2000 Year

A federal judge Friday signed the last settlement in a group of lawsuits claiming that Los Angeles police officers roughed up protesters and bystanders during the 2000 Democratic National Convention, bringing to $4.1 million the total the city has paid out. The latest settlement, for $1.

As companies race to fix computers to correctly handle dates in 2000, personal computers are threatening to eclipse mainframes as the biggest headache in the war to eradicate the millennium bug. Although Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates proclaimed as recently as last year that "PCs are in good shape" for 2000, a growing number of experts say most personal computers--especially the more than 90 million computers still running Microsoft's Windows version 3.

The Millennium Bug--the unpredictable collision of high technology and human shortsightedness--has been largely perceived as a single event that will occur Jan. 1, 2000. On that day, countless computers and electronic devices are expected to suffer a mental meltdown because of an obscure programming blunder in which two digits instead of four were used to represent years.

Earlier this year, engineering consultant David Hall began a series of year 2000 tests at a large refinery in the Southwest that had been temporarily shut down for maintenance. One by one, the date settings on systems to monitor waste, storage and other parts of the refining process were rolled forward to Jan. 1 and allowed to enter a simulated version of the new millennium.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has a problem with the way companies are disclosing their year 2000 computer problems. Last week, the agency, which regulates the nation's stock markets, issued a statement that scolded public corporations for their lack of Y2K candor. "While the number of companies disclosing year 2000 issues has increased dramatically," an SEC release said, "many companies are not providing the quality of disclosure that we believe investors expect."

The Justice Department told manufacturers Friday that they can share information on resolving year 2000 computer issues without running afoul of antitrust laws. The National Assn. of Manufacturers had sought approval of a plan to let its 14,000 member companies and their computer services suppliers exchange data on fixing the computer date problem. The Justice Department approved a similar plan for the financial services industry last month.

A New Year's Eve spectacular of lights, pyrotechnics and special effects; major commissions for 12 works by Los Angeles artists; and a visit from the Dalai Lama to kick off the North American segment of the World Festival of Sacred Music are all part of the plan for "Celebrate L.A.: What's New and What's Next," a two-year millennium celebration of the arts planned by the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. At the request of Mayor Richard Riordan, Adolfo V.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has created a 24-hour help line to provide information by fax on ways to avoid year 2000 computer problems. Those interested can call toll-free (877) 789-2565. The SBA also has information about the so-called "Y2K" computer bug on its Web site: http://www.sba.gov/y2k/, and at its toll-free "Answer Desk" line at (800) 827-5722.

With fewer than 500 days left before the year 2000, law enforcement officials are increasingly concerned that widespread paranoia about the millennium could touch off a clash between the government and domestic terrorists. "I worry that every day something could happen somewhere," said Robert M. Blitzer, section chief of the FBI's domestic terrorism unit. Recent attacks on U.S.

As one reader put it, we're talking about the real Y2K problem. We don't mean the one the media seem intent upon beating to death until doomsday--which may not be too far off, actually. No, we're talking about a much more serious problem than a few computer glitches and the collapse of the worldwide banking system. Just what do we call the first decade of the millennium? We've been working around the clock to bring you the answer to this earthshaking question.