Posted by Carlin Miller

NEW YORK (CBS/WIAT) The legal process against Joran van der Sloot has “ground to a halt,” and not because of the impending ruling on his appeal, according to  reports.

PICTURES: Van der Sloot Hotel Room Crime Scene

The Dutch news website Dutchnews.nl reports that Maximo Altez, van der Sloot’s attorney, told Peruvian TV station Panamericana Television that case is stagnating because no official interpreter can be found.

The Peruvian station showed a letter from the Peruvian association of translators and interpreters which said it has no one who can translate from Spanish into Dutch.

It also showed a letter from the Dutch embassy in which it says it has no official interpreter available, according to the Dutch website. The Dutch Embassy says it provides a list of lawyers and interpreters to national abroad facing criminal charges but does not provide the interpreters themselves, according to Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf.

CBS Affiliate WIAT Contributed to This Report.

Link to this article on CBSNEWS.

By Danielle Dreilinger,  Boston Globe Correspondent

You expect a 5’10″ woman to have a commanding presence. But Kathleen Portillo, 18, doesn’t come across as tall. As she stood in the Assembly Square Bed, Bath & Beyond, poking extra-long twin comforters and comparing prices against her checking account, there was a quietness about her presence, if a loudness to her towel choice: teal and hot pink.

If you’ve attended a city meeting in the last few years, you might have seen Portillo. She was at the July police chief candidate Q&A; at the city’s Martin Luther King Jr. celebration; at health fairs. At all these events, she’s done work that requires a blend of assertiveness and effacement: interpreting the proceedings into Spanish for the Welcome Project’s Liaison Interpreter Program of Somerville.

Next month, the personal growth she’s gained through the job has taken her from shyness to Union College in Schenectady, N.Y. — with a full-tuition Posse Foundation scholarship.
LIPS began several years ago when activist Alex Pirie began hiring bilingual teens to interpret for his organization Immigrant Service Providers Group/Health. About two years ago, the immigrant advocacy-focused Welcome Project formalized the program, said youth programs coordinator Maria Landaverde. This past year, 17 students interpreted in six languages: Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Kreyol, Nepali, Hindi, and Mandarin.

Continue reading article in its entirety here.

From the OEN website:

The OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Awards honors the skill, and the courage, it takes for entrepreneurs to create a business out of an idea. They are intended to not only celebrate entrepreneurs, but to highlight their importance to the region’s economy.

The OEN Tom Holce Entrepreneurship Award is a highly competitive process and it is a significant achievement just to be named as a finalist. In honor of that OEN not only produces a gala celebration focusing on excellence in entrepreneurship but also presents awards to the winners that are true works of art.

On September 22nd, 2010 the winners of the awards for all categories will be announced at the annual fundraising gala at the Hilton Portland. To read more about the finalists, visit the OEN website here.

Deaf from a young age, he has explained to business owners over and over again that his disability warrants special accommodation, only to be turned away.

He has repeatedly pleaded with doctors for access to interpreters. He has struggled at government offices to communicate with hand-written notes. And he has often had to rely on signing friends to complete the most basic commercial transactions.

“I feel like it’s me against the whole hearing world,” Ayala said through a sign language interpreter.

On Tuesday, a South Texas legal services group filed lawsuits against the Texas Health and Human Services Commission and two Rio Grande Valley doctors for allegedly failing to comply with federal law when it comes to dealing with the deaf.

… to read entire article go here.

CCHI is the only certification body created by interpreters, for interpreters and the public good, and will involve thousands of interpreters and users of interpreter services in defining their future and the credentials by which they will be known and respected.

CCHI brings together the necessary stakeholders through a non-profit organization whose main mission is to develop and administer a national, valid, credible, vendor-neutral certification program for healthcare interpreters

CCHI certification test development began in earnest  in June when nine subject matter experts (SMEs) representing a range of languages met for three days at the headquarters for Castle Worldwide in Morrisville, NC. These SME’s came together  to write test items for the Part I CCHI exam. Lisé Blandino, Senior Project Manager for Castle, the test development consulting firm working with CCHI, taught the group to write high quality, job-related test items for this multiple-choice portion of the exam.

“The  Castle team of certification experts, psychometricians and information technologists assigned to CCHI work teams provided tremendous leadership and assistance to our teams. We completed enough test questions to completely develop two versions of the Part I CCHI Exam, which every healthcare interpreter will take as their first achievement toward CCHI Certification,” said Alejandro Maldonado, CCHI Commissioner who accompanied the SME team.

The CCHI certification program and credentialing process fulfills the promise we have made to the healthcare interpreter community and their employers: A valid, credible and vendor-neutral certification exam developed for the public good by and for interpreters. CCHI’s examination is  based on data from the field regarding the knowledge, skills, performance and employers’ expectations, rather than a specific training program or existing vendor test.

