He leads win over Celtics, forces decisive Game 7

Magic center Dwight Howard pulls down an offensive rebound in front of Boston Celtics guard Paul Pierce during Thursday's game in Orlando.

ORLANDO, Fla. – Dwight Howard demanded the ball, and delivered when the Orlando Magic gave it to him.

Now he needs to back it up, one more time.

Howard had 23 points and 22 rebounds after challenging Stan Van Gundy’s coaching strategy, and the Magic beat the Boston Celtics 83-75 on Thursday night to force a decisive Game 7.

“I just tried to be me,” Howard said. “I just have to go out there and play and not worry about nothing.”

And what did he learn from his comments?

“Biggest lesson?” Howard said. “Keep my mouth shut.”

Rashard Lewis had 20 points, and Hedo Turkoglu made a 3-pointer to highlight an 11-2 run to close the game for the Magic, who haven’t made it to the conference finals since 1996.

But it was Howard who the Magic leaned on after he called out Van Gundy for not getting the ball enough in Game 5.

“I guess Dwight Howard was right,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “My gosh. He was unbelievable.”

Rajon Rondo finished with 19 points, 16 rebounds and six assists, and Paul Pierce scored 17 for the Celtics, who led by 10 points in the second half before falling apart. Game 7 is Sunday in Boston.

The Celtics also failed to close out the Chicago Bulls in Game 6 of their first-round series, a triple-overtime epic. Boston will now go the distance in its first two series for the second straight year.

The two days off before Game 7 should give an older, worn out Boston team a chance to rest its tired legs. It’s still not enough for Rivers.

“I would take a week off and do it like the Super Bowl,” Rivers joked.

Boston had chances.

The Celtics held the Magic scoreless for more than five minutes to start the third quarter, building a 10-point lead on a jumper by Glen “Big Baby” Davis.

But Howard led the Magic back, with a backspin alley-oop from Turkoglu that highlighted a spurt to end the third quarter. Orlando took its first lead with 8:38 remaining in the fourth.

<h4>Going green on Irish course </h4>

Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy lines up his shot on the 17th hole in the first round of the Irish Open in Baltray, Ireland, on Thursday.

RALEIGH, N.C. – Greg Paulus is returning home to Syracuse to play football.

The former Duke point guard will enroll in graduate school at Syracuse and try to make a comeback in football for the Orange, he said Thursday.

“My gut and my heart were telling me that (Syracuse) was the best place for me,” Paulus said from Durham, N.C., during a conference call.

The decision ends a month of speculation whether the one-time star high school quarterback from Syracuse would resume his football career.

He worked out for the Green Bay Packers in April, acknowledged meeting with Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez about playing for the Wolverines, also visited Nebraska and said he was contacted by about two dozen programs.

“It got me thinking, got me throwing again (and) once I got doing that, the itch and the desire came back,” Paulus said. “To have this opportunity where I have two sports, and to be able to do them both at the college level, it’s something that’s pretty unique and special.”

He said he called new Orange coach Doug Marrone on Thursday morning to notify him of his decision.

The three-year starting guard graduated from Duke earlier this month. He has one season of eligibility remaining and can play immediately if he receives a waiver from the NCAA.

Marrone could not comment on the announcement because the NCAA paperwork has not been completed.

Paulus was a record-setting quarterback in high school at Christian Brothers Academy, located less than a mile from Marrone’s office, and now has a legitimate chance at Syracuse, a proud program that’s fallen on hard times.

The Orange hired Marrone in December to resurrect the team he once played for – Syracuse has gone 10-37 over the past four seasons. He already has moved former starting quarterback Andrew Robinson to tight end and demoted Cam Dantley, last year’s starter, to backup behind redshirt freshman Ryan Nassib.

Paulus said Marrone has made “no promises, no guarantees” about playing time.

At CBA, Paulus was one of the nation’s top prep quarterbacks. As a senior running a potent spread offense, he threw for 3,700 yards and 43 touchdowns in a 13-0 season. He finished his prep career with 11,763 yards and 152 touchdowns passing.

Miami and Notre Dame offered him football scholarships, and he received a basketball offer from Syracuse before choosing to play basketball at Duke. His younger brother, Mike, is a quarterback at North Carolina.

BC linebacker has cancer

BOSTON – Boston College linebacker Mark Herzlich, who earned Atlantic Coast Conference defensive player of the year honors, has cancer.

Herzlich said Thursday he was diagnosed earlier this week with Ewing’s Sarcoma after feeling pain in his leg and will undergo more tests in his home state of Pennsylvania. Ewing’s Sarcoma is a malignant tumor often found in bone or soft tissue.

