Art Redo: Complaints Over Painting

An artist will return to the Oregon School for the Deaf tomorrow to change an outdoor mural he painted over the summer. There have been complaints from parents that John Roy Wilson's work is too violent for children. It depicts knives, decapitated limbs and severed heads and is based on Pablo Picasso's Guernica.

Football First

For the first time in school history, tonight's South Carolina School for the Deaf and the Blind football game will be broadcast on the radio. ESPN Spartanburg will carry the Green Hornets game on both AM and FM. The station also plans to donate money to the school.

Amazing Football Play

A video of a tipped interception by Gallaudet's football is getting 10's of thousands of hits. The play came during the Bison's game against Castleton State College last Saturday. During teh third quarter, Sophomore linebacker Tom Pangia got a hand on the ball initially to break-up the pass. Before the ball lands out of bounce, sophomore defensive back Tony Tatum leaped in the air and pushes the ball back in bounds where fellow sophomore defensive back Shelby Bean grabs it and returns it six yards to the Castleton 38-yard line. The video was picked up by Sports Illustrated and was featured as the Video of the Day on Jimmy Traina's Hot Clicks daily feature.

Miracle Worker Director Dies

The man who directed the stage and film version of The Miracle Worker died yeterday. Arthur Penn was 88 years old. Penn was perhaps most well-known for the 1967 film Bonnie and Clyde. He died from congestive heart failure. He first made a name for himself in 1957 with a TV version of The Miracle Worker that won an Emmy nomination. When he took the production to Broadway, he cast Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke as Annie Sullivan and her blind and deaf student Helen Keller. They won Tonys and reprised their roles in the 1962 film version. It won Bancroft an Oscar for Best Actress and Patty Duke picked up a statue for Best Supporting Actress.

Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?

Two schools for the deaf in Georgia will get half of the money promised to them from winnings on a TV game show. Former state schools Superintendent Kathy Cox won a million dollars in 2008 when she appeared on the show Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? She promised it to three schools for blind and deaf children: Georgia Academy for the Blind in Macon, the Georgia School for the Deaf in Cave Spring and the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf in Clarkston. But that was before her husband, a home builder, filed for bankruptcy after the housing market went down. The couple's creditors have tried to stop the funds from going to the schools. Under a proposed settlement, the schools would get half of what they were promised. The deal still needs the approval of the bankruptcy judge.

Congress Passes Video Accessibility Act

Congress has sent to the president a bill that would provide the deaf with the ability to watch captioned TV programs online. The Senate passed the Equal Access to 21st Century Communications Act last month and the House approved it late last night. Bill S. 3304lays out federal guidelines for the telecommunications industry for a variety of issues, including a requirement that video programming devices such as MP3 players and digital video recorders be capable of closed captioning, video description and emergency alerts. Remote controls will be required to closed captioning buttons that are easily accessable. The measure also gives the blind access to the Internet through improved user interfaces for smart phones. Any big company producing more than 60 hours a week of video will be required to include audio descriptions.

Man Hit by Train

A deaf man was hit and killed yesterday by a freight train in Stony Point, New York. Gregg Hession was hit from behind and is believed to have died instantly as he walked along the train tracks. Hession leaves two children behind.

Hospital Settles Claim

A New Hampshire hospital has settled a complaint of ADA violations related to its failure to provide interpreting services for deaf patients. While St. Joseph Hopsital and SJ Physicians did not admit wrongdoing, the Nashua facilities agreed to wipe out the $10,000 medical bills of Sheila Coombs and Gary Catania over the matter. The two are deaf and were not provided interpreters during their medical treatment between 2005 and 2008. The hopital and its medical practice has also agreed to insure deaf and hard-of--hearing patients get the services they need. To do this, there will be staff training, a new program developed and video relay will be used.

Conference at Purdue

The 10th Conference Theoretical Issues in Sign Language Research starts tomorow at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. Read more here.

Journeys of Identity

A new play about Thomas Gallaudet opens in Hartford, Connecticut on October 11th at the Old State House. Journeys of Identity was written by Garrett Zuercher and is presented by the National Theatre of the Deaf, a touring theater group composed of deaf and hearing actors. Besides telling the story of Gallaudet, the founder of the nation's first school for the deaf, the play will focus on its first teacher and its first student.You can find more information here.

