
##3000450 <p> Owners have adopted it as a mantra : the teams in the World Series , the Yankees and the Atlanta Braves , had the highest payrolls in their respective leagues ; the four teams in the league championship series possessed four of the five highest payrolls in the major leagues . <p> Enough already . It 's time to get some other teams spending money and making an impact on next year 's races , and two candidates have come forward and identified themselves as eager participants . They would be the Florida Marlins and the San Francisco Giants . <p> " I do n't know if we 're eager to spend a lot of money , but we 're willing to spend some money this winter to make our club better , " Marlins General Manager Dave Dombrowski said . <p> Brian Sabean , the majors ' newest general manager , said he hopes to be in position to improve the Giants with financial aid . " I would hope so , " he said about the possibility of spending money , " including a way @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ referred to the core of the team , Barry Bonds , considered by many the best player in baseball , and Matt Williams , whose season was curtailed by a shoulder injury . They will cost the Giants $15.3 million next season . <p> Last month the possibility existed that the Marlins and the Giants would become trade partners . That was when Bonds seemed available , and the Marlins were prepared to pounce . But now , Sabean said , " Bonds is untouchable , which I 'm comfortable with . " <p> The Giants had considered trading Bonds because he was unhappy about the club 's dismissal of his father , Bobby , as hitting coach and the direction he believed the team was headed . But , Sabean said : " We met with Barry and it went well . We 've turned the page on what our differences were and we 're excited about the future . " <p> Dennis Gilbert , Bonds 's agent , confirmed that his client is satisfied . " Everything got squared away and he wants to stay , " Gilbert said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have their vision locked on Albert Belle , a free agent whom the Cleveland Indians could easily lose . <p> " We do have interest in Albert Belle , but we have n't talked finances because we ca n't do that , " Dombrowski said . The Marlins will be able to do that beginning Friday , and Arn Tellem , Belle 's agent , said he and Belle would be in Florida Friday or next Monday . <p> Officials of other clubs have heard that the Marlins would be willing to give Belle an unprecedented $10 million a year for four or five years . But Dombrowski said , " all of that is speculation . " <p> The Marlins are in a position similar to the one the St. Louis Cardinals were in a year ago . Having induced Tony LaRussa to take their manager 's job with a $1.5 million salary , the Cardinals had to give him some players to help him win , so they spent much more money than usual to acquire them . <p> The Marlins have lured Jim Leyland with a $1.5 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ That means bolstering their lineup with some good but expensive players . <p> Dombrowski said he wants to get hitting help ( Belle would fill that role ) , a third baseman ( Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox is available ) and a left fielder ( that 's Belle 's position ) or a first baseman , depending on where the Marlins want Jeff Conine to play . <p> " We would like a left-hand hitter in one of those areas and a starting pitcher to go with Kevin Brown and Al Leiter as one-two-three , " the general manager said . " We realize if we do all of those things it could cost us some money and we 're prepared to do that . " <p> John Smoltz would fit nicely as the one in that one-two-three , and the Marlins are apparently prepared to pursue him , too . <p> For the Giants , Sabean said , trades come before free agents . " Trades , " he explained , " are the first thing you do . In the free-agent market you 're at the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But he said he plans to look at the free-agent possibilities , too . <p> With Bonds out of the trade talk , Williams is the player other teams will seek from the Giants . Sabean confirmed that he has spoken with the Indians about the third baseman but said they have not reached the serious stage . <p> Another person who has spoken with the Indians said they were talking about trading pitchers Jack McDowell and Julian Tavarez and infielder Jose Vizcaino for Williams . He said the Indians had also expressed interest in acquiring Jeff King from Pittsburgh and signing Moises Alou as a free agent . <p> Alou has filed for free agency , but he will turn into baseball 's version of a pumpkin if the owners and the players do n't have a new collective bargaining agreement by midnight Thursday . It is highly unlikely that they will . <p> But the uncertainty that exists will create confusion among general managers when they gather in Phoenix this week for their annual meetings . They wo n't know how to proceed with many players . <p> " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ " Dombrowski said , " depending on who they have and who they do n't have , who are free agents and who are not , who is available for trading and who is not . People are in limbo . You have players who have filed for free agency and you ca n't trade them , but maybe in another week you can . " <p> M.V.P. Votes of the 90 's <p> Barry Bonds was named the National League most valuable player three times in the first four years of the 1990 's . Fred McGriff has never been voted m.v.p . Yet Bonds and McGriff share a distinction no other player can claim . They are the only players who have received votes in each of the first six years of the 90 's in the m.v.p. balloting . <p> According to research conducted by the Hall of Fame , Bonds has also earned the most points in the 90 's , a total of 1,431 . Frank Thomas of the Chicago White Sox , who won the American League award in 1993 and ' 94 , is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a rookie in 1990 , when he played only 60 games in the majors . <p> McGriff ranks eighth with 428 votes . He extended his 90 's streak last year with a mere ninth-place vote worth 2 points . The streak will be on the line Wednesday when the N.L. voting is announced . <p> No Sign , but Still Authentic <p> The mystery of the World Series Budball has been solved . <p> Because Bud Selig 's signature is missing from balls being sold for $19.95 as the official 1996 World Series baseball , it appeared that the balls were less than authentic . But Scott Smith , a Rawlings executive , has explained that Budless baseballs were used during the World Series , too . <p> Smith said Rawlings received a request for balls with the acting commissioner 's signature only a few weeks before the Series and was unable to turn out enough for the entire Series . All of the other balls had already been manufactured , and they were used as well as the signed ones . Therefore , Smith said , unsigned balls are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> Not Satisfied With Selig <p> Owners in the National League report growing disenchantment with Bud Selig as acting commissioner . Larry Lucchino of San Diego and Peter O'Malley of Los Angeles , whom Selig has isolated from the power structure , have been named as two of his bigger opponents . <p> " I think the National League will make a move to dump Bud if this fails , " a person on the owners ' side said , referring to the labor agreement . An N.L. person , on the other hand , said Selig still has some solid support . <p> John Harrington of Boston has n't gained friends either . More and more people in baseball have said that once the Red Sox are sold , if he is not part of the ownership group , that Harrington would like to be commissioner or American League president . But his increasingly close alliance with Jerry Reinsdorf of the White Sox has soured some people on him . <p> What took so long to realize it ? " This is the worst thing we ever did , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the three-fourths requirement to ratify an agreement as he emerged from the owners ' meeting last week . <p> Least believed statement emerging from the meeting : " Randy has never said to the labor policy committee or to the executive council or to me that he reached an agreement . " This was from Selig on whether or not Randy Levine had negotiated a deal with Donald Fehr . <p> Least surprising development : Reinsdorf , other owners said , looked as though he was more in control of the meeting than Selig . <p> Most surprising development : O'Malley 's performance in support of the about-to-be-rejected agreement . One meeting participant said O'Malley was a leader , was well prepared , asked thoughtful questions and was rough on Selig . <p> Do n't be surprised if : Selig calls for another vote on the rejected agreement if his initiative with the union tomorrow fails . 
##3000453 <p> SUNDAY 1 P.M. GAMES New York Jets ( 1-8 ) vs . New England ( 6-3 ) <p> Key stats : The Jets 15 interceptions are tied for the most in the N.F.L. with Jacksonville . The Patriots have scored on 31 of the last 32 trips inside the opponents 20 yard line ( 20 touchdowns and 11 field goals ) . <p> Comments : The Jets are getting most of their injured players back , including linebacker Marvin Jones and defensive end Hugh Douglas , just in time to face a runaway train ( New England ) . The Patriots have put it together in the last seven weeks and now they 're in the thick of the division race . Going no place this year , some of the Jets players have been talking about playing spoiler the rest of the way . Drew Bledsoe will do the spoiling this week . <p> Game score : New England 31-17 . Arizona ( 3-6 ) vs . Washington ( 7-2 ) <p> Key stats : Terry Allen has scored 11 of the Redskins 17 touchdowns inside @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Running back Larry Centers ' 61 receptions is the second most in the N.F.L. <p> Comments : Arizona is in a real tailspin now that quarterback Kent Graham will miss the next four to six weeks with a knee injury . Boomer Esiason will resume the starting duties , but he also has an injured big toe and might have to give way to Stoney Case . What a circus . It 's the perfect situation for Washington to shake off the effects of last week 's whipping by Buffalo . The Redskins will be able to get their running game going again and that will put them on the right track to rolling over Arizona . <p> Game score : Washington 26-10 . Atlanta ( 1-8 ) vs . St. Louis ( 2-7 ) <p> Key stats : The Falcons are giving up 27.7 yards per kickoff return , which is the worst in the N.F.L. The Rams are averaging 3.1 yards per rushing attempt , which is No. 29 in the league . <p> Comments : The Falcons finally broke out of their season-long losing streak last week with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by giving Jamal Anderson the football . Surprise . Surprise . Think that might be the way to go this week ? The Rams ca n't run the ball . Lawrence Phillips , the first round pick , is averaging 2.6 yards per carry and has been logging some major bench time recently . The Falcons will win this game if they remember one thing : Give Anderson the ball . <p> Game score : Atlanta 22-13 . Buffalo ( 6-3 ) vs . Philadelphia ( 7-2 ) <p> Key stats : The Bills are 12-3 against N.F.C. East opponents ( 3-0 this season ) under coach Marv Levy . Ricky Watters , the top rusher in the N.F.C. with 898 yards , averages 4.5 yards per carry . <p> Comments : Buffalo knows what works against N.F.C. East teams during the regular season . Unfortunately they do n't fare so well in Super Bowls . But that 's another story . Last week they took Washington out of their game both offensively and defensively . Buffalo 's defense will have to shut down Watters to have a shot at winning @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ty Detmer , who is 4-0 since taking over for the injured Rodney Peete . Detmer will continue to work his magic for the Eagles and the Bills will fall under his spell . <p> Game score : Philadelphia 27-20 . Green Bay ( 8-1 ) vs . Kansas City ( 6-3 ) <p> Key stats : The Packers have scored nine touchdowns of 50 yards or greater this season . The Chiefs offensive line has given up just two sacks in the last four games and their 14 this season is No. 2 in the A.F.C. <p> Comments : This game will showcase the best touchdown passing quarterback in the N.F.L. , Brett Farve with 25 , against one of the best defensive backfields in the league ( six touchdown passes yield this season ) . The Chiefs have slowed down some since getting off to a fast start . A lot of people blame quarterback Steve Bono , who has thrown nine TDs and eight interceptions . Nothing seems to bother the Packers . And the Chiefs fit into that category . <p> Game score : Green Bay 24-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2-7 ) <p> Key stats : The Oilers defense is No. 2 in the A.F.C. in the redzone , yielding 13 TDs on 29 trips by opponents . The Saints defense has the fourth most sacks in the league ( 22 ) , but just one interception . <p> Comments : The Oilers have lost their last two games on late scores by opponents , which is painful considering that they 've been playing well . Playing the Saints should give them an opportunity to get back on the winning track . Quarterback Jeff Chandler did n't play last week because of a groin injury . He 's expected back for this game . In a show of strength interim Saints coach Rick Venturi has suspended defensive end Reynaldo Turnbull for this game for walking off the field before the end of last week 's game . Turnbull 's absence helps the Oilers more . <p> Game score : Houston 29-12 . Indianapolis ( 5-4 ) vs . Miami ( 4-5 ) <p> Key stats : In the last three games against Miami , Jim Harbaugh has completed 56-of-76 passes for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Comments : Both Miami and the Colts have hit the skids lately and Miami may have already slid out of playoff contention . For Dan Marino this will be another milestone game . He needs just 83 yards passing to become the first player in the N.F.L. to throw for 50,000 yards . Last year when he was attempting to get some other passing records against the Colts , he got the records , but the Dolphins lost the game . There wo n't be a repeat of that this time . Marino and the Dolphins will get the whole package . <p> Game score : Miami 28-25 . Oakland ( 4-5 ) vs . Tampa Bay ( 1-8 ) <p> Key stats : The Bucs offensive line has limited opponents to just 1 sack in three of the last four games . Oakland 's defense is limiting opponents to 32.2% on third down conversions . <p> Comments : The return of Errict Rhett still has n't paid any dividends for Tampa Bay . But he wo n't be able to help them until they can iron out some of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that should have won more games than they have , but continues to misfire because of costly penalties . However , the Bucs are the kind of team that the Raiders can play and get away with making mistakes against . Jeff Hostetler will pick apart the defense and the Bucs offense wo n't be able to get on track . <p> Game score : Oakland 26-13 . Pittsburgh ( 7-2 ) vs . Cincinnati ( 3-6 ) <p> Key stats : The Bengals offense has just seven interceptions , fourth fewest in the league , and the defense has 20 interceptions , No. 2 in the league . The Steelers are giving up just 4.8 yards per punt return , the best in the N.F.L. <p> Comments : This was once one of the best rivalries in football , but the Bengals have n't been good enough to keep the fire stoked . The two are still capable of playing some good games . Last year the Bengals had an 18 point lead , but still lost 49-31 . The Bengals seem to be back on track under new coach @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are the kind of team that can easily knock a shaky team off kilter . Mike Tomczak is back from a concussion that knocked him out of last week 's game . He 'll K.O. the Bengals . <p> Game score : Pittsburgh 23-18 . SUNDAY 4 P.M. GAMES Dallas ( 5-4 ) vs . San Francisco ( 7-2 ) <p> Key stats : Troy Aikman is completing 64.1% of his passes , which is No. 1 in the N.F.L. Jerry Rice has averaged 103.7 yards receiving in his six career games against the Cowboys . <p> Comments : This is a make or break game for the Cowboys . If they lose , they 'll face an uphill battle to make the playoffs , let alone get back to the Super Bowl . The thing that the 49ers have to do is not underestimate the heart of a champion . The Niners may understand that more than any other team in the league . The Cowboys ca n't afford anymore boneheaded plays from Aikman like the two that cost them the game against the Eagles last week . Because they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the Cowboys will come out swinging and win . <p> Game score : Dallas 29-27 . Baltimore ( 3-6 ) vs . Jacksonville ( 3-6 ) <p> Key stats : The Ravens lead the A.F.C. with a 68.8 touchdown percentage inside the opponents redzone . The Jaguars defense have held opponents to under 91 yards rushing in the last five games . <p> Comments : Vinny Testaverde leads the A.F.C. with 20 touchdown passes - five fewer than Green Bay quarterback Brett Farve has to lead the N.F.L. But the Ravens have won five fewer games . That 's because the Ravens defense , which has been plagued by injuries , ca n't hold up its end of the deal . If the Jaguars had a rushing attack that came close to equaling their passing attack , they 'd be awesome . These two teams are quite similar in some ways . But the Ravens , by virtue of Testaverde , can score more points . That gives them the edge . <p> Game score : Baltimore 31-14 . Chicago ( 4-5 ) vs . Denver ( 8-1 ) <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ possession in the N.F.L. ( 33:24 ) . The Bears defense has given up 175 points , which ranks No. 28 in the league . <p> Comments : The Bears are in deep trouble now that middle linebacker Bryan Cox is out for the season following surgery on his broken thumb . Denver 's not going to help the Bears ' cause very much . They have the kind of offense that exploits any weaknesses a defense has and it does n't have many , the Broncos will create some . Terrell Davis ( 979 yards ) will likely go over 1,000 yards rushing for the season in this game . Without Cox the Bears do n't have any answers for Davis or quarterback John Elway . Denver will roll . <p> Game score : Denver 34-10 . Minnesota ( 5-4 ) vs . Seattle ( 4-5 ) <p> Key stats : The Vikings 78 penalties are tied with St. Louis for the most in the N.F.C. Chris Warren has averaged 4.6 yards per carry in the last four games as compared to 3.3 in the first five games . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Vikings had an offensive meltdown against the Chiefs last week and could muster just six points . Smith is gone for the season and finding a suitable replacement will be hard . Moon should return from his ankle injury for this game and that will enhance the Vikings chances of winning . The Seahawks got lucky last week against Houston . They also got another strong effort from Warren . They wo n't get past the Vikings . <p> Game score : Minnesota 21-16 . SUNDAY 8 P.M. GAME New York Giants ( 4-5 ) vs . Carolina ( 5-4 ) <p> Key stats : The Giants have just two rushing touchdowns and one is by tight end Aaron Pierce . Lamar Lathon leads the league with 9.5 sacks and the Panthers lead the league with 32 . <p> Comments : The Panthers are flawless at home this season ( 4-0 ) , so the Giants will have their hands full at Ericsson Stadium . Dave Brown is expected back in the lineup after being knocked out against the Cardinals last week with back spasms . The Panthers have the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , so the Giants will have to give Brown maximum protection in order for him to have any chance at running the offense . This could be the most heat he 's faced all season . The Panthers will disrupt the Giants and take another home victory . <p> Game score : Carolina 23-17 . MONDAY 9 P.M. GAME Detroit ( 4-5 ) vs . San Diego ( 5-4 ) <p> Key stats : Tony Martin 's 10 receiving touchdowns leads the N.F.L. Herman Moore 's 63 catches and 822 lead the N.F.L. and his seven TD receptions lead the N.F.C. <p> Comments : The Lions have gone into their annual nosedive and who knows when , of if , they 're going to pull out of it . At least they figured out that they have to get the ball in Barry Sanders ' hands a lot more . He got 150 yards against the Packers last week in a losing effort . If he can get the same production against the Chargers , then the Lions stand a very good chance of winning . Stan Humphries is expected to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two weeks . Humphries will help lift the Chargers over the Lions . <p> Game score : San Diego 26-20. 
##3000455 <p> Two years ago , at the age of 17 , Nick Knapp was a 6-foot-5-inch senior basketball star at Woodruff High School in Peoria , Ill. , who was about to break the state record for career 3-pointers . Then , during a casual pickup basketball game at a local gym , Knapp threw a pass down the court , took a few steps , knelt down and keeled over . His heart had suddenly stopped beating . <p> " I was technically dead , " he has said . <p> In his darkest hours , lying in an intensive-care unit , Knapp was told by the coaches at Northwestern University that he would not lose the scholarship it had offered him , even if he never played basketball again . <p> The school kept its promise . But by doing so , Knapp now contends , it has ended his dreams of a basketball career . <p> Knapp and his doctors say that he has recovered from the collapse . He is working out daily and playing in competitive pickup games . An electronic defibrillator has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wires that reach to his heart to shock it back into beating if it stops again . Knapp desperately wants to play for Northwestern , one of 100 colleges that recruited him out of high school . <p> But Northwestern 's position is that Knapp is at an increased risk of death while playing basketball , and the school will not allow him to even touch the ball during team practices , which he is nevertheless required to attend . <p> When it became clear the university would not change its mind , Knapp , now a sophomore , sued the school to allow him to play under the very scholarship it had given him . <p> The lines were drawn . And curious lines they were . Typically , in an injury-related suit against a university , the school is charged with negligence for failure to deliver appropriate protection for the athlete , a common problem in college and professional sports . But this lawsuit questions whether the university had overprotected an athlete . <p> Last month , Knapp won the first round : A Federal judge in the Eastern @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to let Knapp play . The university appealed to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit , where oral arguments will be heard today . <p> Knapp 's case is being treated in an expedited fashion and a decision is expected quickly . In the meantime , Knapp 's future in the sport is uncertain . Federal Disability Laws Raise Difficult Issues <p> The unique nature of his case makes it difficult to say what type of effect it will have on other athletes , or whether it will serve as a model for similar cases in the future . But it provides a window into the way the judicial system is beginning to handle cases involving disabled or handicapped people in highly competitive sports . <p> How did Knapp overcome what has been the absolute authority of a university 's physician to determine an athlete 's medical eligibility ? The answer lies in the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and the 1990 Americans With Disabilities Act , which attempt to insure that disabled people must be allowed to lead as normal a life as possible . <p> Disability laws @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be excluded from activities simply because paternalistic authorities decide that they are too risky . These laws are transforming modern life , and sports are no exception . This is the type of case that is on the cutting edge of law and medicine in the United States today , and for Northwestern and Nick Knapp it has come to this : The university has been sued because it would n't let a handicapped player play , and that , said the player , is discrimination against his own rehabilitation . <p> " If I believed I was going to die on the basketball court then I would not be going through all this trouble to try to play , " Knapp said in a recent interview . " I do not believe that playing basketball is worth risking your life over . But I have been informed by the best doctors in the country that the consequences are remote . I know that these six doctors who said I should be able to play would not be putting their careers on the line . " <p> After he collapsed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his father , Terry , a high school science teacher , who happened to stop by the gym within moments of his son 's collapse . <p> Why had his heart stopped ? To this day , cardiologists do not know . What they do know is that he did not have a heart attack . Nor does he suffer from HCM , hypertrophic cardiomyopathy , a thickening of the heart muscle wall . And he does not suffer from the inflammations to the heart that took the lives of the basketball stars Hank Gathers , who died during a game for Loyola Marymount , and Reggie Lewis , the Boston Celtic who died while shooting baskets with friends . <p> Knapp said that his doctors believe that his cardiac arrest was caused by depletion of fluids and electrolyte imbalance , basically the lack of enough fluids inside the body . Knapp connects his collapse to a virus he contracted in Finland the week before . <p> " Northwestern is in the wrong here , " said Knapp , who was his high school 's valedictorian . For him , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the right to determine medical eligibility for its athletes . <p> " This whole thing has really transcended the game of basketball and entered into more of a human rights thing , " Knapp said . " This is n't about me playing basketball anymore . This is about a university trying to control my life . " <p> " Northwestern knew of my condition , " he said . " They knew I had had a cardiac arrest , and they still signed me to a national letter of intent and a full basketball scholarship . " <p> The letter , which is an athlete 's pledge to accept a scholarship from a school , was signed on Nov. 9 , 1994 , about seven weeks after Knapp 's heart stopped . Northwestern , located in Evanston , Ill. , had been recruiting Knapp since his junior year in high school . In court papers , the university contended that it was trying to honor its commitment . Was the university motivated by this sense of honor , or the fear of a lawsuit ? Medical Opinions And Moral Issues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be given what he called fair treatment . " I did n't think it would be , you have had a cardiac arrest and you ca n't play , " he said . Had he known that , he said , then he would have tried to enroll elsewhere . <p> The university did not accept the view of Knapp 's physicians that the passage of time had reduced the risk of a second