John Tierney The Big City column contrasts New York City public and Catholic school disciplinary procedures; finds that Catholic schools do not have mandated punishment for incendiary behavior, but tend to involve parents when problems arise, whereas public schools are accountable to politicians (M)

The Big City; Not Apples And Oranges But Mandarins

116th Boston Pops season opens on May 8 under Keith Lockhart, Symphony Hall; photo; 2001 Martin E Segal Awards are presented to Eric Cutler, tenor, and to Borromeo String Quartet; Eifman Ballet of St Petersburg to return to City Center on March 11; Concordia Orchestra to hold benefit concert at Alice Tully Hall, celebrating 75th birthday of Miles Davis, who died in 1991; photo of trumpeter Jon Faddis (M)

Footlights

New York City Human Resources Administration Comr Jason Turner announces that city will not automatically enroll New Yorkers who reach time limits for welfare benefits in state Safety Net program; City Council members, advocates for poor and Gov Pataki's office offer swift condemnation of announcement, leading Turner to walk out of meeting (M)

Tempers Flare Near Deadline For Welfare

Tony award nominations are announced; Mel Brooks's musical The Producers gets 15 nominations, most of any show in Broadway history; The Full Monty gets 10 nommiations; nominees for best play include Invention of Love, by Tom Stoppard, and King Hedley II, by August Wilson; photo of Nathan Lane, who is competing with Matthew Borderick for best performance by actor in a musical; they will be hosts of 55th awards ceremony on June 3 (M)

'Producers' Sets Tony Nomination Record

New York Mets defeat Colorado Rockies, 10-9; photo (M)

Rookie Wins First As Mets Close Off A Rockies Rally

TrizecHahn Corp reports first-quarter profit fell 21 percent; posts funds from operations, cash flow measure, of $75 million, down from $95 million a year ago; says it might put its United States holdings into separately traded real estate investment trust (S)

World Business Briefing | Americas: Canada: Trizechahn's Profit Falls

Novartis, surprising investors, buys 20 percent stake in Roche Holding for $2.8 billion in cash, raising prospect for merger of global pharmaceutical giants (M)

In Surprise, Novartis Gets A 20% Stake In Roche

Harvey Araton Sports of The Times column discusses WNBA team Los Angeles Sparks's marketing game to lesbian community (M)

Sports of The Times; One Team's Social Leap In Marketing

Inspired by assertion in Walden by Henry David Thoreau that it takes less time to travel between two points on foot than by train, reporter Richard Bernstein tests theory in Manhattan walking from West Side to East Side, while his wife rides bus on same route; he proves theory correct by one minute; photo; map (M)

Across Town in Thoreau's Shoes; A Race Using 'Walden' (and the Bus Map) as a Guide

American museums are replacing warehouses with open-study centers, so-called 'visible storage' that allows museum to place collectibles before the public; among them are visible storage displays at Metropolitan Museum of Art and New-York Historical Society (M)

Museums as Walk-In Closets; Visible Storage Opens Troves to the Public

Defense Sec Donald H Rumsfeld will propose sweeping overhaul of Pentagon's space programs, sharply increasing importance of outer space in strategic planning; proposal will be first step toward making space focus of Pentagon spending, and is intended to emphasize importance Bush administration places on developing weapon systems for outer space; Rumsfeld wants to establish new Pentagon post for four-star Air Force general to serve as advocate for what could become new space force; Rumsfeld has expressed interest in developing costly and complicated space weapons systems, including lasers capable of shooting down ballistic missiles and satellites designed to attack other satellites; any efforts to build such weapons would be opposed by China, Russia and European nations, and by arms control advocates; space programs currently represent only $8 billion of Pentagon's $310 billion annual budget (M)

RUMSFELD SEEKING AN ARMS STRATEGY USING OUTER SPACE

New Jersey Devils defeat Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2, in Eastern Conference semifinal series; series is tied 3-3; photo (M)

Fighting Devils Live to Play Another Day

 Cincinnati Officer Charged  A white Cincinnati police officer who killed an unarmed black man last month was charged with negligent homicide, a misdemeanor.   PAGE A16

INSIDE

The chances that elderly Americans will suffer chronic disabilities like stroke and dementia have declined sharply, the National Academy of Sciences said. If the trend continues, researchers said, spending on Medicare could actually stop increasing. Some economists questioned whether the trends would continue in the long run and whether the high cost of dying would simply be postponed, but not reduced.    Article, Page A24.

