After Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, a