 Vote by United Mechanics Raises Odds of Bankruptcy  United Airlines' mechanics rejected a proposed package of wage and benefit concessions, forcing the two sides back to the bargaining table as the world's second-largest airline struggles to avert bankruptcy.     The rejection comes as United is facing a critical Monday deadline for making a $375 million payment on debt backed by aircraft. United officials said yesterday that they would decide on Monday whether to make the payment, or take advantage of a 10-day grace period. [Page A1.]

BUSINESS DIGEST

Article on road trip along State Route 118 through remote Big Bend Country of West Texas and hiking trip through Big Bend National Park; photos; maps (M)

Where Desolation Is Just a Mirage

Selena Roberts Sports of The Times column contends that college coaches are forced to guess how to punish NCAA violations, as Florida State University football coach Bobby Bowden did in suspending quarterback Adrian McPherson for his involvement in stolen and forged check incident; holds that better structure within NCAA would lift burden from coaches and make rules more consistent; photo (M)

Sports of The Times; Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is N.C.A.A.

Phillip Noyce's film Rabbit-Proof Fence tells story of three Australian girls taken from Aborigine mothers; photo (S)

Fleeing a Racist Program

Anne Midgette report on adapting Chicago Lyric Opera's production of A View From the Bridge for performance by Metropolitan Opera; photos; William Bolcom's 1992 work for Chicago company is based on Arthur Miller play; Dennis Russell Davies will conduct at Met, with Catherine Malfitano in starring role (M)

When an Opera Starts to Earn Staying Power

Critics say Newark (NJ) Mayor Sharpe James is seeking to punish those who supported his opponent Cory Booker in mayoral election; examples cited of those who have been object of James's wrath; both critics and political analysts say they James's extraordinary power in city where he is not just mayor, but also state senator, has effectively chilled political discourse; most people are afraid to discuss James openly; James denies he has tried to punish the disloyal; photos (M)

Victory With a Vengeance; After Loss in Newark, Opponents Sense James's Wrath

Terrorists, in coordinated attacks on Israelis in Mombassa, Kenya, fire shoulder-launched missiles at crowded Israeli passenger jet, missing target, minutes before three suicide bombers detonate blasts at Israeli-owned hotel; blasts kill bombers and at least 9 Kenyans and 3 Israelis and wound dozens more; Israeli and Kenyan officials see possible Al Qaeda involvement; Bush administration warns it is premature to blame Al Qaeda; 150 heavily armed Israeli commandos help evacuate some 283 Israeli tourists, including 18 wounded; Pres Bush deplores violence in Kenya and Israel; maps; photos (M)

12 Die as Israelis Are Attacked in Kenya

Article describes hitting deer on Taconic State Parkway, which resulted in nearly $4,000 worth of damage to car; New York State Department of Environmental Conservation says 8,570 deer were reported hit by cars in 2001, nearly two-thirds of them in October, November and December; Cornell University study concludes that only one out of six deer accidents is reported; drawing; photo (M)

4 Wheels, 4 Legs And No Winners

Golden Gate Bridge, Highway and Transportation District, strapped for cash despite big toll hike, will erect contribution boxes near sidewalk entrances to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge to spur public donations; has shelved proposal to charge pedestrians and bicyclists to cross bridge; photos (M)

Down and Out, Golden Gate Is Planning to Pass the Hat

Iowa University awaits bowl selections, unsure where team will play; photos (M)

11-1 Iowa Can Only Sit and Wait

 New York Crime Still Falling  Many experts are baffled as crime continues an 11-year decline in New York City while it rises elsewhere across the country.   PAGE B1

INSIDE

Many business lobbyists insist that impending federal tax reductions must benefit corporations and stimulate business spending; growing number of business and political leaders want to funnel more money to lower- and middle-income taxpayers in effort to generate more demand for goods and services; photo (M)

Split in Ranks Of Business And G.O.P. On Tax Cuts

Many experts are baffled as to why crime continues 11-year decline in New York City, while it is on rise in rest of country; New York City Police Comr Raymond W Kelly, however, says he is not stumped by phenomenon; cites failure of many cities to make sustained investment New York undertook more than decade ago, when Safe Streets, Safe Cities program began remarkable expansion that eventually increased ranks of department by nearly 40 percent; Kelly photo (M)

Falling Crime In New York Defies Trend

In a new open-air mall built amid the fast-food restaurants and chain stores in suburban Orange County, Calif., bird song fills the air and the soft lapping of ocean waves can be heard in the distance. The sounds may be piped in through an outdoor speaker system, but they seem fitting at the Camp, a shopping center dedicated to the great outdoors.     The 50,000-square-foot mall, which opened in the spring, is the brainchild of Shaheen Sadeghi, a former fashion designer, and his wife, Linda, who also worked in fashion. Nearly 10 years after they opened their first project, the LAB Anti-Mall, a shopping center that catered to Generation X youth, the couple went across the street to build the Camp. That mall is a kind of fantasy marketplace for what Mr. Sadeghi calls human-powered sports: kayaking, rock climbing and snowboarding.  

