Team of deaf players wins league title, and more

Team of deaf players wins league title

A high school football team of deaf players in Fremont, Calif., has won a league title for the first time. The Eagles of the California School for the Deaf, already national champions among schools for the deaf, won the regular North Central II/Bay League title with a 10–2 season. Despite fielding a squad without a single player over 200 pounds, the Eagles racked up victory after victory with a high-speed, quick-strike game. “Some might call us disabled,” said quarterback Carlos Lopez, “but that can be extra motivation for us.”

Secret Santa helps hurricane victims

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An anonymous “Secret Santa” traveled to New Jersey and New York last week to hand out $100 bills to people who’d lost their homes and possessions in Hurricane Sandy. The Kansas City, Mo., businessman spent a day in Elizabeth, N.J., and Staten Island, N.Y., giving C-notes to the poor and homeless; he plans to give away $100,000 this holiday season. He was assisted by local police, some dressed in Santa hats, who directed him to the most damaged areas. “The money is not the point at all,” said the unnamed philanthropist. “It’s about the random acts of kindness.”

Identical twins are reunited

Bao Lulin was always being mistaken for someone else. People would approach her at the restaurant where she worked in Guizho, China, asking why she didn’t recognize them. This October she discovered why: Lulin had an identical twin sister from whom she’d been separated at birth; she was living hundreds of miles away. Each had been adopted and raised with no idea the other existed. The 24-year-olds have reunited and discovered a number of similarities. They share the same distinctive haircut and married husbands with the same name in the same year.