Duncan scores 31 points as Spurs beat Mavs

San Antonio earns 7th straight win with 97-94 victory over Dallas

SAN ANTONIO - Against a team that has a new look and new marquee player, the San Antonio Spurs kept up their winning ways Thursday by sticking to basics — namely, their own franchise player.
Tim Duncan, called the “backbone” of the team by coach Gregg Popovich, led the Spurs with 31 points and 15 rebounds in a 97-94 victory over the made-over Dallas Mavericks on Thursday night.
“Offense, the ball goes through him. On defense, he’s our defender, our rebounder,” Popovich said. “Everybody rotates off him. He’s just really special. We don’t get anything done without him.”

It was the Spurs’ seventh straight win and put them a game ahead of New Orleans in a tight Southwest Division, where Dallas is third and only 2½ games separates San Antonio from fourth-place Houston.
The loss snapped a three-game winning streak for the Mavericks and dropped them to 3-2 since acquiring guard Jason Kidd from New Jersey.
“I thought we had some good looks, maybe a foul here or there,” said Kidd, who had 10 assists and seven points. “But at the end of the game we had our chances.”
Manu Ginobili added 17 points for San Antonio and Michael Finley had 16.
Dirk Nowitzki scored 28 points for the Mavericks. Josh Howard and reserve Brandon Bass each added 16.
“Every time we come down here it’s a highly contested game,” Dallas coach Avery Johnson said. “It’s a big time rivalry. Hopefully next time when we play ... we can finish with one more point.”
The Mavericks will get their chance next month, when they host the Spurs.
“This game didn’t mean much, we’ll see them again,” Dallas guard Jason Terry said. “We’re still a work in progress.”
The Spurs were up by one, 73-72, heading into the fourth quarter. With the game tied at 94, Erick Dampier fouled Duncan, who sank both shots from the line to put San Antonio up 96-94 with 34.5 seconds to go.
Nowitzki missed two shots with less than 30 seconds on the clock, and Terry’s shot was blocked by Bruce Bowen with 3.9 seconds left. The Spurs got the ball back with 3.3 seconds to go, and Dampier fouled Finley with 0.4 left. Finley hit the first of two from the line.
“The effort was huge for both sides,” Ginobili said. “When you play a game like this, you know the effort is going to be there.”
Kidd came out for the last 30 seconds, but said he supported the decision.
“They’ve been together down the stretch,” Kidd said. “I understand what play they’re looking for, so I’m over here cheering for my guys to knock down a 2 or a 3.”
The game was tied four times in the fourth quarter as the teams traded baskets and neither took a lead of more than five points in the period.
Bowen added 14 points for the Spurs and Tony Parker had 10.
After coming out of halftime tied at 47 and staying close more than 5 minutes into the third quarter, each team took turns holding the momentum.
The Mavericks went up by 10 after a 16-4 run that included a 3 from a pumped Nowitzki off a feed from Kidd and ended with a goaltending call against Robert Horry that gave Terry a basket and put Dallas up 67-57 with 3:44 to play.
But the Spurs answered with a 13-1 burst, including two free throws thanks to technicals called on Terry and Johnson in an increasingly testy atmosphere. Finley scored nine points in the surge that gave San Antonio a 70-68 lead with 1:20 to go.
Ime Udoka’s last-second corner 3 put the Spurs up 73-72 with one period to play.
In the first half, Kidd, who has brought a passing mentality to the Mavericks since his return to the team that drafted him No. 2 overall in 1994, accounted for seven of the team’s 11 assists.
Notes: The Spurs lead the season series 2-1. The Mavericks and Spurs meet for the final time on March 23 in Dallas. ... Popovich talked a little presidential politics pregame. Texas’ pivotal primary is Tuesday, but Popovich wouldn’t say who will get his vote. ... Nowitzki went to the line 21 times and hit 17 while the Spurs went to the line 22 times in the game, sinking 16.

MTV won’t be playing Paula Abdul’s new video

Paula Abdul’s video for "Dance Like There's No Tomorrow" was a bit of a disappointment for the "Idol" judge. In fact, a source says that the video was never even submitted to MTV. "You can't be rejected if you never formally campaign for it," the source points out.

Paula Abdul wasn’t off base when she revealed to those close to her that she was disappointed with the music video for “Dance Like There’s No Tomorrow.”
Despite the fact that fellow “American Idol” judge Randy Jackson pitched in to make the video a touch splashier, Abdul’s mostly recycled dance moves are less than inspiring, and it’s forced MTV to make a decision about airing the video — or not.
“There are currently no plans to play the video,” an MTV spokesperson told OK! magazine. Another music industry insider tells the magazine that not only is MTV not planning to air the video, but no one has even submitted the video to be consideration in the network’s play rotation.