cardiac arrest . The university 's experts , referring to the guidelines adopted at a 1994 Bethesda , Md. , conference on determining eligibility for athletes with cardiovascular abnormalities , said that an athlete with Knapp 's heart condition should not participate in high intensity sports like intercollegiate basketball . In addition , the university argued in court that " it is at best unclear whether Knapp 's defibrillator will restart his heart during the stress of competition . " <p> Knapp and his family have consistently offered to sign waivers of liability , but the university has not accepted . Waivers may be declared void for any number of reasons . The university 's lawyers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sue last fall after Dr. Howard Sweeney , the chief physician for the basketball team , who is not a cardiologist , concluded that Knapp was not medically eligible to participate in intercollegiate basketball . <p> Sweeney said in court papers that he based his judgment on Knapp 's medical records , published medical guidelines and the recommendations of those physicians with whom he consulted . Sweeney did not consult Dr. Lawrence D. Rink , Knapp 's primary cardiologist and the team physician for the Indiana University men 's basketball team , Rink said in court papers . Sweeney has the sole authority on behalf of Northwestern to decide whether a student may compete . According to court papers , he decided that Knapp 's participating in basketball " presented a significant and unacceptable risk . " <p> The university , Knapp 's lawyers contended , had violated section 504a of the Rehabilitation Act , which protects " otherwise qualified individuals " from discrimination on account of disability . The Rehabilitation Act defines a disabled person as one whose impairment substantially limits one or more of his major life activities , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Knapp 's lawyer , Knapp had to show that playing basketball was a major life activity and that the risk to Knapp in playing was not substantial . <p> Deeper moral issues were raised when the medical experts gave their opinions : Is sport worth the risk of death even if the risk is not quantifiable ? If so , who decides ? The university 's physicians ? The athlete ? The athlete 's doctors ? <p> " It might have been better to have left the choice to a panel of physicians , but Congress left it with the courts and the random assignment of this case has left it here with me , " United States District Court Judge James B. Zagel wrote . The judge ruled that basketball was a major life activity for Knapp and that the risk in playing it was not substantial . <p> The judge faced conflicting medical testimony . In the end , he accepted the testimony of Rink , one of the leading sports cardiologists in the country and one of Knapp 's chief witnesses . Rink , who has examined @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ player was not suffering from any structural heart disease . He said the risk of another cardiac arrest was " not substantial . " <p> In the aftermath of Knapp 's collapse , Rink and other physicians recommended that he not play basketball for a year . Knapp complied . Since that time , however , Rink said that Knapp " has participated at maximum intensity and he has been totally asymptomatic during this period . " Rink recommended that Knapp be allowed to play intercollegiate basketball for Northwestern this season . <p> Northwestern 's leading medical witness , Barry Maron , the director of cardiovascular research for the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation , testified that Knapp should absolutely not play competitive basketball . In an affidavit filed in September , Maron said that Knapp " remains at a significant risk for an exercise-induced ventricle fibrillation and cardiac arrest and he should be ruled ineligible for participation in a high intensity sport , such as intercollegiate basketball . " <p> From Maron 's point of view , the reason Knapp should not play basketball is obvious : there is the " @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ -- this is the largest predicated risk factor for a recurrent episode at the present time and in future years . " <p> Why , Maron wondered , would a person choose sport over risk to life . " This is not a situation where we are discussing the mere possibility of someone suffering a reversible injury such as broken bones , a concussion , " he said . Differing Views And No Standard <p> The cardiologists for both sides did agree on one thing : in this case , there were no previous studies , no standard by which to measure . <p> Judge Zagel put it this way : " The risk to Nick Knapp is unquantifiable . " <p> Chapman , Knapp 's lawyer , argued that " even a .01 percent risk would be unacceptable to Northwestern 's medical experts . " <p> Zagel observed that the difference of opinion among medical experts in this case was not unusual , and as for the risk to Knapp , he added : " While some people might find that 1 in 1,000 or 1 in 1,000,000 chance of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remote or minimal risk not be used to legitimize discrimination . . . . Life has risks . The purpose of section 504 , however , is to permit handicapped individuals to live life as fully as they are able , without paternalistic authorities deciding that certain activities are too risky for them . I conclude that Northwestern 's reasons for excluding Nicholas Knapp from playing intercollegiate basketball violate the Rehabilitation Act . " <p> On appeal , Northwestern 's lawyers argued that Zagel was wrong when he ruled that basketball was a major life experience for Knapp . They said that Knapp is not handicapped and that his exclusion from the team does not violate the Rehabilitation Act . <p> In Knapp 's view , Northwestern has humiliated him in ways it probably can not imagine . When he arrived at school in 1995 , he was told he could not suit up . He was not given a number and he was barred from practice . In the team photo last year , he was ordered to wear a suit and tie . He sat in the front row @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the back row with their uniforms on , " he said . <p> Despite the injunction against Northwestern , Knapp missed the Oct. 15 start of basketball practice . The judge 's order has been stayed pending the expedited appeals process . <p> Meanwhile , Knapp 's life is a daily contradiction . <p> " I get up early and go to class during the day , " he said . " Immediately following class I am required to attend practice , two to three hours of my day , in order to keep my scholarship . I ca n't do anything during those two or three hours . I sit with my hands folded across my lap . I am not allowed even to touch a basketball . I ca n't even hold one . Immediately following that , we are required to eat dinner together . After dinner , at 7 P.M. I go to a study session from 7 to 10 P.M. and by then I 'm usually so worn out I have to go to bed . Somewhere during that day I have to find an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ my own , to stay in shape with the rest of the guys . I go to the student center . I use the Stairmaster , the bike , the treadmill . I try to find competitive pickup games as often as I can . " <p> For Knapp , the fight has been costly . He has already spent $100,000 on legal fees . Some $40,000 came from his parents , who gave him the money when he won the scholarship , and the rest has been borrowed . His parents have since separated , but he points out that both his mother and his father agree with his decision to play competitive basketball . For the moment , the passion in his life has been stilled . <p> He is , of course , still a student . And like most sophomores , he is thinking hard about what his major will be . <p> " I 'm still undecided , " he said the other day . " But I 've ruled out medicine and law . Most definitely . " 
##3001370 <p> In telephone calls that stretch into hours , in encounters at street namings and wakes , a widening network of New York City " fire widows " sort through the fallout of their firefighter husbands ' sudden , violent and public deaths . <p> The women talk about their children , their loneliness , their lump-sum payments , the dental benefits that expire after three years , about how grief can rob a person of even the simple pleasure of preparing a home-cooked meal . <p> Was a son 's tantrum provoked by the loss of his father ? Or by the fact that he did not like the shirt she had made him wear ? Why were the children running around with toy fire axes and playing dead ? <p> Who sleeps with more pillows , just to be surrounded by something ? Who still wears a wedding ring ? Who has found the courage to move some of those memorial plaques out of the living room and into the attic ? <p> " There are no guidelines , " said Vina Drennan , whose husband @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 40 days in the burn unit at New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center . " It 's almost chemistry . " <p> In the chaotic aftermath of each new New York City Fire Department death , at each new funeral and each new wake , the widows come forward to offer the families of the newly dead the strange comfort of kinship based on shared grief . <p> Eleven firefighters have died in the last two years , three of them in the last seven weeks . There are more than 300 fire widows now . And many of them have played some part in this loose network of people drawn together by common experience , empathy and the need not to feel alone . <p> They keep in touch by telephone and letter . A few meet as a support group ; two recently went to a Broadway show together . They see each other at Christmas parties , memorial Masses and other official functions . <p> They say they understand , better than others , the bewildering unreality of their experience -- something Randi Wylie explains by relating a dream @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year after three months on the job . <p> In the dream , Mr. Wylie is pushing their year-old daughter down the street in a stroller . Mrs. Wylie runs to meet him , saying : " Tommy ! You 'll never believe the dream I had . I dreamed you were dead . " <p> She wants to take him to the cemetery . " There 's a headstone with your name on it , " she says . He hugs her and kisses her forehead . <p> Then , in her sleep , she heard the baby wailing . She leapt out of bed . Out of the corner of her eye , she noticed that her husband 's side of the bed was empty . " I thought he was at work , " she recalled , telling the story later . " Then I thought : ' Did he die ? Is he alive ? ' " <p> Such moments of confusion are shared , many of the women say . <p> " They 've been through the same thing , " said Maura Lener , whose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sit there for months , waiting , thinking they 're going to show up again . " <p> The women 's relationships have an intertwined , intergenerational quality . Wisdom is handed down from one widow to the next . The answers , when there are any , are often the same , because the questions are the same . <p> " I remember the one question that Vina asked me and it put me in tears , " said Kim Ronaldson , a mother of five , whose husband , Alfred , died in 1991 . " She said to me on the phone , ' Kim , do you ever get over it ? ' I said , ' Oh , Vina , you never get over it . ' " <p> Earlier this month , Mrs. Drennan went to the wake for the latest fallen firefighter , Louis Valentino , who died on Feb. 5 when the roof of a burning auto-body shop collapsed on him . His father asked her : Will I always feel this way ? " You will laugh again , " she told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . " <p> Some widows try to attend every firefighter 's wake , as a gesture of support , or a way of making contact , or because they have been told that the family wants to meet them . <p> At George Lener 's wake , Fire Department officials introduced his widow to the families of the last three fallen firefighters . Two months later , Mrs. Lener went to the wake and funeral of the next firefighter to die , Capt . Wayne Smith . <p> " I ca n't explain it , " said Mrs. Lener , who has three children , ages 13 , 10 and 9 . " It 's almost like a loss for you all over again . I felt very compelled to go . " <p> Captain Smith 's widow went to the wake for Firefighter Wylie , who was the next to die . " It was a nice feeling , it really was , " Mrs. Wylie remembers . " At least I knew that this was a person in my position . " <p> Last month , Mrs. Wylie went @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the wake for John M. Clancy , who was killed when he fell through the floor of an abandoned house in Queens on New Year 's Eve . <p> Mrs. Wylie had never known Mr. Clancy or his wife . But something familiar in the sight of Dawn Clancy that day made Mrs. Wylie weep : there she was , a young widow , six months pregnant with her first child . <p> " One year ago today , I was in your seat , " Mrs. Wylie remembers telling her . " I have three small children . I 'm here to let you know that , one year later , I 'm still standing . It can be done . " <p> Mrs. Ronaldson still can not bring herself to go to wakes and funerals . " The minute the bagpipes play , I 'm wasted , " she said . She did arrange for a ride to Captain Drennan 's funeral , then stayed home at the last minute . <p> Instead , she wrote a letter . She received eight letters from fire widows immediately after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ realize , " Damn it , if they made it , I can make it . " <p> Many of the women