Herzlich said he was determined to return to football after fighting the disease.

The Associated Press

Grizzlies’ Miles charged

ST. LOUIS – Memphis Grizzlies forward Darius Miles, who was suspended last season for violating the NBA’s anti-drug program, was free on bond Thursday after being charged with possession of marijuana.

Miles, 27, was alone in his car in suburban Fairview Heights, Ill., Wednesday night when an officer pulled him over for allegedly failing to use a turn signal. During a search of the car, police found a small amount of marijuana in a plastic bag in the passenger compartment.

The Associated Press

Sorenstam to have girl

CLIFTON, N.J. – Hall of Fame golfer Annika Sorenstam, a former University of Arizona standout, is going to have a girl this fall.

The 38-year-old Swede and her husband, Mike McGee, announced the gender of her first baby on her blog Thursday.

“To use golf terms, we just “made the turn” from a timing standpoint and are very excited that everything looks good so far,” Sorenstam said. “We’ll keep you posted.”

Sorenstam retired from the LPGA Tour last year after 72 victories and 10 majors, saying she wanted to start a business and a family.

The Associated Press

Bradley still unhappy

CHICAGO – Milton Bradley’s suspension was reduced from two games to one by Major League Baseball on Thursday, but that didn’t make him any happier.

The Chicago Cubs outfielder still feels he was a victim of his reputation as a hothead.

“It figures,” he said after MLB announced its decision regarding the April 16 incident. “I never get treated fairly. This is me. This is exactly what I expected.

“I’m Milton Bradley, you know what I’m saying? You expect me to be crazy and throw stuff and do whatever.”

Bradley will have to sit out Friday’s game against Houston.

The Associated Press

QUOTABLE

'We're digging ourselves a hole. If we keep digging too much longer, it's going to be tough to get out of.'

MARK REYNOLDS,

Diamondbacks third baseman, on team's 13-22 record

———

SPORTS SOUND-OFF

Fans philosophical as D’backs discuss flight

Re: D’backs down to three Phoenix sites for spring training facility

• It’s time we let the D’backs leave. . . . We’ve dropped too much money and have gained very little. They have the money to have multiple farm teams, scouting divisions and inflated player contracts, so why can’t they build their own training facility? MOTORMOUTH

• The county blew it and the city blew it. If you thought it was tough in Tucson before, wait until spring training baseball is gone. LDONYO

• Tucson can’t compete with Phoenix in baseball, so we can stop trying. Let’s get creative. How about recruiting an Arena Football team for the soon-to-be-built arena? Or a minor league basketball team? Either way, it’ll be nice when the Cactus League rental car tax can go away. IT’SLILA

———

BY THE NUMBERS

1-5

Diamondbacks’ record since they replaced manager Bob Melvin with A.J. Hinch, a front-office executive. Other Arizona numbers this year:

Record: 13-22

NL West: Last place, 10.5 games behind leader Los Angeles

Batting average: .232, worst in the National League

On-base percentage: .307, worst in the National League

Runs scored: 129, ranked 15th out of 16 in the National League

———

ON THIS DATE

1981: Len Barker of Cleveland pitches the first perfect game in 13 years as the host Indians beat the Toronto Blue Jays 3-0.

1993: Prairie Bayou, ridden by Mike Smith, rebounds from a second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby to become the first gelding to win the Preakness in 79 years.

1998: Notah Begay III joins Al Geiberger and Chip Beck as the only players to shoot a 59 on a U.S. pro tour. He does it at the Nike Old Dominion Open.

2003: The Spurs end the Lakers’ three-year NBA title reign with a 4-2 series win in the Western Conference semifinal.

Assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes walks Preakness entrant Pioneerof the Nile around the stakes barn after the horse arrived at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore on Wednesday. Trainer Bob Baffert believes the filly Rachel Alexandra has a good shot at winning Saturday's race.

BALTIMORE – University of Arizona graduate Bob Baffert oozed confidence in Pioneerof the Nile leading to the Kentucky Derby.

The colt was in front coming down the stretch, and for a few moments the Hall of Fame trainer thought he had his fourth Derby victory.

“It just took the air out of us,” Baffert recalled Thursday.

As was the case with most of the 150,000 people at Churchill Downs that day. Calvin Borel and 50-1 shot Mine That Bird blew by Pioneerof the Nile to win by 6 3/4 lengths in the second-biggest upset in Derby history.

