October 4, 2005

News analysis of Pres Bush's selection of Harriet E Miers for Supreme Court; rather than making unambiguously conservatice choice, Bush settled on loyalist with no experience as judge and little substantive record on abortion, affirmative action, religion and other socially divisive issues; he is sidestepping partisan showdown out of reluctance to invest his diminished supply of political capital in battle over the court; although Miers is undoubtedly a conservative, there is no clear public evidence that she meets one test that Bush long ago suggested he would apply to his nominees: that they fit mold of Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, who have aggressively sought to move court rightward; photo (M)

Joe Conzo Jr. clocked his 15 minutes of fame one-sixtieth of a second at a time. As a teenager, his friends in the Cold Crush Brothers invited him to tag along to photograph the pioneering days of hip-hop. His family's connections in community activism and Latin music led him to chronicle the giants of salsa and the South Bronx. Those thousands of images almost vanished, lost except in the memories of the lucky few who witnessed many of the fabled rap battles that took place at school gymnasiums and neighborhood discos.

DeLay Indicted Again; Charge Is Laundering A Texas grand jury issued a second indictment against Representative Tom DeLay, accusing him of money-laundering in violation of the state's ban on the use of corporate money in local elections. He was charged with conspiracy last week in the same transaction. PAGE A18 S.U.V. Sales Fall Sales of sport utility vehicles fell 43 percent last month as consumers reacted to surging gasoline prices and the auto companies ended discount offers. BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1 Capsized Boat in Fatal Accident Lacked 2nd Crew Member A tour boat that capsized and sank Sunday on Lake George in New York, killing 20 sightseers from Michigan and Ohio, was recovered yesterday. Officials said it did not have two crew members aboard as required. PAGE B1 Ulcer Discovery Wins Nobel Two Australian scientists who discovered a bacterium that causes ulcers won the Nobel Prize in Medicine. SCIENCE TIMES, PAGE F5 The Melody of a Playwright The plays of August Wilson, who died Sunday, had the pulse of opera rooted in the blues. An appreciation by Ben Brantley. THE ARTS, PAGE E1 Baseball Playoffs Begin Division series open with the Yankees facing the Angels, the White Sox opposing the Red Sox and the Padres playing the Cardinals. PAGE D1

What is happiness? In the United States and in many other industrialized countries, it is often equated with money. Economists measure consumer confidence on the assumption that the resulting figure says something about progress and public welfare. The gross domestic product, or G.D.P., is routinely used as shorthand for the well-being of a nation.

Woman in the News profile of Harriet Ellan Miers, Pres Bush's choice for Supreme Court; she was born Aug 10, 1945; timeline of her education and work; photos (M)