follow up their letters with a phone call . They begin by simply asking how things have been . In more than a few cases , they say , the conversations do not come to a close for over an hour . <p> " Sometimes you 'll call and they 'll start from when they knocked on the door , " said Louise O'Connor , whose husband , William , died with five other firefighters when the roof of a Waldbaum 's market collapsed in 1978 . " And they 'll just talk right up until the funeral and then all the nonsense that goes on afterward . " <p> For those with families , the talk often centers on their children . Mrs. Ronaldson remembers Mrs. O'Connor 's warning that each of her children might grieve in a similar fashion -- but all at different times . <p> Mrs. O'Connor told Mrs. Wylie , whose three children were all under 6 -- the same ages as the O'Connor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was killed , the children had taken to dressing up as firefighters and playing dead . <p> " Here it is , he 's dead two weeks and there 's Jean-Marie lying on the floor , dead , " she said . " And Lisa and Billy , standing over her with axes and helmets on . And they go , ' Oh , well , she 's dead . ' And they walk away ! " <p> Other topics of discussion include how to handle family holidays , first holy communions , graduations , even family meals . Nearly two years passed , Mrs. Drennan said , before she could bring herself to cook a real family dinner . <p> " I 've talked to other widows and they say the same thing , that the association with food and love is so strong , " she said . " Everybody usually does have a spot at the table . And to sit there and see that empty chair . " <p> " One of the widows tells a funny story , " Mrs. Drennan said . " She said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the same place for pizza so much that now I have a Monday night place , a Tuesday night place . . . " <p> There are also decisions to be discussed : financial questions , matters of medical benefits , how to handle publicity , whether to try to return to school , whether to take the risk of planning a family vacation . <p> " You realize all the decisions are resting on your shoulders , " Mrs. Ronaldson said . " Should I get the new car ? Should I let the children go to college ? I do n't even want to let them out of the house . " <p> And there are fears , Mrs. Drennan said : " Like nobody will ever love you again . " She said she now understands stories she could never fathom before , stories about widows who made the mistake of remarrying too soon . <p> " Now I think , God , I would have been so vulnerable if anybody had taken advantage of me at that point , " she said . " Because it 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bed is so big and there 's nobody to hug me . " <p> That kind of acceptance -- a refusal to pass judgment on another widow or to attempt to tell her what she ought to do -- is an attitude that some widows say best characterizes their conversations . <p> " I used to hate people that said , ' Oh , you should do this now , ' " Mrs. Drennan said , affecting a meddler 's whiny tone . " ' You should go back to teaching . It 's been six months , you know . You did n't have the greatest marriage . ' <p> " Sometimes we can just laugh about how they give you a time frame : ' Well , it 's 12 weeks now . That 's enough . Go find another man . ' " <p> During the 40-day hospital vigil before Captain Drennan died -- 40 days Mrs. Drennan describes as " the most terrifying of my life " -- one firefighter who sat with her , day after day , was a young man she had never met @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a ray of sunshine , this young man , " Mrs. Drennan remembered . Months later , he stopped by her home and they ended up taking a drive to the Jersey Shore , just to talk . <p> Then late one night last October , returning home with her son , Mrs. Drennan found a man waiting with bad news . " It 's Petey , " he said . For Mrs. Drennan , it was " like you lost a part of you again . " <p> Through a mutual friend , Mrs. Drennan learned that Mr. McLaughlin 's parents wanted to meet her . She drove to the wake and introduced herself . When Mrs. McLaughlin then invited her home for dinner , she went . <p> " She immediately just wrapped me up , " Mrs. Drennan said . " I think we 'll be friends forever . " 
##3001371 <p> Through the darkest days of the recession in the late 1980 's and early 1990 's , there was a certain tenet of faith in the New York region : Like the seasons , the business cycle was eternal , and when the downturn was over old-fashioned growth would return . <p> For most of the country , that is exactly what happened . In one year of recovery , 1992 to 1993 , the nation as a whole recovered all the jobs lost in the recession and even gained a few more . <p> But the New York region , which sprawls from the pharmaceutical belt around Princeton , N.J. , through the financial empires of Wall Street and the once military-dependent corners of Long Island and Connecticut , has recovered only about a third of the 770,000 jobs it lost , and shows no signs of quickly regaining the rest . <p> To be sure , the economy of New York , New Jersey and Connecticut is no longer sinking . But after four years , the recovery has become a puzzling economic phenomenon in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weaker , spottier and downright stranger than anything before it , because so many of the region 's industries have been fundamentally rearranged and in some cases seriously eroded . <p> Much of the aircraft industry on Long Island , for example , is considered gone forever . Hartford 's title as the nation 's insurance capital has become mostly honorary as companies have merged and shrunk . <p> " One step forward and one step back is a fair characterization , " said Matthew T. Crosson , president of the Long Island Association , a business and civic group , " but there have n't been a lot of steps forward . " <p> For many of the region 's industries , the pressures are compounded by fierce competition from other parts of the country and the world where labor costs are lower and where governments spend lavishly to attract new business . <p> Last week , an influential planning group , the Regional Plan Association , warned that if current patterns held , the 31 counties of the New York metropolitan region could enter a long-term economic decline in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ five-year study , said the region must rebuild the urban centers ; connect the now-separate transit systems into an integrated whole , and restructure the local education systems to strengthen poorer districts and to prepare students for the changing workplace of the 21st century . <p> Other experts are not quite as pessimistic , arguing that the region is simply struggling through an unusually slow , uneven recovery from a long and deep recession . But whatever view turns out to be right , it is clear that the upheavals in the last decade have rewritten many rules of the economic game . <p> Princeton , N.J. , provides a good example of the new topsy-turvy economy . The city is an anchor of the pharmaceutical corridor that runs from Trenton to New Brunswick . The recession had not been as bad there . Employment -- much of it concentrated at landmarks like Johnson &; Johnson and Bristol Meyers-Squibb -- had risen steadily from 1990 to a peak in 1993 of nearly 51,000 workers . <p> But the succeeding years have been a nightmare , largely because of managed health care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ -- even the teaching hospitals of Manhattan and the insurance companies of Hartford -- to cut costs . In 1994 , the New Jersey drug industry shed about 2.8 percent of its total jobs , and in 1995 it lost another 4.3 percent , state figures show . <p> " The bottom line in terms of the economy is that the cutbacks that the pharmaceuticals are doing will continue , " said Robert F. Johnston , president of Johnston Associates , a venture capital firm in Princeton that specializes in the drug industry . <p> " There is going to be more firing by the big guys than hiring by the little guys , " Mr. Johnston said . <p> Other forces have deeply complicated the recovery . <p> Layoffs have swept the once-inviolate public sector as cities and states confront swelling deficits . In addition , Republicans are now in power in New York City and the three states , and all are on a crusade to cut government spending in the hope that lower taxes will spur business expansion and lure new companies . But so far that has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the jobs eliminated after the 1987 stock market crash , even though the securities business has boomed . <p> An aging population , nervous about job security , has cut back on consumer spending . <p> In addition , unusual economic shifts in the suburbs have contributed to the region 's weak recovery . Places like White Plains , Morristown , N.J. and Stamford , Conn. , whose corporate office parks have been among the great motors of growth in the region for the last 30 years , stumbled almost as badly in the recession as New York City did -- and some did worse . And most have been bypassed in the recovery because of corporate downsizing . <p> So great are the changes that in some ways the economic health of New York City now looks better than that of its suburbs . <p> While new economic forces have created some winners , the good news is mixed with bad . Some start-up pharmaceutical companies around Princeton , for example , have thrived by taking contracts from larger ones . That allows the larger companies to shed jobs even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And with some winners , success has done little for local employment . After 10 years of struggle , the Liposome Company in Princeton received Federal approval in December for its first commercial product , a drug to fight fungal infections . <p> The company won , but New Jersey lost . Even though Liposome plans to keep its scientists and top executives in Princeton , it will gradually transfer production of the drug to Indianapolis , where labor is cheaper and where the company was able to buy a factory site from a bankrupt competitor . <p> " There 's no continuum anymore , no pattern that stays for any length of time -- there 's no set formula , " said Jack L. Atkins , a real estate developer in West Orange , N.J. " It feels like you ca n't stay happy too long . " Structural Problems A Shrinking Base Of Corporations <p> When New York City emerged from the fiscal crisis of the mid-1970 's , the economy surged with a vengeance as pent-up demand produced a buying spree of retail goods and real estate , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recovery has produced nothing of the kind . The recession from 1989 to 1992 eliminated 580,000 jobs in New York State , 262,000 in New Jersey and 165,000 in Connecticut , according to a study by Nicholas Perna , chief economist for the Fleet Financial Group in Hartford . Since then , Mr. Perna said , New York has regained only 33 percent of its jobs , New Jersey has regained 67 percent and Connecticut only 18 percent . <p> Experts say those numbers reflect deep structural problems in the region 's economy . Chief among them is the concentration of company headquarters -- 112 of the nation 's top 500 corporations are based in the region , and many continue to shrink as corporate America merges , downsizes and sheds workers . <p> Corporate layoffs continue to be the greatest drag on economic and psychic health . Following a string of mergers by other banks , the merger of Chase Manhattan and Chemical Bank , for example , is expected to eliminate 12,000 jobs . <p> In New Jersey , AT &T; said it would eliminate 7,000 workers this year @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Aetna Life and Casualty Company is to sell its property-casualty unit to Travelers Insurance next month , costing another 1,500 jobs . <p> Some of the greatest pressures are in health care , insurance and pharmaceuticals , three of the region 's largest industries , as managed care and the pressure to lower medical costs sweep the nation . <p> But corporations are not the only ones cutting back . The thousands of military jobs that were cut by the Federal Government in the early 1990 's have been compounded by waves of cuts at city and state agencies . In the last two years , for example , New York City has cut 16,000 municipal employees , leaving a work force of 233,000 . <p> And the cuts are likely to continue ; Connecticut , New York State and New York City all face major budget shortfalls in the coming year . <p> One of the harshest assessments of the region 's economic health comes from the Regional Plan Association , which studied employment trends and several of the region 's largest industries from 1982 through 1992 , a period @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ study found that the New York region came in last in employment growth among the nation 's 15 largest metropolitan areas , generating only an 8 percent increase in jobs . Several metropolitan areas that are widely thought to be graying industrial laggards did far better -- the Cleveland-Akron region had a 13 percent employment gain , while the number of jobs in the Detroit area grew by 22 percent . <p> Perhaps even more unsettling , the study found that the New York region 's biggest industries -- financial services , the electronic media and publishing , the arts and tourism , health services and fashion -- suffered steep losses in their share of the national and global markets . On average , it said , the industries ' market share shrank 25 percent by 1992 