Now Baffert and his colt are back for a rematch in Saturday’s Preakness.

Not only will they have to contend with the Derby winner, but Borel also has switched horses and will ride stellar filly Rachel Alexandra, the 8-to-5 morning line favorite who brings a five-race winning streak into the 1 3-16-mile race at Pimlico.

“I would’ve taken a shot at the Derby with her. She’s just a tremendous athlete,” Baffert said. “She’s a good filly and these classics are huge. There’s not a lot of money to run for fillies. She fits with these boys, so I don’t blame them for taking a shot.”

Baffert did the same thing with Excellent Meeting in 1999, but she was pulled up as a precaution and didn’t finish the race.

He expects a better result for Rachel Alexandra, who will break from the No. 13 post on the far outside under Borel.

“He’ll have her right in contention immediately,” Baffert said. “She’ll probably be sitting second or third and just cruising.”

Pioneerof the Nile is the 5-1 second choice in the 13-horse field and drew the No. 9 post. Garrett Gomez and the colt figure to be stalking the pace from an outside position.

“The questions that weren’t answered in the Derby we’re going to find out in the Preakness,” said Baffert, back in the Triple Crown’s second race for the first time in six years.

Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lukas is picking the filly to win, but he gives Baffert a solid chance at winning his fifth Preakness, which would tie him with Lukas and T.J. Healey for second on the career list.

Rachel Alexandra isn’t the only unknown factor in the Preakness. The weather figures to play a part, too, with a 50 percent chance of afternoon thunderstorms.

That could turn Pimlico’s dirt into mud, the same kind of slop that bogged down most of the 20 horses in the Derby, except Mine That Bird, who went flying through it.

“I still want to see what my horse does on dirt. He’s seen sticky mud,” Baffert said. “My horse has never run on a dry track. He’s trained well on a dry track. I’m hoping it moves him up.”

CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Two seasonal Yellowstone National Park concession workers have been fired after a live webcam caught them urinating into the Old Faithful geyser.

Park spokesman Al Nash says a 23-year-old man on Tuesday was fined $750 and placed on three years of unsupervised probation for urinating, being off trail in a restricted area and taking items from the area. The man also was banned from Yellowstone for two years.

The second employee’s case is pending.

The park’s dispatch center was called after someone watching a webcam on the geyser saw six employees leaving the trail and walking on Old Faithful on May 4.

The geyser was not erupting at the time.

Xanterra Parks & Resorts general manager Jim McCaleb says the former concession workers were hired at the Old Faithful Inn and that such incidents were rare.

The Cincinnati Reds' Adam Rosales (left) scores on a wild pitch as the Arizona Diamondbacks' Bobby Korecky waits for the ball. The Reds outscored the D'backs 26-9 in the three-game sweep.

PHOENIX – The Arizona Diamondbacks hoped a managerial switch would change their fortunes.

It has – for the worse.

Picked by many to contend this season, the Diamondbacks are 1-5 since they replaced Bob Melvin with A.J. Hinch, a front office executive with no managerial experience.

The Washington Nationals, the only major league team that has fewer wins than the Diamondbacks, took two out of three at Chase Field.

Then the Cincinnati Reds came to town and swept a three-game series by a combined score of 26-9.

As the Diamondbacks begin a 10-game road trip Friday, they’re 13-22 and in last place in the NL West, 10 1/2 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers.

“It’s been tough, not only because we’re changing staffs but because we’re not winning games,” third baseman Mark Reynolds said.

Hinch has tried to jump-start the team by shuffling the lineup. He moved error-prone third baseman Reynolds to first base for a game, the second time he has played that position in his career.

He batted catcher Miguel Montero second for the first time in his career, then put shortstop Stephen Drew in the cleanup spot for the first time.

“I’m not grabbing it out of a hat,” Hinch said. “I’m doing it with a purpose.”

The new lineups have worked about as well as the old ones. With the exception of streaking right fielder Justin Upton, the Diamondbacks have been unable to shake themselves out of a season-long slump at the plate, where they’re hitting a major league-worst .232.

Outfielder Eric Byrnes is hitting .200 in the second year of a three-year, $30 million contract.

Outfielder Chris Young, who was given a $28 million, five-year contract extension in April 2008 after only one full major-league season, is batting .185 and has 11 more strikeouts than hits.

Catcher Chris Snyder is batting .215. Infielder Chad Tracy has been benched with a .200 average.

The malaise at the plate has carried into the field, where the club has looked disorganized and lethargic at times.