Those interpreters applying for and passing the pilot examination will receive a CCHI professional credential. The term “pilot” means that this is the first time CCHI’s examinations are being offered and the results of this first test cycle will be used to set the passing score for the exam.   Normally, the certification candidate taking the CCHI exam would know immediately—same day, if they passed.  Only in the pilot phase, which ends in November, will candidates wait several weeks to get the results because of the necessary, extensive analysis and psychometric work conducted by Castle Worldwide, the official certification test development firm of CCHI, to “test the test” to all standards and practices required to achieve accreditation by NCCA or ANSI.

The pilot phase will accept applications from interpreters for all languages.  For the pilot exams, CCHI will accept applications from 200 Spanish interpreters and 300 interpreters in all other languages.

Complete the pilot applications immediately! You will be the first healthcare interpreters to earn a CCHI credential.  Your registration fee is waived, and you have the benefit of special pricing for the CCHI Pilot examination.

Click here to visit the CCHI website to apply for the CCHI Pilot examination.

Each year, Adventist Medical Center’s Foundation puts on golf tournament to raise and administer funds for philanthropic, charitable, and educational purposes, including health-related community and regional needs.

This year the tournament took place on July 11th, 2010 at the Reserve Vineyards and Golf Course in Aloha, Oregon. The event this year included 256 golfers, 70 sponsors and 60 volunteers, and with the help of their sponsors, AMC’s Foundation raised over $100,000 for Adventist’s Breast Cancer Care Coordinator.

Teri Gilmore, RN, is Adventist’s Breast Cancer Care Coordinator, and brings nearly 20 years of oncology experience to her position as guide and advocate for women’s breast health. Teri contacts each and every woman diagnosed with breast cancer at AMC and mentors and supports them through the entire treatment and recovery process. The money raised by the AMC’s Foundation this year will go towards aiding Teri and her patients in their ongoing fight against breast cancer.

To donate to Adventist Medical Center’s Foundation, click here to do so online.

For more information on AMC’s Foundation, call 503-251-6197.

Contact: Jennifer Schade
Corporate Communications
503.484.2337
jenscertifiedlanguagescom

Certified Languages International, LLC (CLI), a leading provider in the over-the-phone interpreting industry, has just launched a new version of their website this week at www.certifiedlanguages.com.

CLI is a privately-held corporation headquartered in Portland, Oregon. CLI was established in 1996 by entrepreneur William Graeper. Graeper’s goal was to provide a bridge between diverse cultures and languages by providing the most professional interpretation and translation services through the use of articulate and sensitive interpreters and translators.

CLI remains privately held today and serves over 4,000 customers, with 44 full-time employees and a network of 2,200+ US based interpreters. CLI provides services in 176 languages to businesses, government and other public sector clients primarily via telephone interpretation. CLI also provides document translation, American Sign Language and in-person interpretation services.

Within seconds of receiving an inbound call, 24 hours a day seven days a week, CLI provides its clients with an over-the-phone interpreter with the appropriate language and topic-specific skill set who can help facilitate a conversation between its client and the client’s Limited English Proficient speaker, referred to as a LEP.

CLI’s new website was created with the goal of making information on their telephone interpreting and language services more readily available to both prospective and current clients.

The site features an online quoting tool for prospective clients to receive quick, personalized response to pricing questions, as well as a place for current clients to log in and utilize CLI’s proprietary online reporting function.

CLI continually invests in proprietary technology platforms to provide operating leverage in its outsourcing model and to sustain high barriers to competitive entry. CLI’s scalable call-routing and interpreter scheduling technologies augment its ability to offer superior service at a lower cost than their competitors.

For more information visit www.certifiedlanguages.com/about or contact Jennifer Schade in Corporate Communications at jenscertifiedlanguagescom .

A three-judge panel ruled that while some translation inaccuracies fundamentally altered the context of Vannasone “Sonny” Ouanbengboune’s testimony, the errors did not prejudice him to the extent a new trial is warranted because there was “overwhelming evidence of guilt.”

Ouanbengboune was convicted of first-degree murder and robbery for the Aug. 7, 2003 killing of 38-year-old Raynna Bunyou outside a Las Vegas nightclub. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

After his conviction, Ouanbengboune hired an independent interpreter to compare a tape recording of his trial testimony to the transcript of the testimony as translated by a court-appointed interpreter.

The court noted that although Ouanbengboune did not formally object during trial to specific errors, concerns about the adequacy of the translation of his testimony were raised with the judge, who admonished the interpreter.

Ouanbengboune in his appeal argued the translation errors were used by prosecutors to show the shooting was premeditated.

However, the opinion written by Chief Justice James Hardesty said “overwhelming evidence supports the conclusion that Sonny acted with premeditation.”

“Consequently, we conclude the result at trial would have been same” had the translator correctly interpreted his testimony, the court said.

The ruling also set out procedures for how judges should handle claims of disputed translations in the future.