U2 have rescheduled the dates for the North American leg of their 360 tour for Spring/Summer 2011

Irish rock band U2 have rescheduled the dates for the North American leg of their 360 tour for Spring/Summer 2011 with all tickets valid for the new performance dates, their concert promoter said Tuesday.The North American leg will kick off on May 21 next year at Invesco Field in Denver and end on July 23, 2011 in Minneapolis, music concert company Live Nation Entertainment said. The 2010 European tour will begin on time on August 6, 2010 in Turin.The North American tour dates were canceled and U2 missed a date with Glastonbury music festival after frontman Bono underwent emergency surgery on his back in May.”Following Bono’s recovery from recent back surgery, U2 are now readying themselves for the opening of their European Tour,” Live Nation said in a statement.

It said band members Adam, Larry, Edge and Bono have filmed a message for everyone at Web site u2.com on the eve of their return to say: “Thank you for standing by us.”U2 manager Paul McGuinness also thanked the band’s fans for their ongoing support.”We’re delighted the dates are rescheduled and in all the same venues we originally planned to play,” he said in the statement. “Above all we want to thank the U2 fans for bearing with us. They’re the best and the band wants to get back to where they belong, surrounded by their audience.”With hits like “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Where the Streets Have No Name,” U2 are one of the world’s biggest bands and have sold over 150 million records, according to unofficial estimates.The 50-year-old singer’s injury was a blow to the band and the millions of fans who were hoping to see U2 this year on the second leg of their world U2 360 Tour.

It was also expected to hit music concert company Live Nation, which signed a 12-year deal to handle merchandising, digital and branding rights as well as touring.The 2009 part of the tour helped the band earn $109 million last year, according to music journal Billboard.The 360 tour, so-called because fans surround a giant circular platform, was predicted to become the highest-grossing tour in history.(Reuters)

PHOENIX,Lawsuits challenge new Arizona immigration law

PHOENIX  Anger mounted Thursday over an Arizona law cracking down on illegal immigration as a police officer filed one of the first lawsuits challenging the law and activists gathered outside an Arizona Diamondbacks game at Wrigley Field in Chicago, chanting “Boycott Arizona.”The lawsuit from 15-year Tucson police veteran Martin Escobar is one of two filed Thursday, less than a week after Republican Gov. Jan Brewer signed the law that’s sparked fears it will lead to racial profiling despite the governor’s vow that officers will be properly trained.U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the federal government may challenge the law, which requires local and state law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally, and makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally.Escobar, an overnight patrol officer in a heavily Latino area of Tucson, argues there’s no way for officers to confirm people’s immigration status without impeding investigations, and that the new law violates numerous constitutional rights.

Tucson police spokesman Sgt. Fabian Pacheco said Escobar is acting on his own, not on behalf of the department.The National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders also filed a lawsuit Thursday, and is seeking an injunction preventing authorities from enforcing the law. The group argues federal law pre-empts state regulation of national borders, and that Arizona’s law violates due process rights by letting police detain suspected illegal immigrants before they’re convicted.

“Mexican-Americans are not going to take this lying down,” singer Linda Ronstadt, a Tucson native, said at a state Capitol news conference on another lawsuit planned by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the National Immigration Law Center.At least three Arizona cities  Phoenix, Flagstaff and Tucson are considering legal action to block the law. In Flagstaff, police are investigating a threatening e-mail sent to members of the city council over their opposition to the law. The author said council members should be “arrested, tried in court, found guilty of treason and hanged from the nearest tree!”

About 40 immigrant rights activists gathered outside Wrigley Field in Chicago Thursday as the Cubs open a four-game series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. A small plane toting a banner criticizing the law circled the stadium, and activist George Lieu said they’ve sent a letter to Cubs management asking them to stop holding spring training in Arizona.A Cubs spokesman declined to comment. Arizona manager A.J. Hinch says the team is there to play baseball.

On Wednesday, a group filed papers to launch a referendum drive that could put the law on hold until 2012, when voters could decide whether it is repealed.The legislation’s chief sponsor, Republican Rep. Russell Pearce, said he has no doubt voters will support the new law at the ballot box, which would then protect it from repeal by the Legislature. In Arizona, measures approved by voters can only be repealed at the ballot box.

