Deafness

A powerful and potentially addictive painkiller used by millions of Americans is causing rapid hearing loss, even deafness, in some patients who are misusing the drug, according to hearing researchers in Los Angeles and elsewhere. So far, at least 48 patients have been identified by doctors at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles and several other medical centers who have treated patients with sudden hearing loss.

Nearly a decade ago, an improbable dream came true for Deaf West Theatre and its founder, Ed Waterstreet. The small, L.A.-based company went to Broadway with its signed and spoken version of the musical "Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. " Even as he savored their success, Waterstreet had another dream - creating an original musical inspired by Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac. " What better tale for his theater to tell than one that explores the universal desire to express oneself?

There's no denying Sanford Diamond can be excitable. High blood pressure can do that to you, he says. So can the frustration of trying to communicate with a world you cannot hear. But even after the deaf and diabetic 72-year-old was handcuffed, brought to the ground, allegedly roughed up and finally cut loose by Los Angeles police, all he really wanted from the city was an apology and $5,850 for a new set of teeth, he says.

AT&T Inc. got more than $16 million from the U.S. government to offer a calling service for the deaf that the company knew was being used by Nigerian fraudsters to steal from American merchants, the Justice Department said. The U.S., which intervened in a whistle-blower lawsuit in federal court in Pittsburgh, alleges that AT&T allowed an Internet-based phone system to be overrun by criminals and then improperly billed the U.S. to reimburse the calls in violation of the False Claims Act. As many as 95% of the calls in AT&T's hearing-impaired program were made by people outside the U.S. attempting to defraud merchants through the use of stolen credit cards, counterfeit checks and money orders, according to the complaint.

The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it has warned the nation's six largest manufacturers of hearing aids to stop "misleading the public" about the effectiveness of their products or face regulatory action. In letters sent April 16, the agency told the companies that their advertising, promotion and labeling create "unrealistic expectations" about the performance of the devices. About 5.

More than 500 angry students blocked entrances to Gallaudet University, the nation's only liberal arts college for the deaf, and forced it to close Monday in a protest over the selection of an educator who is not deaf to be the institution's president. "A lawful, proper and final decision was made," Gallaudet board chairman Jane Bassett Spilman sternly told students who dramatically confronted trustees on a gymnasium stage.

Lauren Teruel stopped for a moment and scanned the crowd of children at her feet. "Did all of you see the pig flying in the air in the straw house?" she asked in sign language. As the newly crowned Miss Deaf America, the 22-year-old recent graduate of Cal State Northridge had 100 or so children and adults at her fingertips. Teruel chose a sign language storytelling hour last week at the Borders books and music store in Northridge as her first public event since winning the title in July.

The courtroom for the Ronald James Blaney Jr. murder trial in Santa Ana will be filled with sign language when testimony begins this week. One interpreter will help Blaney, deaf since birth, understand what is said in court. One is a backup. A third will help Blaney and his lawyer talk to each other. The spectators, most of them deaf or partially deaf, will communicate by sign too. But it is not the need for signers that makes deafness a predominant factor at Blaney's trial.

As head of the Assembly Education Committee, Assemblywoman Delaine Eastin (D-Fremont) has been in the eye of this year's storm over education reform. Eastin incurred the wrath of supporters of a proposal to break up the Los Angeles Unified School District after she halted pro-breakup bills in her committee. And she's no friend to those who support Proposition 174, the school voucher initiative. She is considering a run for the state's top education post.

British researchers report in Nature that they have found a gene mutation that seems to cause severe deafness, which affects about one in 1,000 children. Deafness is known to have several genetic components but genetically linked deafness usually has other problems associated with it. The gene, Cx26, causes the production of a protein known as connexin 26, which is found in large amounts in the inner ear. People whose Cx26 gene is mutated can develop severe deafness.

