Merrill Lynch chief global investment strategist David Bowers and colleagues recommend recommend reducing foreign stock exposure from 35 percent to 5 percent; photo; graph (M)

Hedging Your Bets? Look Homeward, Investor

Phil Mickelson and Olin Browne share lead after third round of AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am golf tournament; photo (M)

Mickelson Savors Sunshine and a Share of the Lead

Peter Marks Coping column on passengers' blase reaction to seeing rat board C train at 42nd Street and disembark at 34th Street; drawing (M)

So It's Come to This: Rats Riding the Rails

 New Leader for Democrats  Terry McAuliffe, a friend of former President Bill Clinton, was elected chairman of the Democratic National Committee and immediately challenged President Bush.   PAGE 24

INSIDE

Gretchen Morgenson Market Watch column cautions investors against unrealistic expectations of high-technology stocks they own (M)

In Technology, Caution Is Still the Better Part of Wisdom

Interview with Sarah, Duchess of York, who tells how she has reinvented herself as working girl and role model after enduring breakup of her marriage to Prince Andrew and souring of her relations with Royal Family; photo (M)

A Fairy Tale, Act 3: The Duchess in the New World

Michael Kimmelman article on Dan Flavin's light sculpture at Chinati Foundation in Marfa, Tex; foundation occupies barracks at Fort D A Russell, former Army base and cavalry post, which the artist Donald Judd transformed into Lourdes of Minimalism during last 20 years of his life; Kimmelman calls Marfa project the last great work of 20th-century Aemrican art; photo (L)

The Last Great Art Of the 20th Century

Defense Sec Donald H Rumsfeld seeks to defuse opposition to Bush administration's antimissile plans by offering to help European nations and other allies to deploy missile defenses; Rumsfield, first senior Bush administration offical to visit Europe, assures European allies that US would consult with them on its antimissile plan; he does not address one of Europeans' principal concerns: how antimissile defense can be reconciled with strategic arms control and productive relationship with Moscow; Rumsfeld underscores that Bush administration is determined to proceed with antimissile defense of US territory even if it could not overcome objections from Russians, Chinese and Europeans; calls missile defense moral imperative; photo (M)

U.S. TRIES DEFUSING ALLIES' OPPOSITION TO MISSILE DEFENSE

Core of Democratic voters, many of them African-Americans, remains deeply angry over presidential election they believe was stolen by George W Bush; first lapel button to sell at at weekend gathering of Democratic officials proclaims 'Re-elect Al Gore in 2004'; photos; fiery partisanship and sense of injustice contrasts sharply with prevailing mood on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers have to work with Republicans (M)

The Nation: The Democrats; Will the Democrats Decide to Get Mad Or Get Even?

Article traces rise and fall of Bogmen, one of biggest underground rock bands in New York during mid-1990's; band members Billy Campion and Mark Wike now play with band Vic Thrill; band's problems were emblematic of countless other New York groups that endured years of unpaid gigs and day jobs for shot at big time, which often fails to materialize; photos (L)

Famous Long Ago

One-fifth of American population, more than 50 million people, belong to quiet, teeming world of bird watchers and feeders; they spend more than $25 billion a year on feed, binoculars, travel forays and high-tech innovations like winterized birdbaths and televised 'nest cams' to track their plumed favorites; Gavin Shire, conservation officer with American Bird Conservancy, nonprofit organization, says group hopes to translate immense popularity of birding into political force to be reckoned with; bird conservationists seek to build populist lobby against increasing threats to bird habitats presented by human progress; paradoxically, new birders are emerging in suburban rings of 'sprawl' that conservationists have denounced for destroying bird habitats; photos (M)

Field Guide? Check. Binoculars? Check. Lobbyists? Soon.

New York Botanical Garden has scheduled $9 million facelift for area that first greets visitors, with groundbreaking scheduled for fall and completion in spring 2003; result will be 23,700-square-foot visitor center, designed by Hugh Hardy of Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates; drawing (M)d

POSTINGS: $9 Million Project at New York Botanical Garden Designed by Hardy Holzman Pfeiffer Associates; Amid the Flowers, a Visitor Center

Law firm of State Sen Guy J Velella solicited and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal work from major insurers while he served as chairman of Senate Insurance Committee from 1989 to 1999; Velella has been one of industry's biggest allies; review of his legislative record shows that he often helped to kill legislation that industry opposed; in profiting from very companies he regulates as legislator, Velella is no oddity in Albany; capital has long been place where public and private interests can broadly overlap, where relatively elastic ethics laws and fact that legislators technically work only part time give rise to relationships that would be prohibited in Washington; Velella refuses to comment on his law firm or on Albany's rules concerning conflicts of interest; says Manhattan district attorney's office probe into his law firm is politically motivated; photo; chart (L)

In Albany, Ally of Insurers Profits From Them

Article profiles Miami Heat player Anthony Mason, who will represent Eastern Conference in NBA All-Star Game in Washington, DC; photo (M)

A Quieter Mason Finds Himself an All-Star at 34

Tiger Electronics' robotic dog toy is on tortuous journey from inventor's workshop to store shelves; photos (M)

Here, Boy. Come to The Toy Store. Please!

