Boy With Asperger’s Lands ‘Jeopardy!’ Tryout

A Colorado boy with Asperger’s syndrome may soon go head-to-head with Alex Trebek on national television as a contestant on “Jeopardy!”

Gabriel Harris, 11, passed a first-round online test to participate in the game show’s 2013 Kids Week and has been invited to Los Angeles for a second-round assessment.

A regular viewer of the show, Harris rarely gets a question wrong. The fifth-grader is an avid reader with a keen memory for facts.

Despite Harris’s aptitude, however, continuing his quest to appear on “Jeopardy!” was not a sure bet until recently. Harris’s family could not afford the trip for him and a parent from their Greeley, Colo.-area home to California. But after the the boy’s story appeared in the local newspaper, donations poured in.

Now, Harris is packing his bags and prepping for the second-round test this Saturday, reports The Greeley (Colo.) Tribune. 

Read more of Shaun Heasley's Disability Scoop article HERE.

Autism and the media: loose lips that sink ships

From Laura Shumaker, Writer and Autism Advocate's, SF Gate article:

My son Matthew was home over the weekend, and I did everything in my power not only to protect him from the 24 hour news coverage of the horrible massacre in Colorado, but to make sure he was closely supervised at all times. Even with all the work I have done to increase autism awareness and acceptance, people still are uncomfortable with his social quirks, and are hyper-anxious around him after events like the one in Aurora. And who could blame them?

It was a long and emotionally draining weekend.

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Really Joe?

I don’t think that Mr. Scarborough meant to imply that all murderers are on the autism, spectrum, but he did, and he shouldn’t have, so he should RETRACT, with a sincere apology. Unfortunately comments like his are twisted and turned and float around forever from other loose lips.

Read Laura's article at SFGATE HERE.