Seattle becomes 11th city to boycott Arizona immigration law

the Seattle City Council unanimously voted to boycott Arizona by ending official city travel there and resolving, when practical, to cut off future contracts with Arizona-based businesses. That makes Seattle the 11th city to endorse a boycott of the state in opposition to its controversial immigration law. Five of the boycotting cities are in California: Los Angeles tops the list as the biggest, and its boycott could deliver the most painful blow to Arizona’s economy, as the city has $58 million in existing contracts with Arizona companies, according to the L.A. Times.

In pending city votes, some members of Dallas’s city council are considering a boycott, along with the municipal governments in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and Berkeley, California.Tourism officials and Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer are pleading with opponents of the law not to boycott, saying innocent people could lose their jobs. But Democratic Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva has led the calls for boycotts of his own state, arguing that pressure needs to be put on officials to repeal the law, much as similar economic initiatives spurred the state to officially recognize the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday when it was the last state to withhold such recognition.

Legal challenges to the Arizona measure could well render the boycott campaign moot, however. Since the law, which makes it a state crime to be an illegal immigrant, is already facing five legal challenges, it may be overturned before it can go into effect July 23.Here’s a list of the cities that have announced travel and/or city-contract boycotts so far:

• Seattle, Washington• El Paso, Texas• Austin, Texas• Boston, Massachusetts• St. Paul, Minnesota • Boulder, Colorado• San Diego, California• West Hollywood, California• San Francisco, California• Los Angeles, California• Oakland, California

And here is a roster of groups that have announced travel boycotts, via Arizonaboycottclearinghouse.com

Major League Baseball to take any kind of strong stance on Arizona's controversial new immigration law

Don’t expect Major League Baseball to take any kind of strong stance on Arizona’s controversial new immigration law  if baseball ever gets around to commenting on it at all.Commissioner Bud Selig can’t go around shaking his fist and making threats to take the 2011 All-Star Game out of Phoenix, for instance, when he’s got his other hand in Arizonans’ pockets fishing for money for the Cubs’ new spring-training facility.

Selig may have no choice but to bite his lip and remain conspicuously silent on the subject.But standing idly by while others fight the battle on this wrong-headed law is reprehensible for an industry with so much potentially at stake, an industry more deeply invested in Arizona than any other professional sports league and with more Spanish-speaking, foreign-born players than any other league — not even counting the hundreds of minor-leaguers who fit that description.The Cubs alone have 13 players on their 40-man roster who were born in Latin American countries and another 104 among the minor-leaguers listed in the media guide.The battleground already reached the Cubs’ doorstep last weekend when protesters of the law demonstrated outside Wrigley Field when the Cubs played the Arizona Diamondbacks.The law requires police to question, with reasonable cause, people they suspect of being in the country illegally.

Even proponents all but admit the law is unnecessary considering it mirrors existing federal laws, which seems to make its only purpose to create enough of an onus and pressure on local cops to assure heavier doses of racial profiling and harassment (requisite anti-discrimination, window-dressing language aside).President Obama, lawmakers from other parts of the country and the major-league players union are among those who publicly oppose the law, which is being challenged in the courts.

Plenty of strong opinions

Within baseball, players such as San Diego Padres star Adrian Gonzalez, who was born in San Diego and spent some of his childhood in Tijuana, have been especially vocal in their opposition. Gonzalez called the law ”immoral” and called for baseball to boycott Arizona spring training if the law still is on the books next February.He and White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen both have said they’d boycott the 2011 All-Star game if selected to participate.Some of the Cubs’ Latin players were less strident or unwilling to talk publicly about it.

But Venezuelan-born pitcher Carlos Silva, who now lives in Minnesota, said he has thought a lot about how it might impact him and other Latin players. ”It’s kind of tough for us,” he said, ”especially for me — I look like a Mexican. I’m going to get stopped a lot of times.”He said he joked with his wife that she shouldn’t be surprised if he calls her from Mexico.This isn’t baseball’s law. And many say it’s not baseball’s place to get involved. But it could become baseball’s problem.

