Gally Suit Dismissed

A discrimination lawsuit against Gallaudet University has been dismissed. Angela McCaskill was once the school's chief diversity officer. She sued, saying she had been defamed after she signed a petition at her church related to Maryland's same-sex marriage law. Read the full story at the Capital Gazette.

Deaf Driver faces charges

A deaf man who drove through a crowd at the "Zombie Walk" during last year's Comic-Con is facing a felony charge, reports San Diego's 10news. He'll be arraigned a week from this coming Monday. Here's a video report.

CI developers get major award tonight

The National Academy of Engineering is giving five of the people who played important roles in the development of the cochlear implant one of the highest awards in engineering tonight. Receiving the 2015 Fritz J. and Dolores H. Russ Prize--along with half-of-a-million dollars are:

• Graeme Clark, an Australian doctor who was motivated to pioneer the first multi-channel implant by watching his deaf father struggle in his daily life.
• Austria electrical engineer Ingeborg Hochmair worked with her husband, Erwin Hochmair, to develop their own multi-channel implant in Europe, eventually starting MED-EL--one of the "big three" cochlear implant makers. 
• Blake Wilson, co-director of the Duke Hearing Center. He is strategy advisor for MED-EL and is credited with inventing many of the critical signal processing strategies used in implants today.
• Michael M. Merzenich, a neuroscientist and professor of otolaryngology at the University of California at San Francisco, established some of the fundamental design for Advanced Bionics.

A ceremony will take place in Washington, D.C. this evening. There's more information from the National Academy of Engineering here.

Captioning problems during race

Closed captioning went "insane during the Fox NASCAR broadcast" yesterday according to DeadSpin. It appears, as one commenter suggested, the files sent to the computer so it can  recognize names was place in the broadcast stream during the race. Find out more here.

Study on Implants and Age

If something goes wrong with a cochlear implant and doctors have to perform surgery again, advanced age shouldn't be a consideration as to whether to do the revision. That's the finding of researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. You'll find the study in the Journal of the American Medical Association here.

On this date in 1875.. a sports legend was born

Luther "Dummy" Taylor

Luther "Dummy" Taylor was born on this day, February 21, in 1875. Taylor joined the Giant's pro baseball in 1900 when they played at New York's Polo Grounds before moving to the West Coast. He was on the team until 1908, helping the Giants win their first World Series in 1905. Taylor was 16-9 that season. Overall, Taylor had 115 wins and 103 loses with the Giants. He then played with the Kansas City Royals. It was fitting because Taylor was born in near Oskaloosa, Kansas and attended the Kansas State School for the Deaf where he was class valedictorian in 1895. He played on the school's baseball team and returned to coach after retiring from professional baseball.  Taylor was buried in 1958 in Baldwin, Kansas
about 50 miles from where the Kansas City Royals now play their home games.

Opening Night at the Theater

A new play opens tonight at Deaf West Theater. American Buffalo is a "1975 drama, set in a Chicago junk shop overflowing with knickknacks and refuse" with "obnoxious male characters and aggressively obscene patter." Read a full review in the LA Times here.

Bison Season Ending

The Gallaudet women's basketball team closes out its season this weekend. The Bison play Penn State Berks on Saturday. Gallaudet had a three-game winning streak going into Friday's game against Lancaster Bible College but lost to Lancaster by a score of 72 to 62. The Lady Bison now have a record of 13-10 for the season and will need a win in the Penn State Berks game in order to get into the Landmark Conference women’s basketball tournament.

Brainstem implant testing

Deaf children who can't use cochlear implants might be helped with a brainstem implant. The Associated Press has a video report. You can read the story here.

Investigation into Sexual violence at Gally

Al Jazeera America’s conducted a six-month investigation into sexual violence at Gallaudet University. "It uncovers troubling allegations from students who said their disabilities made them targets for sexual assault; that their experiences reporting that abuse were complicated by factors like disability, race and sexual identity; and that in some cases, sexual assault was even the cause of a disability, such as depression. Read more here.

NAD sues Harvard & MIT

The National Association of the Deaf is suing the Harvard and M.I.T. over the failure of the universities to offer captioning on their online classes and other educational material--and according to the suit, what is captioned is done poorly. Read details in the New York Times here.

Implant wearer and Vince Gill

Joe Hannigan, who has a cochlear implant, got to perform with Vince Gill recently. They played together on the song When I Call Your Name in Nashville. Hannigan lost his hearing in one ear a few years ago because of a medical condition and it nearly derailed his musical career. Here's a video of the performance (no captions).

TX deaf school could be moved

If someone Texas lawmakers get their way, the grounds in Austin where the state School for the Deaf sits could be sold off to make up for budget losses. State Senator John Whitmire wants the school moved off the 67 acres of land. The Austin Statesmen quotes him as saying to school officials, “You’re sitting on some of the most expensive land in Austin.” Read more here.

Donation to Maryland Theater

A hearing looping system is going in the Maryland Theatre thanks to an audiologist and her husband. WHAG-TV has a video report.

Black ASL

In 2011 a book called The Hidden Treasure of Black ASL dealt with a seldom discussed issue--the influence of spoken black English. The Washington Post interviewed the authors to see "what’s happened since the book’s publication and what might be coming next." They say that a new study finds "black deaf families share deafness with white deaf families but typically have more in common with black hearing families." Read more here.

The 1st Gally Prez

Edward Miner Gallaudet 

On this date (Feb. 5, 1837) the man who would become the first president of Gallaudet University was born. Edward Miner Gallaudet lobbied the U.S. Congress to allow the Washington, DC school to give degrees and led it until 1910. He died Sept. 26, 1917. When plans were made to change the name of the school from the Columbia Institution for the instruction of the Deaf and Dumb, Edward Miner Gallaudet wanted the honor to go to his father, a a pioneer in deaf education, rather than himself. So the school was renamed Gallaudet College.

How Deaf Restaurateurs Communicate with Customers

One of the first deaf-owned restaurants in the U.S. uses a unique lighting system to keep their customers happy. Read about what California's Mozzeria is doing here.

Learning about Deaf Culture in Mesa

Arizona's Mesa Community College offers sign language classes and the school's student newspaper takes a look at what's being taught here.

The undisputed king of deaf hip-hop

Image from Sean Forbes video "A Song for my Haters"

"Sean Forbes is blowing up." That's what the Washington Post says about the deaf rapper. Read the profile here.

Deaf Seahawk interview

You won't see Seattle Seahawk Derrick Coleman in today's Super Bowl--he's out with an injury. But he will still be on the sidelines during the game, but not wearing the Super Bowl ring he won last year. The first deaf offensive player in the NFL tells biography.com he has it locked away in a safe. Read the full interview here.