12/17/03 www.womensenews.org: "Diversity Efforts Often Ignore Asian Women,"
Women of Asian origin say they face particular difficulties in climbing the corporate ladder and are less likely to benefit from diversity programs in U.S. companies.
A study released last summer by Catalyst found that among women of color, Asians were the most likely to have graduate education and yet the least likely to have line or supervisory responsibilities or hold a position within three levels of the chief executive officer.
    "Asian women report that they feel isolated. Corporations need to create more internal networks for these highly skilled employees to turn to and bond within the workplace," Wellington says. "There is the perception in the corporate world that Asian women are just sweet, dependable and good at carrying out orders, but this does not help them be taken seriously and it doesn't enable them grow and advance."

12/16/03 San Gabriel Valley Tribune: 
"New museum tells story of Chinese immigrants: Curators hope exhibits inspire reflection on heritage, culture,"
    Los Angeles -- The Chinese American Museum opens on Thursday in downtown Los Angeles to tell the 150-year story of Chinese immigrants in America. 
    Early Chinese immigrants faced sometimes deadly racial violence, and laws that prevented them from owning property and that barred them from entering the country from 1882 until 1943.
    Even for adults who know the general outlines of Chinese American history, old photographs and artifacts, including a full-scale replica of a turn-of- the-century Chinese herb shop, bring an immediacy to long-ago lives. Curators hope the museum will also inspire non-Chinese visitors to reflect on their own heritage as immigrants.
    For more information, call (213) 626-5240, or go to www.camla.org

12/14/03 New York Times: "Captain Yee's Ordeal,"
    The military's mean-spirited and incompetent prosecution of Capt. James Yee, the former Muslim chaplain at Guantnamo Bay, illustrates the danger of allowing the war on terrorism to trump basic rights. After holding Captain Yee in solitary confinement for nearly three months, and smearing him with adultery and pornography charges, the military is now uncertain whether the documents whose confidentiality he is charged with breaching were even confidential. In the interest of justice, and of resurrecting their own reputation, military prosecutors should drop the case.
    The charges against Captain Yee, who was arrested in September, have always been murky. The military seems to have suspected him of being part of a plot to infiltrate Guantnamo, and to have been concerned about contacts between him and two other military men it was keeping under watch. But rather than bring serious conspiracy charges, the military merely accused Captain Yee of taking home, and improperly transporting, classified material. Military officials have been unforthcoming about the nature of the material, but at least some, and perhaps all of it appears to be documents, such as maps of the camp and lists of prisoners who have been interrogated, that a chaplain might have for job-related reasons.
    Rather than put the questions about the charges to rest right away, the military led off its case against Captain Yee last week with evidence he had an affair with a female officer, testimony that his wife and child had to listen to as they sat in court. It has also accused him of keeping pornography on a government computer. These charges in no way suggest that he was a security threat, and they are the kind the military generally does not bother to bring. They seem to be motivated, in this case, by a desire to embarrass Captain Yee, and by frustration that the larger case against him is so weak.
    The proceedings quickly broke down when it became clear that the military had not even determined that the documents found in Captain Yee's possession were confidential. It is inexcusable that Captain Yee was dragged through the mud, and imprisoned for more than 70 days, before this basic determination was made. The 120 days for acting against Captain Yee, which started at his Sept. 10 arrest, are about to run out, and the military is seeking additional time. But given its poor handling of the case, there is no reason to drag it out any further.
    It is already clear how much harm the military's misguided prosecution has done to Captain Yee and his family. What is less obvious, but no less real, is the threat this sort of prosecutorial mentality poses to all Americans. The specter of terrorism cannot become an excuse for the government to railroad people first, and ask questions later.

11/14/03 Associated Press: Family of Slain Vietnamese Woman Sues San Jose City, Police,
    Campbell , CA -- Less than two weeks after a grand jury cleared a police officer of criminal wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a Vietnamese woman, her parents and sons filed a lawsuit seeking unspecified damages.
    Cau Bich Tran, 25, was killed by a single gunshot wound to the chest after waving a vegetable peeler in front of a police officer. Her estate filed the federal suit Tuesday against the city of San Jose , the police officer, the former police chief and the acting chief.
    Only about three dozen of 1,400 San Jose officers speak Vietnamese, and neither officer who responded in the Tran shooting spoke the language. Tran, who had lived in the United States for about five years, spoke rudimentary English.

11/12/03 Associated Press: "Soldier slain in Iraq laid to rest in Livingston,"
    Livingston, CA - Karina Lau didn't tell her family she would be returning home from Iraq for a two week furlough - it was supposed to be a surprise.
    On Nov. 2, Lau's family in this small Central Valley town got the call. Army Pfc. Lau was killed along with 15 other soldiers when their helicopter was shot down west of Baghdad, on its way to their flight home.
    "Her dad cooked for her, chicken and pineapple," Ruth Lau said
She said Karina loved to cook, as well, and that she had saved a cookie her daughter baked for her as a memento.

10/27/03 Associated Press: SF Briefs: School Desegregation Under Fire; Tran Case Testimony; more,
    San Francisco -- A San Francisco school board member wants to eliminate the diversity index -- the city's controversial method of desegregating public schools.
    San Francisco Unified School District 's diversity index sends some students to schools far from their homes to achieve a racial mix. It has come under fire in recent months from some Chinese-American parents who think their children should attend school close to home.
    A group of about 25 families kept their children out of school for six weeks as a protest against assignments to lower-performing schools on the east side of town.
    Abolishing the index, or even modifying it, requires all parties to agree and go before a judge again.


10/24/03 Associated Press: "Reward for Killer of Cambodian-Am. Marine Who Helped Recover Lynch,"
    Long Beach, CA -- A Marine who helped in the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch in Iraq was shot to death at a family barbecue, just 12 days before he was to be discharged.
    Lance Cpl. Sok Khak Ung, 22, and a family friend, Vouthy Tho, 21, were killed early Sunday in a garage at a Long Beach home by a gunman who fired six to eight shots before fleeing, police said.
    On Tuesday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe offered a $10,000 reward for information on the killings.
    ``I am outraged that someone would so cowardly gun down this brave soldier,'' Knabe said. ``Ung served his country well, protecting our freedoms in the war against terrorism. His killers should be brought to justice.''
    Ung, a Cambodian-American combat engineer from San Francisco, was part of a ``diversion force'' that attacked the enemy to distract them while a special force unit went into the hospital to rescue Lynch on April 1, Camp Pendleton spokesman Bill Lisbon said Tuesday.
    Ung earned a Purple Heart medal after he was hit by shrapnel from a land mine later that month, Lisbon said. He returned from Iraq in July, stationed at Camp Pendleton, and was set to complete his four years of military service on Oct. 31.
    ``This man had only 12 days left with the Marine Corps,'' Lisbon said. ``It's sad to think he came back from the war to die in this country.''
    Tho, an aspiring rapper who was about to release an album, was shot once in the head, officials said. He was pronounced dead Monday night after being hospitalized in critical condition, police spokesman Greg Schirmer said.
    Police have not said whether they have a suspect in the shootings, and a motive remained unknown.

10/23/03 Associated Press: "Rare Public Hearing Held in Police Shooting of Vietnamese Woman,"
    San Jose, CA -- Meeting in a rare public session aimed at easing tensions among Vietnamese immigrants, a grand jury opened an investigation Tuesday into the fatal police shooting of a mentally disturbed Vietnamese woman who was waving a kitchen tool.
    Police said Cau Bich Tran, in the seconds before her death, posed a danger to the two officers who had been called to her apartment, as well as to her common-law husband and their two young sons.
    But her fatal shooting provoked months of protests at San Jose's City Hall, and police quickly expressed condolences in a Vietnamese-language public relations campaign on radio and local newspapers.
    Police Chief William Lansdowne also personally apologized to the family, and at the request of prosecutors, a judge opened the normally secret grand jury hearing in hopes of healing the rift.
    Scores of Vietnamese residents, some carrying picket signs, attended the hearing Tuesday at San Jose's Hall of Justice, packing the grand jury room and listening to a Vietnamese translation over closed-circuit television in a nearby room.
    Seven men and 11 women on the grand jury will take about a week to determine whether to indict officer Chad Marshall, who shot the 25-year-old mother July 13 with a single gunshot wound to her chest.
    She was shot as she waved a six-inch metal tool Vietnamese call a dao bao that is used throughout Asia to peel vegetables. While the tool might appear threatening from a short distance, its two metal blades face inward, and it has no sharp outward edges.
    According to deputy district attorney Dan Nishigaya, Tran raised the tool above her head and was approaching the officer when he fired at her.
    A key witness testified that the 4-foot-11, 98-pound woman had spent the hours before her death babbling incoherently, flailing her arms, screaming and crying on the streets near her apartment.
    ``She was totally out of it,'' said Joy L. Tamez, who saw much of the incident from across the street. ``She was very distraught, not at all there. I believed she was high on drugs.''
    Some were impressed that the proceedings were opened to the public. Others were left unsatisfied and angry by what they saw Tuesday.
    Andrew Schwartz, who represents Tran's family, said outside court that he's convinced the shooting was an excessive use of force.
    Tamez said only 3 to 10 seconds elapsed between the officers' entry into Tran's small apartment and the gun blast -- proof, Schwartz said, that Marshall couldn't have considered other methods to try to calm down Tran.
    Schwartz also said that the prosecutor's opening statement mischaracterized the kitchen blade as a weapon to pursuade grand jurors not to indict.
    ``At no time in his opening statement did he even mention that what was in her hand was a vegetable peeler,'' Schwartz said during a courtroom break. ``The district attorney and the chief of police of San Jose have already made a decision not to indict.''
    Many in the city's 83,000-strong Vietnamese community -- the nation's second largest after Little Saigon in Orange County -- blame the shooting on cultural insensitivity within the 1,400-member police force.
    Only about three dozen San Jose officers speak Vietnamese, and neither of the men called to the scene in July spoke Tran's native language.
    ``The police blame everything on the victim, who's already dead,'' said Thomas Nguyen of San Jose, secretary of the Vietnamese-American Community of Northern California, an advocacy group.
    Still, opening the grand jury hearing was a good sign, he said. ``We're going to see how good the justice system is.''

10/22/03 Associated Press: "Trial Begins in Police Shooting of Cal. Vietnamese American Woman,"
    San Jose, CA -- The Santa Clara County grand jury began an unusual public hearing Tuesday to explore the fatal police shooting of a Vietnamese woman who waved a 10-inch blade in front of patrol officers in July.
    Grand jury proceedings are usually secret, but Presiding Judge Thomas Hansen agreed to open them at the request of Santa Clara County prosecutors and the jury foreman.
    ``It was the district attorney's belief that allowing the public to hear the complete evidence and watch the grand jury do its work would help eliminate any public concern or mistrust about the case,'' said prosecutor Dan Nishigaya.
    The hearings at the San Jose Hall of Justice are expected to last eight days. A closed-circuit television with Vietnamese translation will be provided.
    The killing of Cau Bich Tran, 25, the mother of two young sons who had a history of emotional troubles, sparked a furor in San Jose's large Vietnamese community.
    Police who responded July 13 to a report that Tran's toddler son was wandering in the street were let inside the house by Tran's boyfriend. They reportedly encountered a screaming Tran brandishing the blade in her kitchen.
    Officers asked her to drop it but when she allegedly made a motion as if to throw it an officer shot and killed her.
The family said the blade was a harmless vegetable peeler used in Vietnamese kitchens -- not a knife as officers thought.
    In an effort to repair relations with the Vietnamese community, San Jose police began airing radio spots expressing their condolences soon after the shooting.

10/22/03 Associated Press: "Wie on Stephenson: Race Doesn't Matter in Golf,"
    Kapolei, Hawaii -- Weighing in on Jan Stephenson's comments about Asian players ``killing'' the LPGA Tour, 14-year-old golfing sensation Michelle Wie downplayed the race factor.
    ``I don't think it matters who you are if you play the game of golf,'' Wie said. ``If you're black, you're Portuguese, you're Filipino, you're Asian, or you're white, it doesn't really matter.
    ``Even if you're poor or rich. If you can play the game, you can play the game.''
    Wie, a Korean American widely considered the future of women's golf, got a chance to meet Stephenson on Sunday, when the two participated in a free two-hour clinic at Ko Olina Golf Club.
    The clinic came eight days after Stephenson issued a written apology for comments she made in a recent magazine article saying that Asian players are ``absolutely killing'' the LPGA Tour because they lack emotion, refuse to speak English and don't do enough to promote the tour.
    Greg Nichols, director of golf at Ko Olina, said the comments prompted organizers to consider canceling the event, which was scheduled six weeks ago. They later decided to go on after she apologized.
    Despite angering many in Hawaii, where people of Asian descent make up about half of the population, Stephenson was welcomed warmly by the 125 people attending the clinic.
    Stephenson, whose 16 career LPGA tour victories include three majors, made no mention of her comments to spectators Sunday, except to say that that she's been known to ``put my foot in my mouth.''
    ``I certainly apologize for the statements,'' she said. ``I was so devastated that it came out as a racially motivated comment. I really didn't mean it that way. I was trying to help the LPGA. (In the interview), we were going over if I was commissioner and what I would do differently, as opposed to when I first came on the tour, (and) how we made the tour so popular.''
    Wie said she would rather stay out of the situation.
    ``I don't really read that kind of stuff. I'm not really interested in it,'' she said. ``I just want to live a happy life. I don't really want to be in the controversy.''

10/20/03
NATIONAL ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN ATTORNEYS DENOUNCE LPGA GOLFER JAN STEPHENSONS ANTI- ASIAN REMARKS
    Washington, D.C. The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), representing the interests of over 40,000 Asian Pacific American attorneys, has joined with members of Asian American civil rights groups to denounce former Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) star Jan     Stephensons negative comments about Asian players and the suggestion of a quota system to limit the number of "international players."
    Stephenson, an Australian, said in an interview appearing in Novembers issue of Golf Magazine, "This is probably going to get me in trouble, but the Asians are killing our tour. Absolutely killing it. Their lack of emotion, their refusal to speak English when they can speak English. They rarely speak Our tour is predominantly international and the majority of them are Asian. Theyve taken over."
    The 51-year-old Stephenson also cited lesbians as a problem with the tour and further pushed her belief that the LPGA should market its players using sex appeal.
    "Jan Stephenson needs a lesson in American civil rights and needs to join the 21st century," said NAPABA President Ruthe Catolico Ashley. "She is advocating an Asian Exclusion Act in a sport where Asian women have become dominant because of perseverance and skill. She has made a judgement based on skin color and has perpetuated negative stereotypes. I have received dozens of communications from Asian Americans who are outraged."
    "Stephenson is fomenting racism and the perpetual foreigner myth," said NAPABA Executive Director Grace Yoo. "Thirteen-year-old Korean American golf phenom Michelle Wie is as American as apple pie. We dont need to harken to the ugly days of the Chinese Exclusion Act or the Japanese American internment. We dont need to go back to the days of race and gender discrimination on the greens."
    Although Stephenson later issued an apology, many in the Asian American community believe that stronger action should be taken by Stephenson and the LPGA.
    "I hope that the LPGA takes this opportunity to condemn Stephensons remarks and to respond appropriately," said Ashley. "I would like to see LPGA Commissioner Ty Votaw use this incident as a way to educate the public and reiterate the LPGAs commitment to diversity."

October 19, 2003

Dear Mr. Votaw:
    On behalf of the 80-20 PAC, Inc. with a list of 650,000 e-mail addresses of Asian American families and individuals, I am writing to express our deepest concern with Jan Stephenson's remarks about LPGA golfers of Asian descent and the LPGA's failure to properly address this situation.
The Asian American community's objections to Ms. Stephenson's remarks can be summed up in four points:
    1. Ms. Stephenson's perpetuating stereotypes of Asians as reticent and unfriendly;
    2. Ms. Stephenson's assertion that the LPGA is an American institution that is being exploited by Asian players;
    3. Ms. Stephenson's proposal of a quota system to limit the number of foreign players in the LPGA;
    4. Ms. Stephenson's assertion that Asians are "killing" the LPGA tour despite the LPGA's recent growth that is commonly attributed to the emergence of prominent Asian players.
    Ms. Stephenson's comments have already estranged LPGA players Annika Sorenstam and Grace Park. Her comments, unchecked, will also alienate the numerous Asian viewers and corporate sponsors who support the LPGA. Asian corporations Mizuno, Asahi, Takefuji, Samsung and Hyundai have sponsored LPGA tournaments. As you are well aware, it was the influx of young talented players of Asian descent that has boosted interest in the LPGA Tournaments, creating the market for these sponsorships.
    While Stevenson has apologized, and you have already stated to the press that you did not agree that the tour was "being damaged by any one group, your lack of timely action to sternly repudiate Stevenson's racial statement is most disappointing. It reflects poorly on the LGPA as a professional organization and you as a leader.
    It is better late than never. We hope you would act quickly to alleviate the current lack of confidence in the LGPA by the Asian American community. Please make a formal statement on where LGPA stands on this matter.
    In addition, encourage Stevenson to hold a joint press conference with members of the Asian American community as a demonstration of your goodwill towards the LPGA players of Asian descent. It'll make a win-win situation, in which LPGA, you, the Asian American community, the world and Stephenson will all win.
    Following are public records about 80-20:
    1) Gov. Gary Locke (D) of Washington described 80-20 as "the most effective Asian Am. political organization."
    2) 80-20 was rated one of the nation's two most effective cyberspace political organizations in the 2000 election by a recent book: "Click on Democracy -- The Internet's Power to Change Political Apathy into Civic Action." One of the Authors, Steve Davis, was the Washington/world and national news editor of USA Today. See http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813340055/104-3311311-6060720

Looking forward to hearing from you,
Sincerely,
S. B. Woo
President, The 80-20 PAC, Inc,
Lieutenant Governor of Delaware (1985-89)

    I am writing to express my outrage at the openly racists comments made by Jan Stephenson, a golfer with the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
    In an interview with Golf Magazine to be published in November, Ms. Stephenson accused Asian golfers of "killing the tour," refusing "to speak English when they can speak English" and recommending the LPGA set a "quota on international players...that would include a quota on Asian players."
    These comments are offensive, inappropriate and racist.
    As the chair of the California State Assembly Select Committee on Hate Crimes, I can attest that these types of statements by athletes who are role models to millions of fans everywhere foster the type of intolerance and bigotry that leads to discrimination and violence.
    I urge you to denounce the comments made by Ms. Stephenson and suspend her for the remainder of the 2003 tour. Her comments reflect poorly on the LPGA and any lack of disciplinary action by the LPGA implicates complicity with her bigoted perspective and gross insensitivity to Asians and Asian Pacific Islander Americans.

Sincerely,
Judy Chu, Ph.D.
Chair, Select Committee on Hate Crimes
49th Assembly District, California

10/17/03 Associated Press and Asianweek.com: "Voters Reject Racial Privacy Initiative,"
    Proposition 54, the measure that would have banned state and local governments from tracking race in everything from preschools to police work was defeated Oct. 7 by a nearly 2-1 margin.
    Unofficial results as of Oct. 13 showed that Prop. 54 was losing with 5,071,867 votes against and 2,869,133 in favor, or 64-36 percent.
    Asian Pacific Americans in the Los Angeles Times exit poll voted 72 percent against Prop. 54.
    About three-quarters of blacks and Hispanics voted against Prop. 54, joined by a majority of whites, according to an exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and other news organizations.
    Critics of Prop. 54, otherwise known as the racial privacy initiative, argued the proposition would prevent doctors from tracking how diseases disparately afflict different populations. Supporters argued the proposition specifically allowed health providers to continue to collect such information.

10/15/03
JACL Denounces Stephensons Comments that Asians and Lesbians are Hurting LPGA Tour, Lauds Other LPGA Stars for their Censure of her Comments 
    San Francisco In an interview in the November issue of Golf Magazine which hit the newsstands on Tuesday, Ladies Professional Golf Association (LPGA) player Jan Stephenson cited Asians and lesbians as problems with the tour.  Well-known for her belief that the LPGA should market its players using sex appeal, Stephenson indicated that Asian and lesbian players were hurting the tour.  Responding to a question regarding problems in the LPGA, Stephenson remarked, This is probably going to get me in trouble, but the Asians are killing our tour. Absolutely killing it. Their lack of emotion, their refusal to speak English when they can speak English. They rarely speak Our tour is predominantly international and the majority of them are Asian. Theyve taken over. Reiterating her belief as to the importance of sex appeal to boost the popularity of the tour, Stephenson further opined that lesbians in the LPGA create marketing problems: Society is more open now about gay relationships, but it does hurt the tour. It hurts with sponsors. But if you had two gorgeous girls who were gay, I dont think that would hurt. 
    After receiving much criticism in the press and from other players, Stephenson issued a lengthy apology on Saturday, stating, By no means did I intend to hurt anyone nor were the statements racially motivated. I clearly understand how these comments could be taken as racial comments, and for that I am truly sorry. She further apologized, I am sorry to the LPGA players that are hurt by these comments, and I ask for your forgiveness. To all Asian Americans, the Asian community, the fans of the LPGA, and to anyone else who has been offended by these statements, I am genuinely sorry to you as well, and ask you to accept my apology. As an Australian residing in another country I have experienced what it is like to be singled out, and I was not sensitive to that feeling or yours. 
    The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), the nations oldest and largest Asian Pacific American civil rights organization celebrating our 75th anniversary in 2004, denounces Jan Stephensons comments as insensitive, insulting and a dangerous promotion of stereotypes and laments that her otherwise sincere apology failed to address her remarks about the gay community. 
    The JACL further commends other LPGA players and commentators for their swift censure of Stephensons comments. 
    Sports have always been the ultimate meritocracy where athletes compete and excel based on skill and ability and not because of race, ethnicity or looks. To suggest that the LPGA is harmed by good players playing well is an insult to the integrity of the game, commented S. Floyd Mori, JACL National President and avid golfer. Ms. Stephenson is an athlete who actively promotes her sport and a role model for younger golfers, and as such, her comments are disrespectful, damaging and a disservice to the golfing community. 
    For a woman who believes that sex appeal is an effective mechanism for promoting the LPGA, her remarks were very ugly, commented Lucy Kishiue, JACL National Program Director and golf enthusiast. It is unacceptable and the worst kind of sportsmanship for her to promote such harmful stereotypes. We appreciate the apology but believe that she still owes one to the gay community.