from 1982 . <p> Such weak performance over a decade , combined with the longstanding handicaps faced by business in the New York region , like high wages , taxes and real estate prices , are provoking urban planners , economists and business executives to ask : Will it only get worse ? <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Claude Shostal , president of the Regional Plan Association , " but if nothing changes we could be facing an economic abyss . " <p> But others suggest that the region , for all its problems , may simply be where it has been for 200 years -- at the head of the curve as the rules of economic engagement change throughout the world . <p> " This region was No. 1 for so long people think that something is terribly wrong , " said Saskia Sassen , a professor of urban planning and an economic analyst at Columbia University . <p> She attributed the region 's poor performance to the maturing of its industries and the inevitable catching up by other urban areas producing goods and services that become inexpensive and standardized . <p> But to Professor Sassen , the region is well-positioned to catch the next wave of economic expansion . <p> " There was Pax Britannica and London was No. 1 , " she said . " There was Pax Americana and New York was No. 1 . Now the rules have changed , and rankings do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any city or region has to be plugged into the global economic network , " she said . " And on that score , New York is connected . " Signs of Strength More Tourists And Super Stores <p> Despite all the region 's problems , there are small glimmers of hope for the 11 million people who work here -- and the nearly 1 million who do not have jobs . <p> For the first time since the recession , the region is faring no worse -- or at least not much worse -- than the nation . <p> Indeed , at a time when the nation 's economy has slowed to a standstill , New York City and its suburbs have shown scattered signs of strength . <p> In Westchester and Fairfield counties and in northern New Jersey , where the construction boom in the late 1980 's left many office buildings begging for tenants , vacancy rates have shrunk steadily for three years . <p> And real estate experts on Long Island and in New Jersey say that commercial properties that went unsold for years have recently changed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prices have finally bottomed out . <p> Another positive sign comes from Wall Street . Although the city 's largest brokerage houses offer scant hope of a hiring boom , they show little inclination to leave New York , as had long been feared , thanks in part to significant tax breaks from the city . <p> In recent months , firms like Morgan Stanley and First Boston have either moved to or leased new headquarters in Times Square and the Flatiron District . <p> In addition , the lofty year-end bonuses being dispensed to Wall Street executives -- many exceeding $100,000 this year because of the bull market -- are sure to filter down through luxury car sales and the like . <p> Some of the strongest signals are coming from the city itself , especially Manhattan . Tourism , spurred by the low value of the dollar and lower hotel taxes , has soared . Retail sales are up , helped in part by the opening of several huge new suburban chain stores -- Bed , Bath and Beyond , Barnes &; Noble and others . <p> " We @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Alfred Lepore , president of Ferrara 's , the pastry shop on Grand Street in the Little Italy section of Manhattan . <p> This year , for the first time in its 100-year history , Ferrara 's is expanding . It will open three new shops in Manhattan , one on 42d Street just off Broadway , joining a wave of fresh investment in Times Square , long blighted , but now resurgent . <p> In fact , for evidence that the rules for economic success have changed , one might take a walk in Manhattan , starting at Broadway and 47th Street , under the neon blast of Morgan Stanley and Company , which moved into its headquarters there last year . It announces its link to the international economy loudly , with 10-foot-high electronic zippers that display stock prices and huge digital clocks displaying the time in London , Moscow , Tokyo and other cities . <p> On 42d Street , the refurbished New Victory Theater opened two months ago . Seven other blighted theaters are expected to reopen in the next two years , part of a surge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be struck by clusters of foreign tourists . And somewhere along the way there might also be a movie crew , since more feature films and television series are being shot in the city than at any time since the 1950 's . <p> Along the Avenue of the Americas , from 23d Street to 14th Street , there is even more evidence of economic promise . This strip has attracted more than 12 huge stores , like Today 's Man and Filene 's Basement , to its long-derelict lofts and warehouses . <p> Farther south is New York University , where student applications from around the world have soared ( as at Columbia , 100 blocks uptown ) . <p> Then there are TriBeCa and the caverns of lower Manhattan , where hundreds of software designers and computer artists have formed Silicon Alley , a cluster of start-up companies hoping to take advantage of the cyberspace boom . <p> Since almost all these ventures are small -- many consisting of one person and a computer -- they provide little promise of a broad upswing . But Manhattan has clearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two-year-old group in which computer entrepreneurs exchange advice and business contacts , now has 2,000 members , representing more than 1,000 Manhattan companies , according to Brian T. Horey , the association 's president . <p> For that and other reasons , analysts say , New York City is approaching the millennium with something of vast value -- an improved image as a safe , stimulating and profitable place to do business . <p> " Clearly , there are a host of possibilities in the city , " said Henry Raimando , chief economist for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey , who believes that the region 's best economic prospects lie in the city , not the suburbs . <p> " The old star that was in Manhattan exploded and moved out , " he said . " Now a new star is forming at the core . " Wounded Confidence Wary Consumers , Weary Psyches <p> Changes in the local economy may also be affecting residents more deeply than statistics can show . A mood of penny-pinching pessimism -- reported by retailers and real estate professionals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ <p> " People are worried about their jobs and they are so much more cautious , " said Anthony Chianese , general manager of Brewster Honda in Brewster , N.Y . <p> " I would say the economy is pretty flat right now as far as consumer confidence goes , " Mr. Chianese said . <p> Economists and local planners say , however , that the changes go beyond mood , and that the 1990 's are leaving a much deeper mark on the region by widening the gap between rich and poor . <p> While there are perhaps growing opportunities for highly paid computer software engineers and designers , many of the new jobs being created simply are not as financially good as the ones that were lost . <p> On Long Island , for example , two of the fastest-growing industries in recent years were restaurants and home health care services -- neither of which paid more than about $18,000 for a worker 's annual salary , according to the Long Island Association . <p> By contrast , of the fastest shrinking industries -- aircraft and parts , search @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ than $49,730 a year in average salary . <p> " The biggest problem we have is convincing these folks there are no jobs anymore like the ones they used to do , " said Michael B. Falcone , the Suffolk County labor commissioner . <p> " They made $60,000 , now they 're making $35,000 , " Mr. Falcone said . " They try to eke out an existence but it 's tough , very tough . " <p> New investment and spending patterns in this decade have compounded the jobs issue , economists say . Professor Sassen at Columbia argues , for example , that much of the region 's past prosperity was based around a middle class that spent most of what it earned and an upper class that invested locally . But the middle class is stressed and cautious , and the rich are as likely to invest abroad as in the business down the block . <p> The changes are also pushing some residents toward a broader search for direction in their lives . <p> At St. Mark 's Episcopal Church in Mount Kisco , N.Y. , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ segment of the church is Sunday services for families . <p> " There is this spiritual energy and response , " he said . " They have seen the economic uncertainty . They have watched their parents struggle , achieve and buy expensive homes in Bedford and Chappaqua . They are seeing the uncertainty and that inevitable affluence does n't follow , so they 're looking for something more . " <p> " I think there is a rediscovery of a spiritual dimension in life , " he added . " Because of this collapse of certitude . " <p> CORRECTION-DATE : February 24 , 1996 , Saturday <p> CORRECTION : A chart on Monday with an article about the New York region 's slow recovery from the most recent recession misstated the years for a comparison of business starts and failures . The years being compared were 1994 and 1995 , not 1984 and 1985 . <p> Graphs : " ECONOMIC PULSE : The Region 's Checkered Recovery " <p> A study by the Fleet Financial Group in 1992 shows the recession of the early 90 's hit the tristate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it did the United States as a whole . <p> Graphs compare the tristate region to other major metropolitan areas of the United States with respect to job growth and share of U.S. output in major industries between the years 1982 and 1992 . Graphs also show effect of the recession on different sectors of the job market in New York , New Jersey , and Connecticut during 1993 , 1994 , and 1995 . And finally , graphs provide an economic sampler of economic health in the region during the ' 90 's . ( Sources : Bureau of Labor Statistics ; Fleet Financial Group , hartford ; Dun and Bradstreet , Economic Analysis Department ) ( pg . B4 ) 
##3001372 <p> Reuniting with his family was harder than Gregoire Mutombo expected . <p> In August , nearly 10 years after he left his wife and children in Zaire , Mr. Mutombo brought them to live with him in Jamaica , Queens . But his efforts to navigate the gulf between their culture and his adopted one have been tinged with frustration . <p> " I did n't know them , " said Mr. Mutombo , 37 , who since 1986 has lived in New York City , where he went to college and got a job with a beverage company , and who saw his son and three daughters once a year at most . " This is a big time for me to learn about them , " he said , " and they have to learn about me . " <p> There are little things , like the dinnertime fracas over Mr. Mutombo 's acquired distaste for red meat and his family 's preference for it . There are the images of docile , doting young children that Mr. Mutombo has to banish from his memory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . And there are dicier things , like his wife 's immediate desire to have another child . They are expecting a baby in June . <p> " In Africa , the more children you have , the wealthier you are , " Mr. Mutombo said one recent evening as he waited for his daughter Clares to fix a compromise chicken dinner in the small two-story house he bought in Jamaica . " But that 's not true necessarily here . I 've been in Western society longer than they have . Sometimes it 's difficult to translate my views without being accused that I do n't care . " <p> That is exactly the kind of translation that Mr. Mutombo is hoping his wife , Anne , will absorb through the Newcomer School : Academy for New Americans , a public high school for immigrants that opened in September in Long Island City . The school is intended for teen-agers who have been in this country less than a year and speak little English . The Mutombos ' daughters -- Christine , 14 , Lydia , 15 , and Clares @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Jacques , 20 , is too old . <p> But in November , the school started a program for parents like Mrs. Mutombo . In title , it is an English class . In practice , it teaches the basics of life in a new country and a large , frenetic city . <p> " We want to use the class as an acculturation process , " said the principal , Lourdes Burrows . <p> The Newcomer School , an experiment in New York City and one of a few in the country , is an effort to help the immigrants pouring into the city , particularly northern Queens , where schools are drastically overcrowded . In its first semester , enrollment has gone to about 500 students from 60 , and about 15 new students show up each week . <p> From its inception , the school , which teaches many subjects in students ' native languages , was meant to provide job counseling , health care guidance , housing information and naturalization advice to families . Ms. Burrows said a recent donation from a nonprofit group would allow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ library and hold seminars for parents on immigrant issues . But so far , the school has been able to afford only the weekly two-hour English class , conducted by teachers who volunteer their time . <p> Although attendance at the class is still modest , the parents who go seem eager to drink in anything that might make