TUESDAY BRIEFING

Plan for racetrack revs up Merced

Merced, best known to Northern Californians as the town where they make a left turn to get to Yosemite, now has a University of California campus and perhaps a chance to attract hoity-toity, nonpolluting industries. So a proposal to build the mother of all car-racing facilities has opened a divide between locals with high-tech dreams and others who prefer “Dukes of Hazzard” fun.

Racing fans are excited about the prospect of a complex that would include eight -- yes, eight -- tracks for events such as motocross, top fuel and maybe someday a NASCAR spectacular. Opponents, including the Foster Farms poultry business, worry about traffic overwhelming country roads and air pollution increasing. Page B2

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A candidate who’s pro-democracy?

He almost certainly won’t win, but the fact that a pro-democracy candidate probably will be on the ballot in an election for Hong Kong’s chief executive is being seen as a milestone.

Under Hong Kong’s ultra-complex election rules, Alan Leong, a lawyer and local legislator who is being backed by the two main pro-democracy parties, appears to have won a nomination to face the incumbent, Donald Tsang. Leong says the vote shows that residents “desire for a quicker pace of democratization in Hong Kong.” Page A6

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Justices: It’s OK to remember victim

A defendant’s right to a fair trial was not violated when family members of a murder victim attended court hearings wearing buttons with a photo of him on it, the Supreme Court says.

The justices unanimously reverse a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling and reinstate the conviction of a man for a 1994 murder in San Jose. Page A16

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New assessment of nuclear war

One small nuclear war can ruin a whole ecosystem, a new study says.

At a meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco, the study’s authors say that even a regional nuclear war -- say, between India and Pakistan -- could produce a globe-encircling pall of smoke, disrupting food production for millions. Page A25

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Goodman singer Martha Tilton dies

“Liltin’ ” Martha Tilton, a big-band vocalist best known for her recording of “And the Angels Sing” with the Benny Goodman orchestra in 1939, dies at 91. Tilton, a Fairfax High graduate, also worked for almost seven years on a daily half-hour TV show in Los Angeles. Page B8

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Aiding the blind who want to hunt

A Texas legislator has introduced a bill to exempt legally blind people from a state law that prohibits hunters from using laser sights.

Critics of laser-guided hunting say the practice diminishes the sport of the kill, but the lawmaker notes that about 15 states allow blind hunters to use lasers. The legally blind hunters, the lawmaker says, simply need someone to tell them “the duck is at 28 degrees, aim a little to the left, things like that. This is just going to make the goal easier to accomplish.” Page A16

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A time to remember

In death, Augusto Pinochet still divides Chile. A day after anti-Pinochet elements publicly celebrated his death, the dictator’s supporters line up to view the general’s open casket. Page A5

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THE CRITIC: ‘Having that franchise allowed us to go into UA and say, “OK, you want another ‘Rocky,’ fine, but we want to do ‘Raging Bull’ too.” It helped that when we walked into their offices, they saw dollar signs.’ Times critic Patrick Goldstein quoting ‘Rocky’ producer Irwin Winkler. Calendar, E1

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CALENDAR

‘Dreamgirls’ stage star’s heartache

Jennifer Holliday’s portrayal of Effie White in Broadway’s “Dreamgirls” was so powerful it won her a Tony for outstanding actress in a musical, and her signature song, “And I Am Telling You I’m Not Going,” became the hit show’s signature. Now the movie version of “Dreamgirls” is coming out and she’s been cut out of the production, just like her character in the musical. Page E1

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Wow! A woman singing at the KROQ concert

“It’s been a long time,” reviewer Richard Cromelin writes, “since patrons at the annual KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas concerts have seen something like Amy Lee: a living, breathing, assertive, wailing singer of the female persuasion.”

But there she was, humble but always confident, fronting her band Evanescence on the second night of the concerts, only the third woman to break into the all-men’s club since the turn of the century.

You might expect some awkwardness between an audience drawn by the “modern rock” so carefully programmed by KROQ and Lee, at right, who sings and writes unfashionably old-fashioned hard rock. However, she won them over unexpectedly with a frank admission that her music “is a lot different than the bands you’re used to.”

But a woman wasn’t the only welcome breakthrough. There were also African Americans, namely Gnarls Barkley. Page E1

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Military veterans who tried to take the ‘Hill’

As last month’s midterm elections begin to fade into history, along comes “Taking the Hill,” a Discovery Times Channel documentary look at one of the more interesting features of this round of elections: the attempts by a band of military veterans to bring their bloody experiences, passion and lessons to the nation’s capital.

Here they were, a mixed bunch of four former soldiers, for the most part underfunded and largely unknown, and mainly challenging better-known incumbents.

They trudged on, many of them in the belief that the ongoing war in Iraq has been mismanaged tragically. That’s a more common view now than it was during last spring’s primary election season.

The program’s moral, according to reviewer Tony Perry, may be that a military background no longer carries the same political appeal. By the way, only one of the four won. Page E2

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BUSINESS

AIG to buy U.S. ports from Dubai

Remember last winter’s imbroglio when Dubai Ports World invested in several U.S. ports and members of Congress suddenly became worried about foreign ownership?

The asset management arm of U.S. insurance giant American International Group Inc. is rescuing DP World from the mess with a proposed purchase.

For an undisclosed sum (DP World was asking $700 million), AIG would buy leases of marine terminals in Newark, N.J.; Baltimore; Tampa, Fla.; New Orleans; and Philadelphia. It would also purchase cargo handling operations in 16 locations and a passenger terminal in New York.

Though the facilities are less than top tier, analysts say they remain enticing as an investment. The transaction must clear regulatory hurdles. Page C1

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In Mexico, a sin tax on soft drinks

And you thought governments had figured out how to tax pretty much everything.

In Mexico, cola companies are being shaken up by the federal government’s proposed 5% tax on soft drinks. It’s the first big fight of President Felipe Calderon’s new administration. He has said he would impose the soda tax, plus a new 15% levy on cigarettes, as part of his 2007 budget.

The soda and cigarette taxes would raise a projected $1 billion next year, with about one-third coming from soft drinks.

With Mexico’s oil production rapidly declining and the economy slowing, the government is scrambling for new sources of revenue. Page C1

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SPORTS

NBA calls a foul on its new ball

Performing a sudden spinarama, NBA Commissioner David Stern decides to throw the league’s new microfiber composite basketball out of the game.

Employing a startling league-wide, in-season change of equipment, all games will return to the old leather model Jan. 1.

In a formal statement, Stern says, “Our players’ response to this particular composite ball has been consistently negative and we are acting accordingly.”

Stern notes that performance testing by Spalding found the new ball more consistent than leather. But, he adds, “the most important statistic is the view of our players.” Page D1

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What he’d give for one fewer shot

This is the week of the Tiger Woods Target World Challenge at Southern California’s Sherwood Country Club.

Tom Byrum won’t be there. He’s played on the tour for 21 years and won $6.2 million.

But he’ll be back home in suburban Houston pondering the tour for 2007 and what happened last week at the PGA qualifying school in the California desert.

They held a six-day, 108-hole endurance contest. Then they totaled up the scores of the top 40 golfers, who earned tour cards allowing entry into most ’07 events without qualifying. Those 40 golfers had totals of 424 or fewer. Byrum had 425. Page D1