Said former Cub Cesar Izturis: ”Now they’re going to go after everybody, not just the people behind the wall. Now they’re going to come out on the street. What if you’re walking on the street with your family and kids? They’re going to go after you.”

Proponents of the law have said those kinds of fears are unfounded. And maybe they’re right.But those kinds of fears are real. And the first time this new law produces a publicized wrongful detention of a citizen, they’re going to grow.And there’s enough history of bigotry and profiling in this country to justify the fears.

In addition, the Phoenix and Maricopa County authorities have a reputation for being among the more aggressive in the West, if not the U.S.Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who already has been heavily criticized for his aggressive enforcement of immigration laws, is regionally famous for his road-side chain gangs of county inmates and calls himself ”America’s toughest sheriff.”This is the place where drunk drivers get sentenced to a tent city. And a place where police practice an unwritten policy of DUI-stop quotas.

A friend from Chicago who hasn’t had a drink in more than 10 years tells the story of being pulled over one night during spring training for ”weaving in your lane.” After eventually convincing the cop he was sober and persistently challenging the notion he’d done anything worthy of being stopped, the cop finally admitted he was required to stop a certain number of drivers every shift.Bottom line: It’s an MLB issue How does Bud Selig think this new immigration law is going to play out in the hands of these local authorities? And why wouldn’t guys like Silva or Izturis be concerned?

It’s not about whether they’re legal or if they’ll have documents to prove it. It’s about the potential for being singled out because of what they look or sound like, for being hassled disproportionately, for being afforded a different set of civil rights.For instance, does anybody think Canadian Ryan Dempster will face the same scrutiny?While Selig may be fumbling to keep his eyes, ears and mouth covered while keeping one hand free to dig for Arizona taxpayer money, believe this: This law is a baseball issue.Possibly baseball’s problem.And the longer he pretends it doesn’t concern him, the worse he and the game look.

Arizona's controversial immigration law will spark scores of people to protest in May 1 rallies nationwide and add urgency to pleas for federal immigration reform

CHICAGO Immigrant rights activists hope Arizona’s controversial immigration law will spark scores of people to protest in May 1 rallies nationwide and add urgency to pleas for federal immigration reform.Dozens of marches are planned for Saturday in cities across the country from Los Angeles to Dallas to New York.”What happened in Arizona proves that racism and anti-immigrant hysteria across the country still exists. We need to continue to fight,” said Lee Siu Hin, a coordinator with the Washington, D.C.-based National Immigrant Solidarity Network.

Activists believe opposition to Arizona’s new law  which requires authorities to question people about immigration status if there’s reason to suspect they’re in the country illegally could be the catalyst needed to draw record-breaking crowds similar to those four years ago.

That’s when more than a million across the country united to fight federal legislation considered anti-immigrant. Though the bill, which would have made being an illegal immigrant a felony, was unsuccessful, it triggered massive marches across the nation.Since then, the May 1 movement has fractured and attendance has dropped sharply as attempts to reform federal immigration policy fizzled. In 2006, nearly half a million people took to Chicago’s streets. Last year, fewer than 15,000 participated.But after the Arizona law was signed into law last week, immigration reform advocates have seen a flurry of activity.

Relying on online social networking, churches and ethnic media to mobilize, activists have called for a boycott of Arizona businesses and protested outside Arizona Diamondbacks baseball games. Earlier in the week, two dozen activists chanting “Illinois is not Arizona” were arrested for blocking traffic outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility in suburban Chicago.While supporters say the law is necessary because of the federal government’s failure to secure the border and growing anxiety over crime related to illegal immigration, critics say it’s unconstitutional and encourages racial profiling and discrimination against immigrants or anyone thought to be an immigrant.

Activists fear that without federal legislation in place to address the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the U.S., other states will follow Arizona’s lead and pass similar legislation.”If Republicans and Democrats do not take care of this albatross around our necks, this will in fact be the undoing of many, many years of civil rights struggle in this country,” said Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesman for the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, where a downtown march is planned on Saturday. “I’m hoping that there is enough fire in people’s hearts and minds to urge them to be mobilized.”

