Free Republic

Congress gave final approval yesterday to legislation that will bring more Americans under the umbrella of “disabled” under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). President Bush said he’d sign the bill (S. 3406). The ADA Amendments Act of 2008 reverses several court rulings from recent years that had limited the scope of ADA protections. It directs U.S. courts to apply a broader definition when deciding what truly qualifies as an ADA-covered disability. The biggest change: The bill makes clear that courts (and employers) should not take into consideration any “mitigating measures” that reduce the impact of an impairment—such as medication,...

Wondering No More [Jonah Goldberg] Yep. The day after 9/11, as part of its "get tough" makeover, the Obama campaign is mocking John McCain for not using a computer, without caring why he doesn't use a computer. From the AP story about the computer illiterate ad: "Our economy wouldn't survive without the Internet, and cyber-security continues to represent one our most serious national security threats," [Obama spokesman Dan] Pfeiffer said. "It's extraordinary that someone who wants to be our president and our commander in chief doesn't know how to send an e-mail." Well, I guess it depends on what you...

Little Trig Palin prompted more than delegate coos when he joined his mother on stage at the Republican convention. He also raised new questions among parents whose children have disabilities. Was Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin simply including her 5-month-old son, who has Down syndrome, in a big family moment, or was she exploiting him in a tight presidential campaign? Would he help break down social barriers facing children with Down syndrome, or would those children now be drawn into the right-to-life debate? Getty Images Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's son Trig joined her on stage with her husband, Todd, at the...

Amid the barbs and hockey banter Wednesday night, Gov. Sarah Palin directed an emotional appeal to the hearts of millions of parents with children who have special needs, promising they would “have a friend and advocate in the White House” in a McCain-Palin administration. Palin’s offer of friendship sparked hope in many parents, advocates and lawyers as the often-marginalized subject of disabilities rights took center stage. ****** Ms. Palin’s effort to rally parents of children with disabilities has also prompted reaction among those who fear that her idea of advocacy might really mean preventing abortions of fetuses with Down syndrome,...

The VP pick's decision to raise a Down Syndrome baby should spark a debate on the value of "imperfect" human beings. When Adolf Hitler set about his plans to craft the perfect, master Aryan race, his first task was to eliminate the handicapped and mentally disabled; as the first step in this goal, midwives and physicians were ordered to register children born with severe birth defects, and “experts” reviewing the cases ordered the deaths of about 5,000 such children from 1939 to 1945. The vulnerable in our society are the canary in the coal mine: When society decides that any...

ScienceDaily (Aug. 26, 2008) — Terminally ill rodents with type 1 diabetes have been restored to full health with a single injection of a substance other than insulin by scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center. Since the discovery of insulin in 1922, type 1 diabetes (insulin-dependent diabetes) in humans has been treated by injecting insulin to lower high blood sugar levels and prevent diabetic coma. New findings by UT Southwestern researchers, which appear online and in a future issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that insulin isn't the only agent that is effective. Leptin, a...

You might have thought the demented Americans with Disabilities Act — a bonanza for lawyers that requires any public facility to be designed with handicappers in mind or be sued out of existence — would be the last word in otherly-abled totalitarianism. Not so. Visitability is a concept that makes the ADA downright libertarian by comparison. The initial objective of Visitability proponents is to impose on every home a zero-step entrance, interior doors at least 32" wide, and at least one wheelchair-accessible bathroom on the ground floor. Once they've managed to have this mandated, we'll see where they go from...

BETHESDA, Maryland, July 26, 2008 (Reuters) — Researchers working on an artificial pancreas believe they are just a few years away from a nearly carefree way for people with diabetes to monitor blood and inject insulin as needed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Related Topics Health and Fitness Internal Medicine Medical Specializations Medicine Science and Technology Ads by GoogleAdvertise here -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Blood Sugar Levels guide Looking to find Blood Sugar Levels? See our Blood Sugar Levels guide. Friendsofanimals.ComDiabetes Treatment Order Products to Lower your Blood Sugar Without Having to use Drugs. believe they can link two current technologies -- continuous glucose monitoring and insulin...

ARLINGTON, VA -- U.S. Senator John McCain's presidential campaign today released the following remarks by John McCain as prepared for delivery via satellite to the Americans with Disabilities conference: In a few months' time, Americans will choose their next president, and the course that our country will follow in the years to come. Many thousands of those votes would never be cast at all, were it not for this organization and its Disability Vote Project. Like so many other rights and privileges in our country, the right to vote always belonged to Americans with disabilities. But exercising that right could...

MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH WorldNetDaily Exclusive Father: 'System' killing my disabled daughter 'If they treated a dog this way, they would be doing jail time' Posted: July 19, 2008 11:10 pm Eastern The father of a disabled Delaware woman who recently earned the support of state lawmakers says the system – of courts, lawyers, hospitals and disability agencies – literally is combining to bring about the death of his daughter. "The court system should not have the right to impose this kind of treatment on a mentally disabled person," Randy Richardson told WND today. His daughter, Lauren Richardson, has...

Omaha, NE (KFAB-AM) - McDonald's is all ears after a lawsuit from a customer hard of hearing. Karen Tumeh recently visited a McDonald's in Omaha and tried to place an order at the pick up window at the drive thru. Tumeh is hearing impaired and she states that she could not understand the speaker at the order menu board. The restaurant told her that she had to go back to the menu board to place her order or come inside. The lawsuit would force McDonald's to make special accommodations for those hearing impaired so they too could use the drive-thru....

The Bush Administration has discovered what liberals have known all along: the Constitution is a mighty comprehensive document, giving the federal government powers over the minutest aspects of our lives. Case in point: apparently Bush & Co. have discovered that there is a right to miniature golf defined in the U.S. Constitution. That’s the upshot of a new set of rules updating the Americans with Disabilities Act being released for public comment this Tuesday. Other new rights include easier access to light switches in hotel rooms by moving them 6 inches lower, wheelchair lifts in courtrooms to provide easier access...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: For More Information, Contact: June 13, 2008 Jennifer Harris, Communications Officer, PIO#234-07/jlh 703.838.5078 or jennifer.harris@alexandriava.gov Alexandria Student Recognized for Support of Human Rights The Alexandria Human Rights Commission is pleased to announce that Debra Luecretia Mason, president of T.C. Williams High School Gay Straight Alliance (GSA), is the winner of the Commission’s seventh annual 2008 Student Human Rights Awards for her leadership role and promotion of equality for all regardless of sexuality. The Commission established the Human Rights Awards seven years ago to recognize students who have contributed significantly toward improving basic human rights and fairness for...

A tray of asymmetrical chocolate lumps balances on the counter behind the espresso machine, where owner Jean-Marc Gorce is slinging a cappuccino. Scotch-taped to the walls, clippings about the mom-and-pop truffle shop display accolades from Gourmet, the New York Times and 7 x 7. At the window, a few stools share a high counter; outside, two tables perch on the sidewalk. Cluttered but quaint, off-kilter but authentic, XOX Truffles is just the sort of place that one might associate with North Beach's motley character. Yet one of its design anomalies - a step from the curb into the shop -...

Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings A group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they're allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings. Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones. "I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away," he said. Firstenberg and dozens of other electro-sensitive people in Santa Fe claim that putting up Wi-Fi in public places is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The city...

As much as you've heard about the fuss over building a wheelchair ramp to the president's podium in the Board of Supervisors' chamber, there's one point that hasn't been made. This isn't about the project's $1 million cost, nor the construction, nor the principle of the matter.This is another case of those bickering supes. Because if the six supervisors who voted against building the wheelchair ramp wanted to stop it, they had ample time months ago. And they didn't say peep."I went around to each of the supervisors' offices and asked 'Do you want to weigh in on this?' "...

GARDEN CITY, N.Y. — A public high school has turned away a deaf student's service dog despite a state ruling saying the animal should be allowed. W. Tresper Clarke High School's principal intercepted 15-year-old John Cave outside the Westbury school's entrance Tuesday, a day after the state Human Rights Division told the school to let in the dog. Commissioner Kumiki Gibson wrote that state law "prohibits educational institutions from denying access to their facilities to people with disabilities." Cave left and did not go to classes Tuesday. East Meadow School District Superintendent Leon Campo said Tuesday the school would admit...

San Francisco should not have to spend $1 million on a wheelchair ramp in the Board of Supervisors chambers to assure equal access for people with disabilities. There must be less expensive options than the 10-foot ramp that has been through 18 designs and consumed more than $200,000 in planning. One alternative would be to do what the board has done for the past three years - seat its president near floor level, instead of the ornate, elevated podium that would require a significant retrofit of the historic room. Board President Aaron Peskin said he would like to find a...

Where else but San Francisco City Hall could a 10-foot-long wheelchair ramp wind up costing $1 million? Thanks to a maze of bureaucratic indecision and historic restrictions, taxpayers may shell out $100,000 per foot to...

