ATA Newsbriefs

In a push for higher pay, contracted interpreters across the state are canceling some of their cases as part of a phased work stoppage organized by the North Carolina Interpreter Advocacy Committee.

The current rate for certified interpreters contracted by the state court system, who are paid per assignment and operate as freelancers, is $45 per hour. Interpreters with the highest level of certification are paid $55 per hour.

The North Carolina Interpreter Advocacy Committee is requesting a pay increase from the North Carolina Administrative Office of the Courts that is comparable to surrounding states: South Carolina will increase pay for its certified interpreters from $65 to $75 per hour on October 1, and Virginia pays $80. It would be their third pay increase in about two decades.

“This disparity of compensation is now glaring, and it’s going to cause interpreters in North Carolina, who are certified court interpreters, to easily travel over state lines,” said Sarah Arredondo, one of the court interpreters who helped organize the North Carolina Interpreter Advocacy Committee.

The phased work stoppage only involves contracted interpreters. A handful of counties, including Durham and Wake, also have staff interpreters who work full-time in the districts they are assigned. Without the help of contractors, however, staff interpreters have bigger caseloads, and many counties solely rely on contractors.

INDY Week (9/2/26) By Tom Newby

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California lawmakers passed a bill on August 27 that aims to expedite the process of reclassifying students from “English learners” to proficient English speakers.

The bill (AB 2555) will simplify the reclassification process by only requiring one test: the English Language Proficiency Assessments (ELPAC). Students must earn a score of four (the highest score) to pass.

According to state data, over 30% of California’s K-12 students are or once were “English Learners.” Being reclassified is an important milestone for these students. Those who linger in “learner” status are more likely to be chronically absent from school and less likely to graduate.

Until now, California students have had to meet four requirements to be reclassified: earn a four on the ELPAC, demonstrate what the state calls “basic skills,” and receive approval from teachers and parents.

But the way schools define “basic skills” and reclassify students varies widely across districts, according to a new report from the Public Policy Institute of California.

That report’s authors—who surveyed hundreds of districts—recommend that California consider lowering the ELPAC score requirement, which they say even English-only students are often unable to pass. AB 2555—which faced almost no opposition—aims to simplify requirements but won’t lower the minimum state test score.

KALW (9/1/26) By Julia Haney

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Nine years after publishing the first complete English translation of Homer’s The Odyssey by a woman—and several weeks after emerging as a vocal critic of this summer’s blockbuster film adaptation—Emily Wilson, a classicist at the University of Pennsylvania, has announced she is retranslating the epic poem from scratch.

The undertaking, which Wilson said is already about halfway complete, will be a wholesale retranslation rather than a revision of her earlier version, published in 2017 and widely praised by critics.

“I’m now retranslating The Odyssey from scratch, with an approach closer to that of my translation of The Iliad, using somewhat more lines than the original, enabling more varied word length and pacing,” Wilson said in a statement.

Kate Deimling, who serves as administrator of the Literary Division of the American Translators Association, said Wilson’s new project is practically unprecedented. “It’s not unheard of for translators to go back and make some corrections or edits in subsequent editions, but that’s not the same as a retranslation.”

In recent weeks, it has been Wilson’s film criticism that has garnered widespread public attention. After her 2017 translation was cited by director Christopher Nolan as an inspiration for his adaptation of The Odyssey, released this summer, the book rocketed up the bestseller list. But Wilson has repeatedly criticized the hit film’s storytelling and plot.

“I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script,” she wrote in the London Review of Books in late July. “It lacks psychological, emotional, political, and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words.”

Smithsonian Magazine (8/31/26) By Christian Thorsberg

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After Justin Trudeau resigned in January 2025, Governor General Mary Simon agreed to suspend Parliament while searching for his replacement.

For freelance interpreters—who provide live interpreting services at public meetings on Parliament Hill and for federal departments—the pause on Parliamentary business meant the sudden cancellation of months of work.

“We thought when [the federal Translation Bureau] had cancelled, that meant they had no work,” Cousineau said. “It’s okay if that’s the case. The problem was that wasn’t the case.”

As it turned out, the work hadn’t stopped for everyone.

Instead, according to four interpreters who filed complaints with the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman, the federal procurement watchdog, the government breached the terms of the interpreters’ contracts “in secrecy” by awarding the available work to a subset of freelancers who were charging the lowest prices.

In a series of reports published earlier this year, the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman agreed that in doing so the government had violated its contracts with the interpreters. The Ombudsman recommended that Public Services and Procurement Canada pay out damages for the lost wages.

In each case, the Office of the Procurement Ombudsman described “a strong suspicion of bad faith” on the part of government, but ultimately decided the evidence wasn’t strong enough to judge intent.

About six months later, Cousineau said she and the other complainants are still fighting for the wages they say they’re owed. They have yet to reach a deal.

“The problem is that only the department knows how much money the interpreters would have received had the department followed the rules—and it isn’t willing to share that information,” Cousineau said. “The process has been long and painful.”

Ottawa Citizen (8/31/26) By Ben Andrews

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