Latest Style at the Mall Brings Outdoors Indoors

New England Patriots defeat Detroit Lions, 20-12; photos (M)

Patriots Run Over Lions, Then Run Out the Clock

Gaps and blind spots where jurisdictions meet and crime-fighting data bases end left authorities unaware of likely earlier sniping spree by John Muhammad and Lee Malvo that killed or wounded seven people in four states before snipers concentrated their attacks on Washington, DC, area in Oct; examination of seven shootings highlights limitations of law enforcement, particularly when low-profile crimes do not generate Oct's frenzied response; map; chronology of events; photo (M)

Holes in System Hid Links in Sniper Attacks

Clyde Haberman comments on ironies of some people pondering efficacy of Atkins-style diets, others gorging themselves on Big Macs, and still others not having enough to eat (M)

Super-Sizing It While Others Go Hungry

Several states face lowered credit ratings because state and local governments are using billions of dollars from $206 billion 46-state 1998 industrywide tobacco settlement to plug their budget gaps; credit rating agencies see use of nonrecurring funds failing to provide long-term solutions to states' fiscal problems (M)

Tobacco Money Could Harm Credit Rating Of Some States

Ansonia High School football team, inspired by murder of star running back Damontis Johnson, defeats Naugatuck in annual Thanksgiving football game, 43-9; police comb New Haven County for Corey Montel Howard, man they say killed Johnson; photo (M)

Team, and Town, Feel the Spirit Of a Player Killed a Day Earlier

New York City officials say more than half of remaining welfare recipients are capable of only limited work or no work at all; say even those able-bodied people still on welfare are increasingly likely to be illiterate or to stubbornly refuse work assignments despite fiscal penalties; say it will cost more and take more time and ingenuity to prepare remaining recipients for work; trend means steep decline in rolls since 1996, when city began requiring able-bodied recipients to work for benefits, will soon slow or perhaps reverse; graph; photos (M)

NEW YORK FINDING WELFARE CLIENTS HARDER TO EMPLOY

Almost from the day he received tenure in the Harvard economics department at the extraordinarily young age of 28, Jeffrey D. Sachs has forged a reputation as a professor who much prefers practicing and preaching to theorizing. He brought that outlook with him when he moved to Columbia University recently. The Ivy League has never meant an ivory tower to him.    Besides running a research center with 1,000 employees, giving lectures and advising students, he campaigns for medical aid to poor countries, helps the secretary general of the United Nations with economic development strategies and advises heads of state and government on financial policies. Oh, yes -- he also hangs out with rock stars.  

For an Economic Proselytizer, Another Highly Visible Pulpit; Attention, Good and Bad, Follows Jeffrey Sachs

United Nations arms inspector, in early-morning, unannounced, arrive-at-high-speed search, find only ruins at Al Dawrah plant where Iraq once produced biological weapons; Iraqis have never accounted for all botulinum toxin earlier UN inspectors determined were made at plant; map; photo (M)

Inspectors Find Only Ruins At an Old Iraqi Weapons Site

Two subway signal light maintenance workers are killed in separate accidents, 35 hours apart; Joy Antony is killed by train just north of West 96th Street station, and Kurien Baby is killed by train in tunnel beneath Canal Street; transit union and New York City Transit have battled for years over how extensive safeguards should be for those who work on live tracks of subway, considered most dangerous job in system; photos (M)

Killed in the Subway They Tried to Make Safer for Others

Article traces casting process for ensemble of Broadway hit Hairspray; performers describe lives in theater prior to appearance in successful show; photos (M)

'Hairspray' Actors All Have Stories. Suddenly People Are Listening.

IT'S not every company that can report a large quarterly loss at the same time it raises its dividend. Nor is it every company that can pay out more in dividends than it makes in profits.    But American Capital Strategies has managed to do just that. It brings in cash by repeatedly selling new shares to the public, with three offerings in the last year. The prices of those offerings have declined of late, but thanks to the high dividend they have always been higher than the company figures its assets are worth.  

Neat Trick: Dividends Higher Than Profits

Yunus Dimoara Musah is an American professional soccer player who plays as a midfielder for Serie A club AC Milan and the United States national team.

November 29, 2002

Headlines from November 29, 2002

BUSINESS DIGEST

Where Desolation Is Just a Mirage

Sports of The Times; Hypocrisy, Thy Name Is N.C.A.A.

Fleeing a Racist Program

When an Opera Starts to Earn Staying Power

Billboard 200

The Blueprint 2: The Gift And The Curse

8 Mile

Under Construction

Justified

Riot Act

Notable Births

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for November 29, 2002