Born deaf, 11-year-old is among nation’s top spellers
Born deaf, 11-year-old is among nation’s top spellers
WASHINGTON (AP) — Making it to the Scripps National Spelling Bee is an amazing achievement for any kid, but for 11-year-old Neil Maes, being born deaf made his journey especially unlikely.
After receiving cochlear implants in both ears as a baby, he had to train his brain to understand spoken words. It took countless hours of speech therapy.
“We didn’t even know that he’d be able to talk. It wasn’t a guarantee,” his mother, Christy Maes, said Tuesday.
Now the soft-spoken kid from Belton, South Carolina is officially one of the nation’s top young spellers. He earned the right to take the stage with 281 others in Wednesday’s preliminary rounds of the Scripps National Spelling Bee.
The only assistance Neil requires is that the bee’s pronouncer will speak into a microphone that transmits an FM signal directly into his cochlear implants. Similar to the technology he uses in school, it allows him to filter out background noise and focus on each word.
Friends, Romans: Help restore Rome’s ruins, monuments
ROME (AP) — Friends, Romans, countrymen! Oh yes, and countrywomen. And people in far-flung nations. Everyone, basically. Rome is seeking all the sponsors it can find to fund the monumental job of restoring and maintaining its hundreds of fountains, statues, archaeological sites and historic palazzos.
Perennially short of funds to properly care for the sprawling, two-millennia legacy of art and history, city officials Tuesday offered their thanks to corporate sponsors of ambitious restoration projects.
But Rome is hungry for more such generosity, corporate and otherwise.
On Tuesday, officials launched the “100 proposals for patrons” campaign listing projects they hope sponsors — including rank-and-file citizens — will step forward to “adopt.” They include fountains near the Pantheon, in Piazza Navona and in Villa Borghese park; Trajan’s Bath, Trajan’s Forum and archaeological study of an area near Caesar’s Forum. One proposed “adoption” is at City Hall’s front steps: the piazza atop a stepped ramp designed by Michelangelo.
Bill Cosby ordered to stand trial in sex case
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) — She called him “Mr. Cosby” and considered him a trusted friend and mentor.
But 20 minutes after Bill Cosby offered her three blue pills and told her to take them with the wine he had set out, Andrea Constand’s legs began to wobble “like jelly,” her eyes went blurry and her head began to throb.
Cosby helped her to a couch in his living room, where she later realized he violated her as she lay helplessly in a stupor, she told police in 2005.
On Tuesday, a judge ordered the 78-year-old Cosby to stand trial on sexual assault charges on the strength of Constand’s decade-old police statement, sparing the former Temple University employee the need to testify at the preliminary hearing.
Cosby could get 10 years in prison if convicted in the case, the only criminal charges brought against the comedian out of the barrage of allegations that he drugged and molested dozens of women over five decades. He is free on $1 million bail.
Clinton, Sanders make all-out blitz in California primary
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) — Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders dueled for support ahead of California’s presidential primary on Tuesday as the Vermont senator showed few signs of backing off as he sought to boost his longshot odds for the nomination.
Sanders’ campaign launched a $1.5 million ad buy in the state and announced that it would seek a recanvass in last week’s Kentucky primary, where he trailed Clinton by less than one-half of 1 percent. The recanvass, which is not a recount, involves reviewing the election results but is unlikely to change the results or the awarding of delegates.
The Democratic hopefuls campaigned in California, where Clinton hopes to make a statement in the June 7 contest that will effectively end the primaries and encourage the party to coalesce around her candidacy. Clinton is targeting Latino and black voters, who have typically backed her candidacy is high numbers, as she campaigns across the state.
“I can’t do any of this without your help,” Clinton told a crowd of supporters in Los Angeles. “California, I need your help.”
Sanders, meanwhile, unveiled new advertising that will appear in Los Angeles, San Francisco and Sacramento, underscoring his intense focus on the state. The ad urged voters to choose a “new direction” for the Democratic Party.