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The NBA's Western Conference is shooting the lights out with big white men from outside the United States. Conspiracy theorists may see a corporate push to "ace out the black man," Dan McGraw writes in The Village Voice. The real reason for all the foreign talent may be a lucrative overseas television market and new league rules that favor mid-range shooting and discourage one-on-one play, he says.

Moonstruck conservatives join hands with social scientists of all political stripes in an unlikely partnership to promote marriage as a means to combat poverty -- and it's not just a matter of "two can live as cheaply as one." Marriage advocates, including some in the White House, cite reams of statistics that suggest two-parent homes, even the poorest, create healthier, happier, better-educated children who are less likely to stay poor. Dallas Observer staff writer Mark Donald examines how the federal and Texas governments plan to play matchmaker.

Using a variation of the environmental racism argument, the Southern Ute tribe fights for removal of toxic waste from an ancient burial ground. Salt Lake City Weekly's John F. Harrington examines the principle of shundahai, a Shoshone belief in peace and harmony with all creation, and now Western tribes are using it to assert legal rights that could force the government to protect their sacred beliefs.