December 4, 2005

Investigators Say F.B.I. Mishandled Terror Case F.B.I. officials mishandled a Florida terrorism investigation, falsified documents in the case and retaliated against a veteran undercover operative who complained about the problems, Justice Department investigators have concluded. PAGE 37 Women's Basketball Preview With Candace Parker back from knee surgery, Tennessee is expected to return to the top of the women's college game. Duke, Louisiana State, Rutgers and others should challenge. SPORTSSUNDAY U.S.C. and Texas Roar Into Title Game Reggie Bush, left, led top-ranked Southern California to a 66-19 victory over U.C.L.A., and Vince Young guided No. 2 Texas to a 70-3 rout of Colorado, setting up a showdown between the teams in the Rose Bowl. SPORTSSUNDAY The Storm After the Storm Newly released documents provide an extraordinary view of Louisiana officials' struggles in the days after Hurricane Katrina. PAGE 39 NEW TODAY Reviving a Wreck A new column, Sketch Pad, will focus on an apartment, house, loft or shack that may have great, unrealized potential. REAL ESTATE Reading for the Holidays The special holiday books issue, with 100 notable books of the year. Also: The first two volumes of Philip Roth's collected works. BOOK REVIEW

ACCORDING to Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, John Seigenthaler Sr. is 78 years old and the former editor of The Tennessean in Nashville. But is that information, or anything else in Mr. Seigenthaler's biography, true? The question arises because Mr. Seigenthaler recently read about himself on Wikipedia and was shocked to learn that he ''was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John and his brother Bobby.''

TO read the headlines, intelligent design as a challenge to evolution seems to be building momentum. In Kansas last month, the board of education voted that students should be exposed to critiques of evolution like intelligent design. At a trial of the Dover, Pa., school board that ended last month, two of the movement's leading academics presented their ideas to a courtroom filled with spectators and reporters from around the world. President Bush endorsed teaching ''both sides'' of the debate -- a position that polls show is popular. And Pope Benedict XVI weighed in recently, declaring the universe an ''intelligent project.''

Dallas Cowboys prepare to face New York Giants; photos (M)2

LAST week, I spent several days living -- and dying -- inside the new Xbox 360 console, with four popular games pegged as particularly cinematic. I entered as a curious novice, less concerned with breaking the games than with exploring the worlds they opened, and the worlds you die in. I died as a princess in a green miniskirt, as a space warrior, a World War II soldier named Vasili and a humorless F.B.I. agent tracking a sadistic killer. My deaths, rendered in state-of-the-art detail, were not illustrious or mourned. They consisted of the limited repertoire of gestures assigned to death by the game makers. In the virtual world of games, players get to invent their own unique lives, but when they die, even the greats cede control to their maker.