On the opening day of the much-anticipated trial of Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, lawyers for the government and the defense on Tuesday told a tale of two Enrons, portraying starkly different versions of why the energy company collapsed in late 2001.      That Enron blazed a path to the summit of the energy world was not in dispute. In the 1990's, it was a Wall Street darling, the pride of an energy city and the creator of an industry that bought and sold natural gas, electricity and anything else its ambitious employees could dream up. But since its bankruptcy, Enron has come to symbolize the corporate malfeasance that infected so many American corporations in the 1990's.  

Opening Arguments in the Trial of Ex-Enron Chiefs

A builder who helped renovate former Police Commissioner Bernard B. Kerik's Riverdale apartment has been called to testify before a Bronx grand jury about who paid for tens of thousands of dollars in work there, the builder's lawyer said yesterday.     The Bronx district attorney's office and the city's Department of Investigation, which have been investigating the dealings involving Mr. Kerik's apartment for about a year, would not comment yesterday or describe the exact nature of the grand jury's inquiry.  

Amid Inquiry, Builder Is Called to Testify About Work for Kerik

Super Bowl 40--or XL, as it is being marketed--is expected to draw $130 million in merchandise sales; photos (M)

All the Numerals Fit to Print (at Least Until It's 2054)

The International Atomic Energy Agency says it has evidence that suggests links between Iran's ostensibly peaceful nuclear program and its military work on high explosives and missiles, according to a report from the agency that was released to member countries on Tuesday.     The four-page report, which officials say was based at least in part on intelligence provided by the United States, refers to a secretive Iranian entity called the Green Salt Project, which worked on uranium processing, high explosives and a missile warhead design.  

Atomic Agency Sees Possible Link of Military to Iran Nuclear Work

Yale's exhibition about Machu Picchu has reignited an age-long dispute with Peru and the university.

Inca Show Pits Yale Against Peru

TWELVE security cameras bear witness at the White Castle on Webster Avenue in the Bronx. Mounted high in unobtrusive places, they create a multiframed silent film of life unfolding in a place of transience, a fast-food pit stop.     The cameras are meant to see all. Early Saturday morning, they did.  

People Cringed, but 12 Cameras Never Blinked

EVERYONE has felt the tangle of nerves and excitement that comes with a new job. So imagine what it must be like to be Ben Bernanke this morning.     Four years ago, he was an economics professor who had never held a government job outside his local school board. Today he will walk into an office that has been Alan Greenspan's for almost two decades, cross a red-and-navy Oriental rug and take his place behind Mr. Greenspan's desk. From there, Mr. Bernanke is supposed to keep the American economy running smoothly.  

How Bernanke Could Outshine Greenspan

Coretta Scott King, known first as the wife of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., then as his widow, then as an avid proselytizer for his vision of racial peace and nonviolent social change, died Monday at a hospital in Mexico. She was 78.      The primary cause of death was ''insufficient cardio-respiratory,'' which simply means her heart and breathing stopped, said Dr. Carlos Guerrero Tejada, who certified her death. The underlying causes were cerebral vascular disease and ovarian cancer, according to the death certificate.  

Coretta Scott King, a Civil Rights Icon, Dies at 78

Virginia Heffernan reviews PBS documentary mini-series African American Lives, hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr (M)

Taking Black Family Trees Out of Slavery's Shadow

Even though the city's child welfare agency had received six complaints about the family of Quachaun Browne since 2004 -- and even though caseworkers had been inside his home four times since November -- it failed to act before a weekend-long torrent of abuse and neglect that ended with the 4-year-old's death late Sunday, the authorities said yesterday.     In all the encounters, including the most recent visit, on Jan. 12, caseworkers did not detect a dangerous new presence in the family's Kossuth Avenue apartment in the Norwood section of the Bronx: Jose Calderon, the boyfriend of the boy's mother, who was charged yesterday with second-degree murder in his death, officials said.  

