Blind Judge a Seeing-Eye Man

“I know it looks a little ridiculous, but I want to keep his spirits up,” Judge Craig D. Alston said. The state judge, who has chambers in Bay City, Mich., is legally blind. He has taken to leading his guide dog, Major, since the Siberian husky suddenly lost his sight. Alston, 30, suffers from retinitis pigmentosa. The genetic eye disorder struck 23 years ago, when he was 7, and left him with limited vision. Major’s problem became evident about two weeks ago when Alston was performing a wedding in a private home. A guest remarked that Major, 10, had bumped into a wall, and Alston became concerned, recalling that the dog had been missing bits of food dropped from the dinner table and wouldn’t perform favorite tricks. “So I tested him by holding out a dog biscuit to him, extending my arm around his full field of vision . . . and he couldn’t follow it,” Alston said. “He was doing so poorly that I was upset and couldn’t sleep.” But veterinarians have good news. They ruled out a brain tumor, prescribed cortisone and told Alston that Major has a 75% chance of regaining his sight, probably within a month. Alston said he hasn’t had to curtail his activities since Major went blind. As a judge, he said, he doesn’t have to move around much and can get about with his partial vision. His secretary reads cases to him.

--Former President Gerald R. Ford says the United States is experiencing a revival of “spiritual commitment” that is making the nation stronger. “Let us always remember that faith holds our world together,” Ford told an audience of about 600 persons in Eugene, Ore. Ford attended Gov. Victor G. Atiyeh’s prayer breakfast, an annual event designed to bring together political and religious leaders. In a brief speech, Ford talked about the stress he and his family felt during his two-year term as President and said that his faith in God allowed him to overcome the hardships. “We were in danger of being literally swept away with awful tensions,” Ford said of his tenure as President. “Those were not easy times.”

--David Bowie delighted 10,000 rock fans in the industrial city of Birmingham, England, by joining Tina Turner for the finale of her British tour. Bowie’s surprise stage appearance was his first in two years. He and Turner sang “Tonight,” a track they recorded together for Bowie’s recent album of the same name, as well as a rock version of the ‘60s classic “Let’s Dance” by Chris Montez and Bowie’s own 1983 composition also entitled “Let’s Dance.” “Standing next to her up there was the hottest place in the universe,” Bowie said afterward.