their transition easier . Like the Mutombos , many have realized that the move to a new country may be harder on parents than on children and that some of the most important cultural adjustments need to be made within families . <p> Grace Gonzalez , 36 , left Ecuador in October with her two sons and moved into her parents ' two-bedroom apartment in Astoria . Divorced and unable to use her secretarial skills until she learns English , Ms. Gonzalez has had to give up the middle-class life style she had in the city of Guayaquil as she straddles the worlds of her parents and her children . <p> At night , she shares a bedroom with her mother , Flor Gutierrez , who came here without work papers 25 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ job in a zipper factory . Sometimes a niece sleeps with them , too . Her sons , Abraham Hernandez , a 17-year-old student at the Newcomer School , and Ricardo Hernandez , 12 , share the other bedroom with her father , Modesto Gonzalez , whose job is installing public telephones . <p> When she goes to class at the Newcomer School , Ms. Gonzalez has to take along her 4-year-old nephew , Adrian Tapia , for whom she baby-sits during the day . <p> " It is difficult , this situation , " Ms. Gonzalez said , keeping track of the children in the small , sunny apartment one afternoon . " I want to speak more English so I can work . When I work , I want to move to my own apartment . " <p> On a recent morning , Ms. Gonzalez and Mrs. Mutombo joined a handful of parents squeezed into child-sized desk chairs in a semicircle before a blackboard full of vowels and verbs . <p> The teacher , Mary Burke , whose main job at the school is to coordinate class schedules , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clearer with passing Spanish and shreds of French . <p> Ms. Burke resorts to carefully repeated enunciation . She also has an arsenal of facial expressions and pantomime , liberally employed in a recent reading explaining the Martin Luther King Jr . holiday . <p> For " birthday , " Ms. Burke sang " Happy Birthday to You " ; for " civil rights march , " she high-stepped around the room ; for " arrested , " she acted the part of someone being hauled away in handcuffs . <p> Ms. Burke spends much of the class trying to teach words and concepts that will help her students as they do daily errands , try to find work , navigate the subway and help their families settle in and get along . <p> Forehead creased in concentration , Mrs. Mutombo pored over the sheet of paper the teacher handed out . She recognized the first picture as the teacher said the English word " frog . " Next to it were a fish and a duck . But she could not make out the figure in the fourth drawing . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ oiseau noir , " Ms. Burke said , using fractured French for black bird . She pantomimed a bat . She tried humming the theme song from " Batman . " Finally , looking around the classroom , she asked , " Does anybody know how to say ' bat ' in French ? " <p> No one did . ( It 's chauve-souris . ) Smiling apologetically , Ms. Burke moved on to pictures of a tree and an owl . She was more interested in hammering home the simpler point of the pictures , that they could be used to illustrate the words " first , " " second " and " third , " crucial in making appointments and following street directions . <p> " If you go to a business , they might tell you to come back on the first of the month , and you have to know what they mean , " Ms. Burke said . Later , she took out a map of New York City and showed the class how to find their homes , the school and assorted other places . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Road , a 32d Street and a 32d Avenue , can play cartographical havoc even with old-timers . <p> Mrs. Mutombo , a 35-year-old seamstress who speaks French and three African languages -- Swahili , Lingala and Tshiluba -- is not learning English as quickly as her three daughters , who say they feel very comfortable in the all-immigrant school , even though only a few other students , from Haiti and Morocco , speak French . Each night , before they go upstairs to a bedroom they have papered with magazine cutouts of models and actors , the girls do their homework and , after watching a French-language news program on a cable station , soak up shows like " Beverly Hills 90210 . " <p> " She 's doing so-so with the English , " Lydia said of her mother , as she and her sisters worked math problems on one of the nightly quizzes their father gives them . " We try to speak English with her , but we still ca n't speak very well . " <p> Still , to Mrs. Mutombo , the classes are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her find a job , especially since her husband is afraid he may lose his job as a data control coordinator at a beverage company in Westchester that may be moving to Florida . <p> There is also the hope that the classes will help Mrs. Mutombo understand the new culture and life style of her husband , who divorced her in 1986 after leaving Kinshasa , Zaire 's capital , to escape the oppressive government and make a better life . He later arranged to send the family to relatives in France . Meanwhile , Mr. Mutombo married and divorced another woman . Then a few years ago , he wrote to Anne 's parents asking if he could marry her again and move the family to Queens . <p> Now , as the family pieces itself and its different cultures together , the new baby is both a source of anxiety and excitement . <p> " It will be funny , " Lydia said , " because he will be American and we are African . " Middle School Is Planned for Newcomers <p> Although barely through its first @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Last Tuesday , the board of Community School District 30 in northwestern Queens voted to start an all-immigrant middle school across the street from the Newcomer high school at 41st Avenue and 28th Street in Long Island City . <p> Angelo Gimondo , the superintendent of the district , which stretches across Long Island City , Astoria , East Elmhurst and Jackson Heights , said the school would be for grades 6 , 7 and 8 and would start in September , pending approval by the City Board of Education . <p> With room for only 300 students , the middle school would hardly make a dent in the district 's booming immigrant population ; Dr. Gimondo said that roughly one quarter of the 28,000 students who attend kindergarten through eighth grade in his district are recent immigrants from 118 countries . But he said the school might lead to the creation of an elementary school in the next few years . <p> Dr. Gimondo , who has been working closely with the Newcomer School 's principal , Lourdes Burrows , said the middle school would be patterned after the high @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and social studies in students ' native languages whenever possible . <p> To date , Dr. Gimondo knows of one big difference in the schools . Students who attend the middle school will be transferred into mainstream schools after one year ; at the high school there is no requirement that students leave after one year . 
##3001373 <p> As he began first grade in 1991 , a boy known in legal papers as E.J. was performing schoolwork at or above grade level . His reading ability placed him in the 99th percentile . But the boy 's teacher said he was restless and disruptive , repeatedly touched classmates and sometimes fought with them , blurted out noises and soiled his pants . <p> A few weeks later , E.J. 's mother asked school district officials to evaluate him to determine if he was disabled and eligible for special-education classes and services . Initially , officials refused , even though the boy 's mother had told them that the psychologist she sent him to had found he had attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder . <p> A long and nasty court fight ensued . And this one-school district in the hills of western New Jersey first received a scolding from an administrative law judge and later got an ominous ruling from a Federal appeals court that the school district , and even individual officials and teachers , could be liable for compensatory and punitive damages . <p> The ruling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia , has alarmed school board officials across the country . It has prompted two national education organizations to ask Congress to amend the laws involved in E.J. 's case so that a school district would no longer be exposed to financial damages for education decisions made in good faith . <p> The scolding came in September 1994 from an administrative law judge in New Jersey , Richard McGill . He accused district officials of being unwilling to acknowledge that E.J. suffered from neurological disorders despite ample and reliable evidence . Judge McGill said district officials engaged in " seemingly endless attacks " on the boy 's mother and left her facing " an enormously burdensome struggle " to secure her son 's legal rights . <p> Then last October , the Federal appeals court found that between September 1991 and April 1993 the district violated the child 's rights under two Federal laws guaranteeing special school programs for disabled children , the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 . <p> In a rare move that is troubling school officials far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could receive compensatory and punitive damages . Sharon Moore , the school district 's lawyer , said punitive damages could come out of the school officials ' own pockets if it could be shown that they engaged in intentional wrongdoing . But Arthur Cernosia , a lawyer and consultant who advises the education commissioners of New York , New Jersey and the New England states on Federal laws for the learning disabled , said he knew of only one case , in West Virginia , involving an award of damages against a teacher of a child with a reading disability who had been given a written test when the child was entitled to an oral one . A jury awarded the parents $15,000 , Mr. Cernosia said . <p> The appeals court returned the case to a Federal district judge in Trenton for a trial on the merits of the case , and any possible damages that might be awarded . The trial has not yet been scheduled , but lawyers for both sides are expected to meet on Thursday for a settlement conference in Federal court . <p> The appeals @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ education said . Most lawsuits involving discrimination against the disabled end with school systems ' being ordered to pay for private schooling , therapy or other special programs , they said . <p> That was done in this case . In September 1994 , Judge McGill ordered the district to send E.J. to a private academy and pay his tuition of $23,000 a year . In addition , the district pays nearly $13,000 more annually for his transportation , private psychological counseling and physical therapy , said Joseph L. Padden , the district 's business administrator . <p> The threat of a financial-damage award is a " real heavy hammer , " said Gwendolyn Gregory , deputy general counsel for the National School Boards Association . " It 's a very , very disturbing case for school districts across the country , " Ms. Gregory said . " It could have really dire consequences . You 're just giving parents money out of taxpayers ' pockets . " <p> The district 's insurance policy covers compensatory damages but not punitive damages , said Carol Burns , Superintendent of Schools for Mansfield @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and consists of one elementary school with 670 pupils . <p> Ms. Moore , the school district 's lawyer , said the district had not decided whether it would indemnify any individual school officials who might be ordered to pay punitive damages . <p> Ms. Gregory argued that Congress never intended financial damages for violations of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act . <p> " It 's blackmail to an extent , " she said . " You 'll just give parents whatever they want to avoid a lawsuit . " <p> Ms. Gregory said the school boards association and the American Association of School Administrators want Congress to amend the laws to prohibit compensatory and punitive damage awards . <p> Although E.J. , now 10 , is in a private academy , his mother , who asked that she be identified only by her initials , W.B. , as in the court papers , said she plans to press on with her Federal suit . <p> " They should be accountable for their actions , " she said , referring to school officials . " They did very wrong . @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and academically . Why should I have to go to court to get help with his bathrooming problem ? Kids were spitting at him because teachers would n't wipe his nose . If he had braces on his legs , they 'd help him in gym and classes . He has braces in his mind . " <p> Ms. Moore called the mother 's charges in court papers " a complete exaggeration of what happened . " <p> Ms. Moore said school officials did not believe that E.J. was educationally disabled in first grade because his work was at or above grade level . In second grade , when academic problems became apparent , officials sought to provide for him in a regular classroom , or , as the law says , the " least restrictive " environment , Ms. Moore said . <p> " No matter what they tried to do , she wanted something different , " Ms. Moore said . " The parent was just pushing and pushing and pushing in this situation . It 's not always the mother who knows best . " <p> Dr. Burns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ case . " Everyone is very much concerned about the outcome , " the Superintendent said . " We try to go on . " <p> Mr. Cernosia , the consultant , said that lawsuits like E.J. 