September 10, 2003

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announces partnership between city and Snapple that will make it city's official beverage; deal gives company exclusivity in city's 1,200 public schools for $8 million per year for five years; Snapple is also expected to pay city about $13 million annually, based on sales, and will spend about $12 million per year on advertising that promotes New York City; is developing four new juice drinks to comply with city's recent ban of soda and candy from school vending machines (M)

In an election with an unusually large number of challengers, all incumbents prevailed with relative ease in yesterday's primaries for City Council seats. But in the Bronx, Pedro Gautier Espada, a former councilman with a well-known political name in that borough, was unsuccessful in his quest to return to office. Article, page B6.

News analysis of two new polls showing modest improvement in New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's approval ratings; Bloomberg's supporters attribute uptick to fact that numbers hit bottom after he raised taxes, and now that those measures are behind him he is winning back good will; others say bounce in ratings is small considering high praise he won for his handling of city's blackout and general reaching out to more communities; details of polls, one conducted by Quinnipiac and another by New York Times noted; photo (M)

Aegis Group says pretax profit fell 20 percent for six months ended June 30 from year earlier, to 13.4 million pounds ($21.3 million); sales increased 11.4 percent, to 3.46 billion pounds ($5.51 billion) (S)

Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, task force of auto industry engineers, proposes redesigning some sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks so they inflict less damage on cars; also proposes making side air bags standard equipment on all vehicles; automakers have yet to sign off on proposals; Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, research group financed by auto insurers, has taken leading role in effort to develop standards (M)