June 30, 2002

Cleveland Indians trade of Bartolo Colon to Montreal Expos for Expos minor league prospects gives Montreal last chance to build powerful team and Indians opportunity to start over; photo (M)

Insignia/ESG wins competition among 15 real estate companies to plan consolidation of Nassau County government's sprawling portfolio of 750 buildings and 2,500 parcels of land; County Exec Thomas R Suozzi envisions a few centralized 'campuses,' each with related agencies; Insignia will produce plan at no charge, instead earning fees from sale and lease of surplus property (S)

Koreas Trade Accusations North and South Korea exchanged charges over a battle at sea in which a South Korean patrol boat was sunk and four marines killed, dampening efforts at reconciliation. PAGE 12 P.S.: 3 Cents More, Please The cost of mailing a first-class letter rises by 3 cents today, to 37 cents. A postcard now costs 23 cents to mail. Why? The Postal Service lost $1.7 billion last year. PAGE 18

Court of Appeals for Ninth Circuit, which touched off avalanche of criticism with controversial decision that Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional, has developed reputation for being wrong more often than any other federal appeals court; dozens of its decisions have been reversed unanimously by Supreme Court in recent years, and it may be facing yet another reversal; while court is famously liberal, critics attribute record in Supreme Court more to its unwieldy size than ideology (M)

Alex Berenson Market Watch column explains why some short-sellers anticipate drop in share price of Electronic Data Systems, manager of computer systems for businesses; cites concerns about falling earnings and growing debt; graph (M)