In a 13-5 victory Monday night, Cincinnati scored twice on wild pitches by reliever Bobby Korecky. Two nights later, Montero threw a ball into center field while trying to nail a base stealer at second, allowing a runner from third to trot home.

“There’s no magic potion here,” Hinch said. “There’s obviously some fundamental things that we can do better.”

Every miscue has prompted a new round of boos from the usually placid Chase Field crowds.

“If anything, we share that frustration with the fans,” Hinch said. “Ultimately I think everybody kind of understands that this is a rut that we’ve got to get ourselves out of, and we’re going to have to do it ourselves.”

Hinch, who turns 35 on Friday, has faced questions about his credentials. But as a former vice president for player development, Hinch is intimately familiar with the background of homegrown players such as Reynolds, Upton and Stephen Drew.

“My frustration is obviously not six days old,” Hinch said. “I feel exactly what these guys have gone through and I’m willing to dig down and help them get out of it the best we can as a group.”

CLIFTON, N.J. – Former Arizona Wildcat Lorena Ochoa is going to have to stage one of the biggest comebacks of her career to win a fourth straight Sybase Classic.

Helen Alfredsson jump-started a career-best, 10-under 62 by holing out for eagle from 68 yards on her second hole, and took a two-stroke lead over Brittany Lincicome after the opening round Thursday.

Ochoa, who has won this event at two different courses, was nine shots behind the long-hitting Alfredsson. Besides the eagle, the Swede had nine birdies and a bogey at Upper Montclair Country Club on a cold, damp day punctuated by an intermittent drizzle and chilling breeze.

Alfredsson’s round was the lowest on tour this year, and it left Ochoa with 54 holes to play catch up. Her biggest come-from-behind win was in 2004, when she rallied from five shots down in the final round to win the Wachovia LPGA Classic.

Ochoa overcame a four-shot deficit in this event three years ago, when it was played at Wykagyl in New York.

“I had birdie chances, like on 18, that just didn’t go,” Ochoa said. “But I’m happy. I’m very good with the speed. I had a couple that got away and had to save par, so I feel good. (Friday), maybe, some of them will drop.”

Only two other women have won the same LPGA event four years in a row. Annika Sorenstam won five straight Mizuno Classics in Japan from 2001-05, and Laura Davies won four straight Standard Register PING titles in Arizona from 1994-97.

That doesn’t mean No. 1-ranked Ochoa can be written off yet.

“As far as I know, this is a four-round tournament,” said Suzann Pettersen, who was third after a 7-under 65. “That’s all I can say.”

The 44-year-old Alfredsson made the game look easy, hitting fairways and greens all day. After starting on the back nine, the former European Solheim Cup captain eagled No. 11, birdied the 12th and chipped in from the edge of the green on the 13th for another birdie. Even with a bogey on No. 15, she shot 6-under 30 on the back side.

Alfredsson also birdied the par-4 first, one of eight birdies from 8 feet or less. She played the four par-5s in 4 under.

“Anybody, when we play good, you wonder why you don’t do this all the time, because it’s so easy,” she said. “It’s not strenuous, your head is not going crazy, your body doesn’t hurt. At my age, all that stuff usually comes along with it. So you don’t know why. I just felt that it’s just one of those days.”

Texas Open

SAN ANTONIO – Three-time champion Justin Leonard and Paul Goydos shot 7-under 63s to share the first-round lead in the PGA Texas Open.

The 44-year-old Goydos, who publicly opened up this month about the death of his ex-wife in January and raising his two teenage daughters, had the lead for most of the day until Leonard birdied three of his last four holes in the afternoon.

Irish Open

BALTRAY, Ireland – Italy’s Francesco Molinari shot a 9-under 63 to take a one-stroke leader over Sweden’s Johan Edfors in the Irish Open.

DENVER – The Denver Nuggets are collecting converts across the country with their uncommon blend of freakish athleticism, superb strength and unparalleled speed, qualities that might very well deliver this band of former malcontents and misfits to their first NBA Finals.

The Nuggets earned their first trip to the Western Conference championship series in 24 years by dispatching the Dallas Mavericks in five games.

They blitzed the Mavs the same way they did the New Orleans Hornets in Round 1, with a dizzying array of Chauncey Billups’ leadership, Carmelo Anthony’s clutch play, Nene’s unmatched post presence, Kenyon Martin’s toughness and Dahntay Jones’ peskiness.

