Words From The Wrong Side Of The Law

by Kevin Burton    Some of the entries on today’s word list from Merriam-Webster I learned as a wee lad, by following the news about the federal government.    If it hadn’t been for the Nixon Administration and the Watergate scandal, I would have thought hush money was money a parent spends to keep the …

Discrimination Common For The Disabled

by Julia Metraux Mother Jones    After becoming blind in his late 20s, designer and artist Marco Salsiccia had to learn to navigate the world through assistive technology—like a screen reader, software that speaks digital text and image descriptions aloud.    Leveraging that experience, Salsiccia began work as an accessibility specialist, eventually working part-time at a well-known …

Café Owner To Pay Fine For Discrimination

by Lisa Steacy CTV News    The owner of a B.C. café has been ordered to pay a woman, who is legally blind, $12,000 in compensation for discrimination after she was refused service because she had a guide dog.     The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal ruled on the case last week and the decision was …

ADA Enforcement Is Tough Sledding

by Kevin Burton    I let the 33rd anniversary of the Americans With Disabilities Act pass July 26 without writing anything about it. Why?    It was partly because I ran out of time, as I was preparing to travel to the Beep Baseball World Seies in Oklahoma.    But it was mostly because I …

Blind People Struggling in War-Torn Ukraine

by Hanna Arhirova Associated Press KYIV, Ukraine (AP) Sunlight filters through shattered windows, casting a glow upon the dusty furniture and fragments of glass strewn across the floor of the office belonging to Oleksandr Vinkovskyi, director of a Kyiv business where visually impaired people worked.    Vinkovskyi is blind, and can’t see the scale of …

P&O Cruises Humiliates Blind Passengers

by Kevin Burton    For blind people, being a second-class citizen would represent an upgrade. The following provides another example that proves, when it comes down to it, blind people aren’t treated as citizens at all.   This story was widely reported. My information comes from Insider.    “Two blind passengers who were ordered to …

Murder She Wrote: Author Under Arrest

by Faith Karini, Andi Babineau and Sara Finch, CNN    Kouri Richins’ husband was found dead at the foot of their bed last March.    She’d just closed on a house for her business, she told investigators at the time. Around 9 p.m., she brought her husband, Eric Richins, a celebratory Moscow Mule cocktail in …

Steely Dan Takes On Lennon And “Imagine”

  by Kevin Burton One of the few Steely Dan tunes I don’t really like took on more juice recently when I read that the song is an attack on John Lennon’s “Imagine.” I had no idea the song “Only A Fool Would Say That,” from the 1972 album “Can’t Buy A Thrill” casts Lennon as …

Standing O For Diane Tirado, My Zero Hero

by Kevin Burton    At work you shouldn’t expect pay for, and at school you shouldn’t expect credit for, work you didn’t do.    I give you that conclusion up front, lest it be lost in this strange little tale. There is weirdness in this story, I warn you.    The first strange thing is …

In Today’s America You Have To Pay Attention

by Kevin Burton    Gonna make myself a sign, and I’ll tell you why.    First, by way of explanation, a bit from my coaching days.    When I began coaching the Wichita Sonics beep baseball team, I adopted the three rules that the late John Madden, the old Oakland Raiders coach, had for his …