October 14, 2003

Ms. Jan Stephenson
LPGA
100 International Golf Drive
Daytona Beach, FL 32124

Dear Ms Stephenson,

    I am an avid golfer and believe the content and tone of your "apology" on Saturday make it clear that you do not believe that your remarks were "racially motivated," and that you regret only that some people interpreted them as racist. It is in fact quite difficult to construe your comments in any other manner.
    Your references to Asians purported "lack of emotion," "refusal to speak English," and take-over of the LPGA tour feed several prevailing myths about Asians and Asian Americans.
    The silent, robotic stereotype you invoke has long been a staple of cinema and literature, employed to dehumanize Asians, consign us to peripheral roles, and contrast us with the white protagonists in their "rightful" place at the center of the story.
    Your perception that Asian players have "taken over" the Tour speaks volumes about the persistence of white privilege in a traditionally exclusionary sport. In complaining that players of Asian ancestry have "taken over" the Tour, you accomplish two things. First, you invoke the "yellow horde" imagery that xenophobic politicians in the United States and Australia have historically relied upon to restrict Asian immigration while keeping the door open to white immigrants. Secondly, you undercut the frequent claim that professional sports is the one arena where ones ability matters more than ones background, where race is not an issue so long as one is able to perform under the intense pressure of competition.
    Moreover, your reference to a refusal or inability to speak English is deeply offensive to both those players who are working hard to master English and especially to Asian American players whose native language is English. Your invocation of the "perpetual foreigner" image feeds into many Asian Americans fears that we will never find complete acceptance as Americans, that we are fated to be perpetually regarded as the "other."
    Please note that of the fourteen teenage players in the 2003 U.S. Womens Open, fully half were Asian American. I can assure you that, as Christina Kim has shown with her impassioned response this weekend, these young women are neither emotionless nor silent, nor are your ludicrous and mean-spirited comments going to keep these future stars off the fairway.
    We look forward to hearing a more sincere apology from you.
Sincerely,
Philip Y. Ting
Executive Director
Asian Law Caucus

October 14, 2003

Commissioner Ty Votaw

100 International Golf Drive
Ladies Professional Golf Association
Daytona Beach, Florida 32124-1092

Dear Commissioner Votaw:

As an avid golfer (13 handicap) and fan of the sport of golf, I am asking you to fine Jan Stephenson and take away her tour card for her comments as well as insure sensitivity training amongst all the women golfers on your tour.
    The Asian Law Caucus is a 32 year old civil rights organization striving for equality for all Americans and was completely offended by her remarks. I believe the content and tone of her "apology" on Saturday made it clear that she does not believe that your remarks were "racially motivated," and that she regrets only that some people interpreted them as racist. It is in fact quite difficult to construe her comments in any other manner.
    Her references to Asians purported "lack of emotion," "refusal to speak English," and take-over of the LPGA tour feed several prevailing myths about Asians and Asian Americans. The silent, robotic stereotype she invokes have long been a staple of cinema and literature, employed to dehumanize Asians, consign us to peripheral roles, and contrast us with the white protagonists in their "rightful" place at the center of the story.
    Her perception that Asian players have "taken over" the Tour speaks volumes about the persistence of white privilege in a traditionally exclusionary sport. In complaining that players of Asian ancestry have "taken over" the Tour, she accomplishes two things. First, she invokes the "yellow horde" imagery that xenophobic politicians in the United States and Australia have historically relied upon to restrict Asian immigration while keeping the door open to white immigrants. Secondly, she undercuts the frequent claim that professional sports is the one arena where ones ability matters more than ones background, where race is not an issue so long as one is able to perform under the intense pressure of competition.
    Moreover, her reference to a refusal or inability to speak English is deeply offensive to both those players who are working hard to master English and especially to Asian American players whose native language is English. Your invocation of the "perpetual foreigner" image feeds into many Asian Americans fears that we will never find complete acceptance as Americans, that we are fated to be perpetually regarded as the "other."
    Please note that of the fourteen teenage players in the 2003 U.S. Womens Open, fully half were Asian American. I can assure you that, as Christina Kim has shown with her impassioned response this weekend, these young women are neither emotionless nor silent, nor are your ludicrous and mean-spirited comments going to keep these future stars off the fairway.
    We look forward to hearing your response.  I can be reached at (415) 896-1701 or at philting@asianlawcaucus.org.

Sincerely,
Philip Y. Ting
Executive Director
Asian Law Caucus

10/14/03 ESPN The Magazine: "Stephenson's comments grossly unchallenged,"
By Eric Adelson
    Jan Stephenson should thank her lucky stars she chose Asians to criticize.
    The notoriously outspoken former LPGA icon told Golf Magazine, in an issue out this week, that Asians are "killing" women's golf. She also called for quotas to limit the percentage of Asians on the LPGA Tour.
    Race-based quotas to limit the number of a certain minority in a sport? Discrimination solely on the basis of ethnicity? Appalling. But for her unfair generalizations, Stephenson got ... nothing. No punishment whatsoever. She apologized and continued to play in her weekend tournament.
    Where are the presidential candidates full of outrage? Where is the special edition of Nightline? If a former baseball player called for quotas to limit the number of Hispanic pitchers, he would be vilified.
    But Stephenson gets words of rebuke from LPGA commissioner Ty Votaw and some tour members, and that's about it. Why? Part of the reason, certainly, has to do with the fact that football is a national obsession and women's golf is a minor sport. But it's more than that. In America, verbal attacks on Asians are not condemned nearly as often or as strongly as they should be.
    "It's the way Asians are perceived versus African-Americans or other minorities," says Jeff Yang, former publisher of A Magazine. "Somehow it's OK to suggest restrictions against Asians because we won't fight back and we are fundamentally more foreign."
    Consider a weekend poll on MSNBC.com that asked, "Is Jan Stephenson right that Asian players are hurting the LPGA Tour?" Of 8,439 responses as of noon Monday, 50 percent said yes.
    Does half of America think Latinos are hurting baseball? That African-Americans are hurting basketball? That Europeans are hurting hockey? Let's hope not. Because those groups, much like Koreans in the LPGA, are making their sports remarkably better. And still somehow, half of the MSNBC.com poll respondents think Asians are hurting women's golf.
    Don't even think about suggesting that Stephenson's comments have some merit if race is left out of the equation. Stephenson chides Asians for qualities that are also shown by many white players. She blames Asians (as a group, mind you) for their "lack of emotion." But wasn't lack of emotion a problem for the LPGA even before the Asian invasion? Didn't commissioner Ty Votaw encourage his players to wear sexy clothes in an attempt to add some pizzazz and boost the tour's popularity?
    Annika Sorenstam wasn't exactly Miss Personality before her gutsy play at the Colonial. And Karrie Webb has never been accused of being the life of the LPGA party.
    Here's what Stephenson said about Sorenstam in the very same interview with Golf Magazine: "With Annika you're scared to say anything. Her locker is always next to mine, and I don't know her. I've left notes of congratulations on her locker because I'm scared to bother her. She's so focused all the time -- I just wonder what she's really like."
    So is Annika ruining the LPGA Tour? Of course not. She's simply "focused all the time." And Karrie Webb is "working really hard." Didn't Tiger Woods revolutionize golf and usher in a new era of PGA Tour popularity with his laser-like intensity and intimidation? Tiger saved golf from its reputation as a backslapping country club sport because of his youth and focus. He rarely says anything controversial, he doesn't show up on TRL, and he has become more and more reclusive as his career has taken off. He simply plays with a fervor that makes playing partners, well, scared. Does Stephenson -- or anyone else -- begrudge Tiger his right to just play? Not really. And Tiger is as much Asian as he is black.
    So why has Stephenson escaped without punishment? Because there are few prominent Asian-Americans in politics or sports journalism to take her to task. The Rush Limbaugh controversy might have died if journalists in Philadelphia didn't ask Donovan McNabb to comment several days after Limbaugh expressed his opinion on Sunday NFL Countdown. Then came input from political leaders like Al Sharpton and respected columnists like Ralph Wiley, and now Rush is off the ESPN airwaves. There is no similar outcry about the Stephenson situation.
    Why not? Name a leading Asian-American political figure. Now name a well-known Asian-American in sports journalism. "Asian-Americans as a whole don't have a spokesperson," says Melissa Hung, editor of Hyphen Magazine. "We don't have a Jesse Jackson."    
    There is no Asian equivalent of presidential candidate Carol Moseley Braun (African-American), or columnist Dan LeBatard (Latino). Maybe that's because when CEOs and editors think of diversity, they do not think of Asian-Americans. Or maybe it's because Asian-Americans don't apply for political or journalistic leadership positions as often as they could. Or maybe it's because we have all been educated about the horrors perpetrated on blacks, Latinos and Native Americans, but not as much about Japanese internment camps and sweatshop conditions in Chinatowns across the country. But the end result is that racism directed against Asians is not considered as toxic as other forms of racism.
    "We're still more of a minority fundamentally than African-Americans or Latinos or gays," says Yang. "We have not been active in speaking out, and we have been easily appeased. Because we don't cry foul, we're more fair game."
    This must change. There will be more Ichiro Suzukis and Hideki Matsuis in baseball. There will be more Yao Mings in basketball. And surely there will be more Se Ri Paks in golf. One need only look at 13-year-old Asian-American phenom Michelle Wie -- who, by the way, is about as charismatic as any white golfer on the LPGA Tour -- for proof. And just as the number of Latinos in baseball has far outpaced the number of Latinos in journalism, the amount of Asians in golf will continue to exceed the number of those in a position to defend them.
    The question is: Will empowered Americans like Votaw choose to limit Asian athletes with quotas, or limit intolerance by punishing discrimination in all forms?
    Eric Adelson is a senior writer for ESPN Magazine. E-mail him at eric.adelson@espn3.com.
    Marketing diversity ...
Jeff Yang, founder of a popular Asian-American magazine, has four suggestions for the LPGA Tour to better market its many Asian players:
    Media training: Yeah, they may not all be talkative and bubbly by nature ... but then again, Barry Bonds and Latrell Sprewell took a while to blossom, too. Some image consulting, a media relations workshop, and ensuring ready availability of translators would do wonders.
    Showcase them like the stars they are: Second-ranked Se Ri Pak has set new standards for female players as far as sheer athletic ability. Diminutive Mi Hyun Kim (nicknamed "Peanut") is the shortest player on the LPGA Tour, yet still manages to regularly outduel bigger, stronger, and longer competitors. New Nike endorser Grace Park is a style maven who's been referred to as the most fashionable player on the tour. Like everyone else, Asian players have colorful personalities and quirky storylines --characteristics that make them worth watching and worth following. But while these are regularly discussed in the Asian press, they rarely make it to the front pages of English-language sports media. The LPGA has been doing a great job of "humanizing" its stars and up-and-comers through its web site and other collateral. But they have an opportunity here to do what women's tennis has done with Venus and Serena -- make their Asian stars the centerpiece of a major promotional campaign, and push their "crossover" potential.
    Outreach to the immigrant community: Baseball has done a fantastic job of getting Hispanic Americans out to the ballparks in support of its plethora of Latin players. The Houston Rockets have likened the spike in Asian interest in hoops in the wake of Yao Ming to "trying to take a sip from a firehose." The LPGA should actively market its broadcasts and events to the immigrant community -- because spending a few dollars there will pay back a hundredfold.
    Make it clear -- Asians there and Asians here: Asian-American players -- born, raised, and educated in the U.S. -- are regularly lumped in with "foreign" or "international" players in loosely researched and poorly edited press reports. That's part of the reason why the numbers of "Asian" players seem so overwhelming. So why not clarify this point by putting together a challenge match in the style of "USA vs. the World" -- except in this case, pit the best American-born Asian players (including amateurs) against the best international Asian players? You'd have corporate sponsors beating down the door to underwrite it. And it would put across the point once and for all that "American" doesn't necessarily mean blue eyes and blonde hair anymore.
--Jeff Yang

10/13/03 Associated Press: "Jan Stephenson Tells Magazine Asians "Killing" LPGA Tour"
    Kahuku, Hawaii -- Jan Stephenson, who became the first woman to play on the Champions Tour on Friday, said Asians are ``killing'' the LPGA Tour and their numbers should be limited.
    Stephenson, who won 16 tournaments, including three majors, during her LPGA career, had an 8-over 80 in the opening round of the Turtle Bay Championship, 12 strokes behind leaders Hale Irwin, Dana Quigley and Rex Caldwell.
    Her comments appear in an article in the November edition of Golf Magazine, due out Tuesday.
    ``This is probably going to get me in trouble, but the Asians are killing our tour. Absolutely killing it,'' she told the magazine. ``Their lack of emotion, their refusal to speak English when they can speak English. They rarely speak.
    ``We have two-day pro-ams where people are paying a lot of money to play with us, and they say, 'Hello and goodbye.' Our tour is predominantly international and the majority of them are Asian. They've taken it over.''
    Four of the top nine players on the LPGA money list this year are of Asian descent including Se Ri Pak, Grace Park, Hee-Won Han and Candie Kung.
    ``They're the ones on the leaderboard, and everyone keeps saying to me, 'Who are they?''' Stephenson said Friday. ``It's the LPGA's responsibility to market them, but if these girls won't be marketed, what are you going to do?''
    Stephenson said her remarks weren't racially motivated, adding her business partners are Asian.
    She said she was annoyed that high-profile golfers were not putting the extra time into promoting women's golf that she did when she was younger.
    ``I cited these girls not because they're Asian but because they're the top players,'' Stephenson said.
    ``If I were commissioner, I would have a quota on international players and that would include a quota on Asian players,'' Stephenson told the magazine. ``As it is, they're taking American money. American sponsors are picking up the bill. There should be a qualifying school for Americans and a qualifying school for international players. I'm Australian, an international player, but I say America has to come first. Sixty percent of the tour should be American, 40 percent international.''
    South Korean native Grace Park, playing in the Samsung World Championships in The Woodlands, Texas, took exception to the comments.
    ``She has her own opinion. I just don't like the fact she picked on Asians and I'm Asian,'' Park said. ``She should come and play with me. I have great emotions. She made her points and if that's how she feels, well. ... Everybody has their own opinions and Jan stated her own and that's what was published.''
    Pak said she doesn't think Stephenson meant what she said.
    ``There are a lot of talented players coming from all different kinds of countries,'' Pak said. ``The LPGA is getting better. I think it's a better thing for the LPGA.''
    Stephenson, 51, the LPGA's original glamour girl, said the women's tour needs a little sex appeal to help market the sport, just like the PGA Tour did with Tiger Woods.
    ``We have to promote sex appeal. It's a fact of life. The people who watch are predominantly male, and they won't keep watching if the girls aren't beautiful,'' she told the magazine. ``That's not just the LPGA Tour, either. In Australia the highest-rated television event is the women's surf championship. Why is that?
    ``Everyone wants to skirt it, but it's true. You have Tiger and Phil and Adam Scott and Aaron Baddeley. They are gorgeous. Their clothes are beautiful; everything about them is exciting. So we have to catch up.
    ``The women are not the best players -- the men are. The women are not the best athletes -- the men are. Whether we like it or not, we have to promote sex, because sex sells. I think you have to shock.''
    South African Bobby Lincoln, who shot a 71 in the opening round of the Turtle Bay event, said he experienced what Stephenson described about the Asian women with male players on the Asian Tour.
    ``I agree with her,'' he said. ``It's a funny tour because the players play the round and off they go. No one ever goes to a function. No one talks even though they can speak a bit of English.
    ``She's quite right, off they go and they don't care too much.''

10/14/03 Los Angeles Times: "Coalition Laments the Invisibility of Asians, Native Americans on TV: CBS gets the lowest overall grade of the four networks rated by the diversity advocates. Fox gets the highest mark."
    A report released Monday by an advocacy group monitoring diversity on TV applauded the increasing visibility of blacks and Latinos in front of and behind TV cameras, but lamented the continuing invisibility of Asians and Native Americans.
    Leaders of the Multi-Ethnic Media Coalition, which tracks how well ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are honoring a 1999 agreement to increase diversity, said at a news conference that they would continue to pressure the networks to better reflect a multicultural society.
    As part of the news conference, the Asian Pacific Media Coalition and the National Latino Media Council issued "report cards" to the networks. 
    Apesanahkwat, an actor representing American Indians in Film & Television, said his group chose not to issue a report card, adding that he was disheartened by the virtual absence of Native Americans on television but was optimistic because of several initiatives being considered to increase Native American representation.
    In previous years, the three organizations issued one combined grade to each network, under the umbrella of the Multi-Ethnic Coalition, which also includes the NAACP. This year, because of disagreements over how much progress has been made, the groups made individual reports. The NAACP will issue its report next week.
    Of the four networks, CBS, which landed at the bottom last year with an overall grade of D-minus from the coalition, received the lowest overall mark of any network evaluated by the two groups a D-plus given by the Asian organization.
    Karen K. Narasaki, chairwoman of the group, said the network had limited improvement from last year, and in the matter of Asians on screen, "the situation has continued to further deteriorate."
    However, she added that the network had demonstrated a recent increase in its commitment to diversity, which raised its overall grade.
    CBS was awarded a C-plus by the National Latino Media Council.   
    Fox received the highest overall grade a B-plus from the Latino council. The Asian group gave Fox a B-minus.
    The Asian group awarded an overall grade of C-minus to ABC and B-minus to NBC.
    The Latino group gave an overall grade of B to ABC and C-plus to NBC.
    The network grades were based on several categories, including the number of minority actors, writers, producers, directors and entertainment executives, and the commitment to diversity initiatives.


10/11/03 Associated Press: "Jan Stephenson Apologizes for Comments,"
    Kahuku, Hawaii -- Golfer Jan Stephenson issued a written apology to the Asian community Saturday for criticizing Asian female players in a recent magazine article.
    Stephenson said in a story for the November issue of Golf Magazine that top-earning Asian players are "killing" the LPGA Tour by not making themselves more available for promotional purposes. She criticized them for playing tournaments and then leaving without talking to the media.
    "After hearing the statement read back to me prior to the release of it, I requested that the editor reword that portion," said Stephenson, who became the first woman to play on the Champions Tour on Friday.
    On Friday, Stephenson said she helped promote the LPGA when she was younger and is annoyed there are some who don't do the same.
    "By no means did I intend to hurt anyone nor were the statements racially motivated," Stephenson said in her statement. "I clearly understand how these comments could be taken as racial comments and for that I am truly sorry."

10/11/03: Asian-Americans on Arnold Schwarzenegger Transition Committee.  The Transition Committee is comprised of 65 members who are leaders in their respective fields and are drawn from a broad range of professional, community, and academic backgrounds.  http://www.joinarnold.com/en/transition/
Viet Dinh
Currently, a professor of law and Deputy Director of Asian Law and Policy Studies at Georgetown University Law Center, Mr. Dinh has had a distinguished career in the field of legal policy. Prior to his current position, he was the Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Policy at the U.S. Justice Department. Mr. Dinh was a law clerk to Judge Laurence H. Silberman of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. He also served as Associate Special Counsel to the U.S. Senate Whitewater Committee. He is a member of the District of Columbia and U.S. Supreme Court bars. Washington, D.C.
Matt Fong
An attorney and business leader, Mr. Fong is president of Strategic Advisory Group and serves on various corporate boards and advisory groups. Mr. Fong was the State Treasurer from 1995-1999. From 1991 and 1995 he served on the State Board of Equalization. In 1998 he was the Republican nominee for the United States Senate. He graduated the USAF Academy and continues to serve as a Lt. Col. In the USAF Reserves. His MBA is from Pepperdine University; J.D. from Southwestern University. Los Angeles.
Sean Liou
President of Always Best Tours and Travel. Previously he served as President and COO of Keylinus, Inc., a global solutions provider of enterprise storage networking systems software and services, and CEO of Hi-Tech USA, a leading high-volume PC systems integrator and provider of Linux solutions, integrated software and services from 1989-2000. He is a member of President Bush's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. He holds a Masters in Mathematics from the University of Massachusetts, Fremont.
Safi Qureshey
Mr. Qureshey is founder and chairman emeritus of AST Computers. Mr. Qureshey is the patron in chief of Forbes International Pvt. Limited and a seasoned businessman, having diversified business experiences in computer hardware, software, internet service provider and credit cards. Orange County.
Dr. Sophie C. Wong
She is a well-respected leader in the Asian Community and has extensive reach into the education and small business communities surrounding the Monterey Park area of Southern California. She has served on the U.S. Small Business Administration Advisory Council, Board of Medical Quality Review for the State of California and co-founded the Chinese Elected Officials as well as the Asian Pacific Islander School Board Member Association. Los Angeles.

