October 24, 2002

The jokes are now as frequent and bruising as the defeats. What's the difference between the Cincinnati Bengals and a dollar bill? You can still get four quarters out of a dollar bill. Where do you go in case of a tornado? Paul Brown Stadium. They never get a touchdown there. Why doesn't Dayton have a professional football team? Because Cincinnati would want one. There may not be a more inept franchise in all of professional sports than the Cincinnati Bengals, the only team in the National Football League that has yet to win this season. The Bengals have started 0-6 for the second time in three years, and, in a league designed for parity, are the only team apart from the expansion Houston Texans not to reach the playoffs since 1990. The weekly suspense is not whether the Bengals will win, but whether their affable coach, Dick LeBeau, will keep his job.

Third article in occasional series, Blurred Vision, focuses on problems that still suffuse practice of mammography in government-sponsored clinics 10 years after Congress stepped in to clean it up; despite unprecedented foray into medical regulation, many clinics still produce poor-quality images; many radiologists lack ability to find breast cancer in shadows of X-ray film; relatively few women are reaping full benefit of mammogram--weapon that experts now realize can save lives only if used well; growing number of experts raise concerns about misread mammograms; Sen Barbara A Mikulski, chief architect of mammography program, says she will push for tougher rules for doctors, such as regular skill tests; case of Dr Steven J Bier of Bronx presented as disaster of government's own making; having signed him up to run clinic for poor women, he and his clinic were held to only minimum standards; later investigation found radiologist who read X-rays missed as many as 25 tumors while spotting only 7; there is no system for monitoring doctors, and Bier case was revealed only by accident; photos; other problems detailed; photos (L)

Analysis: Citigroup executives are racing to resolve multiple investigations into research practices at is Salomon Smith Barney unit; must also contend with possibility that Jack B Grubman, former star telecommunications analyst who is focus of regulatory and prosecutorial scrutiny, may try to implicate some of his superiors to shift blame for any wrongdoing that may be uncovered; such possibility seems to weighing on Citigroup shares; securities lawyers say trying to implicate others at Citigroup would be risky for Grubman because he has maintained that his relentlessly optimistic research reports on failed telecommunications companies were based on his beliefs that their operations would prosper; arguing executives at Salomon pressed him to keep strong ratings on stocks that he had misgivings about might help Grubman unload some responsibility for losses that investors incurred by following his advice; stance could help regulators prove that Grubman misled investors by hiding his true views; such misrepresentation by analyst is violation of securities laws (M)

David Pogue State of the Art column on competing Internet services offered by MSN and America Online; companies are spending millions on advertising as they prepare to unveil new versions; most changes being touted are not especially innovative; reviews new features and notes similarities and differences in offerings; notes that AOL will no longer accept pop-ups from advertisers or display its own pop-ups; prices for both services noted; drawing; photos (M)

Forty Chechen guerrillas wearing masks and camouflage and firing automatic rifles storm into crowded theater in Moscow and take up to 600 hostages, threatening to blow up building; witnesses say guerrillas have wired themselves and three-story music hall with explosives and appear to be preparing for assault by police; Russia's domestic intelligence agency says attackers are demanding end to war in Chechnya as well as large amount of money; Moscow police officials deny that negotiations have been opened with guerrillas or that ransom demand has been made; gunshots ring out periodically from building and there are reports that one man has been taken to hospital and that grenade was tossed at police; truckloads of police officers and soldiers surround building and block off streets; Pres Vladimir V Putin cancels planned visit to Germany and orders alite Alpha counterterrorist squad to scene; clearly terrified hostage, speaking from inside theater on cellphone, warns that any attempt by police or soldiers to enter building would end in carnage; guerrillas release unknown number of hostages, mostly children, at outset of seizure; photos; map (L)