Aaron Mooy has crowned his rise from A-League off-cut to Australian footballs great hope by winning Professional Footballers Australias (PFA) player of the year award.The midfield maestro was honoured in Tuesday nights awards ceremony in Melbourne alongside Matildas goalkeeper Lydia Williams, who claimed the womens player of the year prize.While Williams can put her trophy next to the same prize she won in 2012, Mooy claimed his first peer-voted award and became just the second player to win the award for their A-League exploits, after Matt McKay (2011).The 26-year-old starred in Melbourne Citys run to the semi-finals last season with 11 goals and a competition-record 20 assists.That form has made him a Socceroos mainstay.In 2016 he was Ange Postecoglous most reliable Socceroo; the only player to start all 10 Australian internationals in 2016.Not bad for a player deemed surplus to requirements by Tony Popovic at Western Sydney in 2014.Now with English Championship side Huddersfield Town - on loan from English Premier League giants Manchester City - Mooy said he was delighted to be honoured by his teammates and fellow professionals.To be chosen by the players makes this award very special, he said.To join the likes of Mark Schwarzer and Tim Cahill is an honour and one I am proud of.Williams won the prize for her glovework at national level, for W-League club Canberra United and NWSL franchise Houston Dash.She beat out Asian player of the year Caitlin Foord for the prize, thanking her teammates for the accolade.Over the past few years we have had a really hectic schedule and a lot of ups and downs. To have the backing of the girls means so much, she said.The first time I won the award was when I was breaking into the team.This time around there has been a lot of history-making events and I have experienced so many highs with the girls and this is the most rewarding recognition I can imagine.Jamie Maclaren, the top-scoring Australian striker in last seasons A-League, was given the Harry Kewell Medal as the best under-23 player.Kewell was also honoured at the awards ceremony, becoming the eighth player to be given the Alex Tobin Medal for career-long contribution to the sport.PFA 2016 PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARDSMale - Aaron MooyFemale - Lydia WilliamsUnder-23 Male - Jamie MaclarenAlex Tobin Medal for outstanding contribution to the sport - Harry KewellMENS PLAYER OF THE YEAR2016 - Aaron Mooy2015 - Mat Ryan2014 - Mile Jedinak2013 - Robbie Kruse2012 - Brett Holman2011 - Matt McKay2010 - Mark Schwarzer2009 - Tim CahillWOMENS PLAYER OF THE YEAR2016 - Lydia Williams2015 - Elise Kellond-Knight2014 - Katrina Gorry2013 - Sam Kerr2012 - Lydia Williams2011 - Elise Kellond-Knight2010 - Servet UzulnarUNDER-23 PLAYER OF THE YEAR2016 - Jamie Maclaren2015 - Mat Ryan2014 - Mat Ryan2013 - Marco Rojas2012 - Mat Ryan2011 - Robbie Kruse2010 - Mitch Langerak2009 - Nikita Rukavytsya* Note: Awards open to all Australian-based players or Australians based overseas.ALEX TOBIN MEDALISTS2016 - Harry Kewell2014 - Mark Schwarzer2012 - Frank Farina2011 - Mark Viduka2009 - Craig Johnston2008 - Joe Marston, Johnny Warren Mookie Wilson Jersey . Dukurs winning time was 1 minute, 45.76 seconds, a quarter-second better than Russias Alexander Tretiakov. Lativas Tomass Dukurs was third, 1.41 seconds off the pace. Jon Montgomery of Eckville, Alta. Donn Clendenon Jersey . Brazilian national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has confirmed that the veteran goalkeeper is set to join Toronto on loan, saying it will help him be ready for the World Cup. https://www.cheapmetsjerseys.us/1820l-tug-mcgraw-jersey-mets.html . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. Joe Torre Jersey . Cuban testified Thursday that he was upset when the companys CEO told him news that would reduce the value of his shares, for which hed paid $7.5 million. But he said he did nothing improper when he sold those shares over the next two days. Ed Kranepool Jersey . The Celtics closed out their first preseason under Stevens on Wednesday night with a 101-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets, who rested a lot of their lineup including former Celtics Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. SAN DIEGO -- Smoking has dropped to historic lows nationwide, dramatically decreasing revenue from tobacco taxes. In search of funds, a growing number of states are taxing electronic cigarettes -- a trend that is sparking a fierce public health debate over whether it will deter smokers from switching to a safer alternative.California became the seventh state to