10/10/03 San Francisco Chronicle: "UC admissions under fire again,"
    More than 400 students -- nearly 90 percent of them minorities -- were admitted to UC Berkeley in 2001 with below average SAT scores under an admissions policy that was to have ended racial preferences at state universities, The Chronicle found in an analysis of admissions data.
    UC Berkeley officials developed the policy, which considers grades and SAT scores but includes other factors, such as socioeconomic status, after voters approved Proposition 209 in 1996 to ban affirmative action in admissions.
    But the analysis of the data shows that of the 422 among the bottom tier of admitted students, 378 were minorities. Seventeen were of unknown race and 27 were white.
    Considering the numbers, John Moores, chair of the UC Board of Regents, and Regent Ward Connerly, who spearheaded Prop. 209, are concerned that the policy might have been used as an end run around the ban on racial and ethnic preferences.
    "I am withholding final judgment until I see the 'smoking gun,' but it certainly looks as if the university is acting inappropriately," Connerly said in an e-mail. "And it also appears to me that a lot of people have been in on the act. This can only happen when there is somewhat of a conspiracy in the design and the execution of that design."
    Data for the class admitted in 2001 show SAT I scores as low as 610 (out of a 1600 scale), made by a Latino student with a 3.50 grade point average. Although most students who scored poorly on the SAT I exam had good GPAs, such as an African American student with an 810 SAT score and a 4.09 GPA, there were some with low academics to match the low test scores.
    Of the 422 students, 73 -- or 17.3 percent -- of the admitted students had GPAs below 3.50. One African American student with a 940 SAT I score had a 2. 65 GPA. An Asian American student scored 670 on the exam and had a 3.0 GPA. One white student had an 860 SAT I and a 2.90 GPA.
    "It is outrageous. They don't have any business going to Berkeley," said Moores, who did his own preliminary study of 2002 admissions data recently without looking at race. He was intrigued by the 2001 data and said it appears the students were admitted for "all the wrong reasons."
    "I always expect the kid that doesn't test well that turns out to be a whizbang, but there are not hundreds at Berkeley. It can't be," Moores said. "I believe there is a huge element of social justice behind some of the (decisions). I question whether people are really being honest of what the chances are of students being successful."
    NEW ADMISSIONS PROCESS
    The new admissions process allows each campus to evaluate its applicants on a comprehensive basis, expanding the definition of merit to include extracurricular activities, academic opportunities, societal contributions and intellectual motivation, as well as socioeconomic status.
    Richard Black, assistant vice chancellor for admissions and enrollment at UC Berkeley, could not comment specifically on the 2001 data but said there could be many factors, such as athletics, that led to the students being admitted.
    "All of our admissions decisions comply with Prop. 209. The student was not admitted because he or she was an ethnic minority," Black said. "The students demonstrated excellence in some other way. . . . some combination of other factors: rank in high school class, it might be athletics, the way that the student approached hardship, not the fact the student had hardship but how he or she overcame it. It could be leadership or possibly a very strong participation in one of our outreach programs."
    He said the emphasis in admissions is still on academics and noted that the students were only a small portion of a group of 7,949 admitted students.
    According to the internal report by Moores, 3,218 students with SAT I scores above 1400 were denied admission to UC Berkeley in 2002, while 374 applicants with SAT I scores between 600 and 1000 were admitted -- about 30 of those were athletes, Moores said. (An SAT score of 1010 is in the 50th percentile in California.) Of the low-scoring students admitted, 236 enrolled.
    The report says, "Comprehensive review obviously was not meant to be a mechanism whereby less competitive students could gain admission to UC," but Moores said that appears to be what happened.
    SUPPORT FROM REGENT
    But Regent Velma Montoya supports the admissions policy and said she doesn't "think we have sufficient information to turn against Comprehensive Review. . . . I still believe that just looking at one part of academic criteria, the SAT I, isn't enough to conclude the process is flawed."
    University officials dispute some of the findings, but new UC President Richard Dynes is calling for an in-depth study of the UC system's admissions policies.
    "It raises huge questions about the fairness of the process," said Patrick Callan, president of the nonprofit National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, which has an office in San Jose.
    UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Berdahl countered Moores' report in a letter to Dynes, saying Berkeley is adhering to regents' policy in admissions. It is unfair to focus just on SAT I scores because a host of factors determines an applicant's admission score, Berdahl said. On average, he said, an applicant's GPA and test scores correlate very highly with the admission score. But for any individual applicant, some factors will be higher and some lower than the average.
    In addition, he said, the regents have directed the campuses to preserve some access for low-income students.
    SCORES CORRELATE WITH INCOME
    "Because SAT I scores, in particular, are very highly correlated with family income and education level, it is likely that some students with otherwise strong academic and personal qualifications will present relatively low SAT I scores," he wrote.
    He contended that a small number of lower-scoring students are admitted at all selective campuses across the country.
    Berdahl said that the campus' academics were the best in the university's history. Overall, the average GPA for those admitted was 4.23 and the average SAT I score was 1337.
    Berdahl also said in his letter that applicants do not compete against one another because they are separated into different pools according to the college or major to which they have applied. So a high scoring student applying to major in the College of Engineering may be denied while another with the same score would be accepted into another major, he said.
    He also took issue with relying on the SAT I as the dominant measure of academic quality. Because research has shown it to be the least predictive of success at UC, more weight is supposed to be given in the admissions process to grades and SAT II subject matter tests.
    In investigating the cases cited by Moores' study, Berdahl said the campus found that students with high SAT I scores who were denied fell into four categories: They had either withdrawn their applications, they were out-of- state applicants who are held to a higher standard, their GPAs and other academic factors were deficient or they had applied to one of three very highly competitive majors in the College of Engineering.
    He said that Berkeley actually admitted 98 percent of California resident applicants with SAT I scores above 1400 who did not apply to one of those three majors and whose GPAs were not below average for the Berkeley admit pool.
    "Most importantly, first-year performance data for these (low-scoring) students indicates they are doing well at Berkeley: not one has left due to academic deficiency," Berdahl said in his letter.
    "This is under the blah, blah, blah, category," Moores said of the university's response to his report. "I think something is very screwy, so I want somebody to come back and tell me exactly what is going on."


Rep. Honda Condemns Urban Outfitters for Selling Racist Board Game 'Ghettopoly' Urges All Americans Not to Fan Flames of Racism
    Washington, Oct. 9, 2003 - Today, Rep. Mike Honda (D - San Jose) condemned Urban Outfitters for selling the racist board game "Ghettopoly," and demanded that the company pull the product from its shelves.  Ghettopoly (www.ghettopoly.com), modeled after the classic family board game Monopoly, spreads very damaging stereotypes of African Americans in inner cities.  The fact that Urban Outfitters would sell this game demonstrates racial insensitivity, and a serious lack of judgment.

10/4/03 Dallas Morning News: Louisiana governor's race headed for runoff: Indian-American tops vote count; 3 other officials in close race
    New Orleans Louisiana doesn't have a new governor, but voters on Saturday did narrow their choices.
    A runoff will be held Nov. 15 between Republican Bobby Jindal, a former state and federal health official who could become the first Indian-American governor elected in the United States, and the top vote-getter among 16 other candidates.
    Lt. Gov. Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat who could become the state's first female governor, was running neck-and-neck with Attorney General Richard Ieyoub for the other spot on the runoff ballot as results came in late Saturday. Also in the running was former U.S. Rep. Claude "Buddy" Leach.

10/3/03 Associated Press: "Louisiana Finds an APA Candidate: Can an Indian American become governor by attracting the David Duke vote?"
    A son of immigrants from India, a Republican whose given name was Piyush but who calls himself Bobby, is topping polls in the Louisiana governors race, gathering momentum, and astonishing political connoisseurs in a place that has written the book on electoral intricacy.
    "Louisiana is still a racist state," veteran native political consultant Raymond Strother said recently, explaining why he thought it unlikely Bobby Jindal could be elected.
    That was the conventional wisdom when the 32-year-old with a reputation as a health care policy whiz kid left the Bush administration seven months ago to campaign for governor here.
    But racial confrontation flared up and died more quickly in Louisiana 40 years ago, than elsewhere in the South. And the exceptional resume of this quick-talking Rhodes Scholar, allied with an in-your-face, hard-right conservatism, has neutralized race as an issue in a state where it has been the only issue in some elections.
    Election day is Oct. 4, an 18-candidate, open primary free-for-all unique to Louisiana. Jindal, cherished protege of the bluff and popular incumbent, Republican Mike Foster, could well lead the field.
    If so, he would break a Deep South color line that has stood since Reconstruction. Not since P.B.S. Pinchback, son of an emancipated slave, accidentally became Louisiana governor for 35 days in 1872-73 has a person of color occupied the states highest office. The history is similar across the region.
    Jindals candidacy is all the more historic in that whites not members of Louisianas substantial black population are seeking to put him in office.
    And not just any whites: with radio spots mocking gun control and extolling the Ten Commandments, hostility toward affirmative action and an indulgent eye toward the teaching of "creationism" in public schools, Jindal is chasing the same conservative voters who supported the extremist Duke. They are a substantial bloc: Duke scored a majority of white males in at least one statewide run.
    Jindals stance is as safe as the other candidates. But his persona is unusual.
    Despite his youth, hes got a resume more freighted than politicians years his senior, and a fast-talking, 16-point-plan style that leaves listeners bewildered but impressed, like the pages and pages of position papers hes written.
    Others, in candidates debates, struggle with the words. But with Jindal, the words fly in tightly organized bursts, like automatic gunfire, cramming the minute-long debate segments.
    "There are four things we need to do," Jindal began at a recent debate, before rapidly enumerating a plan to rebuild New Orleans, the substance of which was less striking than the lightning speed with which it was delivered. Hes the bright schoolboy, quick with an answer for teacher.
    This immigrants son who has made very good is imbued with a fervent belief in the American dream. That plays well in patriotic Louisiana.
    "Im against all quotas, all set-asides," he said at a recent forum. "America is the greatest. We got ahead by hard work. We shouldnt respond to every problem with a government program. Here, anyone can succeed."
    The states historic legacy of poverty and racism doesnt enter this picture. Indeed, blacks speculate about whether Jindals candidacy will aid their future statewide races.
    In a state where 30 percent of the voting age population is black, polls show him with virtually no black support.
    "I think Bobby Jindal doesnt get any support in the black community because hes trying to outconservative the conservatives," said state Sen. Donald Cravins, who is black. "Hes trying to move to the far right."
    All summer, Jindal has been rising steadily in polls, leap-frogging the more conventional politicians, belying skeptics who asserted that a non-Anglo Saxon immigrants son wouldnt stand a chance in a conservative Deep South state.
    But the skeptics didnt count on Jindals apparent ability to marry rural conservatives swayed by his religious fervor hes a teenage convert to Catholicism from his parents Hinduism with affluent suburbanites dazzled by his biography. The latter see a boyish quick study made secretary of the state health and hospitals department at the age of 24 by Foster.
    The governor he cant succeed himself, having served two terms then appointed Jindal head of Louisianas university system. He became an assistant secretary in the Health and Human Services Department when Bush entered the White House, helping formulate Medicare policy.
    The skeptics also didnt reckon on impressive financial support from Indian American professionals around the United States. Jindal wont talk about his fundraising, but with $1.3 million on hand, according to the latest campaign finance reports, he was way out in front of the other candidates.
    Some of that money has come from the Indian American community.
    "We all are proud of his accomplishments," said A.K. Mago, chairman of the Greater Dallas Indo-American Chamber of Commerce. "The community is very supportive of him. For us living in other states, its up to us to support him financially Mago said. The community as a whole has done fundraisers for him in every major city. Its just to show we are proud of you."
    Jindals principal television ad sums up the subtlety of his campaign: the candidate is shown as a blur of action; his face, hardly visible, seems almost illuminated.

9/30/03 San Francisco Chronicle: "The Californians: How people from all walks of life feel about the recall.  Today: The Vietnamese: Recall reveals newfound independence,"
    For nearly 30 years, the Vietnamese community in San Jose could be counted on to vote solidly Republican.
    Traumatized by war and forced to flee their native country, Vietnamese refugees who settled here tended to join the American political party that presented itself as the loudest enemy of Communism.
    But the recall election is highlighting an emerging political independence among Vietnamese Americans - especially the younger generation - many of whom view the recall as a costly diversion from issues that matter to immigrants and average people.
    "At first, a lot of people went through this fantasy where they wanted to see some change, and seeing the lieutenant governor become governor sounded pretty good," said Madison Nguyen, 28, a sociology professor and board member of the Franklin-McKinley Elementary School District in East San Jose.
    "But now, they are starting to realize that the governor has experience and that is what we want," Nguyen said. "Besides, who is to say if this recall trend is going to stop?"
    Nguyen says she understands the fervent anti-communism of her elders.
    "But the second and third generation realize we live in a democratic society," Nguyen said. "They differentiate between Communism there and democratic society here in America, and that's why we are starting to get more involved."
    A voter registration drive organized last year by Madison Nguyen and colleague The Vu Nguyen (none of the Nguyens named in this story are related) netted 5,500 new Vietnamese American voters. many of them low-income and likely to be Democrats or Independents, believes Madison Nguyen.
    "We should not support the recall," said The Vu Nguyen, 35, president of the Vietnamese American Community Action Team in San Jose. "The millions of dollars being spent on the recall could be flowing into education and benefits for society.
    "We are anti-Communist, but we suggest to the public that we should go issue by issue," he said. "Whether they are Republican or Democrat doesn't matter as much as whether they are helping the community."
    For some Vietnamese American community activists, the recall is less important in the long run than the fate of Proposition 54, which would prohibit the collection of racial data by government agencies.
    "The Vietnamese community here is large, and people have different views on the recall and who should be governor," said Linda Nguyen, 26. "But we should all be united in that we will vote no on Prop 54."
    A recent graduate of Santa Clara University Law School and director of San Jose's annual Spring Festival and Parade, Linda Nguyen worries that Prop. 54 would make illegal such medical studies as the one that showed Vietnamese women are most likely to suffer from cervical cancer.
    "Without racial data, we would never have known something like that," Nguyen said. "I feel it would take away accountability in education and employment discrimination.
    "There's so much buzz about the recall, Prop. 54 might just slip through the cracks," she said.
    A former officer in the South Vietnamese army during the war, Hung Lai is a committed conservative and anti-Communist who calls the recall a pure form of democracy.
    "That is a lot of democracy," Lai said. "We respect the democracy of the American people. They get to speak out even if they are just a minority. But for a complicated state like this one, I think it is a little bit too much.
    "The (office) of governor should have some respect for the position and the person, too," Lai said. "You can't really blame the (Republican) party, because the law allows this, and it's the first time it has been used.
    "But after this is over, we have to sit down and change the rules," Lai said. "This state is bigger than some countries, and that is a lot of power. We have to be careful about these things."
    Thuan Nguyen, an executive of the Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce, shrugged off the recall as "not necessary."
    "I'm not quite liberal," he said. "But it's a matter of whether or not this makes sense."
    But not all conservatives are changing their stripes. Some traditional Republicans, such as Nhut Ho, are staying the course.
    "I am very happy to see the recall election take place on Oct. 7, so we can elect a new governor of California," said Ho, 64, an insurance broker and member of Santa Clara County's Republican Central Committee.
    "Last year we elected the wrong person, Gray Davis," Ho said. "He has shattered all of the promises he made to the people of California, and a lot of businesses are moving out of the state."
    Ho and his friends often meet for breakfast, and those in his circle agree that it is time to change leadership in the state. As a replacement for Davis, Ho likes Arnold Schwarzenegger.
    "He's a good guy, a tough guy and a good campaigner," Ho said. And "he's anti-Communist."

9/26/03: Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans Launches Anti-Recall Website AsianAmericansAgainstRecall.org features more than 150 APA leaders opposed to recall
On the Web: http://www.asianamericansagainstrecall.org/media/
    San Francisco - The Coalition of Asian Pacific Americans (CAPA) today launched www.AsianAmericansAgainstRecall.org, a Web site asking Asian Pacific Americans (APA) to vote "no" on the recall of Gov. Gray Davis. The site includes information on why the recall is threat to APAs in California, lists more than 150 APA leaders opposed to the recall and asks supporters to pledge their "no" vote on the site.
    The recall opponents include Congressman Bob Matsui, Congressman Mike Honda, State Board of Equalization member John Chiang, state Assembly majority leader Wilma Chan, Assemblywoman Carol Liu, Assemblywoman Judy Chu, Assemblyman George Nakano, Assemblyman Leland Yee and Appointments Secretary Michael Yamaki - and community leader such as Dr. Stanley M. Toy, Jr., chair of Chinese Americans Against the Recall, and California Arts Council member Dr. Jerrold Hiura.
    APA leaders such as Dale Minami and Maeley Tom formed CAPA as a registered political action committee in 1989 to fight for better APA representation in California issues, politics and government.
    "APAs can play a pivotal role in this close election and should not remain silent when their own future is at stake," said Dale Minami, CAPA president. "Not only is this election an affront to our democracy and a waste of tens of millions of dollars better spent on education and social services, but APAs need to recognize that Gov. Davis has proven to be an ally and supporter of our issues and for the fair representation of APAs in government and politics.
    "Because of the way the recall works, the next governor could be elected by 20 percent of the vote, or even less," said Maeley Tom, a CAPA co-founder. "There is no guarantee that the next governor who would immediately take office the next day has the experience to solve the problems facing the state. Why should Californians take such a risk?"
    Highest Number of APA Appointments to Key Government Positions
    Gov. Davis' historic contribution to empower the APA community includes appointing a greater percentage of outstanding Asian Pacific Americans to key state government positions than any previous governor, with more than 280 APA appointments, including:
. the first APA cabinet member, Lon Hatamiya, as the Secretary of the Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency;
. Michael Yamaki as the Governor's Appointments Secretary;
. Judge Harry Low as the Insurance Commissioner in 2000;
. Betty Yee as Chief Deputy Director of the Department of Finance;
. Darryl Young as the Director of the Department of Conservation;
. Agnes Lee as the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Health & Human Services;
. Randall Iwasaki as the first APA Deputy Director of CalTrans;
. Joy Higa as the first APA Deputy Director of the Department of Managed Health Care; and . Maeley Tom as the first APA State Personnel Board Member.
    Gov. Davis' historic judicial appointments include
- the first Vietnamese American Superior Court Judge, Nho Trong Nguyen,
- the first Vietnamese American female Superior Court Judge, Jacqueline H. Nguyen, and
- the first Korean American female Superior Court Judge, Tammy Chung Ryu.
    Gov. Davis has also:
. Greatly increased funding for the country's largest K-12 English-Language Learners Program from $328.6 million in 1997-98 to $535.3 million in 2001-2002, a 63% increase;
. Expanded the Healthy Families program among APA children by more than 366% (21,260 to 77,800) with outreach information campaign in major APA languages; and
. Created merit scholarships for high-achieving high school students and expanded the Cal-Grant program to help disadvantaged students who need financial assistance to pay for college.
    Gov. Davis has signed numerous bills empowering the APA community:
. Creating an Asian Pacific Islander Anti-Hate Crimes Program within the Department of Justice to provide information and training in the APA community;
. Improving consumer protection in the APA community by requiring businesses that negotiate contracts with Asian-language speakers to provide the contract in the consumers' native language;
. Establishing the first Californian Commission on Asian and Pacific Islander American Affairs;
. Authorizing high school districts, unified school districts, or county office of educations, to retroactively grant high school diplomas to persons who were interned during World War II;
. Preserving the traditional serving of Korean rice cakes at room temperature;
. Enabling Filipino World War II veterans to return to their homeland without forfeiting their state benefit payments; and
. Provided funding for preservation of Asian Pacific American history at the Korean American Museum, Museum of Chinese American History and Japanese American National Museum.
    Unfairness and Destructiveness of the Recall
    The illegitimate use of recall shows a complete disregard for the democratic electoral process. The voters' clearly expressed will last November would be overturned for purely partisan maneuvering. If this recall succeeds, it will open a Pandora's Box that will be very destructive to the stability of California's political system. If the recall prevails, the next Governor could be elected with as little as 15% of the votes. The recall is not a solution to the challenges that California faces. Forty-seven states and the federal government are all facing budget deficits and a slowing economy. The recall will further erode California's economy and its credit rating. The $70 million of taxpayers' money that will be spent on the recall election could be better spent on education, health care, and public safety.
    Also important to note is that proponents of the recall are ardent supporters of Prop 187, seeking to overturn the progressive, pro-APA, pro-immigrant agenda of Gov. Davis.
    Supporters can contact CAPA through the Web site, www.AsianAmericansAgainstRecall.org, by email at info@AsianAmericansAgainstRecall.org, or by phone at 415-379-3893.
    Contact: Keith Kamisugi (for CAPA) keith@AsianAmericansAgainstRecall.org (877) 835-5679

9/26/03 e-mail from S.B. Woo:
    The campaign season has started. Let's learn a lesson from the "campaign finance scandal" of 1996, which the NY Times termed "The Asia Gate." 
    APAs gave about $4,000,000 to the Democratic Party, and probably the same or more to GOP. IN RETURN, WE GOT TRASHED. 
    Let's review the facts: 
    A] From 1996-98, the image of our entire community was tarnished for the misdeeds of a few. Our image as the "perpetual foreigners" whose loyalty to America is questionable was greatly enforced. 
    B] After the scandal attracted media attention, Democrats & Republicans competed to distance themselves from ALL Asian Americans. They took $8 million from us; they should at least have spoken up and pointed out that the misdeeds were done by about a dozen corrupt APAs ONLY. 
    Where were our community's fundraising leaders, when we needed their political connections to get the politicians to speak on our behalf? 
    Let's learn the lesson. Before giving generously to political leaders, ask them what they will do for the APA community in return. If their answers sound good, ask them to do some of the deeds for us NOW. Otherwise, most'll simply take your money and forget you. 
    We still have glass ceilings above us and our children. We still don't enjoy equal justice if you'll remember the Wen Ho Lee case. Measure what you have given financially to 80-20 and what it has done for our community and what you are planning to give to the presidential candidates and what they have or will do for our community. 
    Above all, spread words about "THE FOUR DON'TS" listed below: 
- DON'T give thousands of dollars just to get a picture with a presidential candidate. Are we that shallow? 
- DON'T raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for a politician just because the politician has flattered you. Are we that naive?
- DON'T help those APA fundraisers who are always the FIRST to organize fundraisers for politicians and the LAST to stand up to fight for our community. Are we that forgetful or dumb or self-centered? 
- DON'T give illegally !!! This is USA! 
******* Membership has reached 1800! Need 120 more members to reach our goal of a 20% increase over last years record. ******* How about you? To join, you must be a citizen or Permanent Resident.  Go to: http://www.80-20initiative.net/membership.html or http://www.80-20.info/membership.html . 
PERSONAL checks are payable to "80-20 PAC", mailed to: Jing-Li Yu 80-20 special Assistant P.O. Box 527340 Flushing, NY 11352-7340 . Write down your E-MAIL address & PHONE no. on the BACK of the check. Thank you.

