The California fires exposed the often-invisible existence of illegal immigrants in ways that were sometimes deadly.

Glare of Fires Pulls Migrants From Shadows

With raw, cold and nasty weather likely, the Breeders’ Cup Classic and seven other Breeders’ Cup races will be determined on uncertain footing. 

Only Certainty at Breeders’ Cup Classic Is Wet Track

A series of race-baiting incidents have left some wondering about the display of Halloween ghouls in nooses.

This Halloween, Man in Noose Wins a Reprieve

Since April, when investors voiced optimism that the housing slide had been contained, shares of the country’s biggest department store chains have fallen by about 30 percent.

This Time, Housing Is Taking Department Stores Down With It

Directors of the brokerage firm have begun to consider whether to replace the embattled E. Stanley O’Neal, and with whom.

Merrill Lynch Weighs Ouster of Top Officer

Some parents kept their children out of a Brooklyn middle school a day after learning about the death of a student who had been infected with a drug-resistant strain of bacteria.

Health Officials Try to Calm Parents About Staph

School systems that say they cannot afford to privately educate disabled children are clashing with parents.

Disabilities Fight Grows as Taxes Pay for Tuition

The nation’s largest mortgage lender and loan servicer reported a $1.2 billion loss in the third quarter of 2007 but said that it expected to return to profitability by the end of the year.

Countrywide Has Big Loss but Upbeat Forecast

In Staten Island, where all politics are not just local but personal, things can become really complicated.

A Youth’s Troubled Court Case, Tangled in Staten Island Politics

Tom Coughlin, the coach of the Giants, who often seems dyspeptic while dealing with the normal minutia of his gloomy trade, was downright chipper after the Giants landed in London on Friday. 

With Change of Scenery, a Change in Coughlin

The fate of Iraq’s former minister of defense will turn on the ability of Iraq’s fractious sects and political alliances to work together.

Execution Case Tests Iraq’s Bid to Ease Divide

A ruling this week by a U.S. Army panel could lead to the overturning of one of the largest courts-martial of World War II.

1944 Conviction of Black G.I.’s Is Ruled Flawed

David Ortiz, who is batting .385 in the playoffs, will play first base for the Red Sox on Saturday, with Kevin Youkilis replacing him for defense if the team has a lead.   

Ortiz Will Start at First; Youkilis Will Take a Seat

A technological revolution is making it possible not just to track down escaping bank robbers but to find missing things and people far more quickly and precisely than ever.

Technology, the Stealthy Tattletale

A hole in Brooklyn reveals larger ones in how this city makes sure that buildings are safely constructed — and in how public officials treat citizens who seek honest answers.

A Hole in Brooklyn, and Scandal at City Hall

 In nearly every frenzied race toward a national championship, there are unscripted moments that yank a title-contending team from the cusp of irrelevance. For Boston College, that moment was Thursday night. 

Ryan Produces Flutie Moment for Boston College

The nation’s fleet of commercial planes is aging as carriers put off buying more comfortable and fuel-efficient jets.

U.S. Airlines Put Off Buying New Planes

A former Harvard quarterback has developed a promising  technology to protect football players from concussions.

Helmet Design Absorbs Shock in a New Way

The price of crude oil hit another record high yesterday, capping a wild week on Wall Street, punctuated by widespread rumors and violent market swings.

Despite Oil, Shares Rise in Wild Ride

The Boston Bruins know how big the Red Sox are, so for the second week in a row they have shifted their start time to please baseball fans. 

Bruins Alter Start Time to Let Fans See the Sox

Homeownership in the United States dropped for a fourth consecutive quarter, suggesting that more Americans will miss their best chance of building wealth.

Homeownership Declines for Fourth Consecutive Quarter

An article in some editions last Saturday about Jesse Friedman, who pleaded guilty in 1988 to committing sex crimes against children in his Long Island home and now says that prosecutors withheld evidence that some of his accusers were hypnotized before testifying before the grand jury that indicted him, misstated part of the professional title of Dr. Sandra Kaplan, who led a team of therapists who treated the children. She is director of the division of trauma psychiatry  not psychology  at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset.

Corrections: For the Record

An article on Thursday about the launching of China’s first lunar probe misspelled the given name of a top scientist with the Chinese space program who said lunar exploration would strengthen the country’s international prestige and national pride. He is Ouyang Ziyuan, not Ouyang Ziyang.

An article in some editions on Oct. 17 about a speech on legal ethics given at the Hofstra University Law School on Long Island by Lynne F. Stewart, the radical lawyer convicted on charges of smuggling messages out of prison for a terrorist client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, misidentified the case in which he was convicted. Mr. Abdel Rahman was found guilty in 1995 of conspiracy to blow up the United Nations building and other New York landmarks; he was not convicted in connection with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center.

Corrections

The Our Towns column on Sunday, about the legal precedents behind a recent federal appeals court ruling that the village of Mamaroneck, N.Y., had improperly denied an application by a religious school for a new building, misstated part of the name of a church attended by Alfred Smith, a Klamath Indian who sued after he was fired for using peyote as part of a sacramental rite. It is the Native American Church, not the North American Church. The article also misstated the year that the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Congress passed after the court rejected Mr. Smith’s religious freedom claim. It was 1997, not 1996.

Moira Lister Gachassin-Lafite, Viscountess of Orthez was a South African-British film, stage and television actress and writer.

October 27, 2007

Headlines from October 27, 2007

Glare of Fires Pulls Migrants From Shadows

Only Certainty at Breeders’ Cup Classic Is Wet Track

This Halloween, Man in Noose Wins a Reprieve

This Time, Housing Is Taking Department Stores Down With It

Merrill Lynch Weighs Ouster of Top Officer

Billboard 200

Rock N Roll Jesus

Magic

Still Feels Good

Family

Exile On Mainstream

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for October 27, 2007