Meanwhile, the effect of the law continued to ripple beyond Arizona.A group of conservative state lawmakers in Oklahoma are considering pushing a bill similar to Arizona’s. In Texas, Rep. Debbie Riddle, a Republican, said she will introduce a measure similar to the Arizona law in the January legislative session. And Republicans running for governor in Colorado and Minnesota expressed support for the crackdown. “I’d do something very similar” if elected,” Former Rep. Scott McInnis, told KHOW-AM radio in Denver.

Denver Public Schools is banning work-related travel to Arizona. Even though school employees are in the country legally, DPS spokesman Kristy Armstrong said officials don’t want them to be “subjected to that kind of scrutiny and search.Retired South African archbishop Desmond Tutu also chimed in, saying he supports the idea of a boycott of Arizona businesses, according to a letter he wrote that was posted Wednesday onTheCommunity.com, a website for Nobel peace laureates that promotes peace and human rights.

“I recognize that Arizona has become a widening entry point for illegal immigration from the South … but a solution that degrades innocent people, or that makes anyone with broken English a suspect, is not a solution,” Tutu saidColombian singer Shakira planned to visit Phoenix on Thursday to meet with the city’s police chief and mayor over her concerns that the law would lead to racial profiling.(Ap)

road blocks to Arizona's tough new law on illegal immigration that has thrust the state into the national spotlight

PHOENIX A referendum drive and a lawsuit have emerged as potential road blocks to Arizona’s tough new law on illegal immigration that has thrust the state into the national spotlight.The legal action set to be filed Thursday in federal court is aimed a preventing enforcement of the controversial measure, while the ballot question could put it on hold until 2012.

Signed last week by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer, the law requires local and state law enforcement to question people about their immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally, and makes it a state crime to be in the United States illegally.A draft of the proposed lawsuit obtained by The Associated Press shows the National Coalition of Latino Clergy and Christian Leaders will seek an injunction preventing authorities from enforcing the law. The group argues federal law pre-empts state regulation of national borders, and that Arizona’s law violates due-process rights by allowing suspected illegal immigrants to be detained before they’re convicted.

Other Hispanic and civil rights groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, are also planning lawsuits. And U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has said the federal government may challenge the law.On Wednesday, a group filed papers to launch a referendum drive that could put the law on hold until 2012 if organizers wait until the last minute to turn in petition signatures needed to get the measure on the ballot.

Opponents of the law have until late July or early August to file the more than 76,000 signatures  the same time the law is set to go into effect. If they get enough signatures, the law would be delayed until a vote.But the deadline to put a question on the November ballot is July 1, and a referendum filing later than that could delay a vote on the law until 2012, officials with the Secretary of State’s Office said.”That would be a pretty big advantage” to the law’s opponents, said Andrew Chavez, head of a Phoenix-based petition-circulating firm and chairman of the One Arizona referendum campaign.The legislation’s chief sponsor, Republican Rep. Russell Pearce, said he has no doubt voters will support the new law at the ballot box, which would then protect it from repeal by the Legislature. In Arizona, measures approved by voters can only be repealed at the ballot box.The clergy group’s lawsuit targets a provision allowing police to arrest illegal-immigrant day laborers seeking work on the street or anyone trying to hire them, according to the draft. It says the solicitation of work is protected by the First Amendment.

State Rep. Ben Miranda, a Phoenix Democrat who will serve as the local attorney on the case, said it was important to file the suit quickly to show local Latinos and the rest of the country that there’s still a chance the law won’t be enacted.”I think there’s real damage being caused right now,” Miranda said. “How do you measure the kind of fear … going on in many parts of this community?”At least three Arizona cities also are considering lawsuits to block the law. Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon said the measure would be “economically devastating,” and called on the City Council to sue the state to stop it from taking effect.

The council rejected that idea Tuesday, yet the mayor told reporters he retained legal counsel to prepare a lawsuit to file on behalf of the city.Tucson leaders also are considering their options to block the law, and Flagstaff City Councilman Rick Swanson said the city had a duty to protect its residents who might be targeted.

