January 8, 2003

The city's Department of Education plans a major reorganization of the school system, an official said. It will regroup many of its 1,200 schools into small networks and close the 32 community school district offices. Article, Page B4.

Pres Bush's $674 billion, 10-year economic proposal receives generally positive reviews from corporate America even as some executives lament lack of direct help for their businesses; proposal does not include tax cuts for companies or inventives to encourage new investment, but executives say they expect plan to lift stocks and consumer spending; officials at companies, many of them in technology sector, say they will continue to use their cash to make investments and buy back shares of stock, rather than distribute pârofits to their investors as dividends; Cisco Systems plans to use its cash to invest in its business and complete $8 billion stock repurchase plan announced last summer; Microsoft and Starbucks have no plans to pay dividend; Oracle's chief financial officer Jeffrey O Henley says company will have to reconsider its policy of not paying dividends if tax on personal dividends is eliminated; Sempra Energy chairman Stephen L Baum says company will consider increasing its dividend; RPM International chief executive Frank C Sullivan says dividends are good way to gauge company's earnings; many companies that do not pay dividends may face greater demands to do so if tax is eliminated; chart; photos (M)

William Grimes Critic's Notebook column on slump in New York City's restaurant economy in 2002 after several years in which good restaurants opened regularly and seldom failed; says 2003 will be year of living timorously, with restaurants simplifying their menus, dropping prices and trying to present themselves as bistros, brasseries or diners; photos (M)

News analysis of Pres Bush's economic and tax plan as politically daring attempt to show 'wartime president' battling on domestic front to pump up sagging economy, lesson learned from his father's loss of White House; plan, which could also lead to soaring deficits and do little to spur economy in short term, tends to Bush's conservative 'tax-cut loving base,' reigniting old battles with Democrats; former Repr Vin Weber recalls Republican 'debacle' when Bush's father raised taxes in ailing economy as way to cut deficits; conservative supporters laud Bush plan, which Democrats attack as gift for most wealthy citizens (M)

Lawrence Van Gelder column reports on Dance on Camera Festival, exhibition of paintings of Ivan Koota, self-taught retired pediatrician, coming season of New York Gilbert and Sullivan Players and Boston University exhibition on trailblazing women journalists who covered war and politics; photos (M)