Hearing News Watch

WASHINGTON, DC–Senator Tom Harkin (D, IA), perhaps the U.S. Senate’s leading champion of people with hearing loss, announced on January 26 that he will not seek re-election when his fifth term expires at the end of 2014. Harkin, who is 73 and has been in the Senate since 1985, cited his age in explaining his decision. Harkin became deeply involved

PYEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA—When the Special Olympics Winter Games open here on Tuesday, January 29, many of the 2100 competitors from over 100 nations will be wearing hearing aids provided to them free by the Hear the World Foundation. Almost a quarter of the athletes who participate in the Special Olympics have hearing loss. However, a great many of them do

BALTIMORE–A study that followed nearly 2000 older Americans for more than a decade found that those with hearing loss had 30%-40% greater annual declines on measures of cognitive function than did those whose hearing was normal. Senior author Frank R. Lin, MD, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and nine other scientists reported their findings

CINCINNATI—For nearly a decade, Ohio has screened all newborn babies for hearing loss. As a result, twice as many infants are having their hearing impairments identified soon after birth as was the case pre-universal screening. That has provided audiologists with an opportunity to address hearing losses very early, at a time when hearing aids or other technology is most likely

CENTENNIAL, CO—Eight college students who use implantable technology to overcome hearing loss will receive $2000-a-year scholarships from Cochlear Americas for up to four years at an accredited college or university. Cochlear Americas is the North American division of Cochlear Limited, the Australian company that is the world’s largest manufacturer of cochlear implants. Five students were selected as winners of the

By David H. Kirkwood BOSTON—When scientists finally discover a cure for sensorineural hearing loss, the key that unlocks the door for them will probably be some mechanism to stimulate the regeneration of sensory hair cells in the human cochlea. The toll that age, noise, ototoxic medicines, and infections take on these hair cells is the most common cause of hearing

PORTLAND, OR—All those victims of Bieber Fever who have been following Betts v. Bieber on this blog can heave a sigh of relief. Stacey Wilson Betts, a 35-year-old Oregon woman who was seeking $9.23 million from the 18-year-old Canadian pop star for damages that she said he had caused to her hearing, withdrew her lawsuit last week. In the suit,

By David H. Kirkwood BANGOR, ME—For 31 years, hearing loss did not prevent Rosemary Kelley from working as a teacher’s assistant in the Sonshine Nursery School in Friendship, Maine. However, in December 2010, Kelley lost her job after the Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) ruled that because of her hearing loss, for which she wore hearing aids,

CHICAGO—The call went out last week for nominations for the 14th annual Larry Mauldin Award. Since 1999, the Mauldin Awards have recognized individuals who have demonstrated unsurpassed dedication to excellence in education and professionalism in the hearing care field and who have unselfishly given back to their profession, the community and those with hearing loss. The annual award, which is

WASHINGTON, DC—Advocates for people with hearing loss charge that Amazon.com has repeatedly violated new Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules governing Internet captioning requirements. Several advocacy groups, including the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), stated their case in a complaint filed December 20 with the FCC. Under a rule that took effect September 30, 2012, most full-length, non-live video programming shown