CITY EDITION DISNEY DRUMS ITS FINGERS AS VIRGINIA DEBATES THE WORTH OF A THEME PARK by B. Drummond Ayres Jr. "HAYMARKET, Va., Feb. 20 -- The Walt Disney Company's plan to build a huge American history theme park next to this northern Virginia village 35 miles west of Washington is suddenly taking more political and economic twists and turns than a roller coaster ride. The state's new Republican Governor, George F. Allen, is squabbling with the Democrat-controlled Legislature over whether to try to entice Disney by subsidizing some of the park's development costs, like highway construction and staff training." (p. A17) REMAKING THE WHEEL: EVOLUTION OF THE CHARIOT by John Noble Wilford "In ancient graves on the steppes of Russia and Kazakhstan, archaeologist have uncovered skulls and bones of sacrificed horses and, perhaps most significantly, traces of spoked wheels. These appear to be the wheels of chariots, the earliest direct evidence for the existence of the two-wheeled high-performance vehicles that transformed the technology of transport and warfare." (p. C1,12) SCIENTIST AT WORK: J CRAIG VENTER A BOLD SHORT CUT TO HUMAN GENES by Nicholas Wade "GAITHERSBURG, Md. -- In a former ceramics factory on the outskirts of the nation's capital, Dr. J. Craig Venter has created a biologist's dream: a high-technology laboratory dedicated to the sequencing of DNA." (p. C1,9) AMERICA'S TREETOPS YIELD THEIR SECRETS by Jon R. Luoma "Although canopy research in tropical rain forests has been widely hailed as important science, similar work in the temporate zone has been sporadic. Yet the limited research that has been done suggests that the canopy, especially in old trees, is virtually an ecosystem in itself." (p. C1,10) RARE SPECIES AND ECOSYSTEMS ABUNDANT IN GREAT LAKES REGION by Jon R. Luoma "CHICAGO -- A report by a private conservation group suggests that the Great Lakes region is a refuge for far more rare species and ecosystems than was previously known." (p. C4) That's it. Robbin Murphy [log in to unmask]