1.   Already, commission staff and board members are bracing for what they expect will be a long, bitter, litigious squabble.

2.   Annan, who appoints the commission staff, passed the proposal to the Security Council this week without comment.

3.   At the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, William F. Kane, the associate director for inspection and programs, said all such reports were carefully analyzed by the commission staff.

4.   At the same time, negotiations between the commission staff and the two companies are accelerating, people involved in the talks say.

5.   Besides paying its sales staff a commission, perhaps making them more aggressive than their salaried counterparts across town, Car Max takes a profit from its consumer loans.

6.   After investigating, the commission staff concluded that the Davis-Besse operators had missed many opportunities to find the problem before it became so serious.

7.   But according to commission staff members, workers would come out ahead if their private account returns exceeded the interest loss.

8.   But the commission staff had relied on buyers of assets to help determine what needed to be sold and on what terms, the report said.

9.   Commission staff has recommended denial of the plan.

10.   Dreher was scheduled to make his formal application to the commission staff Tuesday.