April 27, 2003

Bedford, Va, remains engulfed in scandal and uncertainty about National D-Day Memorial; D-Day foundation former president Richard Burrow, whose first trial ended in hung jury, faces new trial on charges he inflated amount of donations to get banks and state to give memorial more money; researchers now question town's claim that it suffered nation's worst per capita losses on D-Day; many area residents defend Burrow as patriot who at worst cut corners; map; photos (M)

STUPEFYING, is it not, how selfish behavior in the executive suite continues even as managers claim to care deeply about corporate governance issues? The ham-handed attempt by Donald J. Carty, the just-defenestrated chief of the AMR Corporation, to hide special executive pay perks while he cut workers' pay is only the latest indication that some powerful people still think the do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do approach is acceptable. It is puzzling that these people cannot or will not see that doing right by shareholders, employees and customers is good business. Part of the problem may be that the payoff from tending to corporate governance issues is nowhere near as immediate as the payback from self-serving moves.

Many unemployed people, worn out by long job searches, have stopped looking for work, entering invisible ranks of people not counted in unemployment rate; some are going back to school or getting new job training, others are caring for children or aging parents and relying on spouse's salary; others are plainly waiting for economy to improve; portion of Americans either working or actively looking for work has fallen 0.9 percentage points in last two years, to 66.2 percent; over 74.5 million adults are considered outside of labor force, up over 4 million since Mar 2001; graph of percentage of people not in work force; photos (M)

Article on Susan Fales-Hills, daughter of late black actress Josephine Premice and white banker's son, Timothy Fales; Fales-Hill's new memoir, Always Wear Joy highlights her parents' racially mixed social life and raises questions about how integrated New York society is today; photos (M)

Frank Rich comment excoriates Bush administration for permitting looting of Iraq's national museum; says Pentagon was repeatedly warned before war of potential for this catastrophe, but at highest levels of White House, Pentagon and central command, no one cared; drawing (M)