4/2/02 latimes.com: "Judge Yang Nominated as L.A.'s U.S. Attorney,"
   Superior Court Judge Debra W. Yang has been nominated by President Bush to become U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, the White House said Monday.
   Yang, 42, would become the first Asian American to hold the seven-county post, the largest federal prosecutor's office outside Washington, D.C.
   Yang, a former federal prosecutor, said she hopes for a quick Senate confirmation vote. No opposition is expected.
   The Senate Judiciary Committee has not scheduled a vote on the nomination. A spokeswoman said the committee is awaiting documents from the White House.
   Yang's nomination had been expected for several months. The White House counsel's office recommended her to Bush last fall after interviewing a short list of finalists--including Yang and two Los Angeles attorneys.
   Active in Republican Party affairs, the Los Angeles native was chosen to succeed former U.S. Atty. Alejandro N. Mayorkas, a Democrat, who resigned last April. 
   With 245-lawyers, headquarters in Los Angeles and branches in Santa Ana and Riverside, the U.S. Attorney's office prosecutes federal crimes in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. The office also represents the Justice Department in civil-law suits.
   Yang, whose grandfather emigrated from China, has been active in the Asian American Bar Assn.
   After graduating from Boston College Law School in 1985, she practiced civil law for three years and then clerked with U.S. District Judge Ronald S.W. Lew in Los Angeles. Following another year in private practice, she joined the U.S. Attorney's office in 1990 and prosecuted cases for six years.
   Prosecutors have praised her for her 1994 prosecution of Timothy D. Shue, a parolee who kidnapped a Castaic real estate agent at gunpoint, forced her to withdraw cash from an ATM and then drove her to Arizona, where he sexually assaulted her. Shue was convicted and sentenced to 35 years in prison.
   Yang left the U.S. Attorney's office in 1997 when Gov. Pete Wilson appointed her to a Municipal Court judgeship in Los Angeles. When the county's court system was unified in 2000, she became a Superior Court judge.
   Yang was also in the running for a federal judgeship. A local bipartisan selection committee headed by Gerald Parsky, who ran Bush's presidential campaign in California, recommended Yang to the White House by a 6-0 vote. But Yang indicated that she preferred the U.S. Attorney's post.