But chances the federal government will step in this year seemed slim.President Barack Obama, who had once promised to tackle immigration reform in his first 100 days but has pushed back that timetable several times, said this week that Congress may lack the “appetite” to take on immigration after going through a tough legislative year.

Meanwhile, activists say problems with a broken immigration system continue to affect millions  raids on workplaces create mistrust of authorities and separate families with mixed immigration status, employers take advantage of immigrant labor and thousands of college students are left in limbo.That includes 19-year-old Patricio Gonzalez who immigrated to the U.S. from Argentina at age five with his family on a tourist visa. It expired and his family wasn’t able to gain legal status.The Memphis teen said he had to drop out of college last fall because he wasn’t eligible for most student aid and couldn’t afford tuition.

“Do you know how difficult it is to see all your friends getting their education, and you’ve grown up with these people for years, they’re part of your family?” he said. “We’re creating lost generations — kids who grow up hopeless with no sense of betterment.”Activists aren’t alone in their opposition, a fact May 1 organizers hope will draw out even more people to rallies on Saturday which also is International Workers Day.California legislators have mulled canceling contracts with Arizona in protest. Denver Public Schools has banned work-related travel to Arizona. And several legal challenges, preventing the bill from going into effect this summer, are in the works.

Immigrant rights activists also say they’re stepping up other forms of action including more civil disobedience tactics. In Chicago, several college students plan to publicly “come out” as illegal immigrants on a downtown stage on Saturday.
“It’s time to come together and show that undocumenteds have dignity. They’re human,” said Douglas Interiano, a spokesman of Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance, which is helping plan Saturday’s march in Dallas.

He projected up to 100,000 could march in Texas with similar events planned in El Paso, Houston, Austin and San Juan. Organizers in California predicted up to 100,000 marching in downtown Los Angeles, too.”Given what’s happening in Arizona now it’s crucial for us to speak out and denounce what’s happening,” said Veronica Mendez, an organizer with the Workers Interfaith Network in Minneapolis, Minn., where there’s a Saturday rally. “We all have the same hopes and goals.”(AP)

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.

Four U.S. senators want Facebook to make it easier for its more than 400 million users to protect their privacy as the website develops new outlets to share personal information

SAN FRANCISCO Four U.S. senators want Facebook to make it easier for its more than 400 million users to protect their privacy as the website develops new outlets to share personal information.The call for simpler privacy controls came in a letter that the senators plan to send Tuesday to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. The Associated Press obtained a draft of the letter signed by Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.; Sen. Michael Bennet, D-Colo; Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska; and Sen. Al Franken, D.-Minn.It marks the second time in the past three days that Schumer has expressed his misgivings about a series of changes that Facebook announced last week. The new features are designed to unlock more of the data that the online hangout has accumulated about people during its six-year history.

Schumer sent a letter Sunday to the Federal Trade Commission calling for regulators to draw up clearer privacy guidelines for Facebook and other Internet social networks to follow.The political pressure threatens to deter Facebook’s efforts to put its stamp on more websites, a goal that could yield more moneymaking opportunities for the privately held company.

Facebook’s expansion “raises new concerns for users who want to maintain control over their information,” the senators wrote in their preliminary draft.In a statement late Monday, Facebook spokesman Andrew Noyes said the company wants to meet with Schumer to explain its commitment to privacy.

“We’ve developed powerful tools to give our users control over what information they want to share, when they want to share it and with whom,” Noyes said.Among other things, Facebook is plugging into other websites so people can communicate their interests with their online entourages. Facebook also tweaked its own website to create more pages where people’s biographical information could be exposed to a wider audience.

Before personal information can be shared with other websites, the senators want Facebook to seek users’ explicit consent, a process known as “opting in.” Facebook currently can share some personal information with websites unless individual users opt out by telling the company they don’t want those details to be passed along.The senators also object to Facebook’s decision to allow other businesses store users’ data for more than 24 hours.

