July 29, 2005

Cliffhanger House vote approving Central American Free Trade Agreement highlights messy compromises necessary to overcome deep antagonism in many quarters toward trade-opening agreements; Democrats charge Republicans with buying votes and forcing members to vote against their consciences; Republican Rep Robin Hayes of North Carolina says he was convinced to change his vote after Speaker Dennis Hastert pledged to push to help his district with jobs; Hayes vote was decisive to trade pact, which passed by two votes; Bush administration officials say ultimate goal is one of high principle: opening of United States to greater competition and engagement with poorer neighbors; says liberation from trade barriers would benefit Americans as well as their neighbors; photos (M)

Article in series (Summer Weekends) on scene during parent weekend at Camp Blue Ridge, sleep-away camp in Mountain City, Ga; photos (M)

Discovery astronauts execute elegant orbital back flip and dock with International Space Station as engineers back on Earth scrutinize pictures of shuttle's delicate protective tiles to assess any liftoff damage; engineers say they see nothing that would threaten safe return, though analysis is not yet complete; say new impact sensors on leading edges of shuttle's wings, installed in wake of 2003 Columbia disaster, indicate 11 possible debris strikes on edges, none of them more than scuffs; NASA's finding that large piece of foam popped off external tank, despite efforts to prevent exactly that, has shaken agency officials and caused them to suspend all flights until problem is resolved; photos (L)

IT did not take George E. Pataki long -- he managed to get out all of four words -- before he invoked Sept. 11 in announcing that he would not run again for governor. The terrorist attacks of 2001 weren't even the subject. He was talking about the inspiration that he drew from his father. ''A few months after Sept. 11, someone gave my daughter Emily an old photograph,'' Mr. Pataki began his remarks on Wednesday. ''It was a picture of my father.'' He then reminisced about Louis Pataki, who was an assistant postmaster and a volunteer firefighter in Peekskill, N.Y. He died in 1996, a firm believer, the son said, in giving back to his community.

WHAT possibly was the most public recruitment of a coach in the history of professional sports reached an anticlimactic conclusion yesterday when Isiah Thomas thanked Larry Brown for teaching him how to dress a quarter-century ago, then introduced him as the man best suited to re-tailor the tattered Knicks. Thomas summoned Brown -- whose crisp shirts and firm commitment to basketball fundamentals left an indelible mark on Thomas as a 20-year-old United States national team player -- to the microphone about half-past noon at Madison Square Garden. Thus ended a desperate chase that began in earnest last week with a nighttime helicopter raid by Thomas on East Hampton amid a bombardment of continuous news media scrutiny that, to Brown's wife, Shelly, played like shock and awe.