Combine all that with a blazing bench that features Chris “Birdman” Andersen’s energy, J.R. Smith’s athletic artfulness and Anthony Carter’s cunning along with a rejuvenated coach in George Karl and NBA insiders are starting to tout the Nuggets as championship contenders.

Charles Barkley, a longtime critic of Denver’s play, is among those singing the Nuggets’ praises now and the chorus is growing louder across the league.

“These guys are legit. They’ve got a legitimate championship-caliber team,” Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said after Denver’s series-clinching 124-110 win Wednesday night, the Nuggets’ seventh double-digit victory in the postseason.

“They have great balance. Their activity and athleticism and ability to generate second-chance opportunities is a huge factor. This building is a great building and a great homecourt advantage, especially when you factor in the altitude. So, they’ve got the pieces. They really do,” Carlisle said. “And they’ve got an experienced coach that’s been down that road and gotten to the finals. They’ve got a great shot.”

Since Billups’ arrival, the Nuggets are 61-27. They tied their franchise record with 54 regular-season wins and advanced past the first round of the playoffs for the first time since 1994 and into the conference championship for the first time in 24 years.

For all those expecting a Kobe Bryant-LeBron James tussle for the title next month, hold up, said Dallas guard and ex-Arizona Wildcat Jason Terry.

“This is a team that’s going to be a tough out. I don’t think it’s going to be an easy walk to a Kobe-LeBron final,” Terry said. “They’ve been playing well since the All-Star break.”

Heat announce layoffs

MIAMI – The Miami Heat have laid off employees as the national economic downturn has hit the American Airlines Arena.

Heat team president Eric Woolworth said in a statement that the team had eliminated a small number of positions. Employees who were laid off Wednesday will receive a severance package and be eligible to be rehired.

PHOENIX – Gov. Jan Brewer signed the latest midyear budget-balancing legislation into law Thursday but added a warning to lawmakers that they should bend her way next time.

“It would be fiscally irresponsible for the Legislature to ignore the depths of the (2010-2011) state deficit by promoting a budget plan for (2009-2010) that relies primarily on one-time measures,” Brewer said in a statement.

To close the latest $650 million shortfall in the current budget, GOP lawmakers resorted to accounting maneuvers that postpone $400 million of education spending into the next fiscal year. They also included $250 million of stimulus money, an amount larger than Brewer wanted but much less than lawmakers sought.

The plan also set the stage for the state to grab some school district savings to help balance the budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. Estimates on how much money that would produce aren’t firm.

Brewer told lawmakers that the next state budget shouldn’t rely primarily on similar maneuvers because that would spell trouble for the following fiscal year, which starts July 1, 2010. It also faces a projected big shortfall that spending cuts alone won’t close, Brewer said.

Most majority Republican legislators have balked at Brewer’s call for a temporary tax increase to produce $1 billion of new revenue to help balance the next several budgets in face of deteriorating revenue collection.

Brewer said she “will not approve” a budget that doesn’t take into account the following year’s “needs and requirements.”

“I am hopeful that, with a continued emphasis on negotiation and compromise, the Legislature can reach consensus with my policy goals to approve a (2009-2010) budget package promptly,” she said.

Lawmakers approved the $650 million plan about 3 1/2 months after they closed a previous $1.6 billion budget shortfall. That action included spending cuts, raids on special-purpose funds and use of stimulus money.

An unidentified fan dressed as a devil runs ahead of the pack during the sixth stage of the Giro d'Italia race, from Bressanone to Mayrhofen, Austria, on Thursday.

MAYRHOFEN IM ZILLERTAL, Austria – Levi Leipheimer’s chance of winning the Giro d’Italia keeps getting better. Lance Armstrong keeps losing time.

Leipheimer finished in the main pack in Thursday’s sixth stage, with the race crossing into Austria.

Leipheimer, who is from Montana, remained fourth overall, 43 seconds behind leader Danilo Di Luca of Italy.

“I’m happy with how it’s gone so far,” Leipheimer said. “We saw some people who fell away (Wednesday) and some people who were strong, so the picture is more clear now and I’m still in that picture.”

For the third consecutive stage, Armstrong was dropped from the lead group. This time, the seven-time Tour de France winner was undone by a steep downhill run.

Armstrong lost 1:15 and dropped from 22nd to 25th overall, 4:13 behind Di Luca. The Texan returned this season after 3 1/2 years of retirement and broke his collarbone in March.

“I can’t expect to be too strong right now,” he said. “It’s been a complicated preparation. I have to be realistic and just ride my rhythm.”

