February 3, 2002

Bush administration keeps more information from public and Congress than any of its recent predecessors; penchant for secrecy extends beyond areas generally acknowledged to require it, even to the routine; it is not clear exactly why administration is so secretive; photo (M)

Legal climate that allowed Enron and Arthur Andersen to take creative accounting as far as they did was created in large measure by very lawmakers and regulators who are now expressing outrage at Enron's collapse and groping for legislative and regulatory fixes; group of lawmakers and lawyers pushed successfully in 1995 for legislation that shielded companies and their accountants from investors lawsuits and later succeeded in forcing regulators to dilute proposed restrictions on accountants; group includes Sen Christopher J Dodd, Rep Billy Tauzin, Rep Michael G Oxley and Harvey L Pitt, now SEC chairman; some are having second thoughts about what they did; photos; graphs (L)

Kenneth L. Lay, who resigned last month as the chairman and chief executive of Enron, is expected to provide his first public explanation of what went wrong at the company and to describe his role in its collapse in a scheduled appearance tomorrow before a Senate subcommittee.

Some middle- and even upper-class families, hurt by recession, are falling behind in tuition payments to colleges and private schools; analysts at Moody's say number of parents across country requesting at least year's postponement in repaying federally financed tuition loans has doubled in last 12 months; financial aid officers at colleges brace for calls from parents who have lost their jobs because of shaky economy; Academic Management Services, company that helps colleges manage their billing, arranges extensions on tuition bills and helps secure low-interest loans, reports that it has logged 1,000 calls from families directly or indirectly affected by events of Sept 11; company reports it has also detected problems throughout economy as high-paid executives find themselves laid off; photo (M)

Interview with Andy Behrman, former publicist who is now promoting his memoir, Electroboy; photo (M)