9/17/03 Los Angeles Daily News: "City Opposes Immigration Enforcement, "
    Citing the threat to local control, the Los Angeles City Council came out Tuesday against a proposed federal law that would require police to enforce immigration laws.
    The 13-0 council vote came at the request of Councilman Dennis Zine, who is scheduled to testify today in Washington, D.C., against HR2671, the Clear Law Enforcement for Criminal Alien Removal Act.
    Under the measure, cities could lose federal grants if their police departments fail to enforce immigration laws.
Zine, who is one of the council's more conservative members and was a police officer for 33 years, said the measure represents a threat to the city.
    "I don't think they are looking at the impact of this," Zine said of the measure introduced by Rep. Charlie Norwood, R-Ga. "This doesn't do much for our relationship with the diverse people we have in Los Angeles."
    "It will turn our local law enforcement officers into immigration officers," he said. "What will that do to our efforts on community policing?"
    However, Norwood spokesman Duke Hipp said the congressman believes local law enforcement is needed to help beef up the work of federal immigration authorities.
    "Our immigration system is broken and something needs to be done," Hipp said.
    "We aren't talking about people who run a red light. We are talking about murderers, rapists and people who have been doing hard time," he said. "Instead of being deported, they are on the streets of our city."
    The city's Special Order 40, adopted under former Los Angeles police Chief Daryl F. Gates, has been controversial since it took effect in 1979. It prevents police from asking the immigration status of crime victims or anyone reporting criminal activity. Only after a person is arrested and charged with a crime is his citizenship questioned.
    Dan Stein of the Federation for American Immigrant Reform said Special Order 40 and similar regulations in other cities obstruct federal law.
    "These kind(s) of noncooperation standards should be illegal," Stein said. "It's an outrageous position by a city. If they don't want to be part of the federal union, they ought to start a nullification effort.
    "The real issue is, these people shouldn't be here. We have a way for people to (emigrate) to the country."
    City Council members, however, said neither Norwood nor FAIR understood the city's problems.
    "This isn't about Special Order 40," said Councilman Greig Smith, another conservative member and LAPD reserve officer. "This is about local control. The federal government has no business telling us how we should police our city."
    Councilman Ed Reyes said the federal proposal could create worse problems in the city.
    "Don't think that just because you live in a different part of the city ... you won't be affected," said Reyes, who represents a Westlake-Lincoln Heights district.
    "There will be a ripple effect," he said. "The bottom line is we have people, families, who are being abused by their landlords, by gang members, by vultures taking advantage of them. They are told that if they complain, they will be deported." "We have a whole subculture out there who are abusing immigrants who work hard and are paying their taxes," Reyes said.
    Councilman Tony Cardenas said he believed the federal measure could lead to chaos.
    "This will create an atmosphere where people will live in fear, only to be victimized by people who want to take advantage of them," Cardenas said.

9/17/93: DNC Chairman McAuliffe Appoints U.S. Congressman Mike Honda DNC Deputy Chair Democratic National Committee (DNC) 
    Chairman Terry McAuliffe today announced the appointments of U.S. Rep. Mike Honda, former White House advisor Ben Johnson, and DNC Women's Caucus Chair Susan Turnbull as Deputy Chairs of the DNC. 
    "I couldn't be more proud of the diverse leadership team we have assembled at the Democratic National Committee," McAuliffe said. "Our new DNC Deputy Chairs bring a broad range of experience and passion for promoting the ideals of the Democratic Party." 
    U.S. Rep. Mike Honda represents California's 15th district, a very diverse district containing the largest Asian Pacific American population of any congressional district in the continental U.S. 
    Born in California, he spent his early childhood with his family in an internment camp in Colorado during World War II. As a youth in the Peace Corps, he built health clinics in El Salvador. After returning from abroad, he served his community as a teacher and principal in public schools. 
    Rep. Honda currently serves on the House Science and Transportation Committees, and as Vice-Chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus. 
    "Congressman Honda is a great asset to the DNC," McAuliffe said. "He will be instrumental in reaching out to the Asian Pacific American community nationwide, and educating them the negative impact of the Bush administration on the APA community. As a Congressman fluent in Spanish and committed to social justice, tolerance and civil rights, he will help us build bridges across many constituencies." 
Contact: Debra DeShong/Tony Welch at 202-863-8148

9/11/03 Associated Press: "New York's Asian Americans Struggling to Recover from Sept. 11,"
    New York -- Asian Americans are still struggling to recover psychologically from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks but face a lack of appropriate mental health services, according to a study released Monday.
    ``We found many people simply suffering in silence,'' said Cao K.O., executive director of the Asian American Federation of New York. ``As the second anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches, Asian Americans still coping with this tragedy lack effective resources to support their psychological recovery.''
    The study -- Asian American Mental Health: A Post-September 11th Needs Assessment -- details the mental health problems and needs of the city's more than 870,000 Asian Americans. Of that population, 156,710 live in Manhattan, according to the 2000 Census.
    The federation conducted one-on-one interviews with 22 family members of Asian Americans who died in the Trade Center and held focus group discussions with 145 Chinatown community members, specifically children, the elderly and dislocated workers. The participants reported symptoms of depression.
    But none of the participants used any mental health services following the attacks. The federation said culturally, Asian Americans avoid seeking help with such problems. It also said that the services made available to them were inadequate.
    The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, based in Princeton, N.J. The foundation is the nation's largest philanthropy devoted exclusively to health and health care.

9/8/03 Los Angeles Times: "Candidates Skirt Immigration Issue: Growth in the numbers and voting clout of the foreign-born, especially Latinos and Asians, has altered the tone of political debate,"
By Teresa Watanabe, LA Times Staff Writer
   Nine years ago, California politics featured a raging debate over excluding illegal immigrants from public schools and hospitals. Today, the divisive question is whether to give them driver's licenses.
   The gap between the two issues underlines a central fact of the state's politics: Immigration and its consequences remain topics of intense debate, but the ground has moved.
   The shift illustrates how sweeping demographic changes have altered the state and its politics: immigrants, mostly Latino and Asian, now comprise more than a quarter of California's population, the highest proportion in the nation and up substantially from a decade earlier.
   Latinos and Asians differ about the proper mix of policies toward immigration - both legal and illegal. But the increased number of immigrants in the population, and even more so the increased number who have registered to vote, has had a strong impact on the state's political figures.
   "Politicians of both parties are terrified of this issue for fear of
alienating the Latino community," said Kevin Spillane, a Republican political consultant in Sacramento. "It's not politically correct to talk about illegal immigration."
   Those who advocate more restrictive policies say the majority
continues to support their side of the debate - a contention backed by at least some polling data - but they concede that politicians of both parties now consider the issue a loser.
   "What has changed is that both political parties have decided that they simply will not discuss the issue and will go along with extending all kinds of benefits to illegal aliens, despite the fact that the state has no money," said Ira Mehlman, Los Angeles spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform.
   Indeed, while Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he opposes the bill to give driver's licenses to some 2 million illegal immigrants, which Gov. Gray Davis signed into law Friday, the Republican candidate has not emphasized the issue. Instead, he plays up his immigrant background.
   His reticence stands in sharp contrast to the actions of former
Republican Gov. Pete Wilson, who in 1994 made support for Proposition 187 - the measure to cut off most public services to illegal immigrants - a major focus of his campaign for reelection.
   Demographic trends of the last decade help explain the political queasiness. In the last decade, more than a million non-Latino whites moved out of California, according to a study of Census data by Hans Johnson, a demographer with the San Francisco-based Public Policy Institute of California.
   At the same time, the population of Latino and Asian immigrants and their children grew rapidly. California's Latino numbers, which doubled between 1980 and 2000, now stand at 11 million people, or 32.4% of the population. The number of Asians also doubled, to 3.6 million people, or 10.8% of the total.
   Those trends are expected to intensify in the future: More than two-thirds of Californians older than 65 are non-Latino whites, while more than half of those younger than 18 are Latino and Asian, according to William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C.
   "The message going out is, if you want to be left out of the future, attack immigrants," said Gabriel Buelna, an immigrant-rights advocate in East Los Angeles.
   Public concern about illegal immigration has not disappeared.
Nationwide, the proportion of people who said controlling illegal immigration was a "very important" foreign policy goal has remained high: 72% in 1994 and 70% in 2002, according to data gathered by the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research at the University of Connecticut.
   Moreover, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks helped reawaken efforts to control illegal immigration and, for a time, sidetracked proposals like the driver's license measure. Last year, Davis vetoed a similar bill, citing the post-Sept. 11 fears of terrorism. At the time, a Times poll showed voters supporting the veto by a 2-1 margin.
   But at least in California, the debate over illegal immigration appears to have lost some of its intensity. In 1994, a Times poll showed Californians ranking illegal immigration as the third most important issue facing the state after crime and unemployment; a Times poll this year showed illegal immigration ranking ninth.
    "People really got out of that feverish pitch," said Buelna, executive director of Proyecto Pastoral at Dolores Mission, a nonprofit organization that provides social services to residents of East Los Angeles.
   "Now, they may think it, but there's no vehicle for them to act on it."
   The issue still stirs passions, however.
   In Monrovia's Old Town over the weekend, retired engineer Joel Zneimer, 76, declared himself "totally against" the new driver's license law. He also backed restrictions on public services for illegal immigrants.
   "Why should you give benefits to people who have broken the law?" Zneimer asked as he ate ice cream with a friend. "I pay enough taxes without having to support half of Mexico."
   Down the Pasadena Freeway at Alhambra Park, where Latino families picnicked with carne asada and mariachi music, Xavier Flores, a loan executive in Los Angeles, said he supported the driver's license law and resented those who blamed Latinos for the state's problems with illegal immigration.
   "Anytime a knucklehead says, 'Send 'em back to Mexico,' I say: 'This is Mexico!' " said Flores, a sixth-generation American of Mexican descent. His ancestors arrived in the Southwest before the United States conquered what was then Mexican territory, he said, asking, "Why doesn't anyone ever say,
'Send 'em back to Canada?' It's racist."
   But both Flores and his neighbor, Gabriel Gomez, said they also supported curbs on illegal immigration. Gomez, a Los Angeles plumber and third-generation Mexican American, said his business has suffered from the cut-rate competition of illegal immigrants.
   "When you get illegals doing the job at half the price, you can't compete," Gomez said, adding that if their numbers were reduced, "it would give opportunities for those of us who really deserve them."
   In addition to the state's demographic shifts, several other differences help account for the changed political mood, analysts say.
   A decade ago, Californians faced their worst recession since the Great Depression, fanning resentment toward illegal immigrants who were perceived as low-cost labor competition. Today's economic downturn is less severe and centered more on parts of the economy not regarded as havens for illegal immigrants, such as high-tech, according to Johnson.
   Georges Vernez of the Rand Corp. in Santa Monica speculated that immigration reform had lost some steam because of the court decisions that invalidated most of Proposition 187.
   The 1996 federal welfare reform law also "quieted the resentment of taking away services from the native-born," Vernez said.
   So did successful California initiatives to eliminate bilingual education and affirmation action, other analysts said.
   But the biggest factor, many say, is a new political reluctance to take on the issue of illegal immigration.
   When Proposition 187 came to the fore, some Republican strategists opposed it, arguing that it would spark a backlash from the state's growing numbers of Latino and immigrant voters.
   In the years since, the proposition, along with moves by Congress to restrict the welfare benefits that legal immigrants could obtain, became rallying points that helped increase the political participation of both Latinos and Asians.
   From 1994 to 2000, nearly half a million Mexican immigrants became U.S. citizens, and about that many during the same rough period registered to vote, according to Rosalind Gold of the National Assn. of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials.
   "These were voters with a mission: They wanted to send a message that they would fight discrimination against immigrants, and that they would hold Republicans responsible for the tone and tenor of the discussions in California about immigration," Gold said.
   Increased numbers of immigrant voters were not the only factor that helped turn California into a state politically dominated by Democrats.
   Republicans repeatedly have nominated candidates who are more conservative than the majority of state voters.
   Most analysts agree, however, that the perception of Republicans being anti-immigrant - a charge that Wilson and his supporters have steadily denied - took a toll.
   Democrats, who lost control of the Assembly in 1994, regained it in 1996 and recaptured the governor's office in 1998.
   From 1996 to 2000, Republican Assembly seats dropped from 41 to 30 as candidates lost in virtually every district with more than 15% Latino voter registration, said Allan Hoffenblum, a GOP political consultant who opposed Proposition 187. The key exceptions were Latino Republican candidates, he said.
   "You had a major political party in power 10 years ago that has been marginalized in part because of losing the vote of Latinos and what is the largest group of new [voter] registrants: immigrants of all backgrounds," Hoffenblum said.
   "Now people are so shellshocked that it's difficult to even discuss this issue."

9/6/03 Pasadena Star News: "Davis signs Asian contract language bill: Governor boosts Asian consumer protection,"
    Alhambra -- Gov. Gray Davis on Saturday signed a bill requiring businesses to provide translations of contracts in Asian languages for transactions negotiated in those languages, expanding an earlier law designed to protect Spanish- speaking consumers.
    "I believe if a business negotiates with you in a language, it should submit a contract with you in the same language,' Davis said in a news conference in Alhambra.
    The bill, introduced by Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, grew out a alleged bait-and-switch tactics used by businesses targeting Asian immigrants. Several Chinese immigrants have sued Wondries Toyota in Alhambra for allegedly tricking them into signing contracts in English with terms different from those they had agreed upon orally with Mandarin-speaking sales agents.
    "That will cease, as we're going to provide protection for Chinese, Korean, Tagalog and Vietnamese citizens as we have for Spanish-speaking citizens for nearly 30 years,' Davis said.
    AB 309 adds the four languages to a 1974 law that requires translations of contracts negotiated in Spanish. Opponents of the bill said the cost of providing translated contracts are so great that they could deter companies from doing business with ethic communities.
    But 98 percent of car dealers in the state use the same form contract purchased by a single vendor, and translating it into another language would result in a one-time cost of about $2,000, according to Chu's office. In addition, the law only covers businesses that have hired bilingual staff to communicate with potential customers.
    "This bill is good for business because the Asian community is a major economic force in our society,' Davis said. "What we're doing today is basic fairness. It will also protect consumers so no one is ripped off.'
    Davis held the news conference immediately before an anti-recall rally at the same location. He said his signature on the consumer protection bill - and of another granting undocumented residents the right to obtain a driver license - was the result of long-held beliefs, rather than a way to court ethnic voters.
    "No citizen should be discriminated against,' Davis said. "No state is as diverse as California. We are home to the sons and daughters of people from ... every country on the planet Earth.'
    

8/22/03 Wall Street Journal editorial: "Invading North Korea"
    Weather permitting, an invasion of North Korea begins today. The objective? Bringing down what Undersecretary of State John Bolton recently called the "hellish nightmare" of Kim Jong Il's regime.
    No soldiers will be involved in this invasion. The airlift will be provided by 20 large balloons launched from South Korea. The weapons they'll carry are 600 hand-held AM-FM radios. Their target is ordinary North Koreans who have no access to information about what is happening in their own country or the rest of the world. More balloon drops are planned, along with radios in bottles floated off the coast.
    The "Give an Ear to a North Korean" campaign is being organized by Douglas Shin, a Korean-American minister, and Norbert Vollertsen, a German physician. "Silence is killing North Korea," they say in a statement issued from Seoul. In Kim's police state, radios must be registered with the authorities and are permanently tuned to government-run stations. The radios being dropped into the North would allow people to listen to Radio Free Asia, Voice of America and broadcasts from South Korea.
    Pastor Shin and Dr. Vollertsen have long been active in the underground railroad that helps North Koreans escape to freedom, mostly through China. Their network of supporters has helped escapees seek amnesty at foreign embassies in China and Southeast Asia. Earlier this year they attempted, but failed, to smuggle two boatloads of refugees from China to South Korea.
    The radio project -- which is timed to coincide with next week's six-party talks on the North's nuclear program -- is one of several that activists are working on to encourage North Koreans to flee. Another involves stationing ships in international waters off the coast of North Korea to pick up those escaping by boat. Another calls for approaching high-level North Korean officials visiting Seoul to try to persuade them to defect.
    Human rights aside, encouraging refugees is also a political strategy. Word of a safe harbor overseas would surely spread throughout the North, creating more internal pressure on the already troubled Kim regime. That's why Kansas Senator Sam Brownback has written a letter urging President Bush to declare such a safe harbor. He also supports, as do we, a plan under consideration by the Bush Administration to admit 30,000 North Korean refugees currently in China. The U.S. could also put more pressure on China to let the United Nations help the nearly 300,000 North Koreans who may already be hiding there.
    Mr. Brownback proposes to expand the S-2 visa for aliens who provide assistance in the wars on terror and drugs. The number of "snitch visas" should be increased to 3,500 from the current 250 a year, he says, with eligibility extended to people offering information about rogue-state WMD programs. The mere chance that this would induce operatives in Pyongyang's WMD programs to defect is worth a try.
    Alas, none of these sensible, creative efforts to help North Koreans are welcome in the one place in the world where you'd expect them to be greeted most warmly: South Korea. The government in Seoul -- led, ironically, by a president who was a human-rights lawyer -- seems more worried about the potential costs of resettling refugees in the South than it is about the plight of their brothers and sisters in the North.
    No one wants to exercise the military option on North Korea. Every war game shows the West victorious, but at great cost in human life. How much better to adopt policies encouraging an outflow of refugees -- and the internal implosion of Kim's brutal regime.

8/8/03 Pasadena Star News: "Chinese Americans Honor U.S. Veterans: Alliance holds meeting in Pasadena
    Pasadena -- As an electronics technician on the USS Towers during the Vietnam War, Raymond Wong encountered little racial prejudice from his shipmates.
    But when Wong got back home, his classmates at San Francisco State University expressed surprise that he, a fourth-generation Chinese American, had fought in a war against "his own people.'
    "I explained that I was serving my country. Why did they say that Did they think I betrayed my own people?' said Wong, 55, a lifelong San Francisco resident and a national officer for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.
    Wong is among the 100 or so attendees at the 47th Biennial Chinese-American Citizens Alliance Convention, which drew Chinese Americans from places as far as Mississippi to the Westin Hotel in Pasadena. The convention continues through Saturday.
    A major theme of the convention is recognizing Chinese-American veterans like Wong, whose efforts on behalf of their country often went unacknowledged once they returned home.
    Los Angeles filmmaker Montgomery Hom is working on a documentary about Edward Day Cohota, one of about 60 Chinese Americans who fought in the Civil War.
    Cohota was born in Shanghai and brought to the United States by a Massachusetts ship captain. He enlisted in the Union Army in 1864 at 18 and spent the next 30 years in a military career stretching from Gettysburg to battles on the Great Plains against the Indians.
    But Cohota had to fight the U.S. government for years to receive his veteran's benefits. And he was never granted the U.S. citizenship that he felt was his due after devoting thirty years of his life to fighting for his country.
    "He served his country and was so patriotic. Why was he treated like this?' said Hom, who has directed a documentary on the estimated 20,000 Chinese-American World War II veterans as well as a documentary on the first female Chinese-American military pilot.
    A bill introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Michael Honda, D-San Jose, would posthumously award U.S. citizenship to the Asian Americans who fought in the Civil War.
    Honda is scheduled to speak at the convention, along with Carol Liu, D-Pasadena, and former California State Treasurer Matthew Fong.
    Founded in San Francisco in 1895, the Chinese-American Citizens Alliance has a long tradition of civil rights advocacy. There are 16 local lodges nationwide, with some focusing on civil rights and policy issues and others on cultural activities.
    Shirley Kwan, 65, president of the 60-member Mississippi Lodge, traveled to Pasadena from Moorhead, a town of 2,500 in the Mississippi Delta, to attend the convention.
    She recalled her childhood in Greenville, Miss., where her parents owned a grocery store and she attended a one-room school with 30 or so other Chinese children until she was in fifth grade and the school system was integrated.
    "We kept to ourselves. We knew we couldn't do this or do that,' she said in a rich Mississippi Delta drawl. "We thought it was best to keep quiet and didn't protest. Maybe we were wrong.'