's are increasing around the country and that school boards are paying increased premiums for liability insurance because of them . Some insurers are no longer even providing coverage , said Perry Zirkel , a Lehigh University professor who has recently completed a study of trends in education lawsuits . Professor Zirkel said suits charging discrimination against special-education students are on the rise while other lawsuits in the field of education are on the decline . <p> The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act gives parents strong rights , Mr. Cernosia said . School districts are legally obligated to evaluate a pupil thought to have a learning disability so that a special education plan can be tailored to the child 's needs , he said . Parents , teachers and pediatricians can request an evaluation . If it is denied , a parent can appeal to a state administrative law judge , as was done @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said , if a parent disagrees with the finding in an evaluation , the parent is entitled to an independent evaluation at school expense . <p> In E.J. 's case , the appeals court found that the school district took too long to conduct its evaluation . Evaluators found that the boy was not entitled to a special education program , but when the mother asked for an independent evaluation , the district waited three months to authorize one . Meanwhile , the mother had sued . <p> In the summer of 1992 , the independent analysis found that E.J. suffered from " a severe form of obsessive and compulsive disorder " and Tourette 's syndrome , a neurological disorder characterized by facial tics , twitches and involuntary sounds . <p> E.J. then entered second grade , and his mother and school officials spent much of the year arguing about his disability and what services he was entitled to , the ruling said . The mother wanted him classified as neurologically impaired . But the district said he was perceptually impaired , a less severe disability that usually calls for cheaper @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . <p> In a court settlement in April 1993 , the district agreed to classify E.J. as neurologically impaired and to prepare a 30-page education plan for him . <p> But his mother and the district continued their dispute while E.J. was in third grade , and Judge McGill ordered him sent , at district expense , to the private academy for the fourth grade . He is now a fifth grader there . <p> " He 's having some rough times , " his mother said . " It 's up and down . But they recognize his abilities and disorders and work within that . " 
##3001374 <p> It was just past 7 A.M. on Feb. 9 , and John J. DeCurtis was planning to knock off work and go home . His night shift as a New Jersey Transit engineer had officially ended when he pulled his train into the Hoboken station , and Mr. DeCurtis , a quiet man who dedicated his free time to cars and boats , wanted to stop in at his son 's auto repair shop on Staten Island before heading to his own house nearby . <p> But when Mr. DeCurtis went to sign off duty , the train master in Hoboken told him he was needed to make another trip , to Waldwick , N.J. , and back . Such requests were common at the end of a night shift and they were always taken as orders , not easily refused . By all accounts , Mr. DeCurtis liked the overtime pay , about $29 an hour , and did not mind putting in the extra time . <p> A little more than an hour later , Mr. DeCurtis ran his train past a signal , thrusting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intersecting Main line . The collision killed a passenger , the other train 's engineer and the 59-year-old Mr. DeCurtis . <p> In the aftermath , his crushed train , No. 1254 , has become grim evidence that in some ways the railroad industry is still mired in its Industrial Revolution roots . While technological advances have produced automatic braking systems , for example , they are not required on all trains or tracks . <p> Mr. DeCurtis 's train was capable of using the automatic system , but the track he was traveling on was not . Although there is no nationwide standard for automatic braking equipment on commuter systems , to date , about half the nation 's rail systems have automatic brakes , including 80 percent of New Jersey Transit 's 715 trains and half of its 512 miles of track . <p> James S. Dunn , the lead investigator for the National Transportation Safety Board , said an automatic braking system " would have stopped the train , definitely . " And , in the wake of this crash and others , Federal regulators say they are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hazardous rail lines . <p> In addition , the strapped railroad industry has made staffing cutbacks over the years that have routinely meant extra hours for a night-shift worker like Mr. DeCurtis . <p> And his overtime followed 12 hours of what is arguably the most droning shift in the railroad . It was a split shift that meant starting at dusk , working till 1 A.M. , catching a few hours of sleep in the leatherette passenger seats on the train and getting up to drive the dawn train back into Hoboken . Limits on those schedules were written into Federal law in 1907 , and left unchanged even as scientific studies showed how overnight split shifts eroded the margin of safety . <p> In what is so far the only official change in practice in response to the crash , New Jersey Transit has eliminated that overnight split shift on the line Mr. DeCurtis worked . <p> While investigators are unlikely ever to know for sure whether fatigue caused Mr. DeCurtis to miss any signals , they are trying to figure out from the positions of the controls and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ danger . Had he taken a few steps to his left or fled the cab , he might have survived ; he died in his seat , with the brakes screaming . The Routine Nothing to See But Road and Sky <p> Since 1992 , Mr. DeCurtis had begun his workday at the bustling Hoboken terminal a few minutes after 6 P.M. , at an hour when most suburban workers are pulling into their driveways , a wave of day's-end relief washing over them . <p> He signed in and read over the bulletins that detailed his route , reviewing them with his crew , a conductor and an assistant conductor . He inspected the train 's brakes , checking their responsiveness , their dependability . Then he climbed into the cab of his commuter train to start his daily runs . <p> For 39 years , Mr. DeCurtis had worked on the railroads . Although he felt no great passion for the job , his family said , it suited him in its solitude . For most of his 12-hour shift , Mr. DeCurtis , who preferred his own company @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the company radio and his own thoughts keeping him company . <p> " Let me say this about Johnny DeCurtis , " said D. Terry Abbott , the general chairman of the union of New Jersey Transit engineers . " He was a guy that chose to work nights most of his life . He was basically a loner . He never would hang around the engine room and talk to the guys . He would go home . " <p> " I 'm probably the closest guy to him and I did n't know his habits , " Mr. Abbott said . <p> Engineers are not so unlike truck drivers and airline pilots who see nothing but road and sky . Only an engineer 's job is often lonelier . There is no roadway diner just around the bend , no AM / FM radio to fill the emptiness , no automatic pilot to let them relax , no co-pilot one seat over . <p> There is the rutted rhythm of the engineer 's throttle-brake-throttle routine broken by the constant possibility that somebody might jump , fall or get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ stultifying sameness of the commuter-train landscape punctured by the sharp vulnerability of the engineer in the glass-wrapped train cab that would crumble instantly in a collision . There is the sputtering of the dispatcher 's radio undercut by the gut-chilling reminder that , at any moment , a loose bolt , a broken railroad tie , a piece of wood or a child 's abandoned bicycle could throw the train off the tracks . <p> In a rare acknowledgment of the risks inherent in routine , one 56-year-old New Jersey Transit engineer , Charles Cooper , snowy-haired , with gold-rimmed glasses , stood in a quiet corner of the Hoboken terminal recently and spoke of the monotony , saying : " There are times when I said to myself , ' Jesus Christ , did I make that last station ? ' " <p> " It 's extremely boring , " Mr. Cooper said . " The people like me , who run the trains , my mind is 1,000 miles away . I 'm daydreaming . I do n't know if an engineer takes things for granted . When I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it 's that everything is automatic for him . Their subconscious is 100 percent on the job . " <p> Sometimes , the subconscious disengages . <p> Mr. DeCurtis made four documented mistakes that had earned him suspensions since New Jersey Transit formed , merging with Mr. DeCurtis 's old railroad , Conrail , in 1982 . He ran two red lights in 1986 and 1989 , missed a station in 1987 and derailed a train in 1983 . Mr. Cooper , who said it is uncommon for an engineer to run a red light , has himself run a couple of red lights in his career , he said . <p> All of Mr. DeCurtis 's incidents occurred before he took over the coveted night shift , a split shift set aside primarily for veteran engineers who work eight hours , interrupted by a few hours sleep , but get paid for 12 . <p> Although his record had been clean for the last six years , Mr. DeCurtis had trouble distinguishing colors in a voluntary vision exam last December . He had no trouble telling apart red , yellow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But he failed to recognize the number of colored dots inside a circle in 4 out of 14 cases and was classified as suffering from minor color deficiency . Colleagues are quick to point out that the test , part of a new round of stricter certifications required in the wake of a 1987 fatal crash , did not establish that he was color blind . <p> " If they felt he was unsafe , he would n't have been working , " said a conductor , who worked with Mr. DeCurtis on occasion , and asked that his name not be used . <p> From inside a train 's cab , a space not much larger than an oversized closet , engineers fix their gaze past the broad windows to the track ahead . They watch for signals alongside the tracks -- reds , greens and yellows -- that caution them to slow down or permit them to speed up . Some signals use two or three colors in tandem . A yellow light over a red light over a red light means one thing . Mix the colors up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are all-clear , an engineer moves the throttle , and increases the train 's speed , usually from 50 to 70 miles per hour . As the signals change , so does a train 's speed , slowing to 30 miles per hour and finally to a dead stop as the engineer pulls on the brake . <p> On his last night , for almost seven straight hours , Mr. DeCurtis guided the train up and down the Bergen line , picking up and dropping off passengers along indistinguishable platforms from Hoboken to Waldwick , and back again , then to Suffern , N.Y . and back again . At 12:58 A.M. he pulled into the Suffern rail yard for his rest-over . <p> Mr. DeCurtis traveled down the railroad , throttling and braking and listening to the only sound in his cab , the voice of a dispatcher announcing any sudden changes or new routes . Occasionally , the conductor , Stephen Miller , stepped into the cab to exchange a few words . <p> Along the way up and down the line , certain thoughts and fears stay fixed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ engineer 's responsibility is one . A train 's vulnerability is another . One simple derailment , a wheel that slips off a track , can trigger chaos . <p> But engineers are most haunted by something else , something that should be part of the job description because for those who work the railroads long enough , it is bound to happen . <p> " I 've killed five people , " Mr. Cooper said matter-of-factly . <p> Some of the dead are suicides , people who bash their cars into trains to end their lives . Or they are young men playing chicken , trying to outrun the train across the tracks . <p> " Once I hit a 13-year-old kid on a motor bike , " the engineer said . " You never forget it . You always try to second-guess yourself . " The Break Few Hours Sleep On a Train 's Seat <p> Suffern , N.Y. , after midnight is a desolate place . The railroad tracks run just alongside the edge of the working-class town on the New Jersey border . Idling trains slumber in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wood depot . <p> On any given night , only a few rail workers are around . There are two small trailers near the depot with a few chairs and tables . There is no place to lie down , nothing to eat , no coffee to drink . <p> Train crews on the overnight split shift are allowed to spend their break time in a hotel , but they would have to find a way to get there and would have to pay for it themselves . So Mr. DeCurtis did what most workers do : spend the night on the train . <p> The break lasted five hours , but for the first 15 minutes Mr. DeCurtis secured the train . He and Mr. Miller walked from one end to the other and prepared to camp out in the first car . They carried an alarm clock to make sure to wake up a half hour before the dawn run , so they could check the brakes and get ready to leave . <p> They stretched out on the passenger seats . During the next