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NFL’s Roger Goodell denies link between head injuries and brain diseases before Congress

Goodell denies head injury-brain disease link

Before Congress, NFL’s Goodell won’t acknowledge link between head injuries, brain diseases

Goodell defends NFL’s handling of head injuries

The future without youth sports? Fatter kids, more crime, fewer _ and worse _ pro athletes

If the high school and youth sports programs in your town aren’t already having trouble paying their bills, they will soon.

Mom, friends: Ky. hanging victim overcame cancer, dedicated his life to teaching children

LONDON, Ky. — Even while fighting cancer and undergoing chemotherapy, Bill Sparkman would show up for work wearing his customary smile and a toboggan cap to cover his balding head.

Knowing heat is a danger, football coaches focus on player safety after colleague acquitted

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Bart Curtis knows running and conditioning are part of preparing football players for a game.

Police in killing of Yale University graduate student stake out Conn. hotel room

CROMWELL, Conn. — Police say they’re watching a hotel room in Connecticut where a “person of interest” in the killing of a Yale University graduate student has been staying.

Slain Michigan man known for his solitary anti-abortion protests to receive public send-off

OWOSSO, Mich. — James Pouillon was gunned down while doing what he had done for years, holding a sign depicting a graphic image as part of a one-man anti-abortion protest in his Michigan hometown.

CAPITAL CULTURE: Conga line forms here; East Room the nation’s most important all-purpose room

WASHINGTON — Sure, the West Wing gets the glory. But the East Room gets the action.

Red, white and blue more important than pink for Creamer on Sept. 11

ROGERS, Ark. — Paula Creamer showed up for the first round of her LPGA event dressed in barely a trace of pink.

Kidnap suspect’s teenage shift to music scene, drug use preceded alleged predatory behavior

SAN FRANCISCO — Attending high school in a rural suburb east of San Francisco, Phillip Garrido stood apart from the crowd that studied hard, played sports, basked in popularity and set sights on college.

Prepared text of President Barack Obama’s speech to school students on Tuesday

The prepared text of President Barack Obama’s back-to-school address scheduled for Tuesdays, as released in advance by the White House:

Mother of Ky. player who died testifies ex-football coach told her he pushed team hard

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Michelle Crockett dabbed her eyes. Her voice cracked with emotion.

Prosecutors: Football player who later died was ignored after collapse during running drill

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Prosecutors say that a former Kentucky high school football coach charged with reckless homicide ignored a player who collapsed in running drills and later died.

‘I wanted to give back’: Former Miami Heat 1st-round draft pick Tim James now serving in Iraq

MIAMI — Tim James apologized for being late. A rough day at work, said the Miami Heat’s 1999 first-round draft pick. Vehicles broke down, problems flared up, and he simply fell behind.

Ky. coach’s trial in death of high school athlete centers on practice that many saw as typical

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — After two-plus hours of practice, Pleasure Ridge Park football coach David Jason Stinson had seen enough of players goofing off.

Special school makes NY harbor its classroom while awaiting a waterfront home

NEW YORK — In 1790, the state of New York set aside Governors Island, off the tip of Manhattan, for the benefit of education. For more than two centuries, however, it was in military hands, guarding the country’s most important harbor.

Pilot, passenger killed when small biplane crashes near Ohio high school’s football field

CINCINNATI — Officials say two people have been killed when a biplane crashed near a football scrimmage at an Ohio high school.

AP ENTERPRISE: Hundreds of schools already planning swine flu shots, to help keep doors open

WASHINGTON — Hundreds of schools are heeding the government’s call to set up flu-shot clinics this fall, preparing for what could be the most widespread school vaccinations since the days of polio.

Thousands in Fla. pay respect to long-lost Navy pilot finally laid to rest after 18 years

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Navy pilot Scott Speicher, the long-missing first casualty of the first Gulf War, was finally laid to rest Friday in his adopted hometown as thousands of people lined the streets to watch a funeral procession pass his school, church and former military base.

US troops who have died while serving in Iraq and Kuwait

US troops killed in Iraq and Kuwait

Army Spc. Paul E. Andersen

US troops who have died while serving in Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa

US troops killed in Afghanistan and Africa

Search for Boise boy takes grim turn as police search mom’s apartment, suggest ‘tragic event’

BOISE, Idaho — A Boise search for a missing 8-year-old took a grim turn as police suggested he may be hurt — or worse — and searched the apartment of his mother, who has a history of harming another child.