March 20, 2005

Gretchen Morgenson column on cautious position on stocks taken by Richard Bernstein, chief US strategist at Merrill Lynch, who believes quality of corporation earnings is poor and getting poorer; Bernstein view is based on widening gap between between earnings that Standard & Poor's 500 companies have reported under generally accepted accounting principles and operating earnings, figures companies typically employ in press releases after excluding write-offs and other unusual items (M)

Maureen Dowd travel article on spring-break stay with her sister at newly opened Fiesta Americana Grand Aqua in Cancun, Mexico; photos; map (L)

West Virginia University men's basketball team defeats Wake Forest University, 111-105, in double overtime to advance to NCAA tournament Round of 16; photos (M)

Threats against judges have escalated in last decade, especially on federal level where average 700 threats annually are reported in recent years; incidents involve unpredictable range of defendants from white supremacists and gang members to white-collar frauds and civil litigators; courthouses often lack adequate security; some public defenders also say it is commonplace for defendants to disparage them, and Justice Dept survey finds 40 percent of state and local prosecutors feel threate ned in their jobs; photo (L)

WHILE it's not quite WrestleMania or ''The Iron Chef,'' a big auto show gives ambitious up-and-comers a chance to flaunt their skills and challenge the industry's established heavyweights. At the New York International Auto Show, on the level playing field of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, second-string automakers will flex their muscles against the giants on more or less equal footing. Here, a brilliant design study for a future model that fires the public's imagination can set the career of a young designer on an upward arc.