Men are wearing beards in numbers not seen since 1970's; most popular version is shadow beard, a saturnine three-week growth; photos (M)

Learning to Accessorize Those Chinny-Chin-Chins

Annual Co-op and Condo Expo, sponsored by The Cooperator, monthly publication, to be held at New York Hilton Hotel on Feb 8; some topics on agenda noted (S)

POSTINGS: 14th Annual Co-op and Condo Expo; A Day Full Of Advice

Article discusses proliferation of players from Czech Republic in National Hockey League; outlook for All-Star Game, which will be played in Denver, Colo, discussed; photos (M)

Conquering Czechs Rule With Creativity

Article on new Lexus LS 430 automobile; chart; photos (M)

BEHIND THE WHEEL/Lexus LS 430; King Lexus III: Quiet Still Reigns

Nelson Mui article on conflict in the workplace between those of Gen X'ers, now entering 30's, who came of age in era of diminished expections and were grateful for any entry-level job, and Gen Y'ers, who have known only economic expansion and appear to expect the world at 22; photos (L)

Here Come the Kids: Gen Y Invades the Workplace

Article on New York City Fire Departments Critical Information Dispatch System, computer system that is used during routine building inspections; department uses system to store information on buildings that have unusal circumstances, such as hazardous materials, for future emergency or fire; firefighters can call up information on their computers on way to scene of incident; drawing; photos (M)

A Piece of Paper That Saves Lives

Pres Bush's embrace of religion-based social programs may well strike chord with American belief in second chances; photo; Bush himself points to his own faith-inspired transformation from hard-drinking oilman to viable politician, while Bill Clinton has made so many comebacks and performed so many mea culpas that even critics have lost count (M)

Faith Base; As American As Second Acts And Apple Pie

Mad cow disease, caused by retrovirus, and AIDS, caused by infectious prion, are yet alike in certain aspects; both originated in fairly obvious species transfer, AIDS from eating monkeys in Africa and mad cow from from feeding sheep parts to cattle which are not by nature carnivores; both diseases also traveled far beyond origins before being recognized, both can have long incubation periods and both cause panic; photo (M)

The World: Let Them Eat Horse!; Epidemic Errors

Enormous, unfenced gas-rich swath of high desert in Wyoming known as Jack Morrow Hills will be first test of new approach Pres Bush has pledged on public lands; land, rich in natural gas, has been off limits to energy exploration while Bureau of Land Management works on plan to balance conservation and development; Clinton administration rejected one proposal and ordered that new plan give top priority to conservation goals; Bush administration is giving top priority to closing what it contends is big gap in nation's energy supply; people living in region hope Bush will reverse wave of government action in Clinton's final month that put scores of millions of acres of federal land out of reach to mining, logging and drilling; experts expect Bush to make his stand in places like Jack Morrow Hills, where development could serve energy needs; environmentalists contend that any benefits of exploration in hills will be outweighed by certain costs of interfering with fragile habitat; photos; map (M)

Gas-Rich Desert Will Test Bush Resolve

First of two articles on re-examination of government's case against Dr Wen Ho Lee, scientist at Los Alamos nuclear laboratory accused of giving China design of America's most advanced nuclear weapon; says prosecutors, who all but threatened Lee with execution, were never able to connect him to espionage, and ultimately he was freed after pleading guilty to one felony count of mishandling secrets; concludes that investigators seeking to construct narrative to fit their unnerving suspicions took fragmentary, often ambiguous evidence about Lee's behavior and Chinese atomic espionage and wove it into grander case that eventually collapsed of its own light weight; detailed description of case; photos (L)

February 4, 2001

Headlines from February 4, 2001

Hedging Your Bets? Look Homeward, Investor

Mickelson Savors Sunshine and a Share of the Lead

So It's Come to This: Rats Riding the Rails

INSIDE

In Technology, Caution Is Still the Better Part of Wisdom

Billboard 200

1

Hotshot

Save The Last Dance

Now 5

Human Clay

Historical Context for February 4, 2001