Video of Deaf Man Freed on New Evidence

Man Fakes Being Deaf

Police in Tampa, Florida have arrested a man who pretended to be deaf when he was stopped on suspicion of drunken driving yesterday. Christopher Michael O' Callaghan indicated he needed an interpreter, but was surprised when Officer Chris Denton began signing to him. Police say O' Callaghan began talking, admitting he wasn't deaf and said he has used the ruse to get out of previous tickets.

$500k with No Strings

A sign-language expert is getting a genius grant from the MacArthur Foundation. Carol Padden will receive $500,000 over the next five years, with no strings attached. Padden is a communication professor who teaches at the University of California, San Diego. She plans to use the money to show "that sign languages belong in the class of human languages." She's one of 23 MacArthur Foundation grant winners this year. Both she and her brother as well as her parents are deaf. They are retired from teaching at Gallaudet University.

Cued Speech Exclusively

The Washington Post profiles a family exclusively using cued speech here.

Rape Sentence Set Aside

The rape conviction of a deaf man has been set aside by a Texas judge. Stephen Brodie has spent a decade behind bars for the crime. Police interrogated him for 18 hours over eight days. Eventually Brodie confessed to the crime in exchange for a shorter stay in jail. He even confessed to a crime that interegators made up. An interpreter was present only half the time of the interrogation. After Brodie's conviction, police in Richardson found out a crime scene fingerprint matched a man convicted of assaulting another girl. But Brodie's attorney was never told of the finding. The judge's decision still must be approved by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals before he is released.

Tournament Sweep

Gallaudet University's entry into the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) debut is off to a successful start. The Bison's volleyball team won four games in two days over the weekend, sweeping the tournament hosted by Penn St.-Abington. Gallaudet only allowed its opponents to score more than 15 points in a set twice out of 12 sets possible. Gallaudet beat Penn St.-Berks and the College of St. Elizabeth Saturday and then did the same to Penn St.-Abington and Penn St.-Harrisburg during Sunday games. Gallaudet next plays Wesley College tomorrow in Dover, Delaware.

Conviction to be Overturned?

A deaf man's conviction of sexually assaulting a Dallas child may be overturned today. A hearing is scheduled for Stephen Brodie in Richardson this morning. He's has already served ten years behind bars, even though there was no forensic evidence tying him to the crime and the fingerprint of a convicted child rapist was found at the crime scene.

Deaf Fest

The Arizona Deaf Festival takes place tomorrow in Phoenix. For more information, click here.

Award-Winning Program

The Kentucky School for the Deaf is a finalist in a computer technology conpetition. The school received a gold medal at the Gala Awards Ceremony in Washington as part of The Computerworld Honors Program. The recogniztion comes from the school's use of
video conferencing as a teaching tool.

Teen in Critical Condition

We told you about a a deaf teen hit by a car in Alabama Wednesday. He is still in serious condition. WALA-TV in Mobile offers this update.

Deaf Rapper Performs in NYC

Here's a video of Finnish rap artist Signmark performing in Washington Square Park yesterday. A crowd of about 100 people came to hear him and vocalizing partner Brandon Bauer. Signmark has a record deal with Warner Music.

Marking 125 Years

The New Mexico School for the Deaf begins its 125th anniversary celebrations this weekend with homecoming events, campus tours, ASL story-telling and an alumni reunion. The school was founded in 1885, when Lars and Belle Larson started teaching students out of their downtown Santa Fe home. Special Legislation officially established the facility two years later as the state's first public school. There are 120 students enrolled on campus and an outreach program serves 270 students around the state. A Founders Day celebration is planned November 10th.

New School for the Deaf

WJRT-TV reports on plans to build a new Michigan School for the Deaf in this video. The text of the story is here.

LA Deaf Festival

DEAFestival Los Angeles 2010 takes place tomorrow. For more information click here.

Teen Hit by Car

A driver near Mobile, Alabama hit a deaf 13-year-old boy yesterday who was riding his bike. WALA-TV reports on his condition.