City Was Told 6 Times of Trouble in Bronx Boy's Home

SIX years ago I received a call from a man named Edwin Rodriguez, an unemployed janitor. He had invented a plantain peeler and wanted to know if I would like to see it. A few days later Mr. Rodriguez's prototype arrived in the mail. It was carved from wood and painted green and lemon yellow like a child's toy -- and was otherwise the most phallic cooking tool I'd ever seen. I quickly tucked it into my desk drawer.     But when I tried it out in the privacy of my home kitchen, it worked ingeniously. There was a blade for trimming off the ends of the fruit and cutting seams into the peel without harming the inner plantain. And at one end was a spade-shaped wood piece designed to mimic a thumbnail -- the implement that, in the absence of a plantain peeler like Mr. Rodriguez's, is normally is used to wedge under the peel and lift it in strips. Peeling a green plantain is not like peeling a banana. The skin sticks, and if you're not careful you can easily split the fruit's flesh; you need a sharp paring knife and good knife skills.  

Thumb-Wrestling With Plantains Is Now an Optional Sport

IT is only a small exaggeration to say that Rick Bayless has dedicated his life to taking Mexican food seriously -- and persuading the rest of us to do the same.      Mr. Bayless's study of Mexico began with years of academic work in linguistics and anthropology, but he couldn't stay out of the kitchen. (He grew up in a family of restaurant owners, in Oklahoma City.)  

Game Food That Intercepts Nachos

Dave Anderson Sports of The Times column discusses Detroit (Mich), where Super Bowl will be held this year; city is in need of economic help that Super Bowl cannot likely provide; photo (M)

Glitter and Grit, Detroit Style

Selena Roberts Sports of The Times column discusses New York Knicks troubles on and off court, and Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant's apparent resurrection from controversial few years (M)

Dysfunction Junction: Boos for Knicks, Ahhs for Kobe

Republican billionaire Tom Golisano pulls out of race for governor of New York; announcement changes race, perhaps favoring former Massachusetts Gov William F Weld; State Sen Joseph L Bruno, who opposes Weld, could throw his support to more conservative candidate, like former Assembly leader John J Faso; Democrats will now likely have more contentious primary between state Atty Gen Eliot Spitzer and Nassau County Executive Thomas R Suozzi; photo (M)

Golisano Opts Not to Run, Reshaping Race for Governor

News Analysis of sticky issue of film credits highlighted by this year's Oscar nominations: four of five nominees for best picture are smaller movies that used several independent production companies, and award-giving institutions like Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences often do not recognize every member of filmmaking team; this year academy hired Producers Guild of America to determine eligibility determinations for Oscar-worthiness, and guild is already being sued by some producers who were not included on list of those credited with nominated films; photos (M)

Nominations Highlight the Sticky Issue of Credit

PEOPLE travel to Africa for history and for scenery but never for the food. I don't get it.     I have found that Africa, with thousands of languages and cultures, each with its own cuisine, always rewards an adventurous eater.  

A Taste of Ghana

Resisting political temptation, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg proposed a $55.5 billion budget yesterday that would spend most of a $3.3 billion surplus this year not on politically popular programs, but on paying down debt and other long-term costs that threaten the city's future financial stability.     Flush with surging tax revenues from a strong New York economy and fortified by a resounding re-election victory, he chose to expend that financial and political capital in ways that would have been unheard-of under prior administrations, and even during his own first term.  

Mayor's Budget Calls for Spinach and Few Sweets

It was an evening for President Bush to confront America's anxieties -- and his own.     Only a year after Mr. Bush stood in the House, describing in bold terms how he planned to spend the political capital he had amassed in the 2004 election, the president who addressed the nation on Tuesday evening was far less ambitious, his tone noticeably different.  

Bush's Bold Visions Have Given Way to New Reality

Traveling exhibition of Incan artifacts excavated at Machu Picchu by Yale University Prof Hiram Bingham III in 1912 is source of strife between college and Peru, which contends that items in show were loaned to school and should be returned; Yale maintains that it did return all borrowed objects and retains only those to which it has full title; photos (M)

How a dish prepared in India grabbed the world by the tastebuds. Books of The Tmies, Page 10.

