February 10, 2001

Many of New York State's poorest families risk losing federal welfare benefits at end of year when they reach lifetime limit for receiving public assistance; cash benefits will be replaced by system of state and local aid, but details have yet to be worked out (M)

Bush administration hopes to use approach used at Dallas Head Start program as rigorous model for teaching poor children in Head Start preschool centers across nation about letters, syllables and spelling to prepare them to read when they move to kindergarten and first grade; Laura Bush backs approach, statement; Pres Bush relies on researchers who argue that waiting too long to expose poor children to basic elements of reading leaves them hopelessly behind children with far more academic resources at home; some educators warn approach could be harmful; excerpt from lesson; photos (M)

Rudolph W. Giuliani will leave behind a city where the left is dead, capitalism is embraced and residents have made their peace with bourgeois values. But his agenda, as his second and final term is drawing to a close, has turned out to be radically incomplete. A report by James Traub in The Times Magazine.

William C Rhoden's Sport of The Times on career of African-American women's tennis champion Zina Garrison, who retired in 1997; Garrison comments on her appointment last month as first African-American woman on board of US Tennis Association and need for youth programs; photo (M)

At least one former executive at Lucent Technologies is subpoenaed in formal investigation by Securities and Exchange Commission of company's accounting practices; photo (M)