tax e-cigarettes with the overwhelming approval of a Nov. 8 ballot measure. Proposition 56 also will add a $2 per pack state tax to cigarettes onto the already existing 87 cents per pack tax.State officials are still calculating the new tax structure. The vaping industry estimates the tax could hike up the price of the battery-operated devices and liquids by more than 60 percent, making it more expensive to vape than smoke, even with the additional per-pack tobacco tax.California just made the most attractive option unattractive for many smokers, and unaffordable, said Gregory Conley of the American Vaping Association, which advocates for electronic cigarettes as an alternative to tobacco. Some may never make an attempt to quit.The taxation of e-cigarettes has split the public health community between those who support e-cigarettes being treated the same as tobacco and those who see them as an important tool in the fight against smoking, the leading cause of preventable deaths in the United States.Theres no scientific consensus on the risks or advantages of vaping.Its one of the nastiest debates Ive ever seen in the public health community, and Ive been researching tobacco control policies for 40 years, University of Michigan public health professor Kenneth Warner said. The momentum, if you will, is in the direction against e-cigarettes, for sure, and it is unfortunate in a big way, because we may be missing out on a potential intervention that could reduce the toll of smoking by a lot.E-cigarettes heat a nicotine liquid into a vapor, delivering the chemical that smokers crave without the harmful tar generated from burning tobacco.Britain promotes the devices for smokers. Its leading physicians organization said it found the devices were 95 percent safer than cigarettes, but some U.S. researchers dispute that.E-cigarettes emit chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects or other harm, and there is concern over the long-term impact that nicotine has on adolescent brain development, according to Californias Public Health Department. Use among young adults ages 18 to 29 has tripled in the state.The evidence is piling up very fast that e-cigarettes are more dangerous than people thought, ssaid Stanton A.dddddddddddd Glantz, a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California San Francisco.Stanton said the universitys analysis of more than three dozen studies also found only a fraction of smokers quit after switching to e-cigarettes and that many end up smoking and vaping, which could be worse.Concern over the jump in youth users was a driving force behind taxing e-cigarettes, Stanton said.If we could snap our fingers and have all smokers become e-cigarette users -- and not change anything else -- that would be better, he said. The problem is all the other complicated things going on.Representatives from around 180 countries participating in the World Health Organizations global tobacco control treaty negotiations, including the United States, adopted a declaration earlier this month in which they vowed to prohibit or regulate the sale of e-cigarettes. The declaration comes months after the U.S. announced its first federal regulations of e-cigarettes.The $3 billion vaping industry fears taxes coupled with regulations will shut down many small shops.Scott Drenkard of the nonpartisan Tax Foundation said the products potential to help smokers is losing out to the rush to recover eroding tobacco tax revenues, which make up as much as 2 percent of state budgets. More than two dozen states have considered taxing e-cigarettes since 2015.In California, tobacco tax revenue dropped by 44 percent between 1989 and last year, from $1.6 billion to roughly $830 million. The state has the nations second-lowest smoking rate, behind Utah.State officials estimate Proposition 56 will raise more than $1 billion in the first year for California, with much of the money earmarked for health care for the poor.Public health experts, like Warner, favor a staggered system that applies a heavy tax on tobacco cigarettes, a lighter tax on e-cigarettes and keeping no tax on nicotine replacement therapies that have been determined to be relatively risk-free. That would deter young people from vaping the liquids that come in candy flavors and provide a financial incentive for smokers to switch, they say.North Carolina adds a tax of 5 cents to each milliliter of nicotine liquid compared with 45 cents per pack for traditional cigarettes.With no consensus on the health impact, some say it makes sense for states to follow Californias lead and not tax them differently. ' ' '