Where else but San Francisco City Hall could a 10-foot-long wheelchair ramp wind up costing $1 million? Thanks to a maze of bureaucratic indecision and historic restrictions, taxpayers may shell out $100,000 per foot to make the Board of Supervisors president's perch in the historic chambers accessible to the disabled. What's more, the little remodel job that planners first thought would take three months has stretched into more than four years - and will probably mean the supervisors will have to move out of their hallowed hall for five months while the work is done. "It's crazy," admits Susan Mizer,...

TAMPA - An arrest warrant has been issued for Charlette Marshall-Jones, the detention deputy who dumped a quadriplegic man from his wheelchair, Sheriff David Gee said late Friday. "Miss Marshall-Jones has been made aware of the charges against her, but as of this moment has not turned herself in and we do not know her whereabouts," Gee said.

TAMPA - Sheriff's officials are investigating why a deputy in a jail booking video appears to dump a quadriplegic man out of his wheelchair. Hillsborough sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway said the agency is looking into what happened to Brian D. Sterner, 32, during his Jan. 29 booking at the Orient Road Jail, after a television reporter confronted Callaway with the jail's own video. Footage aired on WTSP-Ch. 10 Monday night showed a uniformed officer unseating Sterner from his chair, then searching him as he lay on the floor where he had fallen. "She said, 'Stand up.' I said, 'I can't...

Alice Camarillo, who is legally blind, says she was ridiculed when she asked for help reading the menu at fast-food restaurants like Burger King, McDonald's, Taco Bell and Wendy's. She sued. A federal judge in Albany threw it out, saying the law doesn't require restaurant workers to be polite. Yesterday, a Manhattan federal appeals court overruled the lower court, and Camarillo can sue the restaurants under the Americans with Disabilities Act. "I feel good about it," Camarillo, who lives in upstate Hudson, told the Daily News. "I'm just sorry it took so long. Quite a few things that they did...

It is the convergence of junk science and public policy gone horribly awry. A Washington, D.C., man with coronary disease wants a federal judge to impose a smoking ban in Virginia so he may patronize restaurants there without having to inhale secondhand smoke. He claims his condition limits what the Americans With Disabilities Act defines as "major life activities," so restaurants that let people smoke discriminate against his "disability." Some observations: It is an annual tradition for the Virginia legislature, respectful of individual rights, to reject smoking bans for bars, restaurants and bowling alleys. And until Virginians change their minds,...

Freakonomics One year from today, a new president moves into the White House. This president will be eager to carry out any number of plans — including, surely, plans to help the segments of society that most need help. Extending a helping hand, after all, is one of the great privileges and responsibilities of the presidency. But before charging ahead with such plans, the new president might do well to first ask him- or herself the following question: What do a deaf woman in Los Angeles, a first-century Jewish sandal maker and a red-cockaded woodpecker have in common? A few...

A federal appeals court ordered a San Francisco judge on Friday to reconsider his ruling requiring United Parcel Service to give its deaf employees a chance to compete for jobs as drivers of small delivery trucks. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 13-2 that U.S. District Judge Thelton Henderson had used the wrong standard in his 2004 decision that UPS was discriminating against deaf people with safe driving records by refusing to consider them for commercial driving jobs. Henderson allowed the plaintiffs to show that they were qualified for the jobs based on their driving records, and failed...

A judge rules that the retailer needs to stand trial for having a Web site that is insufficiently accessible. When a federal court judge issued rulings Oct. 2 that the $60 billion retailer Target needed to stand trial on charges that its Web site is not sufficiently accessible to visually-impaired shoppers, it sent a strong signal to much of the e-commerce space.

The Americans With Disabilities Act, for which the nation has the first President Bush to thank, has produced many bizarre legal claims. One of the latest comes from perfectly healthy people who say they were denied jobs that would have left them disabled. Victor Breehne got the ball rolling when he applied for a "highly wrist-sensitive job" making power tools at a Black & Decker Corp. plant in Tennessee. He was offered a job contingent upon him passing a medical exam that included a nerve-conduction test to determine whether he was susceptible to carpal-tunnel syndrome. Manufacturers whose employees perform repetitive-motion...

Launched by an Executive Order in April of 2002 under the guise of expanding the scope of 1990's Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health has since received the official sanction of the U.S. Congress... This commission is the driving force behind a massive policy shift that will literally turn public schools into mental health screening centers...all parents of public school children are supposed to be receiving written notice of these new federally mandated mental health screening policies. Some will also get permission slips to sign that will allow school counselors or other non-medically-educated bureaucrats...

