September 20, 2005

In 2000, Patrick Ewing ended a long and mostly glorious association with New York. In many respects, the Knicks have still not recovered.

Annual one-month alligator hunt in Louisiana, which opened on Sept 14, was delayed one week because of Hurricane Katrina, but that has only intensified search; trappers in southern are frantically trying to kill as many alligators as they can before cooler temperatures make it harder to find cold-blooded reptiles as they seek refuge for rest of year in warm mud banks; decision to delay hunt has reverberated in fashion capitals thousand of miles away, where buyers and designers from houses like Gucci and Hermes are counting on healthy bounty of alligator skins; hunt is supposed to provide, under statewide quota system, about 35,000 skins, earning hunters in state total of as much as $7 million a year; graph; photos (M)

FOUR months to six months. Only a year or two ago, that was how long start-up companies generally had to cajole, fret and act nonchalant while waiting for venture capitalists to part with money -- if they proved willing to write a check at all. Even during robust times, the period between a first pitch meeting with a venture capitalist and financing typically spans three months. So imagine the surprise of those behind a start-up called XenSource when they started shopping for cash this summer on Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, Calif. -- the venture capital equivalent of Wall Street -- and had seven firm offers within three weeks.

Little Difference Found In Schizophrenia Drugs A study that compared drugs used to treat schizophrenia has confirmed what many psychiatrists long suspected: newer drugs that are highly promoted and widely prescribed offer few if any benefits over older medicines that sell for a fraction of the cost. The study looked at four new-generation drugs, called atypical antipsychotics, and one older drug. SCIENCE TIMES, PAGE F1 Iraqi Newsman Is Killed Fakher Haider, an Iraqi journalist and photographer who worked for The New York Times since April 2003, was found dead on the outskirts of Basra. He had been abducted from his home by armed men claiming to be police officers, his wife said. Mr. Haider, who had three children, was 38. PAGE A10 A Bank Begins a Comeback Liberty Bank has long been a New Orleans success story, a homegrown institution in a predominantly African-American city. The bank's presence was greatest in the most-devastated part of the city. Now, its road back begins in a branch office in Baton Rouge. BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1 Oil Quota Increase Is Set OPEC said that it planned to allow its members to provide up to two million barrels a day of extra crude oil if needed. But oil traders brushed aside the move and sent oil prices higher on worries of another possible hurricane. BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1 German Election Is Over, but Outlook Is Still Confused Election posters for Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and his rival, Angela Merkel, were removed in Mühlheim, Germany, as the political stalemate deepened in the wake of an inconclusive election. PAGE A8 The Science of Dirty Words Researchers who study the evolution of language say cursing is universal. Every language and dialect ever studied, living or dead, spoken by millions or by a small tribe, turns out to have its own forbidden speech. SCIENCE TIMES, PAGE F1 A War Called Hell In ''The March,'' E.L. Doctorow mixes fact and fiction to draw a bloody, tactile portrait of William Tecumseh Sherman's march through the South and a visceral understanding of the horrors of war. Review by Michiko Kakutani.. THE ARTS, PAGE E1 Teachers' Union Leader Dies Sandra Feldman, a deft and intimidating powerhouse who led the United Federation of Teachers in New York and then the American Federation of Teachers, was 65. PAGE A27 SPECIAL TODAY Small Business Venture capital firms around Silicon Valley are fighting each other to get in on technology startups, making a sellers' market for entrepreneurs. Also: A look at the plight of small-business owners around the Gulf region, and the aid being promised after Hurricane Katrina. SECTION G

John Sexton, the president of New York University, was planning to teach one class this semester, but added a second one to handle some of the 100 Hurricane Katrina evacuees who have landed at N.Y.U. for the term. Glenn C. Altschuler had planned to take a sabbatical this semester from his job as a dean at Cornell. Instead, he was in his office at 6:30 a.m. the Tuesday after Labor Day, handing out Snapple, chocolate chip cookies and registration forms to nearly 200 students displaced by Katrina who were interested in spending the semester at Cornell.

At least five online file-sharing companies have started trying to reach accord with music industry to convert free trading of copyrighted music on their networks to paid services; most advanced discussions are between recording industry and Grokster; Grokster has agreed in principle to be acquired by Mashboxx, new company backed by Sony that is trying to start legal file-sharing service; iMesh, file-sharing service that last year reached accord with music industry to convert to legal paid service, has made overtures to acquire number of other filing-sharing services, on condition they settle their claims with recording industry; iMesh executive chairman Robert E Summer comments (M)

NO matter how the N.F.L. pretended that last night was a toned-down Mardi Gras at the Meadowlands, there was no mistaking the home team from the road team, just the way it was the last time the Saints paid a visit, for the Giants' first appearance in New Jersey after 9/11. Back in the grim, unsettling days of September 2001, there were, as now, heartfelt attempts by the sports industry at large to be part of the mourning and healing process. Four years ago this week, a hard-earned walk by Edgardo Alfonzo as the Mets rallied to defeat the Braves was a reminder of why baseball, where the objective is to move safely from station to station, was the perfect sports reflection of the way we felt after a brutal terrorist attack.

Jeff Van Gundy had ventured headlong into the path of a hulking, headstrong center once before, and perhaps he should have known the futility of such gestures when he tried to reroute Patrick Ewing's course five summers ago. Ewing, one of the greatest players in Knicks history, wanted to leave New York after 15 years as the face of the franchise. Team executives, despite great reservations, were trying to oblige him with a trade.

MANY years ago, when we both toiled for The New York Post, a colleague passed the time one night telling me about corruption trials that he had covered in New Jersey, a state graced with an ample supply of government officials caught with their hands in the till. One case involved a mook who was charged with pocketing $100,000 in public funds. The prosecution had this fellow nailed. They could have measured him for a striped suit right there in the courtroom. In the end, his lawyer played the only card he had left.

A senior White House budget official who resigned abruptly last week was arrested Monday on charges of lying to investigators and obstructing a federal inquiry involving Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist who has been under scrutiny by the Justice Department for more than a year. The arrest of the official, David H. Safavian, head of procurement policy at the Office of Management and Budget, was the first to result from the wide-ranging corruption investigation of Mr. Abramoff, once among the most powerful and best-paid lobbyists in Washington and a close friend of Representative Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.

After a tense weekend of heated debate within the Bush administration, the lead American negotiator with North Korea made one last call to Washington at noon on Monday, Beijing time, and then signed a statement of principles that committed North Korea, in black and white, to give up ''all nuclear weapons and existing nuclear programs.'' But the negotiator, Christopher Hill, had misgivings because the vaguely worded agreement left unaddressed the date disarmament would happen, and hinted at a concession to North Korea that President Bush and his aides had long said they would never agree to: discussing at an appropriate time providing North Korea with a civilian nuclear power plant, senior administration officials said.

Liberty Bank and Trust Co, which has had its headquarters in six-story glass box in eastern New Orleans, now struggles to restore its operations, using cramped branch office in Baton Rouge; its was not until 10 days after Hurricane Katrina hit on Aug 29 that BellSouth installed temporary phone lines so that customers, virtually all of them in desperate financial straits, could find out when bank would lift temporary $100-a-day limit on ATM withdrawals that lasted through Sept 8; Liberty, one of country's largest black-owned banks, has long been a gleaming New Orleans success story, homegrown institution in predominantly African-American city; photo of Alden J McDonald Jr, chief executive of Liberty Bank (L)