Independent

WASHINGTON -- Jesse Jackson's threat to run for president as an independent next year presents President Clinton and the Democratic Party with a choice of intolerable options.On the one hand, a Jackson candidacy would wipe away any realistic chance for Clinton to win a second term. Democrats don't win the White House these days without overwhelming support from black voters. They provided the winning margin for both Clinton in 1992 and Jimmy Carter in 1976, not just in several Southern states but in such Rust Belt states as Ohio and Illinois.

Thanksgiving is often homecoming for millions of family members across the country. If your family includes a college freshman returning home for the first time since leaving for school in September, the holiday holds a special sweetness.But it also can be a time of readjustment. Your child went away a high school student; the person who walks in the door may bear little resemblance to the one who left."Be prepared for your children to expect you to realize that they have grown up and are independent," said psychologist Linda Welsh, director of the Agoraphobia and Anxiety Treatment Center in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., near Philadelphia.

There are times when the drama offstage at the Sundance Film Festival overshadows what is happening on screen, and 2006 is shaping up as one of those years. This is the 25th anniversary of the Sundance Institute, dedicated to encouraging individual artists to tell their stories their own way, and it should be the best of times for the institute's festival, which opens in Park City, Utah, tonight with the premiere of Nicole Holofcener's Friends With Money. For one thing, independent submissions are through the roof: The selection staff looked at 3,148 features, up from last year's 2,613, as well as more than 4,300 shorts.

AUGUSTA, Maine -- The Pollards say they are not unusual as Maine voters go.Sam, an entrepreneur, voted for Ross Perot in 1992 and now intends to vote for Republican Olympia J. Snowe for the Senate and independent Angus King for governor.Helen Pollard, a teacher, also voted for Mr. Perot two years ago but now supports Democrats Joe Brennan for governor and Tom Andrews for the Senate. "We're back to canceling each other out," she said. "Sam has always had a blind spot about Democrats."If there is a lesson to be drawn from the Pollards, it is this: Perot voters are easy to find in Maine, but defining the Perot Vote in 1994 is an entirely different matter.

WASHINGTON -- There are some obvious risks in the White House decision to allow Vice President Al Gore to meet Ross Perot in a debate over the North American Free Trade Agreement.There are also less obvious but equally compelling reasons why this chancy change in policy toward the Texas billionaire could pay rich political dividends for President Clinton for the rest of his time in the White House.Perot has been sniping at Clinton with increasing frequency and acidity ever since the election in which he compiled 19 percent of the vote as an independent -- at one point suggesting that the president was trying to go to war in Bosnia to divert attention from intractable domestic problems.

AmeriDebt agreed yesterday to be run by an independent bankruptcy trustee, several days after a court examiner released a report recommending that some of its dealings be investigated for possible fraud. The Montgomery County nonprofit, which became one of the largest credit counseling agencies in the country through heavy advertising targeting debt-laden consumers, had been expected to resist a move to appoint a trustee during yesterday's hearing in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Greenbelt.

MOSCOW -- When Russia's president hailed his country's record on press freedom this week, he omitted the newest, significant exception to the rights of the press: Journalistic freedom here apparently no longer extends to calling President Vladimir V. Putin unflattering names. The evidence includes prosecutors last month charging the editor of an online newspaper with the criminal offense of "insulting a representative of the state" after referring to Putin as "the nation's phallic symbol."

WASHINGTON -- Michael S. Bloomberg already has his name plastered on the walls of the Johns Hopkins University, on the highly successful financial-information company that earned him billions and on the mayor's office in New York City. Now, it seems increasingly clear, he wouldn't mind putting it on the Oval Office at the White House, too.

Transitional services can help the homeless become independent Shelter Plus Care is designed to provide long-term services to hard-to-serve homeless in need of continued supportive services ("Standing up for those in need," editorial, Oct. 22). As the director of a transitional program that also works with the hard-to-serve population, I appreciate the services it provides. However, in many cases, with intensive case management and community resources, we are able to assist the men we serve to become independent and productive citizens.

COLLEGE PARK -- The men's basketball program at Texas A&M-Corpus Christi is only seven seasons old, plays an independent schedule, and is part of a small school of about 8,500 students. In a short time, though, the Islanders have had enough big accomplishments to be regarded by No. 14-ranked Maryland as "definitely a team you have to take seriously." Over the past five seasons, Islanders coach Ronnie Arrow has led his program to wins over teams such as Texas Tech, Texas A&M, and more recently, Florida State.