Join the YouthACT Transition Truths National Online Dialogue  May 19 – May 22, 2016.                        Are you a young person with a disability or a youth ally of the disability community? There is an important conversation going on about what youth with disabilities (ages 13-25) need to become successful adults, and we need to hear from you! Click here for more information and to register for this important dialogue!

LIVERMORE — The group that brought summer film camps for children with autism to Saint Mary’s College and intensive production workshops for adults with disabilities in Livermore has launched a venture that aims to secure jobs for people whose status in society might otherwise leave them to watch reruns on television all day or find themselves involved in activities lacking creativity and income. Read more.

Uber is settling a discrimination suit brought by blind passengers with an agreement to carry the passengers’ guide dogs in their vehicles and to fire drivers who refuse, advocates for the blind said over the weekend. Read more.

BELLEVILLE, Ill. — At first look, it’s hard to tell who in the peer mentoring program has autism and who is in regular education at Belleville’s Westhaven Elementary school. But then a balloon pops, and a kindergartner with autism shrieks — as would many regular eduction kindergartners — and a sixth-grader claps his hands over his ears and keeps them there. Read more.

Carly Fleischmann may not be able to speak on her own, but when she got a chance to interview Channing Tatum, she still found a way to lay on the charm.  Fleischmann, who communicates by typing into an iPad, dreams of becoming the world’s first autistic and nonverbal talk show host. Read more or see her interview here.

At the end of March, Rochelle Trochtenberg began her new job as California’s new foster care ombudsperson, the first time a former foster youth has held the post.

The Office of the Foster Care Ombudsman investigates and resolves complaints on behalf of foster youth. Operating under the auspices of the California Department of Social Services, the office is also charged with educating the state’s foster youth about their rights and how to report violations. Read more.

A handful of preliminary studies in recent years has raised hopes the epidemic of U.S. child obesity has stabilized or reversed. But new research finds continued growth in our kids’ girth, suggesting that self-congratulation would be premature.

Among children from infancy through age 18, rates of obesity have increased steadily from 1999 to 2014, and the numbers of children with the severest forms of obesity have risen most dramatically, a new study finds. Read more.