<p>CAMPBELLSBURG, Ky. — Kentucky State Police say a car belonging to an Ohio woman missing since April has been found along with skeletal remains on a farm in north-central Kentucky.</p> <p>Kentucky Trooper Chip Perry told The Associated Press today that the silver 2000 Chevrolet Impala is registered to 80-year-old Ada Wasson.</p>

October 03, 2007 (Computerworld) A federal court judge has certified a class-action lawsuit against Target Corp. filed by the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). Judge Marilyn Patel, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, certified the case as a class action on behalf of blind Internet users throughout the U.S. under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to court documents. The class covered under the ruling includes people who tried without success to access Target.com and, as a result, have been denied access to "the enjoyment of goods and services offered in Target stores,"...

Republican Presidential Candidate Debate #6 – Fort Lauderdale, Florida 09/17/07 - Official Discussion Thread The debate will focus on issues of special concern to social and religious conservatives who brand themselves "values voters." The candidates will begin arriving here mid-afternoon, and the debate kicks off at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time. It will be streamed live via the Internet at ValuesVoterDebate.com and the website for the American Family Association. It is also reported to be telecast on Sky Angel's Angel One channel & Dish Network channel #262. Moderated by Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNetDaily Candidates participating Sam Brownback John Cox Mike...

Historic high: The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is moving to designate the city's first pot club as a historic landmark. Supervisor Bevan Dufty introduced a measure this past week to give the old Cannabis Buyers Club (now the Compassionate Care Clinic) at 194 Church St. a place in San Francisco history - right up there with the likes of Coit Tower, the Palace Hotel and City Hall. The club, which is in Dufty's District Eight, "in many ways was the birthplace of the medical marijuana movement in the city," the supervisor said. True - but the real play here...

After laying siege to a house for five hours, police gave a final warning before storming the house where a gunman had been reported inside. A police dog rushed upstairs and, finding a woman in bed, proceeded to sink its teeth into her arms. But as armed officers surrounded a terrified Sonia Pellow, they realised two things. First, she wasn't a gunman. Second, she was deaf and had been sleeping throughout the entire stand-off. Yesterday Miss Pellow, 36, was still too afraid to return to her home in Hayle, Cornwall, after the ordeal, which followed a hoax call to police...

Just in case anyone this side of the kook border had any doubts that multi-cultural tolerance and "reasonable accommodation" have reached ridiculous proportions, here's a story that's guaranteed to warm your hearts. A regular reader of this esteemed blog, The Warbasse Warlord, happened into his friendly neighborhood supermarket last week to stock up on sale items. Wow! Boar's Head Deluxe Ham for $5.99 a pound. As that great American philosopher, Stymie, once said: "Isthmus be my lucky day!" And from there it only got better as special offer after special offer for the Memorial Day Weekend jumped out at him...

<p>The Warren County Sheriff’s Office says its seeks the public's assistance in locating two elderly women from Warren County.</p> <p>Mary Ellen Walters, 68, and Ada Wasson, 80, were last seen last Thursday April 19th at Otterbein Retirement Living Community located at State Routes 741 and 63 in Warren County. The two women live in the Patio Homes section, which is an independent living area.</p>

She's definitely not a woman for all seasons. A Connecticut secretary who suffers from the "winter blues" is suing her ex-employers for $33 million, claiming they wouldn't give her a well-lit desk with a window view. Caryl Dontfraid says she has seasonal affective disorder, which causes depression during the fall and winter and can be alleviated by exposure to bright light. "She wanted to work closer to a window with good light," her attorney, Robert Campos-Marquetti told the Daily News. "This is a request that could have been easily accommodated." Dontfraid was cited as an "exemplary employee" for Binder &...

Although a number of unique diabetes treatments are already in the works, researchers at Johns Hopkins University are giving it a shot of their own with a newfangled intravascular implant. A team of undergrads have collaborated with doctors and biomedical engineers to develop a "specialized implant for a potential treatment of type I diabetes," which has been created for implantation inside the portal vein in order to dole out insulin when needed. The pouch would ideally be "impregnated with insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells," but researchers have insinuated that this same system could possibly be used to treat other ailments such...

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, March 1, 2007 — As they near the end of their second deployment together, Army Sgt. 1st Class Richard Pyles, Air Defense Air Management platoon sergeant; Army Staff Sgt. Edson Caupp, ADAM assistant operations noncommissioned officer; and Army Sgt. Eugene Sefranek, ADAM cell assistant noncommissioned officer; all of whom serve with Headquarters Company, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division, have become “like a family.” "The Afghan people need help and it feels really good to help them. And knowing each other so well, it is easier for us to work together and get it done." Army...