Wrongly Convicted

A deaf man convicted of sexually assaulting a 5-year-old child near Dallas may be out of prison in just a few days. Stephen Brodie has already served a decade behind bars for the offense - even though there was no forensic evidence tying him to the crime and the fingerprint of a convicted child rapist was found at the crime scene. The DA's office is supporting his claim.

Suing the Pope

A deaf victim of sex abuse in the Catholic church is suing the pope. CNN has a long story about Terry Kohut's dark secret and what Pope Benedict XVI did about it here.

15% of Kids with Hearing Loss? Not So Fast

Two studies about hearing loss are filled with errors and overestimate how many children have it, according to researchers at the University of Minnesota. The studies in question support the idea that about 15% of children have some kind of noise-induced hearing loss. But the University of Minnesota researchers say that figure could be off by as much as 10 percentage points. Professor Bert Schlauch, who led the new study, quesitons the use of beeps to test hearing, suggesting the placement of headphones among other conditions could throw off the results. Schlauch says his own study of marching-band members found 15% hearing loss on a first test. But followup tests showed no problem for most of these same band members. His team went further to inspect studies that have been published in the journal Pediatrics and the Journal of the American Medical Association. They found the same results. Details are in the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research.

$250k Lab Opens

Ohlone College in Fremont, California has opened its Deaf Studies Lab. The facility has 20 computer stations, replacing outdated computers and video cameras. It cost a quarter of a million dollars, most of which came from a grant given by the East Bay Community Foundation. The California School for the Deaf is just a few miles away from the Ohlone campus.

Signs of Opposition

The campus of the Michigan School for the Deaf was lined with protest signs yesterday. The video below from WJRT-TV explains why. Read the story here.

New Jersey Interpreters

The Newark Advocate profiles a local sign language interpreting agency here.

Accused of Hitting Pregnant Woman

Police in West Palm Beach, Florida are holding a man on charges he punched his deaf and pregnant girlfriend Sunday night. They say Terrell Levine refused to allow Tiffany Rider to go to the hospital after the attack and threatened to hurt her again. He's being held on $50,000 bond.

Sale of Pennsylvania School Property

Updating facilities at the Scranton State School for the Deaf will cost as much as $30 million. That's what a state official testified yesterday before a state house panel, which is considering authorizing selling the 10-acre property for half a million dollars. The high renovation cost comes from environmental issues related to the age of the buildings. The Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf is moving its Scranton operations to South Abington.

Deaf Awareness Week

The last full week of September is International Week of the Deaf (or Deaf Awareness Week), a celebration of the culture, heritage, and language unique to deaf people of the world.

Purple Settles with FCC

Purple Communications says it has comes to terms with the FCC over more than 18 million dollars it owes the government. The video relay provider acknowledged that the FCC inappropriately paid the company, overcompensating it from the government relay fund, because calls outside the U.S. are not covered by the fund nor are those made to or from Purple employees. The FCC had originally demanded immediate repayment, which might have put Purple out-of-business. But this settlement allows the company to pay off the amount over fives years.

Imagine Cup 2010

A team of students from Thailand won Microsoft Imagine Cup’s $25,000 grand prize in the Software Design category. The group came up with what it calls eyeFeel technology, which allows the deaf to communicate with others through augmented-reality.. It combines speech and face recognition, converts it to English from text, and generates virtual real-time conversations in text balloons and sign-language animation. The team attends Thailand’s Kasetsart University. While the finals were held in Poland this year, next year’s event will take place in New York City. It will be the first time in its 8 years that the Image Cup finals have beeen held in the US.

Mission Deaf Center Opens

KHBS-TV in Fort Smith Arkansas reports in this video about the opening of a center for the deaf.

Murder Trial Delay

Doctors from Gallaudet University will examine a deaf Virginia man to help determine whether he is competent to stand trial for murder. Oswaldo Martinez is facing charges he raped and killed a 16-year-old near Williamsburg. The Salvadoran native has learned to sign since his arrest in 2005.

X Games Gold Medal Winner

WTTG-TV in D.C. features motocross Champ Ashley Fiolek in this video during her visit Gallaudet University today.

Soundtouch

Inventors of a new device called the Soundtouch say it will allow the deaf to experience various forms of music. Developed for audio experts Bang & Olufsen the Soundtouch uses vibrations to create a series of rhythms. The device is wearable and is powered by a fuel cell.