Ralph Nader Picks Former SF Supervisor As Running Mate

Presidential candidate Ralph Nader announced Thursday morning that he has chosen former San Francisco Supervisor Matt Gonzalez as his running mate. The Texas-born Gonzalez ran for mayor of San Francisco as a Green Party candidate in 2003 but lost to Gavin Newsom.

His running mate in 2004 was Peter Camejo
Gonzalez was the president of the board.
As a consolidated city-county, the only such municipality in California, San Francisco does not have a traditional city council.
Instead, the county board of supervisors acts as the legislative branch of government, while the mayor of the city acts as the executive branch.
Gonzalez has been the only San Francisco politician who has mounted a serious challenge to Newsom.
According to the Gonzalez Web site, he lost the 2003 mayoral race 53 percent to 47 percent. 133,546 people voted for Newsom while 119,329 voted for Gonzalez.
Gonzalez has been largely inactive in city politics since then.

Nader Criticizes Top Contenders In Announcement

Nader announced his bid for the White House on Meet The Press.
Nader criticized the top contenders as too close to big business and dismissing the possibility that his third-party candidacy could tip the election to Republicans.
The longtime consumer advocate is still loathed by many Democrats who accuse him of costing Al Gore the 2000 election.
Nader said most people are disenchanted with the Democratic and Republican parties due to a prolonged Iraq war and a shaky economy.
He also blamed tax and other corporate-friendly policies under the Bush administration that he said have left many lower- and middle-class people in debt.
"You take that framework of people feeling locked out, shut out, marginalized, disrespected," he said. "You go from Iraq, to Palestine/Israel, from Enron to Wall Street, from Katrina to the bungling of the Bush administration, to the complicity of the Democrats in not stopping him on the war, stopping him on the tax
In a later interview with The Associated Press, he rejected the notion of himself as a spoiler candidate, saying the electorate will not vote for a "pro-war John McCain." He also predicted his campaign would do better than in 2004, when he won just 0.3 percent of the vote as an independent.
"This time we're ready for them," said Nader of the Democratic Party lawsuits that kept him off the ballot in some states.
Democratic candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton quickly sought to portray Nader's announcement as having little impact.
"Obviously, it's not helpful to whomever our Democratic nominee is. But it's a free country," said Clinton, who called Nader's announcement a "passing fancy."
Obama dismissed Nader as a perennial presidential campaigner. "He thought that there was no difference between Al Gore and George Bush and eight years later I think people realize that Ralph did not know what he was talking about," Obama added.
Republican Mike Huckabee welcomed Nader into the race.
"I think it always would probably pull votes away from the Democrats, not the Republicans," the former Arkansas governor said on CNN.
Nader said Obama's and Clinton's lukewarm response was not surprising given that both political parties typically treat third-party candidates as "second-class citizens." Nader said he will decide in the coming days whether to run as an independent, Green Party candidate or in some other third party.
Pointing a finger at Republicans, he described McCain as a candidate for "perpetual war" and said he welcomed the support of Republican conservatives "who don't like the war in Iraq, who don't like taxpayer dollars wasted, and who don't like the Patriot Act and who treasure their rights of privacy."
"If the Democrats can't landslide the Republicans this year, they ought to just wrap up," Nader added

Texas Republicans cross over to vote for Obama

One of Sen. Barack Obama’s surest applause lines comes about halfway into his standard stump speech. It goes like this:
“They whisper to me. They say, ‘Barack, I’m a Republican, but I support you.’ And I say, ‘Thank you. Why are we whispering?’”
If the latest polling data are to be believed, those Republicans aren’t whispering in Texas, where 195 of the 228 delegates the state will send to the Democratic National Convention will be chosen in a primary and caucuses Tuesday.

