Many concussions in soccer occur when heads collide as two players jump up to head the ball, said Dr. Cynthia LaBella. She said learning proper technique including tensing neck muscles can help kids avoid injury while heading the ball. Labella noted that soccer has become so popular that it attracts kids with a wide range of athletic ability, and that many injuries she treats are in kids who lack adequate strength and conditioning for their soccer level.   read more

In 1964, the Sugar Association internally discussed a campaign to address "negative attitudes toward sugar" after studies linked it to heart disease,. The group paid Harvard researchers for an article that concluded there was "no doubt" reducing cholesterol and saturated fat was the only intervention needed to prevent heart disease. The researchers downplayed studies on sugar. "Let me assure you this is quite what we had in mind..." wrote a sugar industry employee to the researchers.   read more

Families pushed hard for the legislation, fueled by suspicion that Saudi Arabia had played a significant role in the attacks. President Obama could veto the bill — and has lobbied against it. Critics say the bill will strain relations with Saudi Arabia, But that reasoning has not resonated with either chamber of Congress. In July, a declassified document revealed that the FBI and CIA believed that five Saudi officials helped the hijackers.   read more

Beginning in the 1960s, Chavez brought laborers together and formed the United Farm Workers in California's Central Valley. He used the rallying cry "si se puede," or "yes we can," and became a celebrated civil rights leader, particularly among Latinos. Brown signed the historic bill granting farm workers the right to unionize when he was governor in 1975. He has declined to comment on the overtime legislation all year and declined again Monday.   read more

Civil rights groups argued that the requirements could lead to the "mass disenfranchisement" of thousands of potential voters — many of them poor and African-American. They took issue with the actions of EAC's Brian Newby, who changed the federal form after he took the job. The change requires people seeking to register to show proof of citizenship. Opponents said Newby had no authority to take the action on his own. Even the Justice Dept. has refused to defend Newby's actions.   read more

The cleanup of the Hudson paid for by GE was to remove over 2.5 million cubic yards of sediment and encompass a 40-mile stretch of the river. But Seggos said EPA had allowed GE to declare mission accomplished too soon. “Both the amount of sediment and the fish are suggesting that the initial goals of the remedy have not been, and may not be met, for decades,” he said. The state’s move has been cheered by environmentalists, who have lobbied for solutions to a pollutant dating back to the 1930s.   read more

The government’s move, announced minutes after a federal judge rejected efforts by the Standing Rock Sioux, appeared to seek to ease tensions and reset the terms of a passionate debate that has cast the 1,170-mile Dakota Access pipeline either as an economic boon or a threat to the Native American sovereignty, waters and lands. But perhaps more significantly, it appeared to signal a broader willingness to re-examine the involvement of the tribes in infrastructure decisions like this one.   read more

"Just this year, at least 12 humpbacks have been found dead along the U.S. East Coast and that number does not include the more than a dozen humpback whales that have been reported as entangled there," Regina Asmutis-Silvia, the WDC's North American executive director, said. "Further, their growth rate has not met goals in their recovery plan. For the NMFS to imply that these whales have somehow met recovery is tragically misleading at best and makes a mockery of the Endangered Species Act."   read more

Colgate Total is the only toothpaste in the U.S. that contains triclosan. For some critics, the decision to take it out of topical products but leave it in an oral product is a bit of a head-scratcher. “We put soap on our hands, and a small amount gets into our body,” said Rolf Halden, who has tracked triclosan for years. But through the gums, “chemicals get rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream." Triclosan may scramble hormones in kids and promote drug-resistant infections, said the FDA.   read more

“I would like to be buried in Arlington Cemetery,” she wrote. “Even if there are no ashes left, I would like an empty urn placed at Arlington.” The problem was that the Army never considered the women — who carried weapons, wore uniforms and had access to classified intelligence — to be the same as active-duty male troops. “They gave the ultimate sacrifice, and then when the war was over, they were told, ‘Thank you for your service, the cockpits go back to the men now,'” said Rep. McSally.   read more

A coalition of New York-based advocates on Tuesday launched a national campaign to press large retailers, restaurant chains and other companies to end on-call and last-minute scheduling, which allows companies to assign shifts to workers with only a few hours’ notice. They say three in five American workers — about 75 million people — are paid hourly, with recent job growth mainly in low-wage jobs, often part-time and subject to last-minute scheduling practices.   read more

In a federal class action, two mothers — one of them a consultant in the $1 billion NFL concussion litigation — trace their adult sons’ deaths to brain injuries they suffered playing Pop Warner youth football. Kimberly Archie and Jo Cornell sued Pop Warner Little Scholars and two other organizations, claiming they failed to protect children from head trauma while playing tackle football and misled parents about safety policies, coaches training and helmet standards.   read more

Mines are closing and the coal industry is facing a run of bankruptcies and other bad news, but a company backed by a $90 million investment is defying conventional wisdom by preparing to open two new mines in Appalachia, the hardest-hit coal region. This coal won’t be used for electricity but for steel manufacturing. Metallurgical coal prices are up lately due to a mix of international market factors.   read more

Borrowers wrestling with college debt often complain about the companies that manage their student loans. Now federal regulators have stepped up pressure on loan servicers to treat their borrowers better. Just this week, Wells Fargo, the second largest lender of private student loans, agreed to pay a $3.6 million civil penalty to settle allegations that the bank used illegal loan servicing practices that resulted in higher costs and fees for some borrowers.   read more

“I’m a Republican, but I also realize, by any objective analysis, the sea level is rising,” said Tybee mayor Jason Buelterman. Local leaders say they cannot tackle this problem alone. Yet Congress has largely ignored their pleas, and has even tried to block plans by the military to head off future problems at the numerous bases imperiled by a rising sea. A Republican congressman from Colorado, Ken Buck, recently called one military proposal part of a “radical climate change agenda."   read more

Thousands of earthquakes have hit Oklahoma in recent years. Seismologists say the quakes are caused by high-pressure injection of wastewater from oil and gas wells, both conventional ones and those that are hydraulically fractured, or fracked. The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which oversees oil and gas activity, announced that it had ordered the shutdown of wastewater wells across 725 square miles in the area hit by the quake. About three dozen wells are affected.   read more