September 22, 2002

Murky line between corporate philanthropy and personal philanthropy leaves area ripe for abuse by top corporate officers, who may take credit for largess that rightly belongs to corporations and their shareholders; government regulators do not monitor or require companies to disclose charitable contributions; several shareholder proposals have been put forward to allow investors to set agenda for giving and to open company records on donations; corporate philanthropy has soared over last decade, and many companies now generously finance not only causes of their current chiefs, but also those of their former leaders; photos; graph (L)

Male walk-ons have become unwanted luxury in most college athletics programs; colleges are working hard to maintain roughly equal number of male and female participants, to comply with law prohibiting sex discrimination in federally funded institutions, called Title IX; their delicate balancing act is disrupted each year when there are three to four times more men than women arriving unsolicited for first week of practices; athletic department administrators are telling coaches of women's teams to keep as many walk-ons as they can, even encouraging them to scour campuses for more candidates to fill rosters, in effort to respond to disparity; result is many men are having their dreams dashed when they are shut out of tryouts; photos (M)

Interview with actor Jack Nicholson, who comments on his life, career and new film, About Schmidt; photo (L)

Complexity and confusion surrounding US policy on 'regime change' in Iraq discussed; photo (M)

Prominent national Democrats regard Sen Robert G Torricelli of New Jersey as party's most vulnerable Senate incumbent, and fear he might cost Democrats control of Senate; they expected him to overcome his ethics troubles more easily; his predicament has roiled party and stirred resentment toward him among fellow Democrats; some say his wounds are self-inflicted, that he gave ammunition to Republican challenger Douglas R Forrester by engaging in behavior that led Senate Ethics Committee to reprimand him for improperly accepting gifts from campaign donor; some Democrats worry that party's focus on New Jersey threatens to limit money and other resources available for other Democrats; photo (M)