April 28, 2005

While Commissioner Paul Tagliabue defended the National Football League's steroid policy before a House committee Wednesday, some members of Congress were planning to support a uniform testing policy for all professional sports leagues in the country. ''It would send a message to professional and amateur sports that steroids are illegal, and they won't be tolerated,'' Representative Tom Davis, the committee chairman and Republican from Virginia, said, referring to the proposed legislation that was being drafted. ''Let everybody compete under the same rules and the same policies.''

The man linked by DNA sampling to 25 rapes in three states, Fletcher A. Worrell, had a terrifying method of operation, the authorities investigating the cases said yesterday. He scouted for women who were alone at home. He crept in through a window in the darkness, put a knife to the victim's throat and quickly covered her face so she could not see him. In case after case, the victims could not describe the features of their assailant.

Article on Jerome Robbins's landmark 1958 ballet New York Export: Opus Jazz, which is being staged for first time by New York City Ballet; photos (M)

Art auctions at Christie's and Sotheby's are expected to highlight post-war and contemporary art, fueled in large part by group of multimillionaire hedge-fund managers with taste for 20th and 21st century works who relish competition and will often pay whatever it takes to bring home the best; photos (M)

Allison Emmett, 26, a lawyer who lives in the West Village, has rules for riding the subway while listening to her iPod. ''You keep it in your bag,'' she said. ''You keep your bag in front of you. You keep your hand on it.'' Sarit Sela, 27, an administrator at Goldman Sachs who lives in Astoria, Queens, said she kept her iPod in a handbag, secured by a clip. ''When I'm on the subway, I try not to change the music,'' she said.