Meanwhile, the effect of the law continued to ripple beyond Arizona.A Republican Texas lawmaker said she’ll introduce a measure similar to the Arizona law next year. Texas Rep. Debbie Riddle of Tomball said she will push for the law in the January legislative session, according to Wednesday’s editions of the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle.And Republicans running for governor in Colorado and Minnesota expressed support for the crackdown. “I’d do something very similar” if elected,” Former Rep. Scott McInnis, told KHOW-AM radio in Denver.

United States Steel Corp. continues to see improved demand for steel used in products such as appliances, automobiles and heavy industrial equipment

DENVER United States Steel Corp. continues to see improved demand for steel used in products such as appliances, automobiles and heavy industrial equipment.That improvement is slowly working its way to the steelmaker’s bottom line.The Pittsburgh manufacturer reported a narrower loss for the first three months of the year and its best result since it reported a profit in the last quarter of 2008. The company predicted more improvement in the current quarter as shipments increase and prices rise, although it cautioned that raw materials also continue to rise.

U.S. Steel is the latest steel maker to note a gradual improvement in business after struggling through a difficult 2009 when recession-battered customers cut back on orders.”Our operating results have been making a slow and steady recovery since hitting a low point in the first quarter of 2009 until this quarter, when the benefits of improved utilization rates and selling prices began to be realized in a more significant way,” John P. Surma, chairman and CEO, told analysts during a conference call.

Surma said all of the company’s operating segments should be profitable in the second quarter, a little sooner than Wall Street had been expecting.”Gradually improving business conditions should be reflected in our operating results,” he said in a statement.The results are an indication of both an improving global economy and a slow turnaround in the U.S., Argus Research analyst Bill Selesky said.He noted U.S. Steel is increasing production at some facilities. “They would not do that unless they thought they had a window here where demand was going up,” he said.

U.S. Steel reported a loss of $157 million, or $1.10 per share, for the quarter. A year ago, it lost $439 million, or $3.78 per share.Revenue rose 42 percent to $3.9 billion from $2.75 billion.Prices for flat-rolled steel, used in everything from automobiles to appliances, fell to $654 a net ton from $715 a net ton a year ago. But they improved from the fourth quarter.Prices also fell year over year in U.S. Steel’s European operations and in the tubular business, which produces pipe products.

Yet companywide, overall shipments jumped 67.5 percent from a year ago.Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, had predicted a loss of $1.43 a share on revenue of $3.75 billion. Such estimates typically exclude one-time items.U.S. Steel said cost-cutting measures that it has taken in the past year have made operations more efficient.

In the months ahead, the company expects to see higher costs for coal used in the steelmaking process and iron ore for its European operations. Although U.S. Steel has its own iron ore source for North American operations, it expects to pay more for the raw material in Europe.Manufacturers that buy iron ore in the marketplace are expected to pay more because of a new international system that allows prices to be set quarterly instead of annually.

Shares fell $3.44, or 5.7 percent, to close at $56.63.U.S. stocks fell overall after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the debt of Greece and Portugal. The move intensified investors’ fears that Europe’s debt problems are spreading.(AP)

Qatar Diplomat Sparks Bomb Scare After Smoking On United Airlines Flight To Denver

DENVERA Qatari diplomat trying to sneak a smoke in an airplane bathroom sparked a bomb scare Wednesday night on a flight from Washington to Denver, with fighter jets scrambled and law enforcement put on high alert, officials said.No explosives were found on the man, and officials do not believe he was trying to harm anyone, according to a senior law enforcement officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.An Arab diplomat briefed on the matter identified the diplomat as Mohammed Al-Madadi.The sources asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to discuss the ongoing investigation.

Officials said air marshals aboard the flight restrained the man and he was questioned. The plane landed safely as military jets were scrambled.Flights continued to land and take off at Denver International Airport, one of the nation’s busiest. Passengers from other flights picked up their luggage in the airport’s baggage area, apparently unaware of any emergency.