8/8/03 AsianWeek: "APA Leaders Condemn Prop. 54: But Connerly says health argument is bogus,"
    Calling Prop. 54 a devastating blow to health care and a reversal of civil rights, a handful of Asian Pacific American leaders spoke out in front of the Chinese Hospital in Chinatown against the initiative that would ban state and local agencies from collecting data on race, ethnicity and national origin.
    Similar gatherings were also held in Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange County simultaneously, with the one held in San Francisco to announce the formation of a statewide coalition, known as the Asian Pacific American Coalition for an Informed California, to educate voters about Prop. 54 and the harmful impacts the measure would have on California.
    "Our objective today is to educate members society and California voters to do the right things and to vote down this devastating measure," said Yvonne Lee, a former U.S. civil rights commissioner. "This coalition was recently formed by concerned citizens. If Prop. 54 is passed, such data like how 60 percent of APAs have hepatitis would never be known and addressed."
    And now with the special recall election scheduled for October the Asian Pacific American Coalition for an Informed California and other opposing groups are urgently trying to get the word out since Prop. 54 will be decided by the Oct. 7 ballot instead of its original March date.
    Karen Narasaki, director of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium, added that if Prop. 54 passes, it would make it more difficult for national policy-makers to track, seek and make recommendations for communities, since full and complete data is needed to make decisions.
    Speakers at the July 31 event stressed the impact Prop. 54 would have on the health care system, highlighting the different needs of various ethnic communities. Alice Chen, an internist at Asian Health Services, said racial and ethnic data collection is critical because without it public health officials wouldnt know where to direct help and resources to those in need.
    Xuan Cao of the Vietnamese American Public Affairs Committee said Vietnamese and Southeast Asian American women are very underrepresented among APAs and have a higher risk for developing certain cancers than white women.
    "My chance of getting cervical cancer is five times that of a white woman," said Cao. "This is a matter of life or death."
    Arthur Chen, chair of the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum, said Prop. 54 would prevent health care providers from identifying communities by race and collecting valuable information to hone on specific health problems in different APA communities.
    "This critical and integral part of providing good health care will be undermined by Prop. 54," Chen said. "The Racial Privacy Initiative [RPI] does say medical research is exempt, but providers have to apply to be exempt and only after the application has been approved can data collection take place.
    The medical exemption allows doctors to keep racial data with regard to treatment of their patients, but it doesnt allow public health officials to use population data to prevent diseases, according to Chen.
    But UC Regent Ward Connerly, the author of Prop. 54, or the Racial Privacy Initiative, said opponents of Prop. 54 are engaging in a hyperbolic debate, especially since the medical research area is addressed.
    "The Racial Privacy Initiative in no way applies to medical issues and it doesnt apply to hospitals because theyre specifically exempt from this initiative," said Connerly. "If I thought for one moment that this initiative would put peoples lives in danger and health at risk, do you think I would craft an initiative that could harm myself or my family or my grandchildren? This is idiocy. RPI, Prop. 54, does not affect or apply to medical issues or healthcare."
    Connerly added the bogus argument is being used to bring down the number of supporters of Prop. 54 before people vote on Oct. 7.
    "One of the most frustrating things about this is when opponents try to prove a point by exaggerating and to misstate the facts behind this initiative," he said.
    Besides addressing health issues, organizers spoke out against the harmful setbacks Prop. 54 would have on civil rights. Ted Wang, interim executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, said Prop. 54 would make it harder for victims of racial discrimination and violence to receive justice.
    More than 1,150 hate crimes were reported in 2000, and after Sept. 11, the APA community has become more vulnerable. Prop. 54 would prevent state agencies from collecting and analyzing data to ensure racial profiling doesnt happen, according to Asian Pacific Americans for an Informed California.
    "At the heart of Prop. 54, this doesnt do anything to prevent racism, but instead, hides it," said Wang. "This creates an Alice in Wonderland situation, hiding information but doing nothing to eliminate discrimination."

8/4/03 Associated Press: "Indian American Retired Officer Wins Discrimination Suit in MD Jail Case,"
    Baltimore -- Retired correctional officer Mathen Chacko says he spent two decades being discriminated against at the Patuxent Institution in Howard County.
    He says fellow employees mocked his thick accent, telling him to ``go back to India'' and calling him a ``camel jockey.'' Chacko says even supervisors laughed, and prison administrators did nothing.
    ``When I complained, I was told, 'We cannot stop anyone's mouth,''' said 63-year-old Chacko, who was born and raised in southern India.
    Federal jurors recently said Chacko should receive $1.16 million in his discrimination lawsuit. It could be the largest such award against the state Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services.
    State lawyers who represent the department planned to file post-trial motions and are likely to seek a new trial and a reduction in the damages awarded.
    Department spokesman Mark Vernarelli said in a written statement the agency believes Chacko ``absolutely did not prove a hostile work environment within the meaning of the controlling federal anti-discrimination law.''
    The jury award is essentially symbolic because federal law limits Maryland's liability to $300,000. But Chacko's lawyer called it vindication for a man whose emotional and physical health suffered because of unfair treatment at the treatment-based prison in Jessup.
    ``He needs to be compensated for what he went through,'' said attorney Bryan Chapman. ``Apparently, a jury agrees.''
    At his home in Baltimore County's Rosedale community, Chacko recently spread on his dining room table 20 years' worth of internal complaints, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filings and letters to politicians.
    He says most of the correspondence went unanswered.
    With each incident, from a prison medical contractor telling him he should learn to speak English, to a fellow correctional officer handcuffing him as a joke, Chacko says he became more nervous and paranoid.
    ``Every time I walked in that institution, I was getting panic attacks,'' he said. ``I thought, 'What is going to happen today?'''
    Former Patuxent Institution Director Richard Rosenblatt, now an assistant secretary in the Public Safety and Correctional Services Department, testified that neither he nor Chacko's supervisors ever learned about such harassment. Rosenblatt said there were no written complaints from Chacko alleging name-calling or other discrimination based on his national origin.
    ``We take any allegation like that very seriously,'' said spokesman Vernarelli. ``And we investigate immediately and thoroughly.''
    Chacko says he stopped complaining to supervisors early in his career because ``they were laughing right along with it all.''
    He retired in December, two years after filing a federal lawsuit that alleged discrimination and a hostile work environment.
    Chacko says he never wanted to take his employer to court, but he eventually felt that ``they left me no choice.''
    He and his wife are ambivalent about the verdict and realize it will be years, if ever, before they see any money.
    ``At least I got an opportunity to bring my point across, and somebody heard,'' Chacko says. ``Nobody was hearing for years.''

July 31, 2003

Mary Alexander, President
Association of Trial Lawyers of America
44 Montgomery St., Ste. 1303
San Francisco, CA 94104

    Re: Congressman HOWARD COBLE

Dear Ms. Alexander:

                By way of introduction, I am the President of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA), which represents over 40,000 Asian Pacific American attorneys in the United States.  A number of members of our organization are also members of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America (ATLA).  In February of this year, Congressman Howard Coble of North Carolina, Chair of the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, created a furor in the Asian Pacific American community by publicly justifying the imprisonment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. 

As you undoubtedly know, 120,000 Americans of Japanese ancestry were taken from their homes during World War II, some on as little as 24-hours notice, to distant "camps", most for the duration of the war.  They received no notice of any charges, no hearing and no right to an attorney.  The United States Supreme Court, in oft-criticized landmark decisions (Korematsu vs. United States, Hirabayashi vs. United States and Yasui vs. United States) upheld their incarceration despite the fact that not one Japanese American was charged with espionage or sabotage.  In 1983 and 1984, respectively, the convictions of those men who challenged the wartime decisions were overturned based on court findings that the government knowingly withheld evidence from the Supreme Court and altered and destroyed evidence which contradicted governmental claims that the mass internment was based on "military necessity".
             
               On a radio call-in show, replying to a caller who suggested that all Arabs in the United States be put into prison camps, Congressman Coble defended the mass internment of Japanese Americans claiming that "Some [Japanese-Americans] probably were intent on doing harm to usjust as some of these Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us." Congressman Coble also remarked: "We were at war. They [Japanese Americans] were an endangered speciesFor many of these [Japanese-Americans], it wasnt safe for them to be on the street."   These statements are not only outrageous distortions of the facts but also recklessly inflammatory at a time when Americans are struggling with the aftermath of 9/11.  His statements are contrary to the official findings of the government of which he should have been aware. He was a Congressman when The Commission on the Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians concluded that war hysteria, lack of political leadership and racism were the cause of the incarceration of Japanese Americans not concern for their safety as he publicly stated. He was a Congressman when President Gerald Ford rescinded Executive Order 9066 (which authorized the exclusion of Japanese Americans from West Coast states) and called the internment a "mistake". He was a Congressman when the convictions of Fred Korematsu, Gordon Hirabayashi and Minoru Yasui were overturned because of governmental misconduct during their Supreme Court appeals.  His ignorance borders on a deliberate falsification of history.

After some research, we discovered ATLA is Congressman Coble's largest single contributor having given $38,000 to his campaign during the last four election cycles.  While we recognize that ATLA may have important organizational reasons for supporting Congressman Coble, the sheer damage he has caused not only to the image of Japanese Americans, other Asian Americans, Muslim and Arab Americans, but also to the American public, is a compelling reason to reassess your support of this man.  Our community has given him ample opportunity to meet and discuss the issues.  While he initially agreed to do so, he recently reneged on a promise to meet with the Japanese American Citizens League regarding this matter.
           
               In light of the fear surrounding September 11, the ensuing cutbacks on civil rights and the continued racial profiling by this administration, Congressman Coble's statements are dangerous and unsettling and make him unsuitable to chair the Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.  Members of our organization who are dually members of ATLA join us in asking you to withhold your contributions to his campaign until he steps down as Chair of the Subcommittee.  We would appreciate your earliest response to this profound concern of our organization.                           

Most sincerely,

Ruthe Catolico Ashley
President, NAPABA

cc: Congressman Howard Coble
Mr. Herald J. A. Alexander, Chair, Minority Caucus
Mr. Larry Thompson, Deputy Attorney General, U.S. Department of Justice
Mr. Dennis Archer, President-elect, American Bar Association
Mr. Lawrence Baca, Chair, Commission on Racial and Ethnic Diversity in the Profession
Mr. Carlos Singh, President-elect, Hispanic National Bar Association
Mr. Clyde Bailey, President-elect, National Bar Association
Mr. Thomas Weathers, President-elect, National Native American Bar Association
Congressman Mike Honda
Congressman Bob Matsui
Secretary Norman Mineta
Secretary Elaine Chao ``If we really want to be part of the political process, we need to get more people elected,'' said Varun Nikore, president of the Indian American Leadership Initiative. ``This is the last frontier for Indian Americans.''
    Over the past four decades, Indian immigrants and their children have achieved success in fields such as medicine, engineering and business, becoming one of the wealthiest and best-educated ethnic groups in the United States.
    Yet the nation's 1.7 million Indian Americans have yet to make waves in one important arena: politics. Nationwide, there are only four state legislators of Indian descent, and no members of Congress.
    A new generation of Indian Americans wants to change that, and they have formed the new group to recruit, train and fund a fresh cadre of Indian American political leaders.
    The Saturday meeting was the group's second training and networking conference, and about 100 aspiring politicos heard tips on how to develop a political message, tap family and friends for campaign money and hire the right consultant.
    The group sponsored a similar event in Washington, D.C. earlier this year and plans other conferences in major U.S. cities.
    The first major wave of Indian immigrants came to study at U.S. universities in the 1960s and ultimately settled here with their families. Fueled by the tech boom's demand for skilled workers, the Indian American population doubled in the 1990s, with large clusters growing in California, Illinois, New York and the Mid-Atlantic region.
    Like many immigrant groups, the first generation focused on establishing themselves economically and educating their children, said Lovely Dhillon, one of the event's organizers.
    ``They didn't think of America as their country,'' said Dhillon, who also directs the Law School Consortium Project in San Francisco. ``Our generation is the first generation that's entrenched in America. We see America as our country.''
    The only Indian American to serve in Congress was Dalip Singh Saund, who served as a California representative from 1957 to 1963. Indian Americans now only hold state legislative seats in Iowa, Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey.
    As Maryland's House majority leader, Kumar Barve is the country's highest-ranking and longest-serving Indian American official. When he first ran for the Maryland Legislature in 1990, few people in the Indian American community thought he had a chance.
    ``Ten years ago, there was no interest in politics,'' said Barve, 43, whose grandfather immigrated to the U.S. more than 90 years ago. ``It was assumed we couldn't win.''
    Nikore, 36, came up with the idea for the new initiative in early 2001 after he worked as budget coordinator for Al Gore's unsuccessful presidential bid. He noticed that Indian Americans made substantial campaign contributions, but didn't get much in return.
    ``We can give money until we're blue in the face, but in the end, all that matters is having one of your own at the table,'' Nikore said. The new group's goal is to elect 10 Indian American congressmen by 2010, he said.
    Some high-profile Indian American candidates are energizing the community. Chirinjeev Singh Kathuria, 38, is a Republican running for state senator in Illinois. And Bobby Jindal, 32, is a Republican running for governor of Louisiana.
    Speakers stressed that candidates could not run only as Indian Americans, because they must represent diverse districts or states with only small Indian American populations.

7/25/03 Los Angeles Times: "The Recall Campaign: Also on Ballot: Initiative to Restrict Racial Data,"
    Along with a decision on the political fate of Gov. Gray Davis, Californians will vote in October on a ballot initiative that would stop the state from collecting and using most kinds of racial and ethnic data.
    The initiative, sponsored by University of California Regent Ward Connerly, qualified for the ballot earlier this year and was expected to be voted on in the March 2004 primary election. But with a special statewide recall election now scheduled for Oct. 7, voters face an accelerated decision on Connerly's measure.
    Connerly, who helped lead the campaign for Proposition 209, the 1996 ballot measure that banned racial and gender preferences for all public entities in the state, said his new initiative would help make California a state where race doesn't matter.
    The initiative would bar the state and other public entities, including its college and university systems, from classifying individuals on the basis of race, ethnicity, color or national origin. It has certain exemptions, including the collection of data to comply with federal law, to prevent the loss of federal funds, and for medical research and law enforcement purposes.
    Critics say it would hurt efforts to end discrimination in education, housing and other areas. And although medical research is exempted under the initiative, opponents say it could nonetheless limit the availability of data essential to tracking disproportionate effects of certain illnesses on ethnic communities and racial groups.
    Supporters and opponents alike said the shortened, nine-week campaign period would present a challenge.
    So far, only one in four likely voters in the election has even heard of the initiative, according to a Field poll released Thursday. Of those, 50% said they supported the measure, 29% were opposed and 21% were undecided. Based on a July 1-13 survey of 719 likely voters in the state, the poll has a margin of error of 3.8 percentage points.
    Political analysts said it was too early to tell how the initiative might affect the recall vote and vice versa. Some said Davis might benefit if Democrats are drawn to the polls, eager to vote against the ballot measure. Others said Republicans might turn out in large numbers because of the Davis recall and could help pass the initiative.

7/24/03 Associated Press: "Locke's 'American Dream' 
Career Spans 22 Years -- So Far
    Olympia -- Gary Locke likes to joke that it took his family a century to go less than a mile: his Chinese grandfather was a houseboy in Olympia in the late 1800s, not far from where 
Locke was sworn in as Washington's 21st governor in 1997.
    Locke, the son of Chinese immigrants, lived in the housing projects in Seattle as a boy and didn't speak fluent English 
until he entered grammar school. But he eventually became 
an Eagle Scout and a Yale-educated lawyer who became 
governor and got to sleep in the Lincoln Bedroom of the 
White House.
    He calls the sweep of his career an ``American Dream.''
    By the time Democrat Locke completes his second four-
year term in January 2005, he will have been in public life 22 years, or 27 years, if you count his stint as a deputy King 
County prosecutor.
    He announced Monday that he won't run for a third term 
next year, citing family considerations.
    Locke's compelling personal story, which image-makers
emphasized heavily in his 1996 campaign for governor, is 
like something out of Horatio Alger.
    The second of five children, Locke spent his early years in Yesler Terrace, a Seattle housing project.  His father, Jimmy, had served in World War II after immigrating to America. Gary Locke worked in the family grocery store, attended public schools and became an Eagle Scout. Affirmative action and
financial aid propelled him to Yale, where he graduated in political science in 1972. A law degree from Boston 
University followed in 1975.
    He returned home and became a deputy prosecutor, legislative attorney and phone company executive.
    Locke served in the state House of Representatives 11 
years, first winning in 1982 from a liberal Seattle district by defeating an incumbent from his own party.
    House colleagues spotted him as a likely star and gave
him a coveted spot on the Appropriations Committee,
where he eventually served as chairman for five years.
    Then an intense young bachelor, Locke devoted long 
hours to learning the details of the state budget and how 
state government operates. A 1991 Seattle Weekly headline 
called him ``The Man Who Mistook His Life for the Legislature.''
    He had been married briefly in law school, but was a confirmed bachelor before a mutual friend introduced him to Mona Lee, a bubbly KING-TV newswoman who was credited with sprucing up his image and his wonkish demeanor. They have two children -- the first toddlers in the 32-room governor's mansion since Dan and Nancy Evans' sons in the 1960s.
    Locke considered running for governor in 1992 after Democrat Booth Gardner hung it up after two terms.
Eventually he deferred to the eventual winner, Mike Lowry, and then-Speaker Joe King.
    In 1993, Locke was elected King County executive.
    Three years later, Lowry unexpectedly retired after a single term -- and Locke jumped at the chance to step up. He waged 
a masterful campaign, based largely on his personal story and his pledge to improve education, which he called ``the Great Equalizer.''
    He defeated strong primary foes, including then-Seattle Mayor Norm Rice, and went on to crush former state Sen. Ellen Craswell in the November finals.
    He won again in 2000, this time rolling over conservative talk show host John Carlson.
    And despite his planned departure from public office, there may be a second act later on. He's only 53.



"Ruling on race policy draws mixed reaction," by Esther Wu
7/3/03 Dallas Morning News
    On June 24, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that colleges could use race as a factor when it comes to admissions policies. The court handed down its decision after two white students challenged the admissions policies at the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School. They claimed that the use of race in the schools' admissions was unconstitutional.
   There were two cases before the court, one involving admissions to the law school, and the other challenging the schools' complex undergraduate admissions process.
    In the first case, the court ruled 5-4 that the school could use race as a factor in enrollment in law school. However, the courts also ruled 6-3 that the school could not continue its current affirmative action plan for its undergraduate program because it involved a point system.
    In the 5-4 ruling, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor wrote, "In a society like our own ... race unfortunately still matters."
    Sounds like a slam-dunk, doesn't it? But last week's ruling has left mixed feelings among many Asian-Americans.
    It's a complicated issue compounded by the fact that the new ruling supersedes a court decision that barred the use of race in admissions in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. That case revolved around a woman named Cheryl Hopwood, who in 1992 said less-qualified students were admitted to the University of Texas Law School because of their race.
    Some education groups have reported that the percentage of Asian-American applicants granted admission at the University of Texas at Austin rose from 68 percent to 81 percent after the Hopwood decision.
    'Level playing field'
    However, last week, Malcolm Gillis, president at Rice University in Houston, said, "As the only highly selective university bound by the 5th Circuit's 1996 Hopwood ruling, Rice and the state of Texas have experienced a significant 'brain drain' of highly qualified minority students taken by universities able to take race into consideration. We particularly welcome the return to a level playing field this decision appears to provide."
    They aren't the only ones happy to see race used as a factor in school admissions.
    "The Supreme Court's decision reaffirms the need for affirmative action initiatives in America today. Asian Pacific American students will now be ensured that the student body will be representative of American society and that the Supreme Court recognizes that discrimination is still a factor that affects all minorities," said Karen K. Narasaki, president and executive director of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium.
    But Fort Worth attorney Don Joe said the Supreme Court's decision would allow universities to revert to or continue policies that hurt Asian-Americans, for the most part, because most Asian-Americans fall into a higher economic bracket.
    "In California, Washington and Texas, universities were forbidden from considering race in admissions and financial aid decisions. After the prohibitions went into effect, the number of Asian-Americans admitted by universities in those states increased," said Mr. Joe, who has been tracking this trend on his Web site, www.asianam.org.
    "I favor affirmative action based on income: A poor kid who has the same qualifications as a rich kid should receive a preference in university admissions," he said. "There is no reason the children of wealthy minorities should benefit from affirmative action based on race."
    A real victory?
    Syndicated columnist and television reporter Michelle Malkin agrees with Mr. Joe. The conservative columnist recently wrote: "Clueless Asian-American students and leaders are proclaiming 'victory' with other minority groups in the wake of the Michigan decisions. But as Peter Kirsanow, one of the rare voices of sanity on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission notes, 'Were Asian-American students not discriminated against in the college admissions process, they would constitute the
largest minority group, if not an outright majority, at many schools.' "
    She may be right. But it will be hard to convince Angie Chen Button.  Her son, Dane Chen Button, was denied admission to Harvard despite scoring 1500 on his SAT and being elected president of his student body at Berkner High School in Richardson. Instead, he will be attending an honors program at UT's School of Business.
    Ms. Button knows that not everyone who applies gets accepted. "But we feel strongly that this was a case of reverse discrimination," she said.
    As Americans - hyphenated or not - we are all equal. But until
everyone understands this, we'll need affirmative action programs.

7/2/03 San Francisco Examiner: "Asians face prejudice in housing market,"
    One out of every five Asians and Pacific Islanders faces discrimination in the housing market, according to a new study by the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
    Out of the 11 metropolitan cities researched, San Francisco was included in the study along with five other California cities: San Jose, Oakland, San Diego, Anaheim and Los Angeles.
    The results demonstrated that Asians and Pacific Islanders were treated adversely in comparison to whites in 21.5% of the cases when the subjects were looking to rent and 20.4% of the cases when the subjects were prospective homebuyers. These figures are roughly equal to the discrimination rate calculated in the past for African Americans and Hispanics.
    Despite the overall national statistics, "Asians and Pacific Islanders seeking rental housing in metropolitan areas of California are not treated significantly differently from comparable white renters," according to the study.
    The finding marks the end of phase two of HUD's Discrimination in Metropolitan Housing Market study.
    In the rental category, only two main areas showed significant discrimination between Asians and Pacific Islanders and whites in California. Rental agents were more likely to give rental incentives to whites; however, agents were also more likely to tell their white clients that a credit card check would be necessary.
    However, there was a significant rate of discrimination against Asians and Pacific Islanders when the subjects were prospective homebuyers in California. There was systematic discrimination in the areas of housing availability, housing inspection assistance, and help with financing, according to the report. At 19.6%, the state rate was still lower than the national average.
    Copies of the study are available at www.hud.gov, Click on the "Newsroom" link.