Zuckerberg, who turns 26 next month, says he just wants to build more online avenues for people to connect with their friends and family. Some of his previous efforts have been detoured by privacy concerns, most notably in 2007 when Facebook users revolted against notification tool, called Beacon, that broadcast their activities on dozens of websites.Facebook responded to that rebellion by giving people more control over Beacon before scrapping the program completely. (AP)

St. Louis Blues have fired coach Andy Murray and appointed Davis Payne interim head coach

ST. LOUIS  The St. Louis Blues have fired coach Andy Murray and appointed Davis Payne interim head coach.Blues spokesman Mike Caruso confirmed the moves Saturday.The Blues have been struggling this season and are 12th in the Western Conference with a 17-17-6 record.Murray was hired by the Blues in 2006 after coaching the Los Angeles Kings and working as assistant in Philadelphia, Minnesota and Winnipeg.Team president John Davidson cited Payne’s nine winning seasons in the minors, including an ECHL championship in 2006.(AP)

Los Angeles Lakers vs Oklahoma City Thunder 111-108

Kobe Bryant vs Thabo Sefolosha

LOS ANGELES Kobe Bryant scored 40 points for the sixth time this season, and the NBA-leading Los Angeles Lakers shook off a rough first half before hanging on for their 16th victory in 17 games, 111-108 over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday night.Pau Gasol had 15 points and 11 rebounds for the road-weary Lakers, who needed two last-minute free throws apiece from Bryant and Derek Fisher to win their first game back from a five-game road trip.

After trailing by 12 in the first half, Los Angeles blew most of an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter. Baskets by Russell Westbrook and James Harden twice cut the Lakers’ lead to one in the final 25 seconds, but Bryant and Fisher sealed Los Angeles’ 12th straight win over Oklahoma City.

Kevin Durant scored 30 points before fouling out with 1:31 to play, and former UCLA star Westbrook had 21 points and 13 assists for the Thunder, who dropped back below .500 with their fifth loss in six games. Despite a strong start and finish at Staples Center, the Thunder haven’t beaten the Lakers since they were the Seattle SuperSonics.

Thabo Sefolosha scored 16 points for the Thunder, but just three after halftime – and the guard missed an open 3-point attempt to tie it in the final two minutes.Fisher’s season high-tying 15 points included two free throws with 14.9 seconds left, followed by a missed 3-point attempt by Westbrook.

Playing at home for the first time since breaking his right index finger in a game against Minnesota, Bryant had another injury scare when he landed awkwardly on his left knee while putting up a backward layup with 5:08 to play. Bryant stayed down on the court for several moments, but shot his own free throws after a timeout – only to take an elbow to the jaw from Westbrook with 3:55 left.

Bryant persevered, drawing Durant’s sixth foul before hitting two free throws with 19.5 seconds left in the 102nd 40-point game of his career.The Lakers returned home after winning the last four games of their first big road trip in a season that began with 17 of their first 21 games at Staples Center. Los Angeles has five more home games in the next two weeks, including a Christmas meeting with Cleveland and a New Year’s Day visit from Sacramento.

The Lakers very much resembled a team returning from a long trip in the first half, falling behind by double digits early in the second quarter with poor shooting and indifferent play by Ron Artest, who missed a rebound layup attempt when he inexplicably shot it flat-footed.

Durant and Westbrook led the Thunder to a 61-54 halftime lead. Bryant scored 18 points in the first half, but his fellow starters managed just eight field goals – including none for Andrew Bynum, who went 0 for 5.Los Angeles made a 13-4 run to open the third quarter, taking the lead on Fisher’s 3-pointer.

NOTES: The Lakers have won seven straight home games against Oklahoma City, and 11 straight home games overall. … Westbrook got a technical foul in the third quarter for throwing the ball at the basket standard in frustration. … Courtside fans included actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire, designer Diane Von Furstenburg and husband Barry Diller, and figure skater Michelle Kwan.

