Fracture

Chris Paul warmed up for Sunday's game against Golden State with a very familiar accessory. A Kobe mask. Paul was hit in the face during the first quarter of Friday's game against San Antonio. A Clippers spokesman said that Paul received an X-ray on Saturday and it revealed that Paul had sustained a nasal fracture. He added that Paul will be wearing the mask for a few weeks. Paul apparently sustained the injury in the first half when he was elbowed by Spurs swingman Danny Green.

The injection of wastewater from natural gas drilling into a disposal well probably caused a dozen earthquakes in Ohio, officials said Friday as they announced new regulations to deal with the issue. The findings about the probable cause of the earthquakes, which occurred in the Youngstown area between March and late December 2011, are likely to intensify an increasingly bitter debate about the safety of hydraulic fracturing in states that sit atop natural gas deposits. Hydraulic fracturing injects sand and water laced with chemicals into the earth at high pressure to break apart shale rock formations and free natural gas trapped inside.

Vitamin D may be helpful in protecting highly active pre-teen and teen girls, such as those who play sports, from stress fractures, researchers reported Monday. The study was surprising because calcium has long been considered the nutrient most vital to bone health in children. But, in developing children, vitamin D intake may matter more. Researchers analyzed data from 6,721 girls ages 9 to 15 at the start of the study. The girls' intake of calcium, vitamin D and dairy products was recorded along with stress fractures, which are common sports-related injuries.

Reporting from Orlando, Fla. -- Kobe Bryant added another milestone to his career Sunday as he passed Michael Jordan to become the all-time-leading NBA All-Star game scorer. But did it come at a price? Bryant skipped a postgame media session after his 27-point performance, and was taken for further evaluation after he said he was "experiencing headaches. " The Lakers announced later that Bryant had suffered a nasal fracture and would be reevaluated Monday after he returned to Los Angeles by an ear, nose and throat specialist.

Angels slugger Mark Trumbo, slowed all winter by a stress fracture in his right foot , will undergo a CAT scan on Feb. 28, after which he hopes to be cleared to run. Trumbo, who reported to camp with pitchers and catchers on Sunday, was diagnosed with the injury in the final week of 2011, a season in which he led the Angels with 29 home runs and 87 runs batted in. An expected five-month recovery delayed Trumbo's transition to...

Pete and Jack Diehl grew up in the tall clapboard house their German immigrant ancestors built in 1842, on a hillside overlooking a creek in the Catskills. Sharp-featured and lean, the brothers run dairy farms within a couple miles of each other. They own land together, and Pete's grandson works on Jack's farm every day after school. But the Diehls are divided over the fate of their property — like thousands of others along the Pennsylvania border, where rich natural gas deposits underlie forests, pastures and towns.

It was a November evening when darkness comes early, and my husband and I were going to our grandson's birthday party. The entrance to the house was unlit and the walk was bumpy. We had almost reached the gate when I made my grand fall, missing a step and landing on my left hip on the concrete. Many hands helped me up, but I was unable to put weight on my left leg. After a glass of wine, I felt no pain. So it was on with the party. The next morning I had a light breakfast: one tangerine from our tree, one poached egg and a cup of decaf.

Mark Trumbo said Wednesday that the stress fracture in his right foot will take about five months to heal, a timetable that will push the Angels slugger's rehabilitation to the start of spring training in late February. When Trumbo was diagnosed with the injury in late September, he said he hoped to resume baseball activities by mid-November. But after being examined Nov. 11 by Dr. Philip Kwong, a foot-and-ankle specialist, Trumbo was told to rest the foot for at least another month.

Natural gas companies that regularly use hydraulic fracturing to drill disclose the risks to shareholders, but not to landowners, according to a report released Monday. As a result of disclosure requirements in federal securities law, some companies that have led the push into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast to use hydraulic fracturing have described to shareholders in explicit terms the potential dangers of their work, including leaks, spills and explosions. One company, Chesapeake Energy Corp., touted in its annual report in March that its efforts to lease land from private owners was a "land grab.

The Environmental Protection Agency said that hydraulic fracturing, a controversial natural gas drilling process, probably contaminated well water in Wyoming, a finding sure to roil the debate about expanding natural gas drilling around the country. The EPA's new draft report found dangerous amounts of benzene in a monitoring well near the town of Pavillion, in central Wyoming. The EPA is conducting a comprehensive study about the possible effect of "fracking" on water resources, but initial results are not expected until late 2012.