Friday round-up

The New York Daily reported the death of a 7-year-old, disabled, girl Chelsea Maldonado after she fell from the fifth floor of her Bronx (NY) apartment.

A former employee of PARC, an organization that provides programs and advocacy for people with developmental disabilities, has been charged with harassing and threatening a disabled person for whom he was paid to provide care and assistance. He is accused of agitating the male victim, making threatening gestures with a stapler and verbally threatening him with physical harm.

Advocates are worried about the inaccessibility of the president's inauguration, the DC Examiner reports.

A woman with limited use of her legs and uses an electric motorized scooter to get around, said security at Natick Collection (MA) would not allow her to use her vehicle last week, but mall representatives said the problem was not the scooter but the commotion she caused.

Mothers refuse to give up Down’s children is the title of this article from Russia Today.

An LA state appeals court has rejected an appeal from a cab driver convicted of raping a deaf and developmentally disabled woman in the back of his taxi in 2005. Oscar Dela Cruz said he had an ineffective lawyer in his 2006 trial, but the appeals court rejected his claim, calling the evidence against him "overwhelming."

A man has died after being stabbed at a residency for people with developmental disabilities in Adelanto, California.

A bus matron has been arrested and charged with reckless endangerment after a special needs student was left overnight on a Brooklyn (NY) bus in sub-freezing temperatures on Wednesday.

A judge on Tuesday sentenced a Lufkin (Texas) man to 10 years in prison for beating a man in a wheelchair on Halloween 2007.

This commentary, entitled "Call to the disability community" was written for Patricia E Bauer's blog by Rud and Ann Turnbull, co-founders and co-directors of Beach Center on Disability at The University of Kansas.