June 26, 2003

Rajeev Samant's Sula Vineyards in Nasik, India, is success, doubling its output each year since 2000 and still not keeping up with demand; affluent young Indians have acquired taste for wine in country where wine drinking has not been part of modern mainstream Hindu culture; photo (M)

Mayor Michael R Bloomberg and New York City Council, after months of warnings of dire cuts to city services, agree on budget remarkable not for how many services are cut, but for how few; Bloomberg, to win council support, abandons $115 million in cuts he had planned, on top of $90 million in cuts he backed away from earlier; deal closes deficit that city estimated at $6.4 billion just seven months ago, doing so through combination of taxes, cuts, federal and state aid, and surplus from current year; many praise Bloomberg for closing daunting gap, but experts are divided on overall approach to balancing budget by sparing services while raising city's property tax, sales tax and income tax on top earners; some cuts that escape, or do not escape, budget axe noted; photo (M)

Ben Ratliff reviews concert by Norah Jones at Beacon Theater; photo (M)

Janet Maslin reviews book A Tragic Honesty: The Life and Work of Richard Yates by Blake Bailey; photo (M)

Moody's Investors Service lowers Sony Corp's long-term credit rating by one notch, citing weakened outlook for electronics division (M)

Casual video games played on PC's, laptops, digital organizers and cellphones are designed to be brief amusements; they are easy to learn and many are direct translations of classic arcade games like Pac-Man and Tetris or digital versions of card and board games; successful casual game can be produced for as little as $40,000, does not require extensive hardware and can be easily downloaded into cellphones and Internet-enabled organizers; photos (M)

Article on fierce arguments between some landlords and co-ops and apartment owners and tenants over animal policies, particularly when pet owners, like Ian Netupsky and Jay Ward, say their dogs are vital to their emotional health; photos (M)

Internal Revenue Service releases data showing that 400 wealthiest taxpayers accounted for more than 1 percent of all income in United States in year 2000, more than double their share eight years earlier, but their tax burden plummeted during same period; average income of 400 wealthiest taxpayers was almost $174 million in 2000, as compared to $46.8 million in 1992, and they reported 1.1 percent of all income, up from 0.5 percent; their taxes grew at much slower rate, from 1 percent of all taxes in 1992 to 1.6 percent in 2000, when their tax bills averaged $38.6 million each and 22.3 percent of their incomes; figures are seen as providing ammunition to both sides of debate on Pres Bush's tax cuts; charts illustrate data (M)

New York City will resume recycling plastic under budget agreement reached by Mayor Michael R Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Gifford Miller; glass recycling will follow in 2004; Hugo Neu Schnitzer East, salvage company, promises to remove plastic at lower price than before (L)

Rochelle T Jones is promoted to battalion chief in New York City Fire Dept, first woman to achieve that rank since department opened its ranks to women in 1977; photos (L)

Gala Group of London is teaming up with Harrah's Entertainment to build eight casinos in Britain; each of gaming companies will invest $500 million in 50-50 partnership (S)

Active Value, largest shareholder in Cordiant Communications Group, increases its stake to 25.13 percent, enough shares to block buyout of company by WPP Group (M)