May 26, 2005

Sixth article of series Class Matters compares and contrasts lives of two illegal immigrants in United States, one from Greece and one from Mexico; both arrived in US penniless and with minimal education and little English; Greek man is now successful businessman, while Mexican seems stuck on bottom rung of economic ladder; Greek man arrived 50 years ago, when illegal immigration was minor problem, while Mexican man arrived 15 years ago, when attitudes toward immigrants made it far less likely that they would experience same upward mobility of earlier immigrants; resentment and race subtly stand in way of Mexican-Americans, as does their lingering attachment to Mexico, which is so close that many immigrants do not put down deep roots in US; detailed histories of two immigrants; photos; charts (L)

Nicolai Ouroussoff Critic's Notebook column assesses New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission decision to approve Renzo Piano's scaled-back design for expansion of Whitney Museum of American Art (M)

I HAD long been a skeptic of Woodbury Common, the fabled shopping mall in Central Valley, N.Y., which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. An agglomeration of so-called premium outlets, Woodbury Common posed a contradiction in terms. The word ''premium'' denotes superior quality, while ''outlet'' prompts visions of irregular poly-cotton sheet sets and pilling cashmere sweaters. Together they suggest the kind of place where one might find a scuffed Gucci handbag or a rack of dresses marked Famous Label. No thanks. There was also the issue of distance. Why waste two and a half hours of my life traveling there and back from Manhattan? On my deathbed I would like to be able to say I read Pushkin in the original Russian, not that I spent 12,458 hours in the pursuit of shopping.

JUST as the song says: We in the United States will never walk alone. Not anymore. We have access to all the soccer scuttlebutt we want, via the Internet, via cable. We can watch the Champions League final -- the Super Bowl of Europe -- amid crowds of fans just like us.

Woman in the News profile of Justice Priscilla R Owen, who was just confirmed for seat on United States Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit after four years in crossfire of partisan battle over her nomination; she was born in 1954; photo (M)

Ford Motor Co will bail out Visteon, its ailing former parts division, and reclaim 24 of Visteon's plants and offices in US and Mexico; deal will cost Ford as much as $1.15 billion over next four years in special charges and up to $425 million in operating losses over this year and next year; union leaders have agreed to plan to cut 5,000 of more than 17,000 Ford employees who have been working at Visteon plants by offering them buyouts; deal is subject to ratification by union members; Ford will also relieve Visteon of $2 billion liability related to health care and life insurance benefits for Ford employees and retirees that was assigned to Visteon; Ford's chief financial officer Don R Leclair comments; photo (Market Place column) (M)

ABOUT Helmut Lang's major influence over the fashion of the last 15 years there is little doubt. Consumers can thank him for flat-front pants, the number of buttons on men's suits -- first three, more recently two -- and the spiraling prices of designer jeans and T-shirts. An entire culture of prestige denim was born from Mr. Lang's low-rise jeans with intricate washes, for which he dared to charge close to $200 in the 1990's. So powerful was his creative leadership that when he said he would show his collections in Manhattan ahead of European rivals, most American designers followed suit, and New York Fashion Week was permanently rescheduled.

Gov. George E. Pataki and Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg announced $800 million worth of projects for Lower Manhattan yesterday, including cobblestone streets around the New York Stock Exchange, a new elementary school on Beekman Street and improvements in Chinatown. Many of the projects are intended to bring further life to a neighborhood still recovering from the Sept. 11 attack, after a protracted period of wrangling over how the money should be spent. But they are also dear to the heart of Sheldon Silver, the State Assembly speaker, who represents the area and has been pushing for more government money and attention downtown. Next week, he will be a crucial voice in the debate over the proposed West Side stadium.

Kleinfeld, storied Brooklyn wedding gown emporium that has festooned generations of American brides since 1941, is moving to Manhattan; store is largest designer wedding-dress outlet in country; it will move, along with 185 employees, to 20th St near Ave of the Americas this summer; new site will roughly double its selling space to accommodate what officials say is rapidly expanding business; Ronald Rothstein, co-owner, says he first considered staying in Brooklyn; says he decided on Manhattan because of complex requirements of selling his gowns--including multiple fittings--and fact that 80 percent of future brides work in Manhattan; store's history recalled; photos (M)

Amnesty International accused the Bush administration of condoning ''atrocious'' human rights violations, thereby diminishing the United States' moral authority and setting a global example encouraging rights abuses by other nations. The advocacy group also called the United States detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, ''the gulag of our times.'' Article, Page A10.

Iran is persuaded by foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany to continue its freeze on nuclear activities to avert diplomatic crisis that could lead to punitive international measures; in exchange, Europeans offer to present Iran with detailed, step-by-step proposals by Aug on how to move toward consensus on shape of its nuclear program; despite latest progress, Europeans and Iranians remain far apart on their ultimate goals; Europeans wants Iran's freeze on its uranium enrichment activities to become permanent, in exchange for trade, political, economic and security rewards, including access to nuclear energy; Iranians insist freeze is temporary, claiming it is being done on voluntary basis since it is not required under Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty; Bush administration, which accuses Iran of secretly using its nuclear program to develop weapons, reacts with caution to latest development, reaffirming its support for Euroepan effort but reiterating its suspicion of Iran's motives (M)

New York State Atty Gen Eliot Spitzer and New York Insurance Department are planning to file civil complaint against American International Group, its former chairman and chief executive Maurice R Greenberg and its former chief financial officer Howard I Smith; complaint would accuse those named of involvement in improper accounting that allowed AIG to make its financial position look stronger than it actually was; complaint will not preclude Spitzer from pursuing criminal charges against individuals; photo (M)