Month: March 2014

By Shereen Jegtvig NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Teenage boys who played football, basketball or both were about twice as likely as other boys to have recently abused their girlfriends in a new study from California. Researchers say the “hypermasculine” attitudes encouraged in some sports may foster aggression off the field, but the locker room can also be a place to teach boys about healthy relationships and avoiding violence. “We need to create a safe place for our youth to discuss healthy masculinity, healthy relationships and the idea that violence never equals strength,” said Heather McCauley, a researcher at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh of UPMC, who led the study. In the U.S., women experience 2 million injuries from intimate partner violence each year, and nearly one quarter of women experience violence by a current or former spouse or boyfriend at some point in their lives, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

(Reuters) – A passenger train that slammed through its end-of-the-line barrier at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport this week tripped an automatic emergency stop system and was not speeding when it entered the station, a federal investigator said on Tuesday. The crash sent the Chicago Transit Authority train hurtling onto an escalator and stairs at the airport's mass transit station early on Monday. Investigators hope to interview the train operator on Tuesday afternoon and have not reached any conclusions about the cause of the crash, Ted Turpin, an investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters. The NTSB hopes to release the train on Tuesday to the CTA, which will be responsible for clearing the tracks, Turpin said.

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court appeared poised on Tuesday to open the door to companies' religious-based objections to government regulations as justices weighed whether business owners can object to part of President Barack Obama's healthcare law.

A smokers' rights group filed a legal challenge on Tuesday to New York City's ban on electronic cigarettes in restaurants, parks and many other public places. The city has increasingly restricted places where regular cigarettes can be smoked over the last decade under the Smoke-Free Air Act. The group behind the lawsuit, New York City Citizens Lobbying Against Smoker Harassment, said the new legislation was in breach of the "one-subject rule" in both the state constitution and the city charter. The stated purpose of the Smoke-Free Air Act is to reduce New Yorkers' exposure to other people's cigarette smoke, the lawsuit says.

The maker of Four Loko has agreed with 20 U.S. state attorneys general and the city of San Francisco to a series of reforms to resolve allegations that it improperly marketed flavored malt beverages to young people and encouraged alcohol abuse. Phusion Projects LLC, which is based in Chicago, agreed not to sell caffeinated alcoholic drinks, agreed not to promote binge drinking or other misuses of alcohol, and accepted marketing limits designed to keep people under 21 from buying alcoholic products. Among these limits are a ban on promoting flavored malt beverages on school or college property except at licensed retailers, and not using models or actors under age 25 or who appear to be under age 21 in its advertising. The danger of mixing caffeine and alcohol was spotlighted in 2010 when some college students were hospitalized for alcohol poisoning after drinking alcoholic energy drinks.