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Last issue's most-read story: MARLEE MATLIN FAN FACING CRIMINAL CHARGES OVER SUICIDE THREAT / TMZ.com
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Los Angeles, CA
PHYLLIS FRELICH, DEAF ACTIVIST AND ACTRESS, DIES AT 70
Phyllis Frelich, the actress who made a groundbreaking and Tony-winning Broadway star turn in 1980 in “Children of a Lesser God,” Mark Medoff’s play — written with her and her husband’s help — about the courtship and marriage of a deaf woman and a man who can hear, died on Thursday at her home in Temple City, Calif., near Los Angeles. She was 70. Robert Steinberg, her husband, said the cause was progressive supranuclear palsy, known as PSP, a rare brain disorder whose cause is largely a mystery and for which there is no known effective treatment. / The New York Times
Washington, DC
OUR BEAUTIFUL SON, GIANNI MANGANELLI
Family statement. / YouTube
Brattleboro, VT
VCDHH BOARD VOTES TO CLOSE AUSTINE SCHOOL
The Vermont Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing Board of Directors has voted to close the Austine School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing and the Williams Center in June. The board on Friday voted 8-1 after discussing the school's future in executive session for almost an hour during its monthly meeting. VCDHH President Bill Gurney said the organization will try to re-open a residential program on the campus by July 2016, renamed as the Austine Center, though he said it was too early to announce how many students would be recruited or what the program would look like. / Brattleboro Reformer
New York, NY
COPS FATALLY SHOOT DEAF QUEENS RESIDENT 'AFTER HE SHOT HIS DAUGHTER'
New York city police say a uniformed officer shot and killed an 86-year-old man after he refused to drop his gun. They say the gunman, later identified as Jack Calvello, may have shot a woman before police arrived at the scene April 12. Police say a 911 call came in at 11:16 a.m., and the caller said he had shot his daughter. Officers found a man armed with a gun and the man refused an order to drop his weapon, then pointed his gun at the officers; one of the officers then shot him. The 86-year-old Calvello, who was also deaf, was pronounced dead at a hospital. / Daily Mail
New York, NY
DEAF NEW JERSEY WOMAN WHOSE PARENTS WERE MURDERED MEETS HER MOTHER'S FAMILY
She thought she had lost them forever. Colleen Turzynski, whose parents and grandfather were stabbed to death a quarter century ago when she was just a baby in New Jersey, finally got to meet her mother's family. The joy was clear on Colleen's face as she video-conferenced with her relatives in Singapore and wiped the tears of joy from her eyes. "I was worried that you had forgotten about me," the deaf woman said through an interpreter. / NY Daily News
Newark, NJ
JERSEY CITY WOMAN, 26, IS ACCUSED OF LEAVING 2 KIDS UNATTENDED
A Jersey City woman has been accused of child abuse after she left her 11-month-old son alone in her car for 40 minutes and her 5-year-old daughter unattended outside a school for seven minutes on separate occasions, according to court documents. Both children are hearing impaired, the documents stated. Rasha Salama, 26, has been charged with two counts of child abuse and two counts of endangering the welfare of a child. / The Star-Ledger
Chicago, IL
HEARING-IMPAIRED MAN ROBBED NEAR MAYOR'S NORTH SIDE HOME
A man was robbed early Thursday morning around the corner from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s home on the North Side. The 29-year-old man was walking on the sidewalk at 5:45 a.m. when a man got out of a white van, implied he had a weapon, and demanded the victim’s backpack, according to police. The victim, who is hearing-impaired, gave the man his backpack and the robber got back into his van and drive away, police said. / CBS Chicago
Washington, DC
RESOLUTION AIMS TO ASSIST DEAF COMMUNITY
In a resolution passed on April 6 concerning student accessibility on campus, the GUSA Senate asked the University to set up a funding system to bring sign language interpreters to campus without using Student Activities funding -- a reform that would lessen the burden for Georgetown’s deaf community. Presently, there is no centralized system to pay for sign language interpreters at extracurricular events, and the responsibility often falls on individual students to arrange for their own interpreters. / The Georgetown Voice
Washington, DC
DEAF PEOPLE: TELL ME MORE -- CLAUDIA GORDON
Here's a treat: a Sorenson Video Center show made public! Learn about Claudia Gordon and what it is like to work in the White House on our show "Deaf People: Tell Me More." / YouTube
Kennewick, WA
THE EYES & EARS: COUPLE WORKS TOGETHER TO SEE & HEAR
We use our eyes and our ears for just about every form of communication, but for one Kennewick couple they only have one full set between the two of them. Alejandro Vazquez is legally blind and Janie Gaunt has been deaf since the age of 12. They have been together for over a decade. This week the receiver for Gaunt's hearing implant died. They have always been each other's eyes and ears. Now, they have to work together until they find a solution. / KNDU/NBC