Texting in Deaf Culture

Below is a video looking at how texting is affecting students at the Alabama School for the Deaf from Associated Press.

A Shot at the NBA.. Again

The first legally deaf player in the NBA will reportedly get a shot at making the Indiana Pacers. Lance Allred is a 6'11" forward. He played for the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2008 and has since bounced around with a variety of other teams, ending up in what's called the D-League. His story is told in the book Longshot: The Adventures of a Deaf Fundamentalist Mormon Kid and His Journey to the NBA.

Protest Over Police Shooting

Several hundred people took to the streets of Seattle yesterday to protest the shooting death of a deaf man by a police officer. Two weeks ago, we told you about John Williams, a Native American carver who was shot four times in downtown Seattle, after police say he didn't obey commands to drop his carving knife. The officer failed to call for backup before killing Williams. Here's a video of the protest.

Vampires at Gallaudet

The Washington Post has picked a class at Gallaudet as one of the oddest college courses in the D.C. region. The class is called Vampires: Their Historical Significance in Literature, Film, and Pop Culture. Here's the description: "This course will examine the phenomenon of Vampirism in verbal and visual culture from various historical periods and from both Eastern and Western cultures including Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Rumania, Russia, Serbia, France, England, Sweden, and the United States."

2010 ADA Standards

The Department of Justice adopted and published the new 2010 ADA Standards in the Federal Register this week. The 2010 ADA Standards have approximately 750 new standards. Most of the regulations take effect March 15 of next year. You can find the details at the Department of Justice site here.

Youth Get Prime NFL Seats

An NFL player is donating $40,000 so a group of deaf students (among others) can attend a game Sunday. Falcons defensive tackle Jonathan Babineaux bought the prime lower level tickets to the team's home opener at the Georgia Dome against Arizona and will give each youth a special t-shirt. Some of the tickets are going to the Georgia Council for the Hearing Impaired’s Camp Juliena, a week-long residential summer youth camp for the deaf or hard of hearing.

Mexican Award

One of Mexico's highest awards has been given to the head of the Starkey Hearing Foundation. Bill Austin was given the Azteca Eagle Award in Mexico City. The Foundation based in Minnesota, started in 1973, has given out thousands of hearing aids in the country.

Motocross Champion

A profile of motocross racer Ashley Fiolek is offered by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette here.

NTID Prez Finalists

RIT's National Technical Institute for the Deaf has named its finalists for president of the school. All three are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

The first is Gerard Buckley. With a doctorate in education, Buckley has over 30 years higher education experience and most of the last 20 serving in a variety of capacities at NTID.

The second is Roberta J. Cordano. Ms. Cordano served as Assistant Attorney General for Minnesota, the University of Minnesota's Director of Disability Services and Assistant Dean. Recently, she led the Center for Healthcare Innovation at Allina Hospitals and Clinics in Minneapolis as Interim President. Cordano holds J.D. from University of Wisconsin Law School.

The third candidate is John C. Wyvill. He started in private law practice in Arkansas and held several government positions, mostly in Arkansas. Wyvill served three years as Assistant Legal Counsel, in the Arkansas Governor's office, and was Director of Nebraska's HHS Division of Developmental Disabilities in Lincoln.

All three candidates will visit the campus in October.

Deaf Murderer Killed in Bike Accident

A deaf man died in a motorcycle accident just outside of Boston. The Walpole Times reports Anthony Critsley was convicted of murder in 1989 and police believe he was drunk and speeding on the cycle when he ran into the back of a sedan. No one else was injured. Critsley's conviction came from the shooting of man during a robbery. He served 14 years behind bars. He was later convicted of drunken driving.

Deaf Comedyfest

The Deaf Comedyfest C3 starts tomorrow in Lesterville, Missouri (south of St. Louis) and runs through Sunday. There's more information here.

Extreme Makeover Reveal

Here's a video about the unvieling of the new designs for the Oregon School for the Deaf created by the ABC TV show Extreme Makeover from the Statesman Journal.