Italy’s Michele Scarponi of the Diquigiovanni team won the stage after a long breakaway. He covered the 154-mile leg in 5 hours, 49 minutes, 55 seconds. Edvald Boasson Hagen of Norway followed, 32 seconds behind.

Allan Davis of Australia was third, also 32 seconds back.

All the favorites – including Di Luca, Ivan Basso and Leipheimer – finished with the main pack, 36 seconds after Scarponi.

Nadal among winners

MADRID – Defending champion Andy Murray, top-ranked Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer advanced to the quarterfinals of the Madrid Open on Thursday.

Andy Roddick advanced after Nikolay Davydenko withdrew with a leg injury. Roddick will next face Federer, who defeated James Blake 6-2, 6-4.

Murray stopped Tommy Robredo 7-5, 6-1, and Nadal moved up after Philipp Kohlschreiber also withdrew with a leg injury. Third-seeded Novak Djokovic defeated Andreas Seppi 6-4, 6-4. He will play wild-card Ivan Ljubicic, who rallied for a 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over 2008 finalist Gilles Simon.

The last time the Federer and Blake met at the Beijing Olympics, Blake ended the Swiss star’s hopes of capturing his first Olympic singles medal.

“We haven’t played since the Olympics and I was pleased with the way it went today, especially with him playing so well recently,” Federer said.

The second-seeded Federer is looking forward to playing the sixth-seeded Roddick on a different surface.

“I’ve played Andy so many times, it’s time we played each other on clay,” Federer said.

Nadal will play Fernando Verdasco, who rallied from a break down in both sets to beat Juan Monaco 7-5, 6-2.

In the women’s draw, top-ranked Dinara Safina overcame a mid-match dip, defeating Lucie Safarova 6-0, 4-6, 6-3 to advance to the quarterfinals.

So. Miss guard leaving

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Southern Miss basketball guard Jeremy Wise has hired an agent, ending his college career a season early.

The 6-foot-2 point guard averaged 16.7 points and 4.7 assists last season.

FLAGSTAFF – A group of environmentalists is appealing a plan by the U.S. Forest Service to log an area north of the Grand Canyon.

It’s the second logging plan on the Kaibab National Forest that conservationists have challenged this year. Both sites are within an area where 58,000 acres burned in 2006.

The plan approved in March calls for logging on 9,100 acres and the planting of conifer trees on nearly 10,000 acres in an effort to restore forest conditions.

Conservationists say the plan makes no sense economically or ecologically. They say it would erode soil, damage habitat for the threatened Mexican spotted owl and increase the potential for wildfires.

The Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians signed on to the appeal filed Thursday.

U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents stop traffic recently in a search of weapons headed into Mexico at the Mariposa border crossing in Nogales.

NOGALES – Federal agents tap on car windows, opening trunks, looking in vain for contraband.

“We’re sucking up a lot of exhaust out here,” supervisory Customs and Border Protection officer Edith Serrano says, shrugging in her uniform.

This is what the Obama administration’s new commitment to help Mexico fight its drug cartels looks like.

President Obama this spring promised his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderón, that the United States would fight two of the biggest contributions U.S. residents make to the drug cartels Calderón has vowed to eradicate: cash and weapons, the latter hard to come by in Mexico.

For the past five weeks, hundreds of agents participating in a newly intensified $95 million outbound inspection program have been stepping into southbound traffic lanes, stopping suspicious-looking cars and trucks.

The Associated Press fanned out to the busiest crossings along the Mexican border – San Diego, Nogales, El Paso and Laredo – to see how effective the inspections are.

The findings? Wads of U.S. currency headed for Mexico, wedged into car doors, stuffed under mattresses, taped onto torsos, were sniffed out by dogs, seized by agents and locked away for possible investigations. No guns were found as the reporters watched; they rarely are.

“I do not believe we can even make a dent in (southbound smuggling) because that assumes the cartels are complete idiots, which they’re not. Why in the world would they try to smuggle weapons and currency through a checkpoint when there are so many other options?” said Border Patrol Agent T.J. Bonner, president of the agents’ union.

According to CBP, between March 12 and April 30 officers seized:

• Fifty-one pieces of ammunition, weapons parts and guns, a minuscule fraction of the 2,000 weapons the Mexican government estimates are smuggled south every day.

• $12 million in cash, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of the $17 billion to $39 billion the U.S. Justice Department estimates is illegally sent to Mexico from the U.S. annually, but more than the $10 million seized in outbound checks in 2008.

• Sixty-one people on charges involving weapons or currency offenses and on outstanding warrants.