LOS ANGELES lakers vs Utah Jazz 101-77

Kobe Bryant

LOS ANGELES Kobe Bryant scored 27 points, Pau Gasol had 19 points and 12 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers rolled off 19 consecutive points in the fourth quarter of their 10th straight victory, 101-77 over the Utah Jazz on Wednesday night.Ron Artest scored 17 points for the Lakers, who improved to an NBA-best 17-3 by holding the Jazz to six points and two field goals in a comically one-sided fourth quarter.
After leading by just two points entering the fourth, Los Angeles held the Jazz scoreless for more than six minutes while getting points from five players.

Deron Williams scored 17 points for the Jazz, who couldn’t manage a field goal in the first 7:25 of the final period of their 13th consecutive loss to the Lakers at Staples Center, counting six losses in the past two playoffs.

Mehmet Okur and C.J. Miles scored 14 points apiece for Utah, which managed just two field goals in the fourth quarter on 2-for-18 shooting.

Andrew Bynum scored 14 points for Los Angeles, which forced two shot clock violations by the Jazz during that fourth quarter stretch while getting eight points from Jordan Farmar, the inconsistent backup guard. Williams’ jumper with 4:35 to play was the Jazz’s first field goal of the period, and they didn’t get another until Miles’ basket in the final minute.

Carlos Boozer had 11 points and 12 rebounds for the Jazz, failing to score at least 21 points for the first time in nine games. Utah, which hasn’t beaten the Lakers at Staples Center since Jan. 1, 2006, rebounded from a loss to lowly Minnesota with a win over San Antonio on Monday, but its fourth-quarter woes in Los Angeles led to just the Jazz’s third loss in 11 games.

Los Angeles’ winning streak is its longest in a single season since winning 10 straight in February 2008.

Bryant played after skipping the morning shootaround, telling the Lakers he was shaken up after a home-invasion robbery occurred in his family’s gated community in Orange County last night, leading to a police standoff.

The Lakers are one game away from completing an undefeated six-game homestand, which concludes Friday with a visit from Minnesota. Los Angeles’ lofty record is little surprise after an exceptionally generous schedule featuring 17 of its first 21 games at home, but the Lakers are on the road for all but nine of the following next 28 games.

Most of the Lakers’ victories have been easy, with the notable exception of last Friday’s one-point win over Miami on Bryant’s self-acknowledged lucky 3-pointer at the buzzer. Coach Phil Jackson felt a few close games would help his team’s late-game execution later on, and they got another test of their tenacity against Utah – until the fourth quarter, that is.

Los Angeles had been outstanding in the middle two periods during its winning streak, repeatedly pulling away from its opponents to render the fourth quarter fairly meaningless. But Utah took the lead in the second quarter and held it largely through superior offensive rebounding until late in the third, when Bryant and Lamar Odom shook the Lakers from their slumber.

NOTES: The teams meet again on Saturday in Salt Lake City. … Longtime Lakers player and assistant coach Kurt Rambis will face the Lakers on Friday night for the first time since taking over the Timberwolves. … Denzel Washington, Jack Black, Emmanuelle Chriqui and poker players Daniel Negreanu and Phil Hellmuth were at courtside.

Selling,Buying, and Twittering All the Way

Once upon a time, people mailed their holiday wishes to the North Pole and hoped for a reply on Christmas Day. Nowadays they are sending their wishes into cyberspace and are apt to get a reply in minutes.America’s first Twitter Christmas got under way in earnest on Friday. Across the land, retailers and their customers used the social networking site to talk to one another about bargains, problems, purchases and shopping strategies.

After buying a new navigation system at 6 a.m. on the most frenzied shopping day of the year, Laura S. Kern of Los Angeles could not figure out why it was not giving her traffic updates. She sent a message to Best Buy’s Twitter account and within five minutes not one, but two Best Buy employees responded with fix-it advice.In Bloomington, Minn., Mall of America used its Twitter page to tell consumers two of its parking areas were at capacity and that their best bet was to park near Ikea.Twitter permits public communication via short, to-the-point messages. Many people use it to send mundane updates to their friends, but increasingly, the nation’s retailers see it as a business tool.It gives customers a practical way to cajole a retailer, complain about something or ask questions.