Makover Revealed Today

This afternoon Extreme Makeover: Home Edition will unviel the new, state-of-the-art dorm for boys it has build at the Oregon School for the Deaf. This evening the ABC show will reveal the renovated Lindstrom Hall basement, site of the school's popular Halloween haunted house, the Nightmare Factory. Thousands of volunteers have pitched in to make it possible.

Bison Football Win

The football teams of Gallaudet University and Williamson Trade school clashed in Media, Pennsylvania yesterday. Williamson had several opportunities for an upset in the 4th quarter, but failed to convert. The Bison won 23-19. It's the first for Gallaudet coach Chuck Goldstein. The team has one win and one defeat so far this season. The Bison play their first home game Saturday against the George Mason University club team. Here's a video from yesterday's game.

Gally Drops Sport

Gallaudet has cut its cross country program. That includes both its men’s and women’s teams. The university has struggled to find enough student-athletes to field a team at the NCAA Division III level. There were several members of this year's squad battling injuries. The student body also showed a general lack of interest in the sport. The program had only returned to competition two years ago. The school's only conference championship was won by the 1942 men's cross country team.

Deaf Bar

There is a bar in Moscow especially for deaf and hard of hearing customers. The Russian owner, Andrey Melnikov, says he limits access at The Krause Disco Bar at certain times to those who can sign. He's also head of a charity called Social Help. His staff is trained to understand signing patrons and he's installed speakers on the dance floor in such a way that people with profound deafness can feel the rhythm. Read more about it here.

Large Gift for California Theater

Deaf West Theatre is getting a grant that could be as high as $65,000. The North Hollywood facility will use the funds for new captioning technology that will help audiences watching shows as well as patrons over the Internet. The money comes from Theatre Communications Group, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

New Children's Rights Law

Delaware's governor signed the Deaf of Hard of Hearing Child’s Bill of Rights into law yesterday at the Delaware School for the Deaf in Newark. It gives certain rights for children who are deaf or hard of hearing in the Delaware school system. The legislation acknowledges the need for a comprehensive statewide program serving deaf and hard of hearing children.

FaceTime Expands

Apple's FaceTime may be added to the next Mac operating system and even to Windows-based computers, according to recent tech rumors. FaceTime offers visual chat capability that's made it popular among deaf users of the iPhone4 and the latest iPod Touch. FaceTime could be a part of the newest version of iChat in the iLife 11 operating system which is due to roll out soon. Facetime is also expected to become a part of the iPad sometime next year.

Deaf Heritage Award

Sorenson Communications awarded the author of History Through Deaf Eyes its deaf heritage award this week. The presentation to Jack Gannon took place at his almator, the Missouri School for the Deaf in Fulton, Missouri. When Gannon was 8 years old, he contracted spinal meningitis. His deafness was a side effect of the disease.

Will Michigan School Close?

There is a deal on the table between the Michigan School for the Deaf and a developer to buy the campus. In this ASL video, superintendent Sanders addresses rumors that the school is about to close.

Cross Country Bike Ride

A Minnesota couple rode more than 4000 miles in 8 weeks to raise money for a St. Paul deaf school. Mary Beata Zweber and Roger Miller of Baytown rode with 20 other riders with a Denver tour company, raising $7000 for the Minnesota Northstar Academy. Mary is serving on the school's board because she has a brother who is deaf.

School Cuts in Ohio

WCMH-TV reports on budget cuts to Ohio's schools for the blind and deaf in this video.

Cancer in Matlin's Family

Marlee Matlin's dad has cancer. Don Matlin is battling multiple myeloma, a cancer of the bone marrow. The 80-year old is undergoing chemotherapy. Her mother, Libby, and sister-in-law Gloria have both fought cancer. Matlin will take part in the Stand Up 2 Cancer telethon tomorrow. The TV special will also features Michael Douglas, who recently went public with his didagnosis of throat cancer.

iPod Touch Update

There are reports that the new iPod Touch 4G does not have a vibrating motor after all. Apple has updated the iPod Touch 4G accessibility page on its website to take off the description indicating that FaceTime could notify deaf users with a “vibrating alert.”