7/1/03 Associated Press: "Fox Drops 'Charlie Chan' Film Festival,"
    Los Angeles - Charlie Chan is off the case for the Fox Movie Channel.
    The channel, citing respect for contemporary racial attitudes, has dropped a summer festival of movies featuring the character of the Chinese detective.
    The films have been condemned by Asian-American activists as presenting ethnic stereotypes and because white actors played the part of Chan in the films first produced in the 1930s.
    Fox Movie Channel announced its decision on its Internet site Friday, drawing complaints from some fans of the movies as well as compliments from Chan critics.
    In its statement, the channel said the films were made "at a time when racial sensitivities were not as they are today." The channel invited comments from viewers and said it hoped "this action will evoke discussion about the progress made in our modern, multicultural society."
    Fox Movie Channel was part of an effort to restore nearly two dozen early Chan films, which were produced by parent studio 20th Century Fox.
    Some subscribers have complained about the films, which mostly starred Warner Oland and then Sidney Toler as Chan, a spokesman for the channel said. The Organization of Chinese Americans Inc., a Washington-based civil rights advocacy group, also complained.

6/30/03 Wall Street Journal: "Affirmative-Action Opponents Seek A Ban on Collection of Ethnic Data,"
    By law, public and private colleges and universities are required to ask prospective students about their race and ethnicity on applications and to report the results to the federal government. Students aren't legally bound to answer such questions, however, and a growing percentage don't.
    Nearly 18% of those who took the SAT in 2002 didn't respond to questions about their race and ethnicity, up from less than 10% in 1997. The College Board, the association that administers the SAT, uses such data to ensure that test questions are fair to all races. Schools also buy lists of SAT test takers to use for recruiting purposes.
    Meanwhile, at the University of California at Berkeley, 9.5% of the students admitted for this fall provided no ethnic data, up from 6% a decade ago. Johns Hopkins officials estimate that one out of five of its applicants doesn't reveal his or her race or ethnicity and say that most of the "no reports" appear to be Caucasian and Asian-Americans who apparently believe that reporting their race will play against them.
    Stung by last week's Supreme Court decision allowing race to continue to be considered in college admissions, affirmative-action opponents plan to attack such diversity programs by denying them a crucial commodity: data.
    Their first battleground will be California, where, as early as this fall, voters will be asked to decide on a "Racial Privacy Initiative." If passed, it would bar state and local government entities from maintaining databases related to citizens' race and ethnicity and -- except where the federal government requires it -- even collecting such information on forms involving school enrollment, job applications and government contracting.
    The measure is opposed by a far-flung group that ranges from civil-rights advocates who fear it will block efforts to stop racial profiling to health-care providers concerned that it will hamper medical research. The initiative has "a lot to do with how important health, education and law-enforcement programs are delivered," says Jay Zeigler, co-director of the Coalition for an Informed California.
    Still, there are signs that many people are increasingly reluctant to give up such information about themselves, and in California, early polls indicate that the initiative has the backing of 48% of the state's voters, even if many also say they are unsure of its details. Affirmative-action opponents hope a victory will stir up sympathetic legislative activity and ballot-box initiatives elsewhere.
    The California initiative's leading advocate is Sacramento businessman Ward Connerly, who was also a leader of the successful 1996 campaign to pass California's Proposition 209, which bars government entities in the state from using racial preferences in hiring, contracting and education. Mr. Connerly's efforts inspired voters in Washington state to pass a similar initiative two years later, and in 2000, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush changed his state's university admissions procedures after Mr. Connerly threatened to launch an initiative campaign there.
    In the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling, Mr. Connerly is already assessing whether to launch a second initiative campaign, in Michigan. Collecting the data necessary to categorize people by their backgrounds only heightens race's divisive influence upon society, he maintains. "I think deeply embedded in the psyche of the American people is the notion that we want to be colorblind," says Mr. Connerly, whose ancestors included Irish, French, African-Americans and Choctaw Indians.
    Opposition to the gathering of racial and ethnic information has not always been ground occupied by conservatives, reverse-discrimination activists or cagey college applicants. After World War II, early United Nations proclamations denounced the sort of government racial classifications that the Nazis had employed. During the civil-rights era, liberals argued for banning application photographs, which were used to screen African-American students out of many universities.
    The loss of such information would be a huge blow to efforts to ferret out discrimination, says Troy Duster, a New York University sociologist. "It may well be true that we are all alike at the DNA level," he adds, "but that doesn't stop the police from profiling or the bank from giving out loans due to pigmentation."


"Asian-Americans have nothing to celebrate,"
by Michelle Malkin, 6/25/03 2003 Creators Syndicate, Inc.,
6/26/03 Dallas Morning News
   There was only one thing that disturbed me more than President Bush's mushy comments praising socially 
engineered campus"diversity" this week.
    It was the newspaper photos and television broadcasts of militant Asian activists joining other liberal minority students across the country in a Sumatran gibbon-like celebration ritual 
of chest-beating, fist-pumping and pro-affirmative action whooping calls.
    Both Bush and the college zoo denizens were responding to the Supreme Court's racial preference rulings, which can be summed up thusly: It's dandy to discriminate in public university admissions. Just cloak your bigotry under the disingenuous guise of promoting "cross-racial understanding." Go ahead and trample the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause. Just don't make it so damn obvious.
   Nearly 30 Asian-American political and legal organizations
inexplicably filed amicus briefs in support of the University of Michigan's race-based admissions policies -- one of which awarded bonus points to blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans, but not to Asian-Americans or whites, on the mere basis of their skin color or ethnicity. The noxious point scheme was struck down, but the high court upheld the university
law school's stealthier scheme of ensuring a "critical mass" of racial and ethnic minorities.
    Except, that is, for Asians.
    Out of political expedience, you see, "minority" has been redefined by racial-preference promoters. It is no longer an objective statistical category, but an ideological status. Members of minority groups who have overcome barriers to success -- and who oppose being tallied by race -- are no longer viewed as people with valuable heritages, diverse life experiences, or raw memories of discrimination and prejudice.
They are effectively "white" and simply don't count.
    Clueless Asian-American students and leaders are proclaiming "victory" with other minority groups in the wake of the Michigan decisions.
    But as Peter Kirsanow, one of the rare voices of sanity on the U.S. Civil Rights Commission, notes, "were Asian-American students not discriminated against in the college-admissions process, they would constitute the largest minority group, if not an outright majority, at many schools." A recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education reports that the percentage of Asian-American applicants granted admission at the University of Texas-Austin rose from 68 percent to 81 percent immediately after the Hopwood decision struck down race-based admissions policies in the Fifth Circuit. After California's Proposition 209 ended race-based admissions, the percentage of Asian-American freshmen at Berkeley rose 6 percent.
    Kirsanow continues: "Asian Americans, though only 4 percent of the nation's population, account for nearly 20 percent of all medical students. Forty-five percent of Berkeley's freshman class, but only 12 percent of California's populace, consists of Asian Americans. And at UT-Austin, 18 percent of the freshman class is Asian American, compared to 3 percent for the state."
    For liberal race-fixers, having "too many" Asian-American students winning admissions on their own merits is a bad, bad thing. Overcoming the encumbrance of colored skin is viewed not as an accomplishment, but as a liability. A sad irony of the battle over racial preferences on campus is that many of the leaders who want to re-jigger the numbers to fit a politically correct, proportional ideal are traitorous Asian Americans
themselves.
    With a great deal of moral smugness and zeal, these "Me, Too" members of the cult of victimization are echoing calls to defend campuses against the supposed "threat" of race neutrality -- despite all the bald evidence that racial preferences are harming their very own constituents. In the name of diversity, they share President Clinton's demeaning concern that merit-only-based admissions could lead to universities filling "their entire freshmen classes with nothing but Asian Americans."
    In the more than a decade that I've been writing and reporting on the harm that government racial preferences causes Americans of all races and ethnicities, liberal Asian Americans have gleefully labeled me an "Aunt Tomasina," a "coconut" (brown on the outside, white on the inside) and a "sellout." But when you look at the numbers, when you look at the clear intent of the law, and when you cut through the smokescreen of
politically determined "diversity," it's quite clear who is selling out whom.

6/24/03 Sacramento Bee: "Major TV networks mostly ignore Hispanics, study finds,"
    Los Angeles Asian characters received only 1 percent of screen time in fall 2002 programs on the six major networks, according to the study by the University of California, Los Angeles. American Indians were deemed "invisible."
    Hispanic characters received only 3 percent while Hispanics make up 13.5 percent of the U.S. population.
    Last week, the Census Bureau announced that the number of Hispanics has grown at nearly four times the national population rate in the past two years, cementing their position as the nation's biggest minority group.  And Hispanic buying power is expected to balloon to $926.1 billion in 2007, up from about $580 billion in 2002, according to the Selig Center for Economic Growth at the University of Georgia. That far exceeds the buying power growth of overall non-Hispanic consumers.
    Other findings of the study, titled "Prime Time in Black and White," show little progress toward diversity, according to Darnell Hunt, the principal study author and director of UCLA's Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies.
    White characters received 81 percent of screen time, while non-Hispanic whites make up about 70 percent of the population. Black characters got about 15 percent of screen time, while the ethnic group represents 12.7 percent of the population, according to the second-year findings of the five-year study.
    But programs designed to reach black viewers tend to be "relegated to a particular night or two, and often concentrated on one of the smaller networks, if at all," Hunt noted in a statement.
    The research was based on a content analysis of 234 episodes of 85 situation comedies and dramas airing on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, UPN and WB during three weeks in October and November 2002.
    Racial representation varied by network. White characters were most overrepresented on WB and NBC while blacks were most overrepresented on UPN and on the network's Monday night sitcoms, the study found.

6/17/03 San Francisco Chronicle: "Clothing retailer accused of discriminating against minorities," by Deborah Kong
    San Francisco -- Clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch recruits and hires a disproportionately white sales force, cultivates a virtually all-white image and discriminates against minorities in hiring and firing, according to a lawsuit.
    The lawsuit, filed Monday by nine Hispanic and Asian plaintiffs in federal court in San Francisco, alleges that Abercrombie discriminates against blacks, Hispanics and Asians by enforcing a nationwide corporate policy of preferring white employees for sales positions, desirable job assignments and favorable work schedules.
    "If you look at the material they put out, they are cultivating an all-white look," said Thomas Saenz, vice president of litigation at the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, and one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs. "It is difficult to understand why, given that their target age demographic is even more heavily minority than the rest of the population, they would choose to do this."
    Anthony Ocampo, a Filipino-American who recently graduated from Stanford University, said he applied for a job at a store in Glendale, Calif. where he'd previously worked. After speaking with a manager, a sales person told him, "We're sorry, but we can't rehire you because there's already too many Filipinos working here," said Ocampo, 21.
    "I was pretty appalled and for a good amount of time I was just real angry," Ocampo said.
    Johan Montoya, another plaintiff, alleges a Canoga Park, Calif. store refused to hire him because he is Hispanic, even though he had experience working in a store in the same mall.
    "It's one of those things I never thought would happen to me," said Montoya, a student at the University of California, Santa Barbara. "We live in a day and age where discrimination is looked down upon so heavily, it was simply absurd."
    The New Albany, Ohio-based company, which targets college students with its upscale casual clothing, has about 600 stores and about 22,000 employees nationwide.
    Spokesman Tom Lennox said Abercrombie has not received a copy of the lawsuit, and declined comment on its specifics.
"However, as a company that prides itself on diversity we are dismayed by the lawsuit and take this matter very seriously," he said. "Abercrombie & Fitch represents American style. America is diverse and we want diversity in our stores."
    Lennox said the company does not discriminate and that "our policy is to have a zero tolerance for discrimination in hiring or employment on the basis of race, national origin, ancestry" and other characteristics protected by state and federal law.
    The company has been accused of racial insensitivity in the past. Last spring, it removed T-shirts from stores after Asian-American groups complained about depictions of two slant-eyed men in conical hats and the slogan "Wong Brothers Laundry Service -- Two Wongs Can Make it White."
    According to the lawsuit, which is seeking class certification, the company has a policy that requires all sales people to exhibit an all-white "A&F look." Posters and a television program in stores display models who are mostly white, as does the company's catalogue, the lawsuit alleges. The company also encourages recruitment from overwhelmingly white fraternities and sororities, it says.
    Abercrombie refuses to hire qualified minority applicants to work on the sales floor, the suit alleges. When it does hire minorities, it channels them to stock room and overnight shifts and reduces their hours, it says.
    One plaintiff, Juancarlos Gomez-Montejano, filed a discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which found the company had discriminated against him and Hispanics and blacks "as a class," according to the lawsuit.
    Gomez-Montejano recounted his experience to the Mexican American fund, which filed the lawsuit along with the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and San Francisco law firm Lieff, Cabraser, Heimann & Bernstein.
    Another plaintiff, Angeline Wu, a Chinese-American, saw her hours cut and was later terminated from a store in Costa Mesa, Calif. That happened after a manager pointed at a poster of a blond-haired, blue-eyed male model and said the store needed more staff members with a similar appearance, she said. She and five other Asian-American women were later terminated, she said.
    "It shouldn't be happening, especially in this day," Wu said. "We've had the civil rights movement in the past and this is outrageous. It shouldn't be happening."

6/5/03 press release from Japanese American Citizens League: "Stuart Ishimaru Recommended to EEOC by Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle JACL commends Senator Daschle for his consistent and continued commitment to ensuring that the APA community is represented on civil rights commissions San Francisco"
    The Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), the nations oldest and largest Asian Pacific American (APA) civil rights organization, lauds and expresses its deepest gratitude to Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle for his consistent and continued commitment to ensuring that the APA community is represented on civil rights commissions by recommending Paul Igasaki for re- nomination to his seat at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) last year and now by recommending Stuart Ishimaru for the vacancy.  
    The JACL urges the White House to act on Democratic Leader Daschles recommendation and promptly move Mr. Ishimarus candidacy forward. 
    We applaud Democratic Leader Daschles decision to recommend Stuart Ishimaru for the EEOC, stated JACL National President Floyd Mori. Senator Daschle clearly understands the importance of having qualified people of diverse backgrounds bring their voices and experience to the federal civil rights commissions, and Mr. Ishimaru is an outstanding choice for the EEOC. 
    Stuart Ishimarus credentials are impeccable, added John Tateishi, JACL National Executive Director. He will bring years of experience and keen insight to the Commission. The Asian Pacific American community is fortunate to have public officials of such caliber as former commissioner Paul Igasaki and Stuart Ishimaru, and we thank them for their service and steadfast commitment to issues of concern to our community. The JACL urges the White House to act on this recommendation immediately. 
    Stuart Ishimaru, a long-time JACL member, received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley (1980) and his JD from the National Law Center, George Washington University (1983). He has long years of federal and community service and in the field of civil rights, including: research assistant to U.S. Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (1981); assistant to the director at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law (1982-83); graduate course instructor in Equal Employment Opportunity at American University; assistant counsel to Committee on the Judiciary (1984-91) and professional staff to Committee on Armed Services (1991-93) for the U.S. House of Representatives; acting staff director for U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1993-94); counsel to Assistant Attorney General (1994-99) and Deputy Assistant Attorney General (1999-2001) in the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice. 
    Stuart Ishimaru is the second name recommended during this administration by Democratic Leader Daschle. Last year, after eight years of service on the EEOC, Paul Igasakis candidacy languished at the White House for months and failed to receive the administrations support. The JACL encourages its members and friends to express their appreciation to Senator Daschle for putting forward Stuart Ishimarus name for the EEOC (email: tom_daschle@daschle.senate.gov) and to urge the White House to act on this recommendation using the JACL website at: http://capwiz.com/jacl/mail/oneclick_compose/?alertid=2483051 .

6/4/03 Associated Press: "More Calif. Lawmakers Urge N.C. Congressman to Resign Post: After Five Months, Coble Stands by His Endorsement of the WWII Internment of Civilians,"
    Sacramento, CA -- The California Senate joined the state Assembly on Monday in urging Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., to resign as chairman of a congressional subcommittee because of his comments rationalizing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
    Coble, a North Carolina Republican who heads the House Judiciary subcommittee on homeland security, said during a Feb. 4 radio show that the internment was for the Japanese Americans' own protection.
    ``We were at war,'' Coble said. ``For many of these Japanese Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street.''
    He also said that some Japanese Americans ``probably were intent on doing harm to us, just as some of these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us.''
    The California Assembly voted 70-0 last month to condemn the comments as ``insulting, inflammatory (and) inaccurate.'' Assemblyman George Nakano, who was interned at age 6, said Coble's comments amount to rewriting history.

5/15/03 Associated Press: "New KSTP-TV Anchor Kent Ninomiya Highest Profile APA in Any News Market,"
    St. Paul -- KSTP-TV, Channel 5, will mark a
milestone in diversity in local news when news anchor
Kent Ninomiya joins the station.
    Ninomiya, 36, a Japanese-American, will become the
highest-profile Asian-American male newscaster in any
local market, according to Asian-American journalism
leaders.
    Starting around June 30, he'll co-anchor the 5 p.m., 6
p.m. and 10 p.m. newscasts. His partner will be Harris
Faulkner, who is black, making them the Twin Cities'
only front-line news team of minorities.
    KSTP general manager Ed Piette said race was not an
issue in selecting Ninomiya.
    ``My whole approach is that viewers out there don't
look at the color of someone's skin or the slant of a
person's eyes,'' he said. ``We did a lot of research
involving local viewers, and they were just impressed
with his ability to communicate and deliver the
news.''
    The decision ended a year's search for an anchor to
replace Randy Meier, who was unable to move the award
winning station out of third place with viewers.
    Ninomiya also was quick to downplay race as a factor.
    ``It's flawed thinking to think whites won't watch
blacks or blacks won't watch whites,'' he said from
Los Angeles, where he is the weekend anchor for UPN
affiliate KCOP. ``You have to give the Twin Cities
audience more credit than that.''
    Mae Cheng, president of the Asian American Journalism
Association, said Ninomiya's appointment is
significant, given the lack of Asian-American men on
the air.
    ``Asian-American women have the likes of Connie Chung
to look up to, but there are few Asian-American men of
such prominence in the broadcast industry,'' she said.

5/15/03 Associated Press: "Lubbock Asian Americans Demand Public Apology from Utility's CEO,"
    Lubbock, Texas -- Several Asian-American groups in Lubbock are demanding a public apology for words used by the head of the city-owned utility company.
    Tony Song, president of the Association of Chinese Students and Scholars at Lubbock, and representatives of other Asian-American groups told Lubbock City Council members Thursday they were offended by remarks made by Lubbock Power & Light Chief Executive Officer Carroll McDonald that were published April 18 in The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal.
    In the story, McDonald is accused of referring to an
Asian-American manager at LP&L as a ``Chinaman,'' and
referring to his work as being ``written in Chinese.''
    Gary Zheng, the utility's chief operations officer and the target of McDonald's remarks, declined to comment to the newspaper except to say that the matter was between the two of them.
    McDonald made the comments in a closed city council meeting, and several council members and senior city staff officials said they heard them.
    A phone message seeking comment from McDonald on
Friday was not immediately returned.
    Song said the groups' members demand a public apology.
    ``This happened in city hall, so city government has to take a position,'' Song said. ``Any harassment of any race, creed or color cannot be tolerated.''
    Song, who submitted a petition with 205 signatures at the meeting, said the epithet differs from names such as ``Irishman'' or ``Frenchman.'' The slur, he said, was used to refer to 19th century Chinese immigrants who were viewed with contempt when they replaced striking American railroad workers.
    ``They were laughed at. The word meant they were ugly and dirty and stupid,'' Song said.
    Interim City Manager Tommy Gonzalez said he verbally admonished McDonald on April 10 the day of the incident. Gonzalez also said McDonald apologized to Zheng that day, and McDonald later apologized to the City Council in a closed meeting.
    Some council members said they thought the remarks were offensive, while others said Gonzalez should address the issue. Gonzalez said Thursday he would review the petition.
    Song is a Texas Tech faculty member. His organization is composed of more than 20 associate, assistant and full professors and more than 200 graduate students, he said.


5/8/03 Associated Press: "Researcher Acquitted of 
Economic Spying Sues UC Davis,"
    Sacramento -- A former biology researcher sued the University of California Monday, nearly a year after he was 
freed from jail and acquitted of economic espionage charges raised by his bosses at a Davis campus laboratory.
    Bin Han, 41, accused his former employer UC Davis of
firing him because he was Chinese and was about to expose wrongdoing in the lab where he worked. In the civil suit filed in Sacramento Superior Court, Han also accused the university 
of orchestrating his arrest and 18-day incarceration last year.
    Han is suing the University of California Regents and 
seeks an unspecified monetary award.
    UC Davis officials couldn't be reached late Monday, but 
have maintained race never played a part in their firing Han.
    Han was accused of stealing 20 vials of a protein gel
researchers were using in attempts to grow replacement
corneas for the blind. Police found vials of the gel in his 
freezer in his home and a plane ticket to his native China.
    He was originally charged with three felonies, including the theft of trade secrets and embezzlement.
    Han, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was held without bail in 
solitary confinement because authorities considered him a 
flight risk. Prosecutors later threw out all but one charge, 
which a judge reduced to a misdemeanor.
    A jury acquitted Han of the remaining count in August.
    Han maintained he stored the vials in his freezer as a
convenience and was fired before he could return them 
to the school.
    Some critics called the case ethnically motivated and
compared it to the saga of former Los Alamos National
Laboratory scientist Wen Ho Lee.
    Lee, who was prosecuted for making copies of sensitive
nuclear weapons data, pleaded guilty to a single count
of downloading data to computer tape at Los Alamos
National Laboratory. He has said he made backup copies
to protect data from being erased.

