Jacob Landis has made it to Minnesota. We told you back in April here about the fund-raising effort of the deaf Maryland man. Here's a video report from KSTP-TV about his stop in Minneapolis (captioning available).
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St. Paul's city council has officially approved a settlement with deaf activist Douglas Bahl. The Minnesota city will pay $93,450 and the St. Paul police has agreed to make "significant changes" in how it communicates with deaf citizens. One change is agreeing to provide a sign language interpreter when one is requested and officers will get special training for communicating with the deaf when no interpreter is present. Read more about what brought about the lawsuit in the first place in our post from last week (May 6) here.
Born in Oregon, Bill Austin dropped out of the University of Minnesota to start his own hearing-aid repair company. Austin is founder of Starkey Laboratories in suburban Minneapolis, the largest US maker of hearing aids. It made him a multimillionaire. His major contribution to hearing health was the invention of in-the-canal hearing aids in the early 1980s. Starkey sells about one million hearing aids a year through 30 factories worldwide. His clients include five U.S. presidents and celebrities (such as Sting, and Dolly Parton). The Starkey Hearing Foundation has given out tens of thousands of the devices to the poor. He was honored by Variety International (a major children's charity) as Humanitarian of the Year.
The Doug Bahl lawsuit against the St. Paul Police Dept. is coming to an end. Back in 2008, we told you about his lawsuit here. As you can tell from the photo showing Bahl with swollen, black eyes and blood on him, he was beaten when police stopped him in the Minnesota town. They said the well-known deaf activist ran a red light. When Bahl tried to communicate that he was deaf, officers sprayed him with mace and hit him. The policemen blame Bahl for starting the confrontation, saying he hit and bit one of them. But the officer's written account indicates they were frustrated that Bahl did not "speak" with them and they failed to grasp that Bahl was deaf during the altercation. Then Bahl spent nearly four days in the Ramsey County Jail without the knowledge of his family. He says deputies wouldn't get him an interpreter. The sheriff says he offered Bahl a TTY phone on the first day but Bahl wanted to send an email to his family. During the next three days he was not provided an interpreter or allowed access to TTY. His first court appearance was even put off because Ramsey County authorities failed to provide him with an interpreter. Bahl ultimately was convicted of a misdemeanor. In 2011, a federal appeals court ruled one of his claims could have merit and sent case back to a lower court for further consideration. Now the city is considering a settlement that would pay Bahl $90,000 dollars and require the police department to train its staff about the rights and needs of the deaf. The settlement goes before the city council this week for approval. Another suit against Ramsey County was settled in 2011 for $230,000.
DeafNation Expo hits Saint Paul this Saturday (April 27). Join the trade show for exhibitions and entertainment at no charge. You'll find it at Concordia University's Gangelhoff Center. Find out more here.
A 13-year-old girl with hearing loss says the man who drove her bus that took her to her Minnesota middle school says he told her that he was looking for a virgin to have sex with and hoped it would be her. There is a video report posted below on DeafNewsToday.com from KMSP-TV (no captioning, but you can read the story here).
A program in Minneapolis for deaf children may not survive. KARE-TV has a video report, posted below on DeafNewsToday. Or you can read the story about the Northern Voices program here.
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A deaf Minnesota man has gotten his shot at a major role in the ABC Family show Switched at Birth. Read about how he went from standing in the background to a starring role here.
Michael Argenyi is suing Creighton University Medical School because the school refuses to accommodate his hearing loss. Argenyi says he wanted to become a doctor but the Nebraska school won't give him interpreters or CART (the captioning process provides real time text and is often used in classrooms). The school claims it has done enough- giving him a note taker and access to power point slides. Despite the limitations, Argenvi has determined to get through the program, passing all his classes. But he wants, what he says are full accommodations under ADA law. And the Justice Department agrees. It has filed a friend of the court brief on his behalf. Argenvi is from Seattle but the case is being heard in St. Paul, Minnesota.
A study linking ibuprofen and acetaminophen to hearing loss among women may be only one piece of a much larger puzzle. Watch a video report from KARE-TV in Minneapolis. Or read the story here.
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