September 18, 2005

If you want to plug into Laveranues Coles's inner life, borrow his iPod. Coles's reserve around most people borders on reclusion, yet his emotional fingerprints are everywhere in his music collection. The iPod selections range from the rapper Lil' Wayne's line about being ''a lot more rich and a whole lot smarter'' in ''This Is the Carter'' to the gospel artist Fred Hammond: ''Throughout my struggles You kept me strong. Throughout my troubles You helped me to hold on even when I felt like letting go.''

In April, Najaf's main maternity hospital received rare good news: an $8 million refurbishment program financed by the United States would begin immediately. But five months and millions of dollars later, the hospital administrators say they have little but frustration to show for it. ''They keep saying there's renovation but, frankly, we don't see it,'' said Liqaa al-Yassin, director of the hospital, her exasperated face framed by a black hijab, or scarf. ''Each day I sign in 80 workers, and sometimes I see them, sometimes I don't.''

New York City homeowners are receiving $400 tax rebate, second of three annual payments, intended to soften 18.5 percent tax increase introduced by Bloomberg administration in 2004; recent New York Times study shows that owners of single family homes have seen their taxes rise 62 percent since 2001 and individual co-op and condominiums 43 percent, essentially making rebate far less generous move by city than it appears; maps; graphs; photos (M)

The frail residents of the Wynhoven Health Care Center fled New Orleans and the havoc of Hurricane Katrina for a high school gymnasium, where they spent four nights sleeping on the floor with just inches between them. Then they endured a 10-hour bus ride to this rural outpost in northeastern Louisiana more than 200 miles from home that might as well have been the far side of the moon. They subsisted on bag lunches, did without their insulin or blood-pressure medicine, risked infection from catheters that were necessary when no toilets were available, and finally arrived here at the Haven Nursing Center with no medical records and only the clothes on their backs.

FACING RACE -- Hurricane Katrina has forced President Bush to confront difficult issues of race and poverty. POLITICAL MEMO, PAGE 21 FEMA VILLAGE -- A mobile home park set up after Hurricane Charley is isolated and beset by crime. PAGE 22 BEYOND BRICKS AND MORTAR -- New Orleans may have trouble repairing damage to its image as a place to live and invest. WEEK IN REVIEW SURVEYING DAMAGE -- N.B.A. players took a good-will trip home to Mississippi and Louisiana. SPORTSSUNDAY