Students Get Star Treatment on Trip

Oregon School for the Deaf students and staffers will attend a Minnesota Twins baseball game today. They will sign Take Me Out to the Ball Game on the field during the 7th-inning stretch. It's part of their get-away trip while their campus gets a makeover with help from Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (there is mor information in earlier posts about the show). The school group, including 70 students, took a chartered flight yesterday to Minnesota and has already met members of the Minnesota Vikings. Everyone who needs hearing aids will get one for free from the Starkey Hearing Foundation during their visit.

Lead Poisoning Info

Here's a video in ASL about lead poisoning from the DeafWellness Center at the University of Rochester, funded by the CDC.

TV Show Visits School

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition visits the Oregon School for the Deaf.

Closed-Captioning History

The Caption Center became the first captioning service in the US in 1972. The Center provided open captioning to rebroadcasts of The French Chef with Julia Child at public station WGBH-TV in Boston. Captioning of ABC News rebroadcasts soon began. Within a couple of years, the Caption Center and its partners developed a closed captioning system which provided a way to display captions only for viewers with a certain device. The FCC formed the National Captioning Institute in 1979. The nonprofit organization is dedicated to promoting and providing access to closed captioning. ABC, NBC and PBS broadcast the first closed-captioned programs on March 16, 1980. Two years later, real-time captioning gave the deaf and hard of hearing an opportunity to understand live press conferences, local news, and sporting events. Congress passed a law in 1990 requiring all television sets with 13 inch screens or larger to contain captioning decoders. In 2006, the FCC mandated that all broadcast and cable television programs must include captioning except for ads running less than 5 minutes and programs broadcast between 2 and 6 am.

Dayton Deaf Festival

The Dayton Deaf Awareness Committee speaks to WDTN-TV in this video about the festival this Saturday.

Deaf Bank Robber?

A suspected Houston bank robber may be deaf. The FBI says a search is underway for a man who gave a bank teller a threatening note and motioned to the teller he could not hear. He's described as a black male who wore dark clothing.

NFL Starter Battles Hearing Lose

Washington Redskin Reed Doughty is losing his hearing. The pro-safety is going into his 5th NFL seatson and will start Sunday in the season opener against the Dallas Cowboys. His hearing loss was inherited from his father and continues to worsen as he gets older. Doughty now wears hearing aids at team meetings, but not on the field because of background noise from the crowd. He is known for doing a lot of volunteer work with groups such as the National Kidney Foundation (his son had a kidney transplant) and the Spinal Research Foundation.

Death at Gallaudet Unnecessary?

Gallaudet's student newspaper says a man died on campus because he didn't get needed medical attention. While on his way to work two weeks ago, cafeteria employee Cheang Kok fell off his bike and hit his head. Members of the football team were eating lunch at the time and tried to help him, but Koh was unresponsive. An article in the Buff and Blue, says it took 15 minutes before campus security showed up and five minutes more before medical help arrived. The story even quotes a football player as saying he went to the Public Safety office to get help and was told to wait because officers were busy. But Gallaudet officials strongly deny the story, saying a trained first responder was on the scene within five minutes of the accident. Read more in the Gallaudet student paper.

Information about Asthma

Here's a video in ASL about asthma from the DeafWellness Center at the University of Rochester, funded by the CDC.

ADA: Colleges

Under ADA law, colleges and universities must not discrimination when it comes to housing. There must be dorms or apartments available with special equipment such an alarm notification for people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

TV Show to Renovate School Building

Extreme Makeover: Home Edition paid a visit to the School for the Deaf in Salem, Oregon this afternoon. The team of the ABC reality show will work to renovate the basement of the 140-year-old residential school during the next week. The episode will air late next month.

Flu Prevention

Here's a video in ASL about flu prevention from the DeafWellness Center at the University of Rochester, funded by the CDC.

iPod Touch

The new iPod touch will vibrate like the iPhone. The vibrate function was designed with the deaf in mind, because it can alert users that a FaceTime call is being received. Apple is marketing FaceTime as an ideal way to have a phone call using sign language.

Training Service Dogs

In this video from WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida, a college student with a cochlear implant hopes to make a difference in the lives of other people who are deaf.

Worshipping in Silence

An Anderson, South Carolina newspaper takes a look at how a Clemson church is reaching out to the deaf community in this article.