A Twitter post can in theory be seen by millions, and thus packs more punch than an e-mail message or a phone call to a store. The big retailers are all scrambling this Christmas to come up with Twitter plans. They are designating tech-savvy employees to respond to the posts, sometimes by providing up-to-minute inventory information from a sales floor, for example, or by offering help with some balky gadget.“It’s one of the greatest emerging communication channels out there,” said Greg Ahearn, senior vice president of marketing and e-commerce for Toys “R” Us. “This is a way people can stay connected with the brand in a way they’ve never been able to before.”So far this shopping weekend, special deals have been posted on Twitter from stores as varied as Best Buy, J.C. Penney, Toys “R“ Us, Staples, Gap, Bloomingdale’s, and Barneys. (Links to the retailing Twitter accounts mentioned in this article can be found in the Web version of the story on NYTimes.com.)

For the uninitiated, Twitter.com is a Web site where each member has a password-protected page. It has a blank box for typing in a message of 140 characters or fewer, an act known as tweeting.

To see a retailer’s messages, Twitter users “follow” the retailer, which means that the chain’s posts show up on their Twitter home page when they log in. And the system allows users to send messages in the other direction, so that a retailer’s employees will see them.

“I think in this economy you need to leverage every asset that you have,” said James Fielding, president of Disney Stores Worldwide, who sends messages under the Twitter name, or handle, DisneyStorePrez.

On Friday morning, as consumers flooded Disney Stores around the country, Mr. Fielding messaged: “We have amazing ONE DAY ONLY deals previewing on our Facebook page — become a fan today and find out more!”

Retailers hope that if they send Twitter messages, consumers will come. About 47 percent of retailers said they would increase their use of social media this holiday season, according to a study by Shop.org, part of the National Retail Federation, an industry group. And more than half of retailers said they added or improved their Facebook and Twitter pages. There are advantages for consumers too, like discounts. For instance, those who decided to follow Gap Outlet received an offer for 15 percent off purchases of $75 or more.

As shoppers jammed the aisles on Friday at a Best Buy store in Arlington Heights, Ill., an employee, Jerry DeFrancisco, went up to a computer kiosk and used his Twitter account to tell customers about Best Buy’s home theater deals. Then he resumed his in-store duties, helping a customer decipher a sales circular.

A few months ago, Best Buy began piloting a Twelpforce — a Twitter-inspired play on “help force” — of some 2,500 employees that answer consumers’ questions in real time.

“It’s 24-hour access to our employees,” said Brad Smith, director of interactive marketing and emerging media for Best Buy. The Twelpforce had fielded about 25,000 questions even before gearing up for Thanksgiving weekend.

Ms. Kern in Los Angeles used the service on Friday. After she could not get her new navigation system to work, she tried Best Buy’s telephone support line, only to receive a warning that her wait would be an hour. So she posted on Twitter instead, and within minutes, Best Buy employees were sending her useful links and details about her gadget. “It’s amazing,” she said later in the day. (Her interaction with the employees ultimately helped her realize she would need to go back to the store for help.)

Many retailers will be posting to their Twitter pages throughout the weekend and the entire holiday season. Some chains have an official Twitter account. Others have many, like one for each store, or one for each employee who wants to post messages. There are Twitter pages for designers, like Nicole Miller and Diane von Furstenberg.

Retailers also use Facebook to interact with their customers. But Facebook, with its photo albums and various applications, does not have the same no-frills immediacy as Twitter — which is why Twitter is ideal for instantaneously announcing sales.In addition to bargains, stores are also using Facebook and Twitter to promote contests and games that they hope will keep consumers engaged and coming back. Best Buy has an interactive Secret Santa application on its Facebook page. Gap is using Twitter to inform New York City residents and visitors where its “Gap Cheer” bus (filled with dancers and drummers) will be parked and giving away sweaters and jeans.

Of course, sometimes retailers simply use their Twitter posts to capture the spirit of the season. At 3:30 Thursday morning, an employee posted seven words on the Macy’s Twitter page, about a marching band that was practicing hours before the chain’s Thanksgiving day parade.It said: “Is he really running with a tuba?”