The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) holds a public hearing today on whether to penalize cabbies who refuse to transport fares on religious grounds. Some Muslim cabbies at the Twin Cities Airport are refusing to carry travelers who have alcohol with them or who have service dogs.

... In response to a lawsuit filed by the American Council of the Blind, Judge James Robertson ruled this fall that the U.S. government has to alter America's paper currency -- in ways such as changing its size or texture -- to make it easier for those with visual impairments to tell various bills apart.

WASHINGTON - Damage to a silver dollar-sized spot deep in the brain seems to wipe out the urge to smoke, a surprising discovery that may shed important new light on addiction. ADVERTISEMENT The research was inspired by a stroke survivor who claimed he simply forgot his two-pack-a-day addiction _ no cravings, no nicotine patches, not even a conscious desire to quit. "The quitting is like a light switch that went off," said Dr. Antoine Bechara of the University of Southern California, who scanned the brains of 69 smokers and ex-smokers to pinpoint the region involved. "This is very striking." Clearly...

CORAL SPRINGS -- The bathrooms in the country club were opulent, with marble floors and antique furniture. But months after purchasing the club, the owners gutted them. The problem: The walls at the Carolina Club were about an inch too narrow under the Americans with Disabilities Act. Robert Cohen and his attorney sued the place in 2003, saying he felt discriminated against, even though he was not a club member and had no interest in joining. He sued the same business in 1998 when it was under different ownership. Cohen has also filed ADA lawsuits against Publix supermarkets, McDonald's, Comfort...

Breaking News Gallaudet Board Votes Out Jane Fernandes Washington Post sources confirm that controversial president-elect's appointment has been rescinded.

"Links list dialogue." "Links list view" "Your Account — Two of 164." This is what the Internet sounds like to Chris Danielsen. Danielsen is blind. He's using a software program called Jaws that converts the text on a Web page into a computerized voice that comes out through a speaker, allowing him to surf the Web using keyboard commands instead of a mouse — the same way lots of blind people use the Internet. In this case, his computer is listing all the Web links on the page he's on and telling him that the highlighted link his cursor is...

The 1990 Americans with Disabilities Act reflected a generous national impulse to provide the most opportunity... But the law has also sometimes led to overzealous interpretations ...that can defy common sense -- and endanger the broader public. A case in point is last week's ruling by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that United Parcel Service has violated federal law by banning drivers who are deaf. While acknowledging that federal law requires drivers of trucks heavier than 10,000 pounds to be able to hear, a three-judge panel of the ...court ruled that UPS was obliged to prove that allowing the...

Richard Beardall is getting exactly what he wanted: a trespassing ticket from federal land managers for ignoring the rules and riding his ATV on a closed road in the San Rafael Swell. Beardall, three other ATV riders and a Jeep, moved a 10-foot barricade near an old uranium mine and made a half-mile roundtrip along the access road to the Muddy River on Saturday. The Bureau of Land Management closed the area to recreational vehicles in 1993 due to riparian damage, said Price, Utah-based BLM manager Roger Bankert. Beardall, president of the Americans with Disabilities Access Alliance knows that, but...

United Parcel Service Inc. employs hundreds of hearing-impaired people who may hold any job other than delivery-truck driver. The rule is based on the company's justifiable concerns about public safety (and predatory trial lawyers). But in ruling the policy discriminatory under the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has created a situation in which UPS and other companies may be sued no matter what they do. The "9th Circus" ruled against UPS essentially because it failed to prove a negative. The company might have won had it put deaf people in the driver's seat...

Ohio Prosecutor Charged With Indecency A city prosecutor was charged with indecency after a security camera caught him walking around naked in a government building after business hours. Scott Blauvelt, 35, was arrested Monday and released from jail to await a hearing in Hamilton Municipal Court, where he usually works. A guard monitoring a security camera spotted a nude man investigators identified as Blauvelt in a building that houses county offices the night of Oct. 5, sheriff's Maj. Anthony Dwyer said. The night before, security video had captured Blauvelt naked in another area of the building, where city offices are...

TAMPA, Fla. -- Security "pat-downs" of fans at Tampa Bay Buccaneers games are unconstitutional and unreasonable, a federal judge ruled Friday, throwing into question the practice at NFL games nationwide. U.S. District Judge James D. Whittemore issued an order siding with a Bucs season-ticket holder who had sued to stop the fan searches that began last season after the NFL implemented enhanced security measures. High school civics teacher Gordon Johnson sued the Tampa Sports Authority, which operates the stadium, to stop officials from conducting the "suspicionless" searches. A state judge agreed with Johnston that the searches are likely unconstitutional and...