Millions of cars pass into Mexico from the United States every year. The federal government doesn’t keep track but a count by Texas A&M International University’s Texas Center for Border Economic and Enterprise Development shows more than 27 million vehicles a year drove into Mexico just from Texas.

The outbound checkpoints the AP observed stopped sometimes 1 out of 4 cars, sometimes 1 out of 100, and not every day. Even that amount created huge traffic backups at some locations and, agents said, might have allowed spies to call any smugglers heading that way and warn them to put off their Mexico trip.

Agents across the border said the first few minutes of their operation are the most precious. That’s how long it takes for “scouts” watching from a bridge in San Diego lined with taxis to radio ahead to smugglers to stay away. In Nogales, a dozen men dashed along a Mexican hill about 150 yards from the checkpoint last week.

“We tend to see spotters up there,” said CBP agent Brian Levin. “They sit up on those hills and watch everything we do.”

Inspectors retreat, then mount another “surge” after a while standing on the side of the freeway.

Some of those stopped were sanguine, others annoyed.

“I guess they think I have drugs or something,” said Daniel Saucedo, a 15-year-old Albuquerque high school student who clambered out of the passenger side of a small white pickup truck with his two dogs last week in El Paso. “It’s dumb,” he said.

William Molaski, port director in El Paso, said agents at his four El Paso bridges haven’t found much since the focus on outbound checks started in early April – one handgun and only about $400,000 – “but not for lack of trying.”

Without providing any numbers, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told attendees at the Border Trade Alliance International Conference on April 21 that, just a few weeks into the intensified outbound inspections, she was amazed at how much had already been seized. “It’s unbelievable,” she said. “So the notion that there wasn’t a river of cash and a flood of guns going into Mexico is a myth. I mean, there was. We want to stop that river.”

CBP’s 2010 budget request, released May 7, includes an additional $46 million specifically targeted at southbound enforcement.

Customs inspectors’ techniques range from primitive to high-tech, with about an equal success rate. Sometimes a small white truck drives slowly alongside vehicles that have been pulled over, beaming X-rays at them to reveal hidden cash or weapons. A smaller X-ray unit scans spare tires or pieces of luggage, a hand-held density meter called a “Buster” can reveal hidden compartments loaded with cash, a fiber-optic scope snaked into gas tanks looks for hidden cargo and trained dogs can sniff out cash or weapons.

But before they get to any of the gadgets, officers knock with a knuckle or flat palm on a car’s body panels. And they ask, again and again: “Do you have any weapons? Cash? Merchandise?”

Often the dogs make the finds.

Grill, a “currency canine,” smelled something on 63-year-old Isabel Ortega Garcia on April 3 in Hidalgo, Texas, when Ortega was walking into Mexico. When Grill got excited, agents patted Ortega down and found $148,000 in neat wads of $100 bills taped around her waist.

Two weeks earlier in Laredo, Akim sniffed cash under the floor of a southbound bus. Under the seats, in a hidden compartment, were 75 bundles of bills totaling $2,997,510.

But even finding that much cash doesn’t always yield an arrest. Without a U.S. attorney’s say-so, the best an agent can do is seize any cash amounts over $10,000 that the traveler does not declare, hand them a receipt and send them on south.

The best case scenario for agents who seize undeclared currency is that federal prosecutors decide to bring charges and begin a forfeiture procedure. But often it is a race against the clock as inspectors on the scene try to collect enough evidence to make it an attractive case for prosecutors.

Obama said while campaigning that he favored a ban on sales of assault weapons. But Congress isn’t budging on the issue, and guns in the U.S., particularly in southern border states, remain easy to buy legally.

“The real issues of assault weapons and bulk cash do not initiate at the border and cannot be solved there,” said David Shirk, director of the University of San Diego’s Trans-Border Institute. “But gun control? That’s a discussion the current administration is reluctant to wade into.”

Mexican customs inspector Ricardo Briseno, 27, says the increase in U.S. inspections of Mexico-bound cars has made his job easier, even though the only effective solution would be to stop every car.

“At least it’s something,” he said. “We are working together on a shared problem.”

PHOENIX – A woman in Arizona suffering from a lung condition has apparently become the fourth person in the nation to die with swine flu.

The Maricopa County Health Department reported Thursday that the woman, in her late 40s, died last week of what appears to be complications of the new strain of influenza.

Laboratory tests confirmed that the woman was infected with the flu strain. Health department spokeswoman Jeanene Fowler says the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is expected to add her to the official national tally on Friday.

