day music and technology conference is organized by Future of Music Coalition, Georgetown University, Washington (M)

Nation's truck drivers discuss what they see as pending recession; more than 1,350 companies with five trucks or more went bankrupt in third quarter of 2000, nearly double record set in previous quarter; industry experts attribute failures to rising diesel costs, insurance rates and wage pressures, but decline in goods being shipped is major factor; in tonnage, trucking industry was off 7 percent from July through September compared to year-earlier period; photo; map (M)

DaimlerChrysler's strategy for reviving its troubled Chrysler unit is expected to involve eliminating thousands of white-collar jobs, canceling development of marginally profitable vehicles and sharing auto parts between Chrysler and Mitsubishi; is likely to call for closing of few if any factories; will not rely on blue-collar layoffs; photo (M)

President-elect Bush plans major changes in the National Security Council to involve it far more in the economic changes that have caused global upheaval. Page A10.

John Tierney The Big City column comments on scandal in Harlem involving Department of Housing and Urban Development loans to nonprofit groups; suggests that leaving federally-financed programs out of equation and letting individual homeowners naturally develop area will help integrate neighborhoods and allow people to move up housing chain rather than marginalize them into designated 'affordable housing' (M)

Konsolidacni Banka, which was created by Czech Republic to acquire mountains of bad debt nation's banks, and various affiliates are sitting on mountain of $8.62 billion in nearly worthless loans, very little of which stems from Communist era; most flows from mistakes made in first wave of Czech capitalism, when Czech leaders portrayed themselves as devout believers in free markets and chided Western European governments for being rigid and bureaucratics; almost all big Czech banks have been taken over by foreign institutions; Kamil Ziegler, who runs government's bailout agency, comments; graph; photos (M)