A senior State Department official said the agency was aware of the tentative identification of the man as a Qatari diplomat and that there would be “consequences, diplomatic and otherwise” if he had committed a crime.The latest edition of department’s Diplomatic List, a registry of foreign diplomats working in the United States, identifies a man named Mohammed Yaaqob Y.M. Al-Madadi as the third secretary for the Qatari Embassy in Washington. Third secretary is a relatively low-ranking position at any diplomatic post and it was not immediately clear what his responsibilities would have been.

Foreign diplomats in the United States, like American diplomats posted abroad, have broad immunity from prosecution. The official said if the man’s identity as a Qatari diplomat was confirmed and if it was found that he may have committed a crime, U.S. authorities would have to decide whether to ask Qatar to waive his diplomatic immunity so he could be charged and tried. Qatar could decline, the official said, and the man would likely be expelled from the United States

Scanners force trade-off between privacy, security

the security gate at San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO  As Ronak Ray hunted for his flight gate, he prepared for the prospect of a security guard peering through his clothes with a full body scanner. But Ray doesn’t mind: what he gives up in privacy he gets back in security.”I think it’s necessary,” said Ray, a 23-year-old graduate student who was at San Francisco International Airport to fly to India. “Our lives are far more important than how we’re being searched.”Despite controversy surrounding the scans, Ray’s position was typical of several travelers interviewed at various airports Wednesday by The Associated Press.Airports in five other U.S. cities are also using full body scanners at specific checkpoints instead of metal detectors. In addition, the scanners are used at 13 other airports for random checks and so-called secondary screenings of passengers who set off detectors.

But many more air travelers may have to get used to the idea soon. The Transportation Security Administration has ordered 150 more full body scanners to be installed in airports throughout the country in early 2010, agency spokeswoman Suzanne Trevino said.Dutch security officials have said they believe such scanners could have detected the explosive materials Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab of Nigeria is accused of trying to ignite aboard a Detroit-bound Northwest Airlines flight Christmas Day.Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport has 15 full body scanners, but none were used to scan Abdulmutallab when he boarded. In Europe and the U.S., privacy concerns over the scanners’ ability to see through clothing have kept them from widespread use.

The technology was first used about two years ago to make it easier for airport security to do body searches without making physical contact with passengers.The idea of an electronic strip search did not bother Judy Yeager, 62, of Sarasota, Fla., as she prepared to depart Las Vegas. She stood in the full-body scanner Wednesday afternoon and held her arms up as a security official guided her through the gray closet-sized booth.”If it’s going to protect a whole airplane of people, who gives a flying you-know-what if they see my boob whatever,” Yeager said. “That’s the way I feel, honest to God.”George Hyde, of Birmingham, Ala., who was flying out of Salt Lake City with his wife, Patsy, on Wednesday after visiting their children and grandchildren in Park City, Utah.”I’d rather be safe than be embarrassed,” Hyde said. Neither he nor his wife had been through a body scanner before.”We’re very modest people but we’d be willing to go through that for security.”

Trevino said the TSA has worked with privacy advocates and the scanners’ manufacturers to develop software that blurs the faces and genital areas of passengers being scanned. In all cases, passengers are not required to be scanned by the machine but can opt for a full body pat-down instead.At Salt Lake City International Airport, fewer than 1 percent of passengers subjected to the scanner chose the pat-down since the machine was installed in March, said Dwane Baird, a TSA spokesman in Salt Lake City.On Tuesday, some 1,900 people went through the scanner and just three chose not to, he said.Critics of the scanners said the option to opt out was not enough.”The question is should they be used indiscriminately on little children and grandmothers,” said Republican U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock of California. McClintock co-sponsored a bill approved by the House 310-118 in June prohibiting the use of full body scanners for primary screenings. The bill is pending in the Senate.