5/2/03 press release 
Contact: Roger Chiang May 2, 2003 202-863-8054 Meeting With Democratic Leaders Kicks Off Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Washington, D.C. -         On May 1, 2003, Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) national advocacy groups and community leaders met with members of the U.S. Senate Democratic Steering Committee and Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus to discuss legislative issues important to the APIA community. 
    Caucus Committee Chair Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton convened the meeting with the assistance of the Democratic National Committee Office of Asian Pacific Islander American Outreach. Twenty-four leaders participated in the meeting to address issues most relevant to the APIA community. Among the topics discussed were the economy, the Patriot Act, hate crimes and racial profiling, immigration, employment and business, health and welfare, education and housing, appropriations and federal appointments.          
    Organizations and individuals participating in the meeting included: 
Karen Narasaki, National Asian Pacific Legal Consortium 
Stanley Mark, Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund 
Gem Daus, Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum 
Daphne Kwok, Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies 
Bo Thao, Hmong National Development , Inc. 
Kapil Sharma, Indian American Center for Political Awareness 
John Tateishi, Japanese American Citizens League Grace Yoo, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association 
Kiran Ahuja, National Asian Pacific Americans Women's Forum 
Armando Heredia, National Federation of Filipino American Associations 
Christine Chen, Organization of Chinese Americans KaYing Yang, Southeast Asia Resource Action Center Varun Nikore, Indian American Leadership Incubator Hitesh Bhakta, Asian American Hotel Owners Association 
Cao O, Asian American Federation of New York Margaret Iwanaga Penrose, Union of Pan Asian Communities 
Gie Kim, Washington DC Area Chapter, Korean American Coalition 
Martha Choe, Washington State Office of Trade and Economic Development 
Jeffrey Caballero, Association of Asian Pacific Community Health Organizations 
Nicholas Rathod, South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow 
Manjit Singh, Sikh Mediawatch and Resource Task Force (SMART) 
The Honorable John Liu, Councilmember, New York City Council 
Gen Fujioka, Asian Law Caucus 
Rev. Norman Fong, Chinatown Community Development Corporation 
Giho Kim, Asian American Empowerment Council          
    Senators who participated in the meeting were Hillary Rodham Clinton (NY), Daniel Akaka (HI), Patty Murray (WA), Barbara Boxer (CA), John Corzine (NJ), Russ Feingold (WI), Harry Reid (NV), Maria Cantwell (WA). Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus Chair Congressman David Wu (OR), Vice Chair Congressman Mike Honda and representatives for Senators Tom Daschle, Edward Kennedy, Richard Durbin and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also attended the meeting.

5/2/03 Associated Press: "Marker Honors Little-Known Contributions of Asian Civil War Soldiers,"
    Columbus, OH -- A historical marker dedicated Saturday honors the little-known contributions of Asian immigrants who fought for the Union in the Civil War.
    Of the 313,180 Ohioans who fought in the Civil War, at least 17 were Asian, most of them Chinese, said Sonya Gong, chairwoman of the Columbus chapter of the Organization of Chinese Americans.
    The group has not located any of the soldiers' descendants, she said.
    Unlike many Civil War veterans, Asians were denied war pensions and citizenship because of anti-Asian sentiment at the time, said group member Siu-Lueng Lee, who first suggested the marker to the Ohio Bicentennial Commission.
    Asians first arrived in the United States in the 17th and 18th centuries through the Philippines, Lee said. They came as laborers.
    ``We are something like forgotten in the history. That's why it needs to be told,'' said Chih Ping Chen, a Vietnam native and member of the Chinese-American group.
    American Indian, French, German, Irish and Moravian soldiers also fought in the war, said Tom Vince of the Cuyahoga Valley Civil War Roundtable.

May 1, 2003 
Dear Friend: 
    Today marks the beginning of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The Democratic Party is honored to join all Americans to pay tribute to America's Asian Pacific Islander community. 
    Although we take time this month to pay special tribute to the people and heritage of the Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) community, every day the Democratic Party fights to preserve the values of and address the issues most important to all APIAs. The Democratic Party is the only party that continually dedicates staff and resources to increase the APIA community's vote! 
    Democrats in Congress strongly support legislation that directly affects the APIA community, including support for a comprehensive economic plan that helps individual taxpayers and small business owners, legislation that strengthens America's schools and provides for programs to help our children excel, tougher hate crimes laws, and fair, non-discriminatory immigration laws. 
    Today, Asian Pacific Islander American advocacy organizations are meeting with Senate Democrats to continue an ongoing discussion of the APIA community's legislative priorities. 
    As part of the DNC's observance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, there will be a fund-raiser reception on Thursday, May 22 in Washington, D.C. We will celebrate the richness of the APIA people and culture, and honor the achievements of great Asian American elected officials including Congressman David Wu, Congressman Mike Honda, Maryland Delegate Kumar Barve and Maryland Delegate Susan Lee. Your invitation will be forthcoming. 
    If you want more information about this special evening, please call Roger Chiang, Director of Asian Pacific Islander American Outreach at (202) 863-8054 or by email at ChiangR@dnc.org. Also, please visit our website at www.democrats.org/apia. Together, we will continue to strengthen the Asian Pacific Islander American community! 
    I am deeply honored to join you as we celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. 
    Sincerely, 
    Terence R. McAuliffe 
    Chairman

4/25/03 press release
Pelosi Appoints Asian Americans to Key Positions in Leadership Office 
    Washington, D.C. -- House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi has named Asian Americans Shamina Singh as Advisor for her Leadership office and Howard Moon to serve as Floor Assistant. 
    "Shamina and Howard bring a wealth of experience and knowledge to the Leadership Office," said Pelosi. "They represent a community whose perspectives are so important to the work we do each day for hard- working Americans." 
    Singh will serve as an envoy to the Asian and Pacific Islander Americans communities and as a liaison to the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and the India Caucus. "This is the first time that a Leadership office of the U.S. Congress has placed such a high priority on issues facing Asian and Pacific Islander Americans, and I will work hard to build strong relationships between the Congress and our communities," said Singh, whose portfolio will also include health care and labor issues. 
    Moon currently assists the Leader in managing floor operations for the Democrats in the House of Representatives. As a Floor Assistant, Moon helps to coordinate the scheduling of legislative business and advises Democratic Members of Congress and their staff on floor strategy and parliamentary procedures. "I am honored by the trust and responsibility Leader Pelosi has vested in me. As the first woman to be elected Leader of either party, she doesn't simply appreciate the value of diversity, she practices it. I am proud to be a part of her team," said Moon. 
    Singh recently served as Deputy Campaign Manager for the Ron Kirk for U.S. Senate campaign in Texas. Previously, she worked in the Clinton Administration, first as Congressional Liaison for Health Care at the U.S. Department of Labor, then as Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. She has also held positions with the Service Employees International Union and Governor Ann Richards of Texas. A native of Southern Virginia, Singh is a graduate of Old Dominion University and holds a masters degree in public affairs from the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. 
    Moon has been with Leader Pelosi since January 2002, when she assumed the position of Democratic Whip prior to being elected Democratic Leader. Previously, he was a Floor Assistant for the former Democratic Whip David Bonior (D-MI). Moon got his start on Capitol Hill with Congressman Robert Matsui (D-CA), the current Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman, with whom he served in various legislative roles for 2 and 1/2 years. He is a native of La Canada, California and is a graduate of Pomona College in Claremont, California.

4/20/03 South Florida Sun-Sentinel 
"Rights group, legislators work to end anti-Japanese bias, law"
    A national civil rights group and local political leaders are trying to get rid of vestiges of World War II discrimination still visible on Florida billboards and in its constitution. 
    At issue is the proliferation of auto repair signs using the slur "Jap" from Miami to Jacksonville, the word's use in countless Bell South phone books and in newspaper ads.
    Florida is also one of the last states in the nation with a constitutional provision created to ban Japanese immigrants from owning property. 
    A state senator introduced a constitutional amendment this month to rid Florida of the unenforced discriminatory measure. 
    The Japanese American Citizens League -- the nation's oldest and largest Asian American civil rights group -- plans to launch a campaign demanding that newspapers and phone books change their advertising policies.  The JACL also wants to establish a Florida chapter to deal with such issues in the future. 
    For many, these lingering echoes of the war are a painful reminder of a time when people of Japanese descent were rounded up into internment camps in 1942. The United States government justified such measures as militarily necessary at the time but has since apologized to survivors. 
    John Tateishi, national executive director of the JACL, is among those drawing parallels between the Japanese-American experience during World War II and the government's current registration policy with Muslims and Arab Americans. 
    As recently as Feb. 4, Rep. Howard Coble, R-N.C., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security, called the internment justified because some people of Japanese descent "were intent on doing harm to us just as some of these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us." 
    State Sen. Steve Geller of Hallandale Beach and state Rep. Phillip Brutus of North Miami, both Democrats, introduced legislation in February to seek voter approval for a constitutional amendment that would eliminate the "Alien Land Law." 
    First adopted in California in 1913, the law was designed to keep Japanese immigrants from settling. It was added to Article 1 of the Florida Constitution in 1926 and lays out basic rights such as land ownership -- except in the case of "aliens ineligible for citizenship."
     State Sen. Jim Sebesta, R-St. Petersburg, wants language in the bill that keeps "illegal aliens" from owning land. 
    Geller, who did not expect an "anti-immigrant backlash," said he hopes to work out a compromise. "I'm doing my best to ensure we take the offensive language out of the constitution," Geller said. "I could've done this before 9/11 with no problem, but the war has made it even worse." 
    The JACL, meanwhile, is trying to discourage people from using the word "Jap." Several years ago, when the group researched listings using the slur found in a half dozen states, they found that Florida had the highest number -- more than 2,000. Many are Japanese car repair shops such as The Jap Shop in Boca Raton.
    Coined more than a century ago, the epithet became increasingly venomous as anti-Japanese tensions grew during World War II. Critics say that the word is as dehumanizing as any other slur and that advertising on local cable TV, in phonebooks and newspapers increases its visibility. 
    When the South Florida Sun-Sentinel's advertising department was alerted in January that the ads could be considered offensive, executives told company owners that the word had to be removed to continue advertising in the paper. 
    Officials at The Miami Herald were alerted in January to the slur's continuing presence in advertisements and were reviewing the paper's policy. Robert Beatty, The Herald's vice president of public affairs and general counsel, said Friday that the problem "has been resolved" but would not say whether the paper is still accepting ads with the word. 
    If The Herald is still running the ads, Tateishi said the JACL will pursue it because it would be "a conscious decision to continue the use of `Jap' in advertising, knowing full well that it's a derogatory, racist slur."            
    Members of Miami's Asian American Advisory board also are taking action. They urged the Historical Museum of South Florida in Miami to include the internment in its current World War II exhibit that runs through June. The traveling show was put together in Tallahassee by the Museum of Florida History. Focus on Florida Miami museum officials, however, said that they aren't allowed to change exhibits and that the focus of the display is on Florida, where there were no camps.          When reached by the Sun-Sentinel, officials from the Tallahassee museum apologized for the omission. Senior Curator Bob McNeil is working to put together a small panel on the internment and on what people of Japanese descent experienced in Florida during the war. 


4/18/03 Associated Press: "Missing Thai-American Marine Now Listed as Killed
    Waterford, CT -- His lighthearted attitude and quick smile made him seem carefree, but his parents say Cpl. Kemaphoom Chanawongse had a strong sense of duty.
    That is why he put college on hold to join the Marines and was not scared when called to fight in Iraq. Now, his parents say it is their duty to ensure he is honored in death.
    Chanawongse, 22, who came to the United States at age 9 from Thailand, was confirmed dead Wednesday, three weeks after he went missing during a firefight outside the town of Nasiriyah.
    ``He was a proud Marine, and we are the proud parents of a Marine,'' said his mother, Tan Patchem.
    Chanawongse will be buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.
    ``He'll be among his fellow Marines and the other brave soldiers and heroes,'' Tan Patchem said. ``He deserves to be there.''
    Known as ``Ahn'' by his friends and family at home, Chanawongse was a free spirit, always laughing and cracking jokes. Friends say he loved to tell stories. The Marines in his unit called him ``Chuckles.''
    He liked playing paintball and snowboarding, and played the joker to his older brother, Kemapawse.
    Waterford First Selectman Paul Eccard said he exuded ``that energy of youth.''
    ``His presence was joy and laughter,'' he said. ``He's one of Waterford's heroes that put himself forward in the Marine Corps and put himself in harm's way to represent our country.''
    But Chanawongse, who graduated from Waterford High School in 1999, made it clear he was serious when he said he wanted to join the Marines.
    ``He knew what he was doing. He understood it was dangerous, and he was proud of doing it,'' Tan Patchem said.
    ``He did it without fear and without delay, even one minute,'' his stepfather, Paul Patchem, said.
    For weeks, his parents held out hope their son would survive. Their spirits were bolstered this week by the rescue of seven American POWs, even as the Pentagon confirmed five members of Chanawongse's unit had been killed.
    But on Tuesday night, three Marines and a chaplain came to the Patchem home to inform the couple of their son's death before the official announcement . The couple was told that their son was killed along with six other Marines on March 23, when their unit was ambushed while attempting to secure a bridge over the Euphrates River.
    The couple held hands, and together with the Marines and chaplain, they prayed. Then they began calling relatives in Thailand.
    Chanawongse's grandfather, a veteran of the Thai air force, will attend the service at Arlington. So will Chanawongse's brother, who is studying in Thailand.
    Connecticut Gov. John G. Rowland requested that flags in the state fly at half-staff until after the memorial service.
    A funeral date has not been set. Tan Patchem said the family also will hold a traditional Thai ceremony at a temple in Washington, D.C.
    ``This is our duty,'' she said. ``We have to do for him now. He is 22, he shouldn't be the first to be buried.''

4/11/03 Los Angeles Times: "Spying Case Stuns Chinese American Leaders: The accusation that high-profile businesswoman Katrina Leung was a double agent triggers fears of an ethnic backlash,".
    Shock and apprehension.
    The two words best describe the Southern California Chinese American community's reaction Thursday to charges that a prominent Chinese American businesswoman was a double agent who obtained secret information for China from an FBI  counterintelligence officer.
    "I was totally shocked," said Assemblywoman Judy Chu, D-Monterey Park, who knew Katrina Leung well. "I couldn't believe it."
    Former South Pasadena Mayor Paul Zee said he fears that the "isolated" case could unleash widespread suspicion against Chinese Americans -- even before the case goes to trial.
    "It's all too easy to paint a Chinese American person as a spy for China," said Chu, who worked closely with Leung on the Monterey Park-Quanzhou sister city relationship.
    Chu, like numerous other Chinese American leaders, recalled the case of scientist Wen Ho Lee.
    "He was charged with 59 counts of espionage, fired from his job, taken to jail, held in solitary confinement -- and then 58 of the charges were dropped," Chu said. "This is why I would caution people from leaping to judgment until the outcome of the trial."
    Leung, who was Ivy League-educated, was well-connected socially and politically. Fluent in English, Mandarin and Cantonese, she frequently emceed banquets attended by Chinese dignitaries and hundreds of guests.
    Stewart Kwoh, president of the Asian American Legal Center, said Leung deserves a fair hearing.
    "We certainly are not in a position to know what really happened," Kwoh said, "but a fair hearing is a prerequisite in our system."
    Whatever the outcome, he said, that shouldn't be an excuse for widespread stereotyping and suspicions against Chinese Americans, in particular, and Asian Americans in general.
    Throughout their history in this country, he said, Chinese Americans have been plagued by the stereotype of a "suspicious foreigner or a perpetual foreigner" whose loyalties are in question.
    Political scientist Don T. Nakanishi, director of the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, said he was struck by the contrasting images he saw this week in the journey of Chinese Americans in this country.
    "Within a day, you have a Chinese American being accused of being a double agent for the People's Republic of China and, on the other hand, you have the image of a Chinese American soldier draping the American flag on the head of Saddam Hussein's statue," he said.
    "And you also have a prosecutor [U.S. Atty. Debra W. Yang] who is Chinese American," said Lily Chen Lee, former mayor of Monterey Park.
    "There is no greater statement than that Chinese Americans are really Americans."
    Leung, who made campaign contributions to many politicians, Republicans and Democrats alike, contributed $1,500 to Zee's state senatorial campaign in 2000. And she gave $1,490 to Chu's 1998 and 1994 campaigns.
    Both Chu and Zee described Leung as a capable and energetic person who threw herself behind causes she supported.
    "If she agrees to involve herself in anything, she will put in 120%," Zee said.
    Chu said Leung was proud of Chinese American elected officials, as she was of others of the same ancestry who she believed had succeeded in America.
    Chu also said Leung wanted to contribute to the establishment of good relations between the United States and China through sister city groups.
    Also on Wednesday, the day Leung and former FBI agent James J. Smith were arrested, the Los Angeles World Affairs Council, on whose board Leung served, issued a statement expressing its "shock."
    "We were surprised and shocked as anyone when the news broke this morning regarding Ms. Leung," said J. Curtis Mack II, president of the council. Leung had been named to the board in January.
    Many Asian American political leaders also said it pained them that the incident comes when Chinese Americans in the Los Angeles area have made gains in political participation.
    "The Monterey Park City Council is now majority Chinese American," said Chen. There are also numerous Chinese Americans serving on school boards, she said.
    Yet when something like this happens, they fear a backlash, the Asian American leaders said.
    "It seems that we take one step forward and two steps backward," said David Lang, a well-connected Chinese American political consultant.
    "Right now, the important thing is that she get a fair trial," Chen said.

4/5/03 Associated Press: "Coble cancels speech at Guilford over objections to WWII remarks,"
    Greensboro: U.S. Rep. Howard Coble will not speak at his alma mater's commencement after a third of the senior class objected to remarks he made about the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.
    Coble, R-N.C., withdrew from the speech at Guilford College because he was concerned that his appearance might spark protests, the college announced Thursday.
    "Commencement is for the seniors," Coble said in a statement released by the college. "It's their special day, and they should enjoy all aspects of the graduation program."
    About a third of the 160 graduating students presented Coble with a petition Wednesday asking him not to speak at graduation.
    The petition criticized remarks Coble made in February supporting the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII. Coble later apologized for the statements, but not before he was widely criticized and his leadership questioned.
    Last month, the Democratic National Committee called on Coble to resign as chairman of the House Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security subcommittee. The panel handles legislation governing domestic security and terrorism programs, drug interdiction efforts and the federal prison system.
    In addition to opposing Coble's remarks about internment, some Guilford seniors questioned whether Coble's support of the U.S. war in Iraq runs counter to the pacifist tradition of the Religious Society of Friends, or Quakers, who founded Guilford College.
    Guilford seniors were concerned that Coble's stances could spark some sort of student protest at commencement, such as heckling or turning away from the speaker.

3/25/03 Associated Press: "Jury Orders LAPD to Pay $3.5 Million in Discrimination Suit,"
    Los Angeles -- A jury has ordered the Police Department to pay $3.5 million to an Asian American officer who faced racial discrimination, harassment and retaliation that forced his transfer to another position.
    On Thursday. the jury reached 12-0 verdicts on three employment claims after two days of deliberations. It is the highest employment discrimination verdict against the LAPD on behalf of an Asian American and against its K-9 unit, where Officer Richard Nagatoshi worked as a dog handler, said his attorney Matthew McNicholas.
    ``This man went through seven years of living hell and nothing could give him back his career, but this verdict is a clear vindication of Officer Nagatoshi's courage, determination and honor,'' McNicholas said.
    The city plans to appeal the verdict, said Eric Moses of the city attorney's office
    Moses said that there were ``legitimate nondiscriminatory reasons'' for the actions that Nagatoshi claims were discriminatory and retaliatory, and that the harassment claim was filed past the statute of limitations.
    Nagatoshi, 40, said he was discriminated against by fellow officers. In one incident, officers in the K-9 unit refused to respond to his backup calls during a 2 1/2-hour car chase, McNicholas said.
    All of the dog handlers eventually spoke out against their supervisors, who were trying to remove a lieutenant from his post.
    Following that effort, a sergeant made a derogatory remark about an Asian American driver during a K-9 unit event and forced Nagatoshi to sign a complaint form written in Korean, although he is not Korean, as his supervisors laughed.
    Over the next several months, supervisors shunned him and investigated him for two alleged excessive-force complaints, which were dismissed, McNicholas said.
    Nagatoshi, an 18-year veteran, transferred to the Armory, where he distributes supplies, in November 2001, two months after filing his suit.
    During that time, someone posted copies of his complaint in the K-9 unit offices and stuffed pink women's underwear in his work mailbox, court papers said.

3/18/03 Fort Worth Star Telegram: "Frost proposes help for immigrants in military,"
    Arlington, TX - U.S. Rep. Martin Frost said Monday that he wants a new law that would make it easier and cheaper for immigrants in America's military to become citizens of this country.
    Passage of the Citizenship for America's Troops Act would recognize the "high degree of patriotism" shown by the more than 37,600 immigrants who are on active duty in the U.S. military, many of whom will likely be on the front lines in a war with Iraq, Frost said.
    Standing in a Veterans of Foreign Wars post and flanked by two foreign-born Army sergeants, Frost said, "Thousands of the brave men and women of our military, who could soon enter combat in the Persian Gulf, do not share in the full rights and privileges of American citizens."
    Passage of the legislation would "recognize the service of these troops to our country by helping them become U.S. citizens," Frost said in a prepared statement.
    Currently, immigrants in the U.S. military must serve three years before they can become eligible for citizenship, they must pay application fees that can total more than $1,000 and they must undergo government interviews in the United States.
    If passed, Frost's bill would shorten the required military service time to two years, eliminate all fees and allow applicants to be interviewed in the countries where they are stationed.
    Frost said that he first introduced the bill last year, with little opposition, but that Congress ended its session without considering it. Later, Bush signed an executive order making all noncitizen members of the U.S. military immediately eligible for citizenship if they had been on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001.
    That is not enough, Frost said, adding in a news release that the "naturalization process is still burdensome for many troops, especially those deployed overseas."
 