Curry's Conquest

 Handing Over the Power at the Federal Reserve  Stepping down after 18 years as steward of the nation's economy, Alan Greenspan left his successor, Ben S. Bernanke, a wide berth to set his own policy, along with a final increase in short-term interest rates and some major uncertainties. In a new column, David Leonhardt says that Mr. Bernanke has the potential to outshine his predecessor.    BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1    Wounded Anchor in U.S.  Bob Woodruff, the ABC News anchor, and the cameraman Doug Vogt arrived in Maryland to continue treatment for wounds suffered in a roadside bombing in Iraq.     PAGE A8    Diane Sawyer and Charles Gibson are expected to fill in for Mr. Woodruff while he recovers.    PAGE C1    Enron Opening Arguments  On the opening day of the trial of Kenneth L. Lay and Jeffrey K. Skilling, lawyers for the government and the defense told a tale of two Enrons, portraying starkly different versions of why the energy company collapsed in 2001.   BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1    XL Is the Right Number  There has never been a Super Bowl with such a marketable number attached to it. Super Bowl XL is the payoff for the N.F.L.'s stubbornness in sticking with Roman numerals no matter how unwieldy they become.   SPORTSWEDNESDAY, PAGE D1    Oscar Nods for Small Films  Serious intent trumped size for voters of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Small films with political or social themes, including ''Brokeback Mountain,'' ''Good Night, and Good Luck,'' ''Crash,'' ''Munich'' and ''Capote,'' led the Oscar nominations.    THE ARTS,  PAGE E1    Google Falls Despite Profit  Google said its fourth-quarter profit rose 82 percent, to $372 million, but that was not enough to satisfy investors, who had grown accustomed to explosive growth, and its stock fell 12 percent.    BUSINESS DAY, PAGE C1    Risk for Women's Hearts  Women are more likely than men to have a hidden coronary disease in which their heart muscle is starved for oxygen even though their coronary arteries look clear.    PAGE A20

INSIDE

President Bush offered the nation a modest menu of energy, health and education proposals and warned against the ''false comfort of isolationism'' on Tuesday in a State of the Union address that sought to reassert his control over the nation's agenda heading into a pivotal midterm election campaign.     In one of his most striking declarations, Mr. Bush said ''America is addicted to oil'' and set a goal of replacing 75 percent of the nation's Mideast oil imports by 2025 with ethanol and other energy sources.  

Bush, Resetting Agenda, Says U.S. Must Cut Reliance on Oil

Stepping down on Tuesday after 18 years as steward of the nation's economy, Alan Greenspan left his successor a wide berth to set his own policy but some major uncertainties about the future.     Acting with almost choreographic precision, Mr. Greenspan wrapped up his last big initiative as chairman of the Federal Reserve less than an hour before the Senate confirmed Ben S. Bernanke as his successor.  

Exit Greenspan, Amid Questions on Economy

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. will have only one vote, of course, but it may be the decisive one in several of the marquee cases that will dominate the balance of the Supreme Court's term.      By the end of the term in early summer, legal analysts said, the nation will most likely have a good sense of whether Justice Alito will affirm or veer away from the direction set by his predecessor, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, in cases involving the treatment of terror suspects and campaign finance. Justice Alito was confirmed Tuesday by a 58-to-42 vote in the Senate. [Page A21.]  

February 1, 2006

Headlines from February 1, 2006

Opening Arguments in the Trial of Ex-Enron Chiefs

Amid Inquiry, Builder Is Called to Testify About Work for Kerik

All the Numerals Fit to Print (at Least Until It's 2054)

Atomic Agency Sees Possible Link of Military to Iran Nuclear Work

Inca Show Pits Yale Against Peru

Billboard 200

Unpredictable

The Breakthrough

Curtain Call: The Hits

Some Hearts

The Legend Of Johnny Cash

Historical Context for February 1, 2006