He said the devices raised serious concerns regarding constitutional protections against unreasonable searches.”There’s no practical distinction between a full body scan and being pulled into a side room and being ordered to strip your clothing.”To further protect passenger privacy, security officers looking at the images are in a different part of the airport and are not allowed to take any recording devices into the room with them, Trevino said. The images captured by the scanners cannot be stored, transmitted or printed in any way.But the TSA still has some public relations work ahead of it, judging by the reactions of passengers in Albuquerque, N.M., who were worried about what would happen to their images once they were scanned.”Are they going to be recorded or do they just scan them and that’s the end of them? How are these TSA people going to be using them? That’s a real concern for me,” said Courtney Best-Trujillo of Santa Fe, N.M., who was flying to Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The six airports where full body scanners are being used for what TSA calls “primary screenings” are: Albuquerque, N.M.; Las Vegas, Nev.; Miami, Fla.; San Francisco; Salt Lake City, Utah; and Tulsa, Okla.The remainder of the machines are being used for secondary screenings in Atlanta, Ga.; Baltimore/Washington; Denver, Colo.; Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas; Indianapolis, Ind.; Jacksonville and Tampa, Fla.; Los Angeles; Phoenix, Ariz.; Raleigh-Durham, N.C.; Richmond, Va.; Ronald Reagan Washington National; and Detroit, Mich.

Though most passengers interviewed by The Associated Press felt security trumped other concerns, Bruna Martina, 48, a physician from the coast of Venezuela, said the scanners still made her feel uncomfortable.”I think there has to be another way to control people, or to scan them, but not like this,” she said as she headed back home after a vacation in Miami with her husband and two sons. She also does not think the scanners will thwart another attack.”They’ll find another way,” Martina said. “There is always somebody cleverer than the rest.”(Ap)

Denver Nuggets vs Sacramento Kings 106-101

Carmelo Anthony(15) vs Donte Greene (20)

SACRAMENTO, Calif. Andres Nocioni made four 3-pointers and scored a season-high 21 points, helping the Sacramento Kings beat the struggling Denver Nuggets 106-101 on Monday night.Omri Casspi made a 3-pointer from the corner to put the Kings ahead for good at 97-96. Following a missed shot by Carmelo Anthony, Beno Udrih converted on a fastbreak for a three-point play to give Sacramento a 100-96 lead with 1:41 remaining.Udrih scored 17 points and had seven assists and Donte Greene also had 17 points for the Kings. Jason Thompson contributed 15 points and 11 rebounds.Anthony scored 34 points and Nene had 25 points for the Nuggets, who lost their third straight and fifth in six games. Kenyon Martin added 10 points and 12 rebounds.The Nuggets made just 20 of 35 free throws and shot 41 percent overall. Hounded by Kings defenders throughout, Anthony shot 15 of 35 and was 3 of 7 on free throws.The Nuggets are a different team on the road, where they have dropped six straight. They came into the game averaging just over 100 points in road games while averaging 114 in Denver, where they are 13-2.

Winter storm plods through West, (MidwestDust Storm Accidents)

Winter storm plods through West/ Dust Storm Accidents

DENVER  A fast-moving winter storm is promising to bring a white Christmas to parts of the West and Midwest, but not without threatening to cause long delays and tough driving conditions for countless holiday travelers.The storm is expected to dump more than a foot of snow on parts of Colorado and Southern Utah by midday Wednesday, and blow east into the Plains states through Christmas Day. Blizzard warnings were likely on Christmas Eve in Kansas.”Pretty much the entire central and southern Rockies are going to get snow, and then it’s going east and will drop more snow,” Stan Rose, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Pueblo, Colo.With the snowstorm looming, holiday travelers scrambled Tuesday to adjust their plans.

In Denver, Sarah McAnarney and her husband planned to leave town Wednesday to visit family in Ozark, Mo., with their springer spaniel, Olive. But forecasts prompted them to skip a day of skiing in the Rockies and start driving a day early.

McAnarney said she was caught in a blizzard two weeks ago in the Rockies and needed four hours to drive 100 miles from Vail to Denver. She said she didn’t want to repeat the experience.”I was driving through a whiteout,” she said Tuesday at a truck stop east of Topeka, Kan. “You couldn’t see over your headlights.”

On Tuesday, blustery weather was already snarling traffic in Arizona, with blizzard-like conditions shutting down roads and causing a pileup involving 20 vehicles. South of Phoenix, a dust storm set off a series of collisions that killed at least three people.A tropical jet stream pumping in moisture from the storm’s south was likely to cause plenty of snow as the storm heads into the Plains states.South Dakota Gov. Mike Rounds declared a state of emergency Tuesday, giving his state more flexibility to prepare.