Drop in Chronic Ills May Help Medicare

New map of New Jersey legislative districts survives court challenge by Republicans, seeming to ensure that Democrats will take control of at least one chamber of legislature in next election; redistricting shifts blocks of Democratic voters into traditionally Republican suburban districts; map (M)

New Districts Imperil G.O.P. In New Jersey

New drug that homes in on cancer cells achieves striking preliminary results in treating kind of leukemia and may also be effective against rare stomach tumor; physicians are excited about drug--known and its chemical compound number STI-571 and more recently as Gleevec--because its design is based on deep understanding of how cancer cells work, and it could be first of new class of drugs designed to hit many different types of cancer; drug, which is made by Novartis, is under fast track review by FDA; photos (L)

Powerful Anti-Cancer Drug Emerges from Basic Biology

Government of diamond-rich Botswana is first in sub-Saharan Africa to commit to providing AIDS treatment for all its needy; more than third of population is thought to carry AIDS virus; in coming months, most HIV-positive men and women will gain access to life-sustaining drug cocktails that, for many sufferers in West, have transformed AIDS from killer into chronic illness; news sends hopes soaring in country; Botswana's bountiful diamonds have made it rich enough to buy medicines at prices that have fallen sharply as drug companies slash prices in recent months; photos; map (M)

Free AIDS Care Brings Hope to Botswana

Spending on prescription drugs shoots up 18.8 percent in 2000, to $131.9 billion; new study shows two dozen products account for half of increase, which occurs not just because drugs are becoming more expensive but because doctors are writing many more prescriptions for higher-cost drugs; study is issued by National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation; trend is expected to increase pressure for new government benefits to help elderly people buy prescription drugs; study makes clear how costly such benefits could be; Pres Bush has proposed spending $153 billion on drug benefits and unspecified 'Medicare reforms' over next 10 years, but Democrats say that sum is grossly inadequate; new study may provide new ammunition to both sides; growth in drug prices has pushed up health insurance premiums for individuals and families, and contributed to increases in cost of health benefits provided by employers; chart (M)

Spending on Prescription Drugs Increases by Almost 19 Percent

Federal Reserve reports consumer debt outstanding grew by slower-than-expected $6 billion, March, up nearly 5 percent on annual basis from Feb, compared with $13.4 billion rise in Feb; slowdown, reflecting curbed spending on big-ticket items, suggests economic downturn might deepen (M)

As Jobs Are Lost, Consumers Slow Increase in Borrowing

United States resumes reconnaissance flights off coast of China for first time since collision on Apr 1 between Navy surveillance plane and Chinese fighter jet bruised relations between two nations; defense officials say unarmed Air Force plane flew mission in international airspace off China's northeastern coast during daylight hours and returned to its base without incident, and without being trailed by Chinese interceptors; China had demanded after Apr 1 incident that American patrols be halted off its entire coast; defense officials refuse to say when next intelligence-gathering mission would be ordered to fly near China (M)

U.S. Resumes Its Spy Flights Close to China

Bush administration choses Harvey L Pitt, prominent corporate lawyer, to be next chairman of Securities and Exchange Commission; formal annaouncement is expected soon; Pitt, frequent critic of agency, has represented many of industries he will now regulate; he served as agency's general counsel under Pres Jimmy Carter; White House has struggled for months to fill four vacancies on five-member commission, most notably replacement of Arthur Levitt, agency's longest-serving chairman, who stepped down in February; Pitt is Republican; if confirmed by Senate, he will face host of difficult regulatory issues arising from globalization of securities markets (M)

WHITE HOUSE PICKS CHAIRMAN OF S.E.C.

Federal appeals court panel hears arguments in lawsuit challenging right of United States Government to keep paintings by Adolf Hitler, which US Army holds in secret hiding place and allows only screened experts to examine; Government contends paintings still have inflammatory potential, and lower court has found in its favor; paintings were owned by Hitler's friend and personal photographer, Heinrich Hoffmann, and confiscated after World War II along with Hoffmann's vast archive of photographs; suit is brought by photographer's heirs and Billy Price, a Texas collector with a facination for trying to understand Hitler's personality; experts say there are hundreds of paintings attributed to Hitler and they are traded over the Internet for around $10,000 each; photos (L)

Court Considers Ownership Of Seized 'Hitler' Paintings

Horse genome project, now six years old, may one day aid development of thoroughbred race horses, which are now the product of selective breeding based on pedigree, racing records and breeders' experience in pairing stallions and mares; some breeders fear genetic research will give an owner with unlimited resources an unstoppable advantage, but most scientists do not believe that is possible; drawing illustrates creating genetic map of horse (L)

Building a Better Racehorse, From the Genome Up

Williams Cos will buy Barrett Resources Corp, natural gas exploration company, for $2.5 billion in cash and stock, topping hostile bid by Royal Dutch/Shell Group; Valero Energy Corp will acquire oil refining rival Ultramar Diamond Shamrock Corp for about $4 billion in cash and stock; moves reflect growing demand for energy and lagging supplies (M)

High Demand For Energy Spurs Mergers

Swissair Group lends its 10 percent stake in Austrian Airlines AG, including voting rights, to Credit Suisse First Boston ahead of planned sale of holding (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Switzerland: Airline Lends Shares

Jordyn Pamela Huitema is a Canadian professional soccer player who plays as a forward for National Women's Soccer League club Seattle Reign FC and the Canada national team.

May 8, 2001

Headlines from May 8, 2001

The Big City; Not Apples And Oranges But Mandarins

Footlights

Tempers Flare Near Deadline For Welfare

'Producers' Sets Tony Nomination Record

Rookie Wins First As Mets Close Off A Rockies Rally

Billboard 200

Now 6

Until The End Of Time

Hotshot

Steers & Stripes

Your Woman

Notable Births

Historical Context for May 8, 2001