    The numbers of white, Asian and Hispanic undergraduates have increased since affirmative action was banned, but the number of black students has dropped.
    At UC Irvine, Asians make up about 52 percent of undergraduates and their numbers have been steadily growing for years, leading some to question whether the campus is truly diverse.
    Many say they've heard the names deriding the school's large Asian population - the University of Chinese Immigrants, for instance.
    But they say such criticisms ignore the ethnic diversity among Asians. In libraries, for example, students can search electronic card catalogs in Chinese, Japanese or Korean characters, along with English.
    With blacks making up just 2 percent of undergraduates, some say the school has suffered without affirmative action.
    "Especially for a public institution that our tax dollars pay for, I think it's imperative that the school represents the community at large that it serves," Nailat said.
    Others, like sociology major Casey Kim, believe it's better off without such policies.
    "I'd be upset if I didn't get into UC because someone who didn't really work hard for it got in. If you base a reward system on race, it's still racism," said Kim, who is Korean-American. "It creates more racial segregation and more racial tension."

3/6/03 Greensboro News & Record: "Rep. Burr comes to Coble's defense,"
    Greensboro -- U.S. Rep. Richard Burr leaped to the defense of his colleague Howard Coble on Wednesday, criticizing Sen. John Edwards for ripping Coble a day before for his month-old remarks supporting the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
    With Burr's entry into the fray, North Carolina's two most ambitious U.S. legislators have co-opted a controversy that has the usually low-key Coble drawing fire from leading congressional Democrats and minority-advocacy groups.
    "It is clear that John Edwards is allowing his national aspirations to cloud his judgment," Burr said in a prepared statement. "Howard Coble deserves respect from a North Carolina colleague."
    Edwards, a Democrat, is running for president in 2004, while Burr, a Winston-Salem Republican, is raising money to run for Edwards' seat next year.
    On Tuesday, Edwards issued a statement saying that Coble's remarks suggested that the Greensboro Republican was not fit to lead a House subcommittee on homeland security.
    "Someone who thinks it was OK for the United States to put innocent Americans behind barbed wire fences in 1942 should not make decisions about how to protect Americans in 2003," Edwards said.
    Coble's office, in response, simply pointed reporters to a statement Coble made Feb. 10 in which he apologized for his "choice of words."
    An irate Burr, however, issued his own statement on Wednesday, saying that Edwards should concentrate on Senate matters -- specifically, confirming the appointment of Miguel Estrada to the District of Columbia circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals. Senate Democrats are blocking Estrada, an appointee of President Bush, from joining the court.
    In an interview, Burr also criticized Edwards for not calling Coble privately or investigating the congressman's remarks before issuing a public statement. A spokesman for Edwards, Mike Briggs, said the senator would not respond to Burr's criticism.
    Burr said he doesn't know whether he agrees with Coble's original remarks on the internment of Japanese Americans because he didn't hear the radio show on which Coble made them. He said he tried but failed to obtain a tape or transcript of the show.
    "Without knowing the context the conversation took place in, it's very tough for me to comment, and I wouldn't," Burr said. "I find no reason to believe, from your accounts or from anyone's accounts, that it was an ethnic attack."
    During a Feb. 4 appearance on WKZL-FM's "Murphy in the Morning" radio show, Coble disagreed with a caller who suggested that all Arabs in America should be put into prison camps. But he said he supported President Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to detain Japanese Americans after the Dec. 7, 1941, attack on Pearl Harbor.
    Coble said that the internment seemed to be the right thing to do at the time and under the circumstances but that it would not be appropriate today.
    "They were an endangered species," he said in an interview the next day. "For many of these Japanese Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street."
    After being criticized by Japanese American and Democratic colleagues in the House and by several minority-advocacy groups, Coble issued an apologetic statement. But his critics said the statement wasn't a legitimate apology because Coble didn't acknowledge being in error.
    Also Wednesday, three minority House caucuses - the Asian Pacific American, Black and Hispanic caucuses -- jointly sent a letter to House speaker J. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., asking them to denounce Coble's comments.
    "Congressman Coble was irresponsible, inflammatory and patently wrong," the letter reads in part.
    Coble was appointed chairman of the Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security in January. Some of Coble's critics have called for Coble to resign the position, but Coble has refused.
    Coble's chief of staff, Missy Branson, said Wednesday that Coble would have no comment beyond his Feb. 10 statement.

3/5/03: Tri-Caucus Demands that Republican Leaders Repudiate Rep. Coble's views 
    WASHINGTON, DC - Today, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, the Congressional Black Caucus, and the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (collectively the "Tri-Caucus") sent a letter calling on House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL), and House Judiciary Committee Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI) to repudiate the views expressed by Rep. Howard Coble's (R-NC) regarding the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. 
    The Tri-Caucus further called on Speaker Hastert and Chairman Sensenbrenner to pass H. Res. 56, the "Day of Remembrance" Resolution authored by Rep. Mike Honda (D-CA), and thus assure all Americans that Congress knows that the internment of Americans without due process during World War II was wrong. 
    Following is the complete text of the letter: 
    Dear Mr. Speaker and Chairman Sensenbrenner: 
    We write regarding the very troubling and damaging comments made by our colleague, Congressman Howard Coble. During a radio call-in show on February 4, 2003, Congressman Coble stated that the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was not wrong because "they were an endangered species" and "it wasn't safe for them to be on the street." Congressman Coble also stated that he agreed with Franklin D. Roosevelt's establishment of the internment camps because "some (Japanese Americans) probably were intent on doing harm to us, just as some of these Arab Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us." 
    Congressman Coble was irresponsible, inflammatory and patently wrong. In 1988, President Reagan and Congress offered an apology and redress to the Japanese American community for its internment by enacting the Civil Liberties Act of 1988. The Act formally criticized President Roosevelt's decision to intern Japanese Americans and apologized for "fundamental violations of the basic civil liberties and constitutional rights of these individuals of Japanese ancestry." In 1980, Congress adopted legislation establishing the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Citizens to investigate the claim that the incarceration of Japanese Americans was justified by military necessity. After an extensive examination, the Commission found that President Roosevelt's Executive Order was not issued to either protect Japanese Americans or to protect U.S. interests. Rather, the Report states: "In sum, Executive Order 9066 was not justified by military necessity, and the decisions that followed from it-exclusion, detention, the ending of detention and the ending of exclusion-were not founded upon military considerations. The broad historical causes that shaped these decisions were race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership. Widespread ignorance about Americans of Japanese descent contributed to a policy conceived in haste and executed in an atmosphere of fear and anger at Japan. A grave personal injustice was done to the American citizens and resident aliens of Japanese ancestry who, without individual review or any probative evidence against them were excluded, removed and detained by the United States during World War II." (Emphasis added). 
    Congressman Coble has been offered multiple opportunities to clarify and correct his comments, but instead, he has reiterated that his comments were based on "historical fact". When we err about history and fail to learn from our mistakes, we risk repeating the past. 
    Congressman Coble's support for past wholesale incarceration of U.S. citizens without due process demonstrates an apparent disregard for civil liberties. As our country is engaged in a war against terrorism, and is on the brink of a war against Iraq, respect for civil liberties is crucial to ensure that we do not repeat the mistakes of the past. 
    To demonstrate that you have learned from the Trent Lott experience and the importance of getting history right, we ask you to repudiate Congressman Coble's statements as an inaccurate, misleading and potentially damaging view of history. 
    Further, we ask that you take action to see that H. Res. 56, the Day of Remembrance Resolution, be taken up by the House Judiciary Committee and, if passed by that committee, taken up on the floor of the House of Representatives. It is of utmost importance to assure all Americans that Congress knows that the internment of Americans without due process during World War II was wrong, and that Congress understands the importance of upholding the Constitution and protecting civil liberties, in wartime as in peacetime. 
    We look forward to your response. 
    Sincerely, 
Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus: Rep. David Wu, Chair Rep. Mike Honda, Vice Chair 
Congressional Black Caucus: Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, Chair Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, First Vice Chair Rep. Corrine Brown, Second Vice Chair 
Congressional Hispanic Caucus: Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez, Chair Rep. Grace Flores Napolitano, Vice Chair

For Immediate Release
Contact: Guillermo Meneses, 202-863-8148
February 25, 2003
Washington, DC --
    The Democratic National Committee (DNC), during its 2003 Winter Meeting passed a resolution calling on Congressman  
internment of American citizens during World War II perpetuate misinformation and the dangerous belief that racial profiling and ethnic scapegoating are legitimate practices. Congressman Coble is not fit to lead our country on security and constitutional matters, and must resign from the chairmanship."
    "Democrats and civil rights leaders from across the country have spoken up to condemn Congressman Coble's remarks," said McAuliffe. "Where are the Republicans? To date, not one Republican member of Congress has made a public statement regarding Coble's remarks."
    "There is a mountain of evidence that proves that the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was not justified by military necessity, but rather was shaped by 'race prejudice, war hysteria and failure of political leadership'," said Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA), who was interned as a child. "We must be vigilant so that flagrant violations of civil liberties do not occur again."
    On Friday, February 21, the DNC Executive Committee passed a resolution calling for Congressman Coble to resign immediately for his irresponsible, inflammatory and offensive statements.
    During a radio interview held on Feb. 4, Coble said "We were at war. They (Japanese-Americans) were an endangered species. For many of these Japanese-Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street." Coble further stated that Japanese-Americans "probably were intent on doing harm to us ... just as some of these Arab-Americans are probably intent on doing harm to us."
    The Japanese American Citizens League, the NAACP, many other civil rights organizations, and thousands of Americans have called on Congressman Coble to resign.

2/10/03 Associated Press: "NYC Redistricting Plan Moves 
Forward Despite Opposition by Asian, Hispanic Groups"
    New York -- A redistricting plan that increases the voting power of Asians and Hispanics in City Council races was given preliminary approval Thursday by the city's districting commission, though minority groups said they did not support the proposal.
    The plan would have 23 of 51 City Council districts with a majority population -- more than 50% -- that is Hispanic, Asian and black.
    Twelve of the districts would be majority Hispanic, 11 would be majority black and 18 majority white. Another 10 districts would not have a majority of any single ethnic group.
      The current council districts have 10 Hispanic 
majority districts, 42% of the population.
     power and is no better than the commission's two previous  
see the improvement for Asian Americans and, in fact, it's gotten  worse in lower Manhattan,'' where Chinatown has been divided between two council districts.
     the plan's lines.
     keeping neighborhoods intact and encouraging political diversity.
     The commission may make changes to the plan after the hearings  and before a final vote.
     Department of Justice.
    The commission is made up of seven appointees of Republican Mayor Michael Bloomberg, five appointees of Democratic City Council Speaker Gifford Miller and three appointees of City Council minority leader Jim Oddo, a Republican.

2/7/03 Los Angeles Times: "Internment Remarks by Lawmaker 
Anger Peers: As WWII action against Japanese Americans is 
recounted, the leader of a House subcommittee is asked to resign by an advocacy group."
    Washington - Asian American members of Congress are 
denouncing a House Republican who said in a recent radio interview that the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II was appropriate.
    The comments by Rep. Howard Coble (R-N.C.), chairman of a House subcommittee that oversees homeland security legislation, came in response to a caller's suggestion that Arabs in the United States be imprisoned as an anti-terrorist measure.
    Coble told the caller he did not agree, but that he believed 
President Franklin D. Roosevelt was justified in sending 120,000 people of Japanese descent to isolated camps in California and elsewhere -- in part, he said, for their own protection from potentially hostile citizens.
    "We were at war," Coble said on a North Carolina radio show this week. "They were an endangered species. For many of these Japanese Americans, it wasn't safe for them to be on the street."
    The comments struck a nerve at a time when Republicans are trying to patch up the damage to the party's image from remarks made by Sen. Trent Lott (R-Miss.) on Dec. 5 that were seen as racially insensitive. The comments, which seemed to endorse racial segregation, stirred so much controversy that Lott was forced to step down from the GOP leadership.
    Rep. Michael M. Honda (D-San Jose), who spent his early 
childhood with his family in an internment camp, said Coble's 
comments were especially offensive because they came just two weeks before the 61st anniversary of Roosevelt's executive order authorizing the internment.
    "The need for raising the awareness of this shameful chapter in U.S. history is more apparent than ever," said Honda, who is 
sponsoring a resolution to recognize Feb. 19 as a "national day of remembrance" for those sent to the camps.
    Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.), a Chinese American who is chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, said, "At a time when we should be reflecting on a historic wrong, Congressman Coble has stood history on its head. Japanese Americans were not rounded up into internment camps for their own protection.
    "If we do not accurately portray the past, we risk repeating it," he said.
    Rep. Robert T. Matsui (D-Sacramento) said he hoped the 
controversy "will serve to remind and educate" people about the 
lessons of history.
    "In 1942, the U.S. government failed to display leadership in a time of war and crisis," said Matsui, who with Wu and Honda wrote to Coble asking him to meet with them next week. "It's critical that today's leaders do not fall into the same trap."
    The National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium has 
called on Coble to step down as chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism and Homeland Security.
    "It is entirely inappropriate for someone who has these beliefs to be chairing such an important committee," said Karen Narasaki, president of the consortium. She said Coble's comments were as "offensive and ignorant " as Lott's implying a nostalgia for segregation.
    Missy Branson, Coble's spokeswoman, said he would not 
consider giving up his subcommittee chairmanship over the 
comments. "He has apologized if these remarks offended anyone," she added.
    Seeking to clarify the comments, Branson said Coble would not endorse the internment policy today, but he thought it was an 
appropriate decision at the time because American society was much less integrated and multicultural.
    "We were much less tolerant and understanding of other cultures," Branson said.
    "The emotion that surrounded the bombing of Pearl Harbor was so intense, the possibility of harm coming to Japanese Americans was very strong as a result."
    Honda said his father told him as a child that it was absurd to 
believe internment was for their own protection.
    "He said, 'Mike, if it's for your own protection, you have to wonder why you're inside barbed wire with machine guns pointed at you,' " Honda said.

1/31/03 Associated Press: "Will Locke's Moment in Spotlight Last? WA GOP Takes Aim"
    Washington (AP) -- Washington state Gov. Gary Locke received generally positive reviews for his Democratic response to President Bush's State of the Union address.
    But even as he attended a Wednesday news conference with House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle -- his second appearance with the nation's top two Democrats in as many days -- Locke's moment in the national spotlight was coming to a close.
    By late afternoon, he was on a plane back to Olympia, where he found Washington state Senate Republicans had approved some of his budget-cutting ideas over howls of protest from legislative Democrats.
    As Locke pondered his next move in the budget battle -- and a looming decision about whether to run for a third term in 2004 -- observers were calling his 10-minute Tuesday night speech to the nation a solid hit, if not necessarily a home run.
    ``I thought he did fine,'' said political scientist Lance LeLoup of Washington State University. ``I don't think he's got a reputation as a spellbinding orator, but I thought he was very articulate and poised. I don't this is enough to launch him as a national figure, but certainly he didn't do himself any harm.''
    Locke, the nation's first Chinese-American governor, leaned heavily on his heritage in a speech that, for the vast majority of his audience, served as an introduction to the one-time rising star in Democratic politics.
    Locke, 53, serves as chairman of the 24-member Democratic Governors Association and delivered the speech in that capacity.
    While familiar to Washington state residents, Locke's tale of an immigrant family made good ``is a very effective story with the American public,'' said David Domke, an associate communications professor at the University of Washington. ``That's his ace in the hole. Nobody can argue with that.''
    Locke, not known for his smile, even appeared less grim than the president, Domke said.
    ``He seemed nervous at first, but he seemed to really gather his composure well as he went. He did well,'' Domke said.
    Not everyone was impressed.
    ``I don't think it ever was a moment in the sun,'' said state GOP Chairman Chris Vance.
    Vance, in Washington, D.C., for a meeting of Republican leaders, called Locke's speech forgettable.
    ``Even if he had given a great performance -- which I don't think he did -- nobody is going to remember it a week from now,'' Vance said. ``Certainly it's gotten very little attention nationally. I kind of think it's a non-event.''
    Vance is a partisan and one of Locke's harshest critics, but his views have some basis. The Washington Post, for instance, relegated Locke to a single paragraph deep inside a lengthy story on Bush's speech bringing the nation to the brink of war.
    And while his speech positioned Locke as a national leader among Democrats, it also opened the door for Republicans to blame him for the state's failing economy and what they called a lack of leadership.
    The Republican National Committee circulated an e-mail this week blasting Locke as a budget-buster responsible for the state's $2.4 billion deficit.
    Republicans also pointed out that the high-profile assignment came just as Locke's popularity ratings have sunk to the lowest level of his six years in office.
    Many Democrats in the state complain that Locke's proposed budget would cut education, social services and health programs. In a reversal, legislative Republicans have hailed Locke's opposition to increasing state taxes, while Democrats in Olympia have urged him to reconsider.
    Locke dismissed those criticisms, blaming Bush for the fiscal 
crisis facing his and other states. At a news conference Tuesday, Locke said Bush was ignoring the states' plight in order to push a plan that benefits the rich.
    Locke repeated that theme in his formal speech, striking a 
partisan tone that contrasted with his usual, studiously bipartisan or even nonpartisan approach.
    ``I was surprised that he really took the role as a national 
spokesman for the Democrats, as opposed to being a spokesman for the governors,'' LeLoup said. ``His speech was really about the Democratic Party, not about the states.''
    The partisan tone was appropriate, LeLoup added, since Locke was asked to give the Democratic response -- not the response of the nation's governors.
    Whether Locke's appearance on the national stage will boost his polls at home is not clear, but LeLoup said the poll ratings are more likely to climb if the state's budget outlook improves.
    As to where Locke's newfound fame will lead him, ``my guess is another four years in Olympia,'' LeLoup said. ``There's no chance of (Locke having) a national presence in 2004.''
    LeLoup and others said they believe Locke will again run for 
governor, where he would be the odds-on favorite despite an 
announced challenge from former state Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge.
    But LeLoup offered a note of caution.
    ``Voters may have a bit of Locke fatigue,'' he said. If Locke runs again -- even if he wins, ``he will do worse than the first two times'' he ran for governor, LeLoup said.

1/25/03 Associated Press: "Plot Against WA Gov. Locke, Capitol, Planned Two Years Say Investigators,"
    Tacoma, WA -- A man federal investigators believe may have plotted to assassinate Gov. Gary Locke must remain behind bars on a weapons charge, a judge has ruled.
    James D. Brailey, Jr., 43, of Olympia, did not oppose a motion by government lawyers that was granted Wednesday by U.S. Magistrate Judge J. Kelley Arnold. He remained at the Federal Detention Center in SeaTac without bail pending a preliminary hearing next Wednesday.
    Brailey is charged with possessing a firearm and transporting it across state lines, a federal offense because he was previously convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence.
    He is not charged with an assassination plot but is described in court documents as an anti-government extremist who believed he was the state's true governor and hated Locke because the governor is of Chinese descent.
    Several friends who attended the hearing acknowledged that 
Brailey was once head of the Jural Society of Washington State, a loose-knit group that does not believe in the state or federal 
governments, but they denied that he displayed violent tendencies or indicated he had any plan to kill Locke.
    ``That's not the guy I know,'' Donald Theodore Grahn of Seattle said. ``James had a past, but he's repentant and a good Christian brother right now.''
    Don Little of Tacoma said he attended meetings with Brailey and found the account in court papers at odds with Brailey's character and Jural Society values.  ``It doesn't make any sense,'' Little said. 
``It goes against every tenet this whole thing is about.''  The group seeks to return to common law based on scriptural law, he said.
    According to court documents, an unidentified informant told the FBI agents nearly two years ago that Brailey had a plan to kill Locke.
    Investigators wrote that Brailey made several ``dry runs'' on the state Capitol in Olympia, beginning in 1998, and told an undercover FBI informant that on one he took some Claymore anti-personnel mines so he could blow out a wall and ``take out a large number of people.''
    Handguns, rifles, ammunition and a fully automatic 9-mm 
submachine gun with a flash suppressor were found in his vehicle and residence, but no explosives or mines were uncovered, according to the court documents.


1/16/03 ESPN.com: "Shaq should've thought before he spoke,"
By Bill Walton
    How many ears must one man have before he can hear people cry?
    Although the comments have been reported before, the recent release of recordings of Shaquille O'Neal mocking, criticizing and generally disrespecting Yao Ming are startling.
    How disappointing for Shaq -- he should know better. He's the leader of the NBA and you expect more from him. Can you imagine Bill Russell, Michael Jordan We constantly hear from people like Shaq that they want to be respected. Well, to get respect, you must give respect. We live in a world and society where diversity needs to be encouraged not discouraged. If Shaq were your 10-year-old child, what would you do or say to him after making such comments?
    What if Yao Ming had said something about Shaq's ethnicity? You can imagine the outcry and it would be justified. But it has to cut both ways. Where is Jessie Jackson? Where is Al Sharpton? Where is Johnnie Cochran?
    Yao Ming has far too much class to get involved in this nonsense but you know it has to hurt. With the way he has been mistreated, manhandled and butchered by so many for simply coming here to play basketball -- something he was asked to do -- he must be asking himself, "What is going on here?"
    There is no place in our world for Shaq's intolerance and 
insensitivity. And this from a man who has as much experience and knowledge in dealing with the media as anyone alive today. Shaq is a man who has obviously been teased and made fun of a lot in his life because he is visually different from what some consider the "norm." He can't like it when it happens to him -- so why this?
    And as far as Shaq's 'apology' is concerned, well, I don't get it when someone says, 'IF I offended anyone, I'm sorry.' That tactic really worked well for Trent Lott.
    If that is what he is saying publicly ... then what can he be thinking privately?
    But is this any worse than what the Miami Heat did when Yao Ming came to play in South Florida and the Heat -- as a promotion -- handed out fortune cookies? You can never ignore or rank levels of intolerance of any nature.
    Just remember the quote on the wall at the Holocaust Museum in our Washington, D.C. that tells the story of the people who didn't complain or object to the mistreatment of others. Their final lament was "That when they finally came for me, there was nobody left to complain."
    How many times can a man turn his head, pretending he just doesn't see?
    Bill Walton, who is an NBA analyst for ESPN, is a regular contributor to ESPN.com