New York City Mayor Michael R Bloomberg pledges to cut his office by 20 percent and calls on other elected officials to do same; city budget calls for spending total of $78.6 million on mayoralty this fiscal year, up from $78.3 million last year; administration officials say that those figures are misleading and that Bloomberg has met his goals of cutting both budget and staff of mayor's office by 20 percent; Bloomberg officials say that by not filling vacancies they have cut headcount of mayor's office by 412 from 627, 34 percent cut, and that they have trimmed budget by $7.8 million over period of 18 months, for 20 percent cut (M)

Revisiting Mayor's Vow To Cut Office

This year's PGA Championship could be opportunity for memorable tournament where Tiger Woods could become first player to win three majors per year, twice, or for Phil Mickelson to win his first major; photos (M)

A Few Long Holes And Lots of Water May Level the Field

Many incoming freshman are meeting electronically before they arrive at college; some say it helps alleviate tension of living with someone new, while others voice concern about possible mistaken first impressions and are careful about styling their e-mail messages; photos (M)

Sharing Space? Share E-Mail First

Hynix Semiconductor reports net loss of $350 million for April-June quarter (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: South Korea: Loss At Chip Maker

Bruce Weber Critic's Notebook column reviews Arthur Miller's new play, Resurrection Blues, directed by David Esbjornson; John Bedford Lloyd, Wendy vanden Heuvel and Jeff Weiss star; photo (M)

It's Gloves-Off Time for an Angry Arthur Miller

Russia's war in Chechnya spills across its border with Georgia, worsening already tense relations between two countries; Georgian officials accuse Russian fighter jets and helicopters of repeatedly crossing into Georgian territory, evidently in pursuit of Chechen fighters; Russian aircraft reportedly bomb gorge in Georgia two miles from border; Russia denies crossing into Georgia, but senior Russian officials accuse Georgia of harboring rebels fighting Russian forces in Chechnya and demand that Georgia root out rebels using Georgian territory as base; some Russians suggest launching strikes even deeper into Georgia; Georgian officials discount possibility of full-scale Russian operation in Georgia, but fear futher incursions or raids by Russian aircraft; photos; map (M)

Georgia Hearing Heavy Footsteps From Russia's War in Chechnya

Hyundai Motor says second-quarter profit fell 8.3 percent from year-earlier period, to $256 million; earned $745 million in first half of year, up 46 percent from same 2001 period on small increase in sales (S)

World Business Briefing | Asia: South Korea: Profit Down At Carmaker

George Vecsey Sports of The Times column condends that children in Little League and other sports tournaments for youths are being victimized by society, which places age, living and social restrictions on them for exclusionary purposes; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; Let's Rethink Tournaments For Children

Footlights column: Twenty five music ensembles encompassing more than 1,000 people will march in parade, playing many pieces in varying tempos composed by Neely Bruce, from Amsterdam Houses to Lincoln Center in tribute to bandmaster Charles Ives; interactive exhibition created by Hungarian artist Peter Forgacs and researchers at University of Southern California titled The Danube Exodus: The Rippling Currents of the River will open at Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles; National Museum of the American Indian is sponsoring third annual series of weekly concerts by American Indian musicians; Film Society of Lincoln Center is opening new series, Modern Musicals; photo (M)

Footlights

Pope John Paul II's scheduled trip home to Poland spurs rumors that ailing pontiff will announce his retirement among his beloved countrymen; Vatican officials issue denials, just as they did in response to similar speculations weeks earlier and those dating back to his trips home in 1997 and 1999; constant conjecture reflects fact that John Paul commands keen and sometimes relentless attention of newspaper reporters, television producers, book editors and even many lay Catholics who are essentially watching, and waiting, for curtain to fall; media is taking steps to be ready for final farewell; more than five years ago, television networks began fierce, secretive competition to lease prime real estate near Vatican for coverage of conclave of cardinals that will choose next pope; for last decade, publising industry executives have been lining up books about John Paul or process by which Roman Catholic Church makes transition to new pope (M)

Pope, Again, Heads Home And, Again, Rumors Fly

Roche Holding says first-half profit declined 28 percent; net income dropped to 1.8 billion Swiss francs ($1.2 billion) from 2.5 billion francs year earlier; sales rose 2 percent, to 14.7 billion francs; chief executive Franz Humer comments; photo (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Switzerland: Drug Maker's Income Slips

David Pogue State of the Art column describes high-tech needs for students going off to college; suggests cost-saving models of computers, digital cameras, organizers and all-important CD players; drawing; photos (M)

Packing a Digital Bag On a Student Budget

United Pan-Europe Communications, controlled by Liberty Media, reports its first profit; earned 567 million euros ($554 million) in second quarter, in contrast to loss of 914 million euros year earlier; NTL narrows its second-quarter loss to $594 million from $1.1 billion year ago (S)

World Business Briefing | Europe: Cable Companies Improve

New York City residents continue to cope with temperatures in mid-90's while residents in suburbs say heat is not too bad, reaching about mid-80's; photo (M)

It's an Oven In the City, But the 'Burbs Aren't So Bad

New York City officials say they will stop sending families with children younger than 6 to unused jail being used as homeless shelter after advocates for homeless say jail is full of chipping and peeling lead-based paint; it is not clear where families with young children will be sheltered in long term if lead paint problem prevents city from sending them to new shelter; city's Dept of Homeless Services already faces prospect of being held in contempt of court for letting hundreds of familes sleep on floors of intake center for homeless in Bronx, in violation of longstanding court order; another longstanding court order bars city from housing children under 7 in shelters containing lead-based paint; photo (M)