As many as a tenth of the Texans voting in the Democratic contests could be Republicans, and overwhelmingly they favor Obama, a first-term senator from Illinois, the polls show.
“I ran for Republican precinct chair. I went to the Republican state convention,” said one of them, Donald Rau of Austin, who has already voted in early balloting. “In this election, I voted for Barack Obama.”
GOP support ‘no longer surprising’A poll released this week by SurveyUSA of Verona, N.J., indicated that registered Republicans would make up 9 percent of Democratic primary voters next week. Michael Baselice, head of Baselice and Associates, a Texas polling firm, said that was in line with what his company was finding.
A bloc that large could make a significant difference for Obama, who holds a large lead over Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York among Texas Republicans, especially in a close race. Polls this week were showing a dead heat in Texas as Obama began pulling even with Clinton.
To be sure, the Clinton campaign is drawing some first-time support of its own among Republicans.
“I’m a Republican. I’ve been a Republican since I can remember,” said Trey Caliva of Lubbock. But “whenever I vote for an executive office, I have to vote for the best person that does the job. And for me that’s Hillary Clinton.”
But by large margins, more Republicans say they are backing Obama.
American Research Group found this week that as Obama has edged ahead among Democrats, at 47 percent to 46 percent, he is drawing the support of more than 70 percent of Republicans who said they were likely to vote in the Democratic primary. The survey, which questioned 600 likely primary voters Saturday and Sunday, reported a margin of sampling error of 4 percentage points.
A survey released Tuesday by Public Policy Polling found that while Clinton led Obama by 52 percent to 44 percent among likely primary voters, Republicans who said they would vote in the primary favored Obama by 76 percent to 20 percent. The survey, which questioned 434 likely Democratic primary voters Saturday through Monday, reported a 4.7-point margin of error.

Google Gives All SF Homeless Free Voicemail

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - Google has made an announcement that could help hundreds of homeless people in San Francisco get back on their feet.
Every single homeless person in the city will be given a life-long phone number and voicemail, should they choose to accept it, NBC11's Lisa Bernard said.

Google is partnering with San Francisco to provide the service to homeless individuals and to shelters and agencies so they can distribute the numbers to their clients.
The announcement was made at a Project Homeless Connect event at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium Wednesday.
A homeless person will be able to call in for his or her messages from any phone.
The move by the city and the company would allow someone to be able to fill out a job application, which asks for a call back number.
It will allow clinics to share test results.
Mayor Gavin Newsom and Google said they want to empower people.
"How do you communicate as a homeless individual? " Newsom asked. "How do you expect your life to turn around if you can't even get information or if someone can't even get in touch with you?"
"It just seems exactly like any other voice mail," said Craig Walker, senior project manager of Google. "There's no stigma attached to it that 'hey this is a temporary thing' or 'this is an 800 number.' It's really just a local number owned by the user."
One man who used to be homeless said the right message can raise the spirit.
"Having your family, friends and loved ones being able to say 'here I'm thinking about you, I love you, I want you to know you're mine, and I miss you,' can have a monumental change in one's behavior."
"Providing phone and messaging capabilities and access to vital health care is an extraordinary step forward in the city's commitment to a comprehensive approach to addressing the needs of this vulnerable community," Newsom said.
"We're firm believers in the power of technology to improve the daily lives of individuals and communities as a whole, and we recognize that access to phone and voicemail services is one way that Google can help San Francisco's homeless stay connected with family, friends, social workers, health care providers, and potential employers," Walker said.
Walker said the program was ready to start right away.
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Users can record their own greetings, and no indication is given to callers that the service is different from any other voicemail system.
If the program is successful in San Francisco the plan is to offer it to homeless people in cities across the state and country.
Homeless clients received phone service as part of their Project CARE (Communications and Respect for Everybody) cases.
The California Pacific Medical Center also launched its pilot program that offered free mammograms to homeless women at the same event.
The outreach effort marked the 21st Project Homeless Connect event at the auditorium.

Ajay's advice to Kajol regarding SRK!

Well do not get excited and jump to conclusions after reading our headline, as we are not about to indulge in yellow journalism! This is a rather interesting incident that took place between Ajay Devgan, Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. It is quite in contrast to the recent stories involving Kajol's hubby Devgan and her advice seeking SMS to Shah Rukh Khan, concerning Raju Hirani's film. And we go!
As per Mumbai based media sources, Kajol was wondering as to why her close friend Shah Rukh Khan had not replied to her SMS about doing Rajkumar Hirani's film. Seeing Kajol being worried about the same, loving hubby Ajay Devgan told her (rather coolly) to call SRK and find out, instead of getting worried the whole day and staring at her mobile, while waiting for a reply from King Khan. Needless to add that Kajol took her husband's intelligent advice rather seriously and did the same. And we know her decision regarding the matter.
For those who are still clueless, as of the moment, Aamir Khan is the only actor finalised for Rajkumar Hirani's next project based on the Indian education system.