The case would bring the number of swine flu deaths in the nation to four and put the worldwide death toll at 70, with an estimated 6,672 cases in 33 countries.

FLAGSTAFF – A federal appeals court has ruled that a woman who started part of the largest wildfire in Arizona history must exhaust remedies in a tribal court.

Valinda Jo Elliott was lost on White Mountain Apache land for two days in 2002 when she started a blaze to get the attention of a television news helicopter. That fire merged into the Rodeo-Chediski fire.

She wasn’t criminally prosecuted, but the tribe brought a civil case against her.

After she tried unsuccessfully to have the case dismissed in tribal courts, she turned to a federal district court.

That court held that Elliott must exhaust her tribal court remedies and dismissed the case without prejudice.

The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ruling Thursday.

PHOENIX – The oldest soldier to be killed in Iraq fought in Vietnam and decided to re-enlist at the age of 59 after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the death of his wife, according to his brother.

Army Maj. Steven Hutchison, 60, was killed in Iraq on Sunday after a homemade bomb went off near his vehicle in Al Farr, according to the Department of Defense.

Richard Hutchison of Scottsdale told The Associated Press on Thursday that his older brother Steven wanted to re-enlist immediately after the 9/11 attacks, but that his wife, Candy, didn’t want him to.

But when Candy died of breast cancer, “a part of him died,” so he signed up again in July 2007, according to his brother and the Army.

“He was very devoted to the service and to his country,” Richard Hutchison said. “For somebody to go back into the military at 60 years old, obviously I didn’t want him to do it, but he had a mind of his own and that’s what he wanted to do. He’s been a soldier his whole life.”

He said his brother never explained why he wanted to re-enlist, but that “I’m guessing it had something to do with them coming into our country and killing our people.”

“He wanted to go back in,” he added. “He wanted to do his share.”

He said Steven Hutchison served in Afghanistan for a year after he re-enlisted and went to Iraq in October as a team leader of about a dozen soldiers who would train Iraqi soldiers how to fight. But, he said his brother’s mission changed and that he was working to secure Iraq’s southern border instead.

Army spokesman Lt. Col. Nathan Banks said Thursday that Hutchison was the oldest Army soldier killed in Iraq.

An Associated Press database of soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan shows that Hutchison is the oldest member of any service branch killed since the wars broke out.

Richard Hutchison said Steven was a great big brother and a best friend who was always looking out for him. “He took care of me,” he said.

“I was worried about him. I didn’t want him to go (to Iraq),” he said through tears, adding that he loved his brother “so much.”

He said Steven Hutchison worked as a college professor of psychology at a couple of California universities and then worked at a private health care corporation in Arizona before he retired a few years ago.

Records at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles show that Hutchison taught in the psychology department there on and off between 1988 and 1996. Hutchison’s résumé, provided by the school, shows he was a lecturer at California State University in Long Beach and taught at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, Calif.

Hutchison was born in Cincinnati and raised in Long Beach, Calif. Steven and Richard have a half brother and half sister living in Michigan. Steven Hutchison married four times, and was married to Candy for 10 years before she died. He had no children.

Richard Hutchison said his brother will be buried next to Candy in Scottsdale, and that a funeral is tentatively planned for Tuesday.

Hutchison was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 34th Armor Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division at Ft. Riley, Kan.

Ginger, long used as a folk remedy for soothing tummyaches, helped tame one of the most dreaded side effects of cancer treatment – nausea from chemotherapy, the first large study to test the herb for this has found.

People who started taking ginger capsules several days before a chemo infusion had fewer and less severe bouts of nausea afterward than others who were given dummy capsules, the federally funded study found.

“We were slightly beside ourselves” to see how much it helped, said study leader Julie Ryan of the University of Rochester in New York.

Results were released Thursday by the American Society of Clinical Oncology and will be presented at the group’s annual meeting later this month.

But don’t reach for the ginger ale. Many sodas and cookies contain only flavoring – not real ginger, Ryan said. Her study tested a druglike ginger root extract, and it’s not known if people could get the same benefits from ginger teas or the powdered ginger sold as a spice.

The study involved 644 patients from cancer centers around the nation who had suffered nausea in a previous round of chemotherapy. Two-thirds had breast cancer and the rest, other forms of the disease. They were placed in four groups and given one of three doses of ginger (the equivalent of one-half, 1 or 1 1/2 grams of ginger per day) or dummy capsules in addition to standard anti-sickness medicines.

Patients took the capsules for six days, beginning three days before chemo treatment. They rated their nausea symptoms on a seven-point scale.