four hours , while @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yard . Cars and trucks raced across the road that formed a bridge over the rail yard . Freight trains thundered through on nearby tracks . <p> The obvious discomfort did not seem to faze them or other night shift workers . The hardship is almost a badge of pride , a time-honored ritual for these mostly male , mostly older , hard-bitten engineers who have spent a good part of their lives riding the rails . <p> " Train men can sleep anywhere , " said Dan Bogen , the general chairman of the United Transportation Union , Local 60 , which represents New Jersey Transit conductors . <p> " You just go to sleep , " Mr. Miller said last week , unable to recall whether his partner , Mr. DeCurtis , snored , tossed and turned , even if he slept in the front or the back of the car . <p> The railroad is a culture that disdains griping and pays little attention to personal lives , engineers and conductors say . There is an unwritten code that discourages workers from taking days off or calling in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ only three sick days and one personal day each year . <p> In this environment , Mr. DeCurtis was working what experts and other shift workers have called a particularly unhealthy schedule . <p> Not only did Mr. DeCurtis snatch at most four hours of sleep in a commuter seat each night from Monday to Friday , but his family said he did not always sleep during the day . He preferred to spend his daylight hours indulging his two passions , fixing cars and going fishing on his boat . <p> " I 'm a young guy and it takes its toll on me , " said a conductor , who is in his 20 's and spoke on condition of anonymity . " It definitely takes its toll on an older guy . " The Conductor A Nightmare Keeps Returning <p> For 14 years , since he was 20 , Stephen Miller had never had a job outside the railroad . And , as far as he was concerned , he could work the trains for another 30 or 40 years . <p> Mr. Miller had only worked with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , he was finishing up a couple of weeks of filling in for Mr. DeCurtis 's regular conductor . But Mr. Miller said he always felt comfortable with Mr. DeCurtis driving the train . Mr. DeCurtis was experienced , knew how to work the equipment , and would relay and receive instructions in a calm , professional manner . <p> On the last leg of their overtime run from Waldwick to Hoboken that morning , Mr. Miller stuck his head in the cab to remind Mr. DeCurtis of the itinerary . <p> " I said , ' We make all the stops except Glen Rock , ' " Mr. Miller recalled . " I was the last person to talk to him . " <p> Back in the passenger cars , Mr. Miller had his hands full punching morning rush-hour tickets . <p> " We did Harmon Cove , " the stop just before Hoboken , Mr. Miller said . " I was in the middle of the first car walking toward my engineer , taking tickets . " <p> Mr. Miller could not see the signals out the passenger car @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ down the Main line track toward the Y-shaped intersection . <p> All he remembers is the sudden crunch of metal clawing into metal . <p> " The train was opening up , " Mr. Miller said . " It looked like the other train was coming right at us . Chairs were flying . I tried to run and that 's when I got thrown . " <p> Last week , Mr. Miller was pacing his small room at Meadowlands Hospital in Secaucus , where he had undergone CAT scans and X-rays for apparent injuries to his head , neck and back . He sat down in a chair and began scratching his legs nervously . <p> " I itch , " he said . " I do n't know why . I was never itchy before . " <p> At night , lying in the hospital bed instead of a rail car , Mr. Miller has had the same nightmare . " My engineer is coming through the hospital door , " he said . " I do n't know what that means . " <p> Mr. Miller went home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said he could not face the inside of a train right away , adding , in a soft voice , " I 'm not going back to the railroad for a while . " <p> The New Jersey Transit train crash on Feb. 9 is prompting Federal regulators to consider urging the broader use of automatic braking systems in the railroad industry . ( R. Richard Hirtler ) John J. DeCurtis , the train engineer , enjoyed the solitude of his night shift . 
##3001375 <p> A single mother with two children getting by on a $577 monthly welfare check in New York City would , under Gov . George E. Pataki 's new welfare plan , have her cash benefits reduced to $424 and be forced off the rolls within five years . <p> A woman in the same situation in New Jersey would continue to collect $424 a month , and her benefits would end in five years as well , under Gov . Christine Todd Whitman 's new plan . And a single mother in Connecticut , which under Gov . John G. Rowland has already enacted the most stringent time limit on welfare benefits in the nation , has 21 months to find a job before her benefits of $533 a month expire . <p> The governors of New York , New Jersey and Connecticut are not waiting for new Federal legislation to begin making sweeping changes in their welfare programs . They are among 40 governors moving ahead with ambitious plans that combine time limits with a new emphasis on finding entry-level jobs . <p> Those are two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reached last week at a meeting in Washington , an agreement they offered to help break the impasse between Congress and the White House on welfare reform as well as the Federal budget . States still have no idea how much Federal money they will receive for Medicaid and welfare and how much flexibility they will get to design their own social welfare programs . <p> The agreement , which would need approval from Congress and President Clinton , would break with 60 years of Federal guarantees that poor people will always be entitled to benefits . States would receive lump sums of Federal money , block grants , to create their own aid programs . The agreement would set a five-year lifetime limit on benefits , not including food stamps , but states could exempt up to 20 percent of welfare families from time limits and set stricter limits if they wanted . One of the few limits on states ' flexibility would be a requirement that they maintain welfare spending for programs from cash assistance to job training and work programs at 75 percent of 1994 levels . <p> @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the agreement also included $4 billion for child care and a $2 billion contingency fund to help states faced with a sharp increase in welfare cases resulting from a sudden downturn in the economy or a disaster . <p> The agreement gives the Republican governors of New York , New Jersey and Connecticut what they are looking for to reshape welfare programs throughout the region . <p> " If it were accepted by Congress and the President , " said William Waldman , the New Jersey Commissioner of Social Services who helped design Mrs. Whitman 's new welfare proposal , " this would be a perfect launching place for our program . What they agreed to gives us the flexibility to make all the changes in the program that are different from the current Federal entitlement . " <p> But advocates for the poor and some Democratic state legislators worry that time limits are likely to be a fixture of welfare programs in the three states . That means , they say , that tens of thousands of families will ultimately lose their only source of income for shelter , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty , said there would not be such cause for concern among advocates if there were some assurance that enough jobs would be available . " The danger is that people will be left both without assistance and without jobs , " she said . <p> In addition , she and other advocates say , a new Federal framework poses the risks that states will ultimately have too much flexibility , and could further cut benefits or set new hurdles that will keep benefits from reaching deserving families . <p> Without new Federal welfare legislation , New Jersey and other states are required to seek Federal approval before making significant changes in welfare policy . For example , New Jersey obtained Federal approval three years ago to stop paying more money to women on welfare who had more children . <p> The New York State budget director , Patricia A. Woodworth , said the governors ' Washington agreement would ease the path for Mr. Pataki 's plan , if he could win approval from the reluctant Assembly , which is controlled by Democrats @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ New Jersey is that Mr. Pataki wants to cut benefits while Mrs. Whitman is keeping levels the same . Mr. Pataki is also looking to limit welfare to individuals and childless couples to 60 days . Mrs. Whitman has proposed a five-year lifetime limit for both families and individuals . <p> Both governors are also recommending that welfare recipients who find jobs be allowed to keep more of their earnings , as an incentive to return to the workplace . And they both intend to support only those training programs that emphasize job placement . <p> " What we need to do is get people back to work , " Ms. Woodworth said . <p> Around the region , advocates for the poor have focused on the time limits , saying that the goal is to force many women raising children alone to take jobs that do not exist . In New York , advocates are particularly concerned that Mr. Pataki 's plan to cut benefits for families by a quarter will make it impossible for many families to pay rent , forcing them into shelters . <p> " We are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kreuger , associate director of the Community Food Resource Center , a nonprofit organization in Manhattan . " And then we will penalize them by taking away their entire income support structure for themselves and their children and we will say that it was their fault . If you do n't make a commitment to provide real jobs at real wages , then we are the ones guilty of terrible welfare fraud . " <p> The region has recovered only a little more than a third of the 900,000 jobs that were lost between 1989 and 1992 , according to John L. Wieting , regional commissioner of the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics . In New York State last year , there were 72,000 new jobs created , including 25,000 in New York City . In New Jersey , 37,000 new jobs were created . And in Connecticut , the number of jobs continued to decline , with a net loss of 700 jobs . <p> State officials dismiss talk about the lack of jobs , insisting there are plenty of entry-level positions . <p> In Connecticut , Mr. Rowland won @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to begin imposing a 21-month limit on benefits through Aid to Families With Dependent Children , the state and Federal program mostly for single parents . And the state is pushing direct job-placement programs over education . <p> " If there is any training , it is short-term , " said Claudette Beaulieu , a spokeswoman for the Connecticut State Department of Social Services . " The shorter the better . We used to have people in community college programs for years . " <p> Connecticut does offer one of the nation 's most generous cash incentives to encourage families on welfare to find work . Welfare recipients are allowed to earn up to $1,049 a month and still keep some of their benefits . And the state just started a marketing campaign directed at businesses , encouraging them to hire welfare recipients and providing a toll-free telephone number for information on how they can go about it . <p> For single adults and childless couples , Connecticut has enacted much tougher time limits . Anyone who is classified by the state as " employable " is limited to six months @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a two-month time limit . <p> Connecticut officials say that their tougher welfare standards have led to a reduction in the caseload to 21,800 , from 24,800 last July . They also say that a rise to 17 percent from 12.7 percent of families on welfare who have found jobs in the last six months suggests that women on welfare are getting the message that they need to find work to support their families . <p> Of all Mr. Pataki 's proposals , his plan to reduce the monthly welfare grant is causing the most immediate concern among advocates for the poor , who contend that the current level is too low for families struggling to pay high rental costs in the city . <p> Steven V. Banks , the coordinating attorney of the Homeless Family Rights Project of the Legal Aid Society of New York , said , " If the Governor 's proposal is implemented , thousands of families will be evicted over the coming months and create a flood of homelessness . " <p> In Westchester County , Mary E. Glass , the Commissioner for Social Services , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first took office but did not work on his new proposal , is also worried about the impact that the proposed cut in the monthly benefits will have on families already struggling to pay rents with $577 a month . <p> " I do n't really have a problem with time limits , " said Ms. Glass , who oversaw the implementation of Westchester County 's workfare programs , one of the most ambitious programs of the kind in the state . " But we are concerned about the cutting of benefits because of our severe homeless problem . Seventy-five percent of the families receiving assistance pay more for rent than what we allow . <p> " We are fearful that could jump the homeless numbers to extraordinary levels . It is a very , very serious problem . " 