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)

Earthquake consciousness is growing in New York City, leading to studies to pinpoint greatest risks and plan seismic retrofitting of key structures; city's six-year-old seismic code already dictates how structural elements are connected in new buildings, how masonry is reinforced and utility lines are run and how far buildings are spaced from one another; requires seismic retrofitting of buildings under major renovation; recent conference in city explored how newer techniques developed to make structures seismically safe can also help protect them from terrorist bombs; map; graph; drawings; photos (M)

Jonathan Mahler article recalls summer of 1977, with Son of Sam murders, blackout that set off looting and arson, myriad discos and tension between New York Yankees manager Billy Martin and Reggie Jackson, which he views as transformative moment in which New York City broke with its romantic visions of its past; photos (L)

Article on new rules of etiquette that may surface among social elite this summer in light of number of people involved in insider trading, price-fixing, accounting irregularities, motor vehicle offenses and other scandals; photos (M)

Samuel M Ehrenhalt, economist who has studied New York through half century of booms and busts, says city has roller coaster economy; predicts city will come back stronger than ever, as it has over last 50 years; charts of regional unemployment rates and economic indicators; photo (M)

Spectacular growth and gross profit margins falsely reported by WorldCom made its peers in telecommunications industry appear sluggish and forced them to feverishly pursue growth; most far-reaching effects of WorldCom's accounting shenanigans were dislocations and costs caused to companies that tried to compete with its ostensible results; those surviving companies now contend that rules of various agencies regulating them contain major flaws; photos; graph (M)

Pres Bush's ultimatum to Palestinians to create open democratic society as price of American support for Palestinian state raises question of what would happen should United States use cold war tools to promote democracy and moderation throughout Arab world; veterans of cold war operations warn against setting expectations too high in drive to spread democracy; chronology of Bush's Mideast diplomacy; photos (M)

Article on Harlem Song, original musical about Harlem written and directed by Jospeh Papp Public Theater producer George Wolfe that is about to open at Harlem's Apollo Theater; consortium of Harlem institutions, including Harlem Boys Choir and Dance Theater of Harlem, has agreed to cross-promote play; photo (M)