November 19, 2005

New York Giants coach Tom Coughlin tries to help team through deaths of co-owners Wellington Mara and Preston Robert Tisch; photo (M)

A Brooklyn pediatrician recalled yesterday how a 7-year-old girl who died last month of severe internal injuries was brought to him two years ago with a broken leg -- and how he accused the father of beating her and notified child welfare authorities. The girl, Sierra Roberts, died on Oct. 25. Her father, Russell Roberts, 43, was charged on Thursday with beating her with his knee and with a belt in the two days before her death, causing a ruptured bowel and extensive internal lacerations.

Michael Scanlon, a former top official for Representative Tom DeLay and onetime partner of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has agreed to plead guilty in a deal with federal prosecutors, according to his lawyer. The deal reveals a broadening corruption investigation involving top members of Congress. Criminal papers filed in federal court outlined a conspiracy that not only named Mr. Scanlon but also mentioned a congressman, identified only as Representative No. 1, as part of the exchange of favors from clients funneled to lobbyists and officials.

William C Rhoden Sports of The Times column discusses opposing stances media and public take against Philadelphia Eagles receiver Terrell Owens and New York Yankees infielder Alex Rodriguez shows that we do not know what we want out of our sports heroes; photo (M)/

From his temporary headquarters on the top floor of the Hyatt Regency here, Daniel F. Packer, the chief executive of Entergy New Orleans, has a perfect vantage point for viewing the problem confronting his beleaguered utility company: lights twinkling in dozens of neighborhoods, but darkness spread across 40 percent of the city. Those vast stretches of New Orleans without access to electrical power represent the magnitude of work the utility must perform before the city can recover. Nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina, the afflicted areas include not only devastated sections of town like the Lower Ninth Ward but also neighborhoods that suffered relatively little water and wind damage.

Denver Nuggets defeat New York Knicks, 95-86; photos (M)o

The General Electric Company said yesterday that it was selling its troubled reinsurance business for $6.8 billion to Swiss Re, which will become the largest company in the world selling insurance to insurance companies. The insurance business has been ''a tough strategic fit for G.E.,'' said Jeffrey R. Immelt, the company's chief executive, who wants to focus on faster-growing sectors. Over the last five years, he said, G.E.'s main insurance unit has lost $700 million and required the infusion of $3.2 billion.

A young Japanese woman in the comic book ''Hating the Korean Wave'' exclaims, ''It's not an exaggeration to say that Japan built the South Korea of today!'' In another passage the book states that ''there is nothing at all in Korean culture to be proud of.'' In another comic book, ''Introduction to China,'' which portrays the Chinese as a depraved people obsessed with cannibalism, a woman of Japanese origin says: ''Take the China of today, its principles, thought, literature, art, science, institutions. There's nothing attractive.''

Prominent Hispanic elected officials are putting pressure on Democratic leaders for New Jersey's governor-elect, Jon S. Corzine, to appoint Representative Robert Menendez to fill his seat in the Senate. A political action committee of 20 Hispanic members of Congress has written a letter to Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, complaining that Mr. Schumer was overlooking Mr. Menendez's qualifications during the search for Mr. Corzine's replacement. Mr. Schumer is head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

When Yale University distributed new rules last month to curb binge drinking and public drunkenness at football games, the reaction was swift. But the loudest outcry came not from students but from alumni who have returned here for decades to watch the Yale Bulldogs and to fraternize at often-elegant tailgate parties. The rules, first posted on Yale's Web site, were succinct. Drinking games were banned. Yale's residential colleges and their visiting counterparts would be limited to one ''U-Haul type vehicle,'' otherwise undefined, to transport their beer to parking field parties. Sitting or standing on vehicles was prohibited. And there was the rule that has caused the uproar among alumni: tailgate parties would have to shut down by the end of halftime.

New Grand Jury to Hear About C.I.A. Leak Case The special prosecutor in the C.I.A. leak case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, said he would use a new grand jury, a development that seems certain to extend the political cloud hanging over the Bush administration and could draw new players into the investigation. The previous grand jury's term expired last month. PAGE A10 U.S. and Russia Agree on Iran President Bush and President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia have agreed to press Iran to have its uranium enriched only in Russia, under controls that would prevent the processed material from being used to make bombs. PAGE A5 Civil Jury Rules Against Actor The actor Robert Blake, acquitted in March of killing his wife, has been found by a civil jury to have been behind the killing and ordered to pay $30 million to her children. PAGE A12 And That Was Vaudeville Eva Tanguay, a k a the ''I Don't Care Girl,'' and other legends are the subject of ''Vaudeville Nation,'' a new exhibition. THE ARTS, PAGE B7 THIS WEEKEND The Prodigy Puzzle America's smartest children have become the focus of a movement to recognize their gifts and develop their talents. But can the children whose brilliance might change the world be identified? MAGAZINE What $220,000 Buys What can a homebuyer get in New York City for $220,000, the national median price for a house? Surprisingly, quite a bit, including a cottage near the beach. REAL ESTATE

PEOPLE ask me all the time: What's your secret?'' James Simons said. We were sitting in an office in Manhattan that Mr. Simons uses when he's not at the Long Island offices of Renaissance Technologies, the money management firm he founded in 1982. He was wearing an elegant shirt and tie, and loafers with no socks. He took a drag from a cigarette, the second of three he would smoke in the course of a long interview.