December 27, 2003

Eric Lipton analyzes policy of New York officials on informing public about personal travel; Mayor Michael R Bloomberg refuses to inform press of his personal travels, while Gov George E Pataki gives only vague destinations and periods (M)

William C Rhoden Sports of The Times column contends that hiring of Isiah Thomas as president gives long-struggling Knicks support and stability team needs to return to championship-caliber team (M)

Campaign workers for Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards in Portsmouth, NH, are discouraged because polls indicate that he will get only 7 percent of vote in state primary; core crew of about dozen Edwards supporters vows to continue despite polls showing their candidate far behind front-runner Howard Dean, and garnering only 4 percent to 6 percent in national surveys; despite long odds, there is clearly 'love affair' between Edwards and his supporters; photo of several Edwards supporters (M)

David Michel is creator of Jay Jay the Jet Plane, popular animated airplane that appears on 258 stations on PBS's coveted children's programming schedule; has used marketing approach that others are now trying--designating separate pitches and packaging to sell same products to religious and secular customers; says it is tricky because markets are very separate and each is substanial; Evangelical Christian marketers often do not want their products tainted by association with secular culture that many in their audience regard as vulgar or even demonic; Christian market has become too big and lucrative for mainstream publishers and distributors to ignore; estimated $4.2 billion in Christian-oriented books, music and other forms of entertainment was sold in 2002; Jay Jay photo (M)

Growing number of medical providers are waiving coinsurance payments incurred by patients who elect to go out of network for medical services; analysts says copayments are being dropped by doctors wishing to recruit more patients, help patients with limited ability to pay and reduce overhead costs for collections and processing of insurance paperwork; doctors are often able to waive copayments because out-of-network fees they collect from insurance companies often are higher than those paid to members of plan's network (M)