Imagine yourself in a country where nobody speaks your language. It becomes a necessity to rely on your other senses and hone your powers of observation. You welcome the times when you can "fill in the blanks" and get the gist of a conversation. Each situation is stressful: Will you be a participant or an observer? This is the life of a hearing-impaired person. We are not deaf, and, therefore, most of us do not read lips, sign or wear hearing devices 100% of the time. We try to preserve whatever hearing we have left.

Joseph Michael Murphy had the defeated look of a man on a losing streak at the track, because that's precisely what he was. So far on this sunny Sunday afternoon, the ponies just weren't cooperating. In the first race, his best bet of the day, a 7-1 shot named De Bora, had finished a dismal sixth. But Murphy's problems ran deeper than those of a racing-form junkie who smokes too many cigarettes and throws down too much cash at the betting window: He trained De Bora and a slew of other horses here that have rarely seen the light of win, place or show.

Another controversy around beleaguered Dodgers owner Frank McCourt erupted last week when an attorney defending him against a lawsuit brought by the family of Bryan Stow raised the possibility that Stow might be held partly responsible for the beating that left him brain damaged. "In 23 years, I have yet to see anything at Dodger Stadium involving any form of altercation that didn't involve at least two willing combatants," Jerome Jackson, the attorney, said on an ESPN radio talk show.

The fact-based story of Matt "The Hammer" Hamill, a three-time NCAA wrestling champion and the first deaf wrestler to win a national championship, the film "The Hammer" looks to tread a fine line between appealing directly (and perhaps strictly) to the deaf community and opening up an understanding of the deaf experience to a broader audience. Directed by Oren Kaplan, making his feature debut from a script by Eben Kostbar and Joseph McKelheer, the film follows Hamill from a small-town Ohio childhood in the late-'70s and early '80s to finding his winning ways in college in the '90s.

Reporting from Arlington, Texas -- Mike Napoli's game-winning double came off left-hander Marc Rzepczynski . But that wasn't the matchup St. Louis wanted. Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa said he wanted hard-throwing right-hander Jason Motte to pitch to Texas' right-hand-hitting catcher, but when he called down to the bullpen, coach Derek Lilliquist misunderstood his instructions. "They heard Rzepczynski and they didn't hear Motte," La Russa said. "And when I called back I said Motte, they heard [ Lance ]

Lawrence R. Newman, a prominent advocate for the rights of the deaf community and a former longtime teacher and administrator at the California School for the Deaf in Riverside, has died. He was 86. Newman, who served two terms as president of the National Assn. of the Deaf, died Monday at his home in Riverside of complications from an emergency surgery and a long battle with Parkinson's disease, said his daughter Laureen Newman-Feldhorn. "Larry was a true gentleman and someone I admired for his hard work and dedication on behalf of the deaf community," T. Alan Hurwitz, president of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C., the world's only liberal arts university for students who are deaf and hard of hearing, said in a statement to The Times on Tuesday.

Four-year-old Javier Ortega and his classmates got a break from their regular routine Monday at the Valerio branch of Head Start. Instead of arts and crafts and story time on the rug, more than 60 preschoolers took turns donning a giant set of headphones and throwing colorful blocks into a bucket. They were having fun, with a purpose.

Two new stamps recognizing the deaf community and American Sign Language will be unveiled in Burbank in recognition of a local program for mainstreaming hearing-impaired students, postal officials said. "This will give more credence to the fact that sign language is a language, and is a viable means of communication," Carl Kirchner, executive director of the Tripod program, said Friday. "It's the fourth most widely used language in the United States."

One glance at the sideline was all it took. Catching sight of the scowl on his coach's face, Michael Lizarraga knew that he was about to get chewed out. It had been that kind of night for the Cal State Northridge basketball player, a step slow and a second late, struggling to keep track of his man on defense. "I tried to push myself," he said. "I just wasn't playing so good. " Now he banged with his hips and elbows, using every inch of his 6-foot-7 frame to wrestle for position under the basket.