Bachchans stay away because of SRK?

Amitabh Bachchan and his parivaar were conspicuous by their absence at the Filmfare Awards function. According to sources, the reason behind is none other than the presence of Shah Rukh Khan as one of the anchors for the show.
According to sources, last year too Shah Rukh Khan had said something Amar Singh, to which he took offence. The following day Amar Singh's party members created a ruckus outside SRK's house and he had to rush from his shooting early to pacify his terrified children.
Later, the actor had said that he wondered why people who cannot take a joke come to the function. He said the function was for the film fraternity and people who attend understand the inside jokes. T
his year it seems that once Amar Singh found out that SRK was hosting the function, he decided to skip it and so did the Bachchans. The official version was that they were still mourning. But just last week, the Big B's family attended the premiere of Jodhaa Akbar, and a few days later, Abhishek and Aishwarya were seen dancing at a function. So it is obvious that the mourning was an excuse to skip the function with King Khan behind the mike.

Amitabh and Rekha together?

Even we were equally surprised as you are on reading this title. Well that was the news, from a section of media reporting about reel life hit jodi Amitabh and Rekha's comeback in a film titled Aladdin, to be directed by Jhankaar Beats fame director Sujoy Ghosh. The yesteryear-superhit jodi will appear onscreen after almost a gap of more than two decades (around 26 years). But sadly the news will settle only as headlines and will not turn out to be a reality as the director, Sujoy, denied about they being together in Aladdin, when we contacted. Further he also confirmed that it's only Big B who is signed for the film, playing the character of 'Gini' and not Rekha. Well all those brokenhearted fans can at least enjoy the news, if not the movie.

India Inc takes on US politicians

The outsourcing debate rages on and this time, India Inc which is facing the heat from US Presidential candidates especially Democrat hopeful Barack Obama who has blamed Indians for the rising unemployment in the country. Corporate India in retaliation has launched a counter-offensive saying India is gifting jobs, not stealing them.An image of Barack Obama echoeing what many of his voters feel - the anti-outsourcing rhetoric - has not surprisingly upset India Inc. But its not something they're going to take lying down.In a counter-offensive, a full-page advertisement published in an American newspaper provides elaborate accounts of how India is "gifting" thousands of jobs to Americans and not "stealing" them.This is not how Obama would have it seem. He's been saying quite the opposite. Sample this excerpt from a Barack Obama speech at a rally in Ohio only two days ago, telling his voters that their jobs have been stolen, taken away by offshore companies that set up in places like China and India:Obama said: "We're here because there are workers in Youngstown, Ohio, who've watched job after job after job disappear because of bad trade deals....They need us to end those tax breaks that go to companies that ship jobs overseas."In fact, Obama has even vowed to curb offshoring by introducing a tax scheme that will reward American firms that do not ship jobs overseas. This undoubtedly is a dangerous predicament for India Inc and hundreds of thousands of BPO workers back home could be at risk of losing their jobs if Obama has his way.According to FICCI, Indian corporate investments in the country were over $10.25 billion in 2007 - but it is the timing of this advertisement which is crucial as well as interesting, coming as it does in the thick of the American debate on outsourcing.Speaking on the advertisement, Sanjay Puri, Chairman of the USINPAC - US India Political Action Committee said he understood the sensitivities where it came from."I understand... because Senator Obama is from Chicago and also a senator from Illinois, but Chicago also happens to be the heart of the Midwest, also the manufacturing base and also part of our big industrial states. So the idea is that hey, Indian companies are coming in and they are working and investing in manufacturing - and it's not just the coast, whether it's New York or San Francisco or the Bay area or California - they are going into the heartland also and investing and that was what they were trying to do," said Puri. He added that the outsourcing issue coming up in the campaign was related to the state of the US economy."It will be an issue directly proportionate to how much the US economy is in a problem, if the economy gets worse you will see that come up more in the dialogue of the presidential campaign," said Puri.

'Terrorism is against Islam'

Leading Islamic Seminary -- Darul Uloom -- and several other Muslim organisations have adopted a declaration denouncing terrorism and declaring it "un-Islamic". The declaration was finalised and adopted at an anti-terrorism conference in Deoband in Uttar Pradesh, which was attended by clerics, scholars and religious leaders from across the country. The conference asked the Muslim community to stay away from the acts of terrorism and organisations that encourage violence in the name of religion.
Founded in 1866, Darul Uloom at Deoband is the oldest Islamic seminary in India and one of the biggest in the world.