Deafweekly Oct. 27, 2004 Deafweekly
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Deafweekly Oct. 27, 2004 deafweekly October 27, 2004 Vol. 1 No. 2 Editor: Tom Willard Welcome back to Week 2 of DEAFWEEKLY! More than 875 people have signed up for this new ezine in less than a week. Please help us grow by telling your friends, family and coworkers about DEAFWEEKLY. To subscribe, visit our website at www.deafweekly.com. Also, a big thank you to Harris Communications for becoming our first sponsor! Comments are greatly appreciated, and we are seeking advertisers to help support this service. For more information, contact [email protected]. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ AROUND THE U.S.A. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ IMMIGRANT KILLED BY TRAIN WHILE RETRIEVING HEARING AID A poor deaf immigrant was killed by a train in lower Manhattan Oct. 16 while trying to retrieve his new hearing aid after it fell on subway tracks. Syed Fazle Mowla, 67, could not hear the train bearing down on him nor the shouts of panicked onlookers. NYU student Eric Munson, 19, rushed over and managed to lift Mowla halfway before the train hit him. Mowla came to America eight years ago and sent $200 back to his family in Bangladesh, their primary source of support. His son Anjon said via phone, “My mom is in shock. She’s crying all day long.” Munson, a politics and religion double major, has set up a fund to help the family. Contact him at [email protected]. DEAF-BLIND MINNESOTA WOMAN SEEKS PUBLIC OFFICE When voters in Inner Grove Heights, Minn. go to the polls next Tuesday, they won’t have the chance to elect Rachel Eggert, who is deaf and legally blind, to City Council. Eggert, 23, beat three other candidates last September in the primary, but didn’t make the cut for the general election. Describing herself to the Pioneer Press as a freelance campaigner, Eggert said she plans to run again next year, this time for the school board. “I won’t give up,” she said. A spokesperson for the Helen Keller National Center could not think of any other deaf-blind candidates for public office. “Good heavens,” said Allison Burrows. “I do think that’s rather rare.” HAWAII MAN ALLEGES POLICE BRUTALITY A deaf Vietnam War veteran in Honolulu who had four ribs broken in a confrontation with a policeman has filed a lawsuit against the city. Martin Swanson, 54, alleges that officer Damon Taylor used excessive force, violated his civil rights and falsely arrested him during an incident Aug. 26. Swanson was walking near a construction site when confronted by the officer, who allegedly spun him around, pushed him against a fence and kicked his legs out from under him. Swanson, a U.S. Postal Service mail sorter, lost more than a month of work due to his injuries. A misdemeanor harassment charge against him was dismissed by city prosecutors Oct. 20. “He feels vindicated to some extent,” a friend told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. JUDGE ORDERS UPS TO LET DEAF DRIVE TRUCKS A federal judge in San Francisco gave UPS 30 days to change its rules barring deaf and hard-of-hearing people from driving parcel delivery trucks. U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson said Oct. 21 that the company’s policies violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. “We are very strongly considering an appeal,” said a UPS spokesman, calling it “an issue of public safety.” The judge’s ruling follows a class-action case representing as many as 1,000 would-be drivers that was filed by Oakland-based Disability Rights Advocates. Last year, a $10 million settlement in the same case required UPS to track promotions and provide interpreters, text telephones and vibrating pagers to its deaf workers. The U.S. Postal Service and Federal Express already allow deaf workers to drive trucks under 10,000 pounds. DEAF MAN DOESN’T NOTICE AS WIFE IS ATTACKED AT HOME http://www.deafweekly.com/backissues/102704.htm[6/13/2011 12:34:59 PM] Deafweekly Oct. 27, 2004 A 15-year-old boy allegedly assaulted and robbed an 83-year-old woman in her Louisville, Ky. home Oct. 15, but the woman’s husband didn’t hear the attack because he is deaf. The victim, who was not identified in news reports, was recovering at a local hospital in fair condition. Police said the teen is an acquaintance of the victim and faxes numerous charges, including assault, robbery, tampering with evidence and intimidating a witness. His name was not released because he is being charged as a juvenile. AFTER FIVE YEARS IN JAIL, FLORIDA MAN PLEADS GUILTY A deaf man in Florida who had been imprisoned more than five years while awaiting trial was sentenced to time served and released Oct. 25. Daniel Harrison, 29, pleaded