Frida links

for the week 5/16/2008 to 5/23/2008

Hate crimes against Hispanics and people with disabilities rose dramatically in Tenesseee last year, the [Nashville] Tennesseean reports, leaving advocates for both groups concerned about the trend. A recent Tennessee Bureau of Investigation report shows hate crimes rose 28 percent overall between 2006 and 2007, but those against Hispanics more than doubled and those against the disabled grew from 1 to 30.

Four group home workers face court charges of failing to report a possible sexual assault of a developmentally disabled woman. According to this report in The Berkshire Eagle, police were informed three days after the fact that a 33-year-old woman with developmental disabilities returned home from a family visits showing potential signs of sexual abuse. By then, according to police, any physical evidence had been destroyed and so they could not charge anyone with assault.

A federal appeals court ruled this week that the US's paper currency, with its uniform size and shape of bills, discriminates against blind people, according to this report in the New York Times.

Jerusalem, Israel: Eleven men have been arrested for allegedly raping a woman with disabilities over the past two months, the Jerusalem Post reports.

A former LA firefighter has been convicted on the second-degree murder of his elderly mother, who was found lying "in a pile of filth in her home at her home and covered in sores and maggots," The Mercury News reports.

A 51-year-old Athol man faces charges stemming for an alleged sexual assault of a young disabled person, the Telegram reports.

New York's subway elevators are still not serving people with disabilities, thereby preventing them from utilizing public transport, according to this report in the New York times.

The Council of Canadians with Disabilities is hailing a recent Federal Court of Appeal ruling that rejected a bid by Air Canada and WestJet challenging the one-person, one-fare policy. The airlines had argued charging a single fare to disabled passengers and their attendents would be a financial hardship. The court rejected their appeal in a ruling handed down on May 5.
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To read Susan M. LoTempio's analysis of how disability is being discussed (or not) on the presidential campaign trail, click here.

There is growing evidence to suggest that a New Zealand woman paid an American woman $12,000 to fly to Auckland (New Zealand) to help her die. The woman involved was an assistant to the Reverend George Exoo, a euthanasia campaigner who has helped 103 people die.

According to a new survery, most Americans believe that the choice to end one's life "is a personal decision and that physician-assisted death should be legal."

Click here to read Rob Wilson's review of the film Hear and Now, a 2007 film by Taylor Brodsky that focuses on her deaf parents’ decision, late in their lives, to undergo cochlear implant surgery, in order to gain a significant level of hearing. It won an audience award at the Sundance Film Festival last year, and debuted in the US on the HBO network last Thursday.