A winter storm watch was in effect for most of southeast Colorado, the panhandle of Oklahoma and north Texas through Thursday. By Tuesday afternoon, light snow was falling in Salt Lake City. No major airport delays were reported there or in Denver, but holiday travelers across the region were warned to check with their airlines before arriving for flights.In western Nebraska, a Colorado woman was killed Tuesday on Interstate 80 when her SUV apparently hit black ice and slid across a median.

In Nevada, multiple wrecks were reported in and around Reno as snow blanketed the area shortly before the Tuesday evening commute. No serious injuries were reported, the Reno Gazette-Journal newspaper reported.

Meanwhile, many holiday travelers in the region decided to adjust their plans. Craig Rueschhoff and his girlfriend, Brenna Larson, planned to leave Des Moines, Iowa, on Tuesday evening instead of Wednesday night to make the 210-mile drive to Columbus, Neb., to visit his parents.Rueschhoff, 35, said they also planned to visit Larson’s parents in western Iowa on their way back to Des Moines but thought about skipping the annual trip.

“We’ve had both my mom and her mom encourage us not to come if the weather is too bad,” he said. “They wouldn’t feel bad if we didn’t come. We’ve gotten their blessing.”

The winter conditions follow a weekend storm that dropped record snowfall and interrupted holiday shopping and travel on the East Coast. Delays from that storm sparked an unruly crowd that included passengers still on standby Tuesday at the Delta Air Lines terminal at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. Police were called to help with crowd control.

Rose said holiday revelers in the West and Midwest should worry about the cold as well as the snow. Temperatures across Colorado on Christmas were not expected to get out of the 20s, with single-digits expected in the mountains.“It’s going to be cold to begin with, and then it’s going to get even colder,” Rose said.

Charlotte Bobcats vs Denver Nuggets 107-95

Stephen Jackson

Charlotte got more than just a scorer with the arrival of Stephen Jackson last month.The Bobcats’ newest addition showed off his varied skill set Tuesday as his new team picked up a 107-95 win over the Denver Nuggets.

Jackson tallied team-highs with 25 points and six assists as the Bobcats picked up their sixth win in the last eight games. However, it was Jackson’s contributions on defense that had him talking after the victory.

“I want be to be able to make plays for guys, get my shots and at the same time guard their best player,” Jackson said. “Anytime there is a great scorer out there and I can guard him it gets my game going. It gets my level up and I’m always up to that challenge.”

Jackson grabbed seven defensive rebounds and had three steals while also being tasked with guarding the league’s leading scorer in Carmelo Anthony. The Denver All-Star scored a game-high 34 points, but was limited in transition and in his ability to get his teammates involved.

“You have to make a guy like (Anthony) work,” Jackson added. “You can’t stop him completely. He’s the leading scorer in the league. You just want to make it as difficult as possible.”

The Bobcats opened the game with the first nine points of the game, including five from Raymond Felton. Charlotte led after the opening quarter by three points, but allowed Anthony to pick up 10 points.

Denver took the lead in the second quarter and led by as many as seven points. Flip Murray’s three combined with Jackson’s free throws capped a 9-0 run to close the half as the Bobcats took a 54-49 lead into the break.

The Nuggets again proved to be resilient in the third quarter. Denver used an early run and took another lead, this time as many as four points. However, Charlotte used a late burst to take a lead late in the quarter again and led by three with the final 12 minutes on tap.

Charlotte then took control late in the fourth. With the game tied at 87, Murray hit a jumper from the left wing and Felton followed it up with a drive in the lane. Anthony tried to rally his team and scored to cut the lead in half, but Charlotte responded with a pair of buckets.

The Bobcats pushed their lead to six points, 95-89, with back-to-back buckets from Jackson and Felton. Denver was able to pull within four points on multiple occasions, but never got closer.

Anthony lost his cool late in the fourth quarter after picking up his fifth foul and was whistled for a technical foul. Jackson, who scored 10 points in the final period, sank six free throws in the final minute to seal the Charlotte win.

The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Nuggets, who were on the second night of a back-to-back after losing in Philadelphia. Anthony, who was coming off his first sub-20-point game of the season, rebounded for a strong night for Denver with 12-for-22 shooting and seven rebounds.

