News In Brief

HOME, PLEASE. AND STEP ON IT It was, police in Tomah, Wis., admit, one of the easiest arrests they've made. The suspect had walked into town and ordered employees of a fast-food restaurant to open the safe, which held $1,200. Then, because he could afford to ride back, he hailed a cab. But his getaway driver provided the cops with the suspect's address, where a search turned up the stolen cash - minus the fare and a tip.

REPRIEVE ON GREAT WHITE WAY First, the New York Police Department said Broadway theaters should close Dec. 31 to cut down on crowds expected to pack Times Square - and all but one apparently agreed, despite the prospect of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. But then Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said the city should instead limit the number of new-millennium revelers in the square, who, police estimate, could reach 2 million. So, how did the mayor find out about the plan to shut down Broadway? He says he read about it in the newspapers.

Trade journal's survey rates best sales forces in the US

The nation's top corporate sales division is at Enron Corp., a Houston-based energy giant, according to rankings published in Sales & Marketing Management Magazine. The journal surveyed analysts, business-school professors, and executives in a wide range of industries to come up with almost 100 contenders before enlisting the aid of Dunn & Bradstreet, a provider of business information in Murray Hill, N.J., to reduce the list to what the editors call "America's 25 Best Sales Forces." The top 10:

1. Enron Corp., Houston

2. Dell Computer, Austin, Texas

3. Cisco Systems, San Jose, Calif.

4. GE Capital Services, Fairfield, Conn.

5. Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, New York City

6. Terex Corp., Westport, Conn.

7. Physician Sales & Service, Jacksonville, Fla.

8. Xerox, Stamford, Conn.

9. Herman Miller Inc., Zeeland, Mich.

10. America Online, Dulles, Va.