Jail Closed as Shelter to Children After Report of Lead-Based Paint

At Home With interview with film director John Waters in small Greenwich Village apartment where he stays when he is not at his big home in his native Baltimore, or summering in Provincetown; photos (M)

Bad Taste Is Its Own Reward

Credit Suisse Group reports second-quarter loss of $387 million, some 20 percent more than many analysts had forecast, compared with profit of $1.8 billion in year-earlier period; cuts back dividend it pays to shareholders, first time it has done so in its 146-year history (M)

Credit Suisse Posts Loss And Will Cut Dividend

Actors Russell Hornsby, Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee and other stars salute Zora Neale Hurston, folklorist and queen of Harlem Renaissance, in program of readings at SummerStage in Central Park; photos (M)

Party for Zora Neale Hurston, Obscure No More

Schools try to cope with generation of students equipped with laptops, hand-held organizers and, to consternation of many, cellphones, which ring during classes, disrupting lessons; some schools have banned all consumer electronic devices, while others permit them on grounds, but not in classrooms; some parents are fighting local bans on cellphones, arguing that it is important that they be able to keep in touch with children in post-9/11 world; photos (M)

As Gadgets Go to Class, Schools Try to Cope

Premier Inc, group that helps quarter of nation's hospitals buy medical supplies, receives subpoena issued by Department of Health and Human Services, along with its contractors Express Scripts, Horizon Medical Products and American Pharmaceutical Partners in what appears to be widening federal investigation into how hospitals buy drugs, medical devices and other products; subpoena issued to Premier seeks records relating to Premier contracts with suppliers that then granted Premier executives stock options or other securities; Express Scripts says it received subpoena seeking information on stock options it gave to Premier's chief executive Richard A Norling, former board member; Premier says it recently sold its stake in American Pharmaceutical; Horizon confirms that it also has received subpoena; Premier and Novation are also being investigated by Federal Trade Commission and General Accounting Office; FTC wants to know if groups, which last year negotiated contracts worth more than $30 billion, are wielding too much control in market for hospital supplies (M)

U.S. Expands Hospital Supply Buying Inquiry

Lower Manhattan Development Corp will conduct 'worldwide design competition' to hire as many as five licensed architecture or planning firms to offer new ideas for sites of World Trade Center; request is admission that initial six designs for site fail to capture support of public; schedule for process is extended to allow three new designs to be completed by end of year and final design selected in first half of 2003; design competition apparently will take place without much involvement by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns site and which has worked with development corporation on all aspects of rebuilding effort so far (M)

Further Designs Are Sought In Rebuilding of Downtown

Baseball labor negotiations reach impasse on luxury tax issue, virtually ensuring that players union will set strike date (M)

Suddenly, Optimism Vanishes From Baseball Talks

Investors send stocks sharply higher; Dow Jones industrial average is up 260.92, or 3.1 percent, at 8,743.31; Standard & Poor's 500-stock index climbs 35.41 points, or 4 percent, to 919.62; Nasdaq composite index surges 65.02, or 5.1 percent, to 1,334.30; bond market rallies, but gives up gains in late trading; yield on 10-year note is at 4.12 percent, up from 4.09 percent; home-loan rates, which are linked to 10-year Treasury note, appear headed to their lowest levels in decades and could unlock billions of dollars in additional consumer spending from homeowners who refinance; Mortgage Bankers Association economist Phil Colling says mortgage rates are now more favorable to consumers than they have been since 1965; graphs; charts (M)

Shares Rally, But Wall St. Shows No Sign Of Direction

 United Warns of Bankruptcy Without Union Concessions  United Airlines, burdened by debt and by tense relationships with its employees, who own more than half the company, said it might file for bankruptcy this fall if it did not get concessions from its labor groups within a month. The unions said they would oppose any filing.    The announcement from United was the latest in a series of upheavals that have racked the industry during its most torturous week since the Sept. 11 attacks. [Page A1.]    Ozires Silva has offered to resign as chief executive of Varig, the debt-laden Brazilian airline, as it negotiated to secure $300 million. [World Business, Section W.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

Food and Drug Administration shuts down substantial part of CryoLife Corp, nation's largest processor of donated human tissue, saying company cannot adequately assure patients that soft-tissue products are free of deadly bacteria and fungi; orders company to recall all soft tissues such as tendons, ligaments and cartilage processed since Oct 3 and to withhold from market or destroy tissue processed after that date; says 27 people have developed serious infections after receiving tissue implants processed by company, and one has died; tissues are obtained from cadavers and are widely used in elective orthopedic surgery to repair worn-out knees and other joints; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been investigating company with FDA, which has regulatory authority; FDA inspected CryoLife's operations in Kennesaw, Ga, for two weeks last Mar and Apr; Dr Mary Malarkey of FDA's Office of Compliance and Biologics Quality says CryoLife's response to agency's concerns has been inadequate; CryoLife lawyer says company has filed appeal with FDA; with two exceptions, CryoLife has not admitted to causing any infections to any tissue recipients (M)

August 15, 2002

Headlines from August 15, 2002

Revisiting Mayor's Vow To Cut Office

A Few Long Holes And Lots of Water May Level the Field

Sharing Space? Share E-Mail First

World Business Briefing | Asia: South Korea: Loss At Chip Maker

It's Gloves-Off Time for an Angry Arthur Miller

Billboard 200

The Rising

[Reanimation]

Nellyville

Now 10

The Eminem Show

Historical Context for August 15, 2002