“[Anthony] got his,” Gerald Wallace said. “But we were able to limit the other guys and not let them get involved. Our defense has always been good. If we can keep our turnovers down and get back on defense and keep people in front of us we have a pretty good opportunity (to win) every game.”

However, Anthony’s fellow Nuggets were never able to add much to the league’s most potent offense.

“We just weren’t making the shots tonight,” Anthony said. “It happens. You swing the ball, you don’t make the shots. It happens.”The Bobcats are now 8-3 at Time Warner Cable Arena and hope to take that momentum on the road this weekend.

“We get the momentum on our side going into a two-game road trip in San Antonio and Dallas,” Wallace said. “For us to get this one and have the momentum prepares us to go into those games.”

denver nuggets vs Philadelphia 76ers 93- 83

allen iverson

PHILADELPHIA  Chauncey Billups and Denver ruined Allen Iverson’s homecoming.Billups scored 31 points and Carmelo Anthony had 14 to help the Nuggets spoil Iverson’s return to Philadelphia with a 93-83 win over the 76ers on Monday night.The Nuggets went on a 22-3 run over the third and fourth quarters to rally for their fourth straight win.

Iverson’s rousing return did little to mask the fact that the Sixers are a lousy team. They’ve lost 10 straight, and only one-win New Jersey has a worse record in the Eastern Conference.Iverson received a standing ovation when he left in the fourth quarter. He scored 11 points on 4-for-11 shooting and had six assists in 37 minutes.

Iverson bowed and kissed the logo at midcourt when he was introduced as the sellout crowd of 20,664 stood and roared in approval.Andre Iguodala led the Sixers with 31 points, Thaddeus Young had 21 and Samuel Dalembert grabbed 15 rebounds.But this night for the Sixers was all about Iverson in his first game with the team since he was traded in 2006.

Iverson missed his first shot, a makable layup early in the first quarter. His first points came off a 4-footer he tossed up off a Dalembert miss.Energized by the emotional pregame show, the 76ers played one of their strongest quarters of the season. Iguodala, who bristled at the end of Iverson’s first tenure at being labeled “AI2,” scored 14 points to show this was still his team.
It’s still Iverson’s crowd.The building hummed every time Iverson touched the ball, and each basket was cheered as if it were a playoff winner.

Iverson played sparingly in his three-game stint with Memphis and feared he’d be out of game shape for his debut. He played all but 1 second of the first quarter and sat out in the second half mostly because of three fouls by the middle of the third quarter.

Backed by 18 points from Iguodala and 10 from Thaddeus Young, the Sixers led 44-41 at the break.They stretched that lead to nine when Iverson tossed a floater toward the basket that Dalembert slammed in for the alley-oop and had the Sixers feeling like their losing streak would be history.Instead, only their lead evaporated.

Billups, traded from Detroit in last year’s Iverson deal, showed why Denver was so eager to make the move. He sank a pair of 3s and worked his way to the free-throw line to score 13 points in the quarter and whittle the deficit to three.

Iverson was helpless in the fourth. Smith sank a pair of free throws to give Denver its first lead of the game, 67-65.Billups and Smith each hit a 3 during a staggering 22-3 run that let the Nuggets take control of the game.Billups nailed a late 3 for an 89-77 lead that sent the fans heading toward the exits.The pregame show was worth the price of admission.Iverson pulled in to the player’s parking lot at 5:55 p.m., waving to fans who waited in the cold for a glimpse of one of the most polarizing athletes in Philadelphia’s deep sports history.

He hit the court for warmups to the sound of fans screaming his name and holding “Welcome Home” signs. He took passes from his former 76ers backcourt teammate Aaron McKie, now an assistant coachHe hit shot after shot to the delight of the crowd and broke out in a wide smile as they erupted in cheers.Iverson always considered Philly home and dreamed of a return to the team he led to the 2001 NBA finals.He just pictured a different outcome.

NOTES: Iguodala buried a 90-footer just after the buzzer to end the first half. It didn’t count. … The Sixers have lost 14 of 16. … The Sixers had not sold out a game this season. … Anthony was whistled for a technical in the third.

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