guilty to kidnapping and sexual assault against two women in 1998 and 1999. Harrison will have to wear a monitoring bracelet for the next two years, cannot consume alcohol, must stay away from his two victims and is not to enter Indian River County. The lengthy legal delay was attributed by the Vero Beach Press Journal to Harrison’s limited language skills. He was originally found to be linguistically incompetent to stand trial, but after some training he was found by one expert to be competent and able to enter a plea agreement. HELEN KELLER STATUE FOUND SIX YEARS AFTER THEFT A statue of Helen Keller, the deaf and blind role model for millions, has been recovered six years after it was stolen from a talking garden for the blind. The 150-pound bronze sculpture, showing Keller as a child, was found in the home of Cleveland Heights art collector William Hahn, 54. According to the Chillicothe Gazette, Hahn said he didn’t know it was stolen and provided police with a receipt from an antique store that is no longer in business. PIT BULL IN DEAF MAN’S CARE MAULS WOMAN’S DOG A poodle owned by a 74-year-old Chandler, Ariz. woman was mauled Oct. 14 by a pit bull being watched by its owner’s deaf son. Hazel Yont’s 3-pound poodle died in the attack, which a witness said occurred in seconds. The pit bull owner’s son, Angel Cervantes, who is deaf and speech-impaired, screamed at the pit bull but could not deter the attack nor communicate with Yonts. He “just looked at her and walked off,” a witness reported. Yont told The Arizona Republic, “To see my baby mauled in front of my eyes and bleed to death was awful.” She has filed a complaint in municipal court against Cervantes, and a hearing is set for Oct. 28. COLLEGE STUDENT SUES OVER NOTE-TAKING SERVICES A deaf college student who blames note-takers for her poor grades is suing the Nevada university system. Lezlie Ann Burton, 34, of Cortland, N.Y., filed a civil rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Las Vegas to have the low grades removed from her academic transcripts at the Community College of Southern Nevada and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Burton, deaf since infancy, claims that her note-takers couldn’t keep up, missed classes or quit, or didn’t provide adequate coverage. According to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, the university system denies responsibility for Burton’s failing grades, humiliation and distress. Burton graduated from CCSN with an associate’s degree but left UNLV after she said the school refused to provide her with real-time captioning services besides an interpreter. GROUPS NEEDED TO VIEW BREAST HEALTH VIDEO A UCLA team is working with the Greater Los Angeles Agency on Deafness (GLAD) to increase awareness of breast health and breast cancer among deaf and hard-of-hearing women. Pilot funds from the California Breast Cancer Research Program allowed the group to interview 70 women about their unmet needs, and a proposal is now being developed to fund a signed video and guide. UCLA’s Barbara Berman is looking for people throughout the country to assist in the project by organizing small groups of about 8-10 deaf/hoh women in their community to meet with her team and view the video when it is developed, “so that we can see if, indeed, it does what we hope it will do.” Berman can be contacted at [email protected]. DON’T BELIEVE RUMORS, SAYS WRAD CEO “There are some people that are doing everything possible to interfere with our WRAD organization and its events, programs, activities, meetings, gatherings and services,” said Bruce Gross, founder and director of the World Recreation Association of the Deaf in a statement issued Oct. 20 in Los Angeles. The problem centers on WRAD’s relationship with the Southern California Recreation Association of the Deaf (SCRAD). Gross explained that SCRAD is and always has been a legal subsidiary of WRAD, though the local group had become inactive in recent years. Gross claimed that a recent flyer from a group he didn’t identify claiming to be a “successor” to SCRAD is misleading, defaming and unfair. “We cannot tolerate this,” he said. “Neither can you!” http://www.deafweekly.com/backissues/102704.htm[6/13/2011 12:34:59 PM] Deafweekly Oct. 27, 2004 ++++ADV+++++ADV+++++ADV++++ Low Pricing on the New Sidekick II---Extended until October 31! Shop at Harris Communications for low pricing on the new Sidekick II. The Sidekick II comes with a built-in camera with flash and has a lighted keyboard for night viewing. When you order your pager, sign up for the Handset Protection program to protect your pager against theft, loss or breakage. It is insurance with NO deductible! Hurry, this offer is only available until October 31, 2004.