Eagles Take Opener

The California School for the Deaf-Fremont beat Calistoga High football last night to notch a win in the school's opening game. The Calistoga Wildcats played host at Elsie Allen High School in Santa Rosa because its own facilities were in use for other activities. The CSD Eagles were up 21 to nothing at the half before the Wildcats mounted a late comeback.

Wood Carver Killed by Police

A Seattle police officer shot and killed a partially deaf man Monday when he failed to obey an order to drop a knife he was holding while crossing a downtown street. John Williams was Native American wood carver who social workers say had a drinking problem. Leaders of his tribe, First Nations, held a news conference today, saying the shooting was unjustified. Here's video about the gathering from KING-5 TV news.

Convicted of Rape and Murder

An Ohio judge has sentenced a deaf Ohio man to 55 years to life in prison for the rape and murder of a Akron woman. It's believed to be the first time a deaf person has been convicted of such a serious crime in Summit County. A jury convicted Jerron Johnson of the crime against his neighbor, Jean Zienka at her home in 2001 and trying to rape another woman a few days later, though she managed to escape. Johnson raped another woman in 2002. The trial was delayed for several years so that Johnson could learn sign language. He became deaf as an infant for an untreated ear infection and his mother is serving time in prison.

Blue Grass Gathering

DeaFestival-Kentucky takes place tomorrow in Horse Cave, northeast of Bowling Green. The Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing organizes this one day event to promote awareness and support for the deaf. This is the first year it has been held in Horse Cave. Previously, DeaFestival-Kentucky took place in Frankfort and Louisville. Some 8000 people are expected to attend attractions including theatrical performers, comedians, dancers and musicians.

Scam Rips off Deaf Investors

A company based in Hawaii is being ordered to pay more than $6.2 million for cheating more than 125 customers, all of whom were deaf. Marvin Cooper, who is deaf himself was charged with operating a $4 million foreign currency and commodity futures Ponzi scheme through his company, Billion Coupons. Prosecutors say Cooper lured customers with promises of up to 25% monthly returns. But he spent the funds on personal items, like a million dollar home and flying lessons.

Seabeck Retreat

The annual Seabeck Deaf-Blind retreat ends tomorrow outside of Seattle. This year's gathering has attracted more than 50 deaf-blind participants from around the world, including some from Japan and Holland. Sponsored by the Seattle Lighthouse, a nonprofit support group, events include tandem bike riding, paddleboarding, cooking classes, and classes on technology and devices that can help them with their daily lives. Read more about the retreat here.

Burned By Acid

The woman randomly burned by acid this week in Washington is nearly deaf. Bethany Storro's story has been in the news since Monday, when she was unexpectedly assaulted by a stranger in Vancouver. Her face is now wrapped in bandages and she may be disfigured for life. A black woman had approached her on the street and asked her, "Hey, pretty girl, do you want a drink of this?" The woman threw the acid at Storro who says she could immediately hear her skin burning. Police are now looking for the assailant who ran from the scene. Storro says she is glad she happened to be wearing sunglasses because it saved her sight. "To be hard of hearing and blind. That would drive (my family) crazy," she told reporters.

MSD Football

The football team at the Maryland School for the Deaf will play 9 home games and only 3 away games. Coach Andy Bonheyo, who's led the team for a decade, says it is just a coninsidence that so many of this season's games will be played at home. With most of the team returning, the Orioles are in good shape to repeat as national deaf prep champions. They went 9-1 last year. The only other deaf teams on the schedule this season is the Indiana School for the Deaf (October 16th) and the California School for the Deaf at Riverside (Nov 12).

Sexual Abuse Lawsuit

A former student is suing a Catholic school for the deaf in Montreal. Serge d'Arcy says he was sexually abused by four people on staff at the Clercs de St. Viateur. He's now in his 50's and the abuse is alledged to have happened when he was about nine years old. d'Arcy wants $600,000 in damages.

The "Incredibly Deaf Musical"

A musical about a composer determined to keep making music even as he is going deaf will debut in New York next month. The Jay Alan Zimmerman autobiography is titled Incredibly Deaf Musical. The New York Musical Theatre Festival will offer performances from September 30 to October 10 at The Duke on 42nd Avenue in Manhattan. The musical is described as a wild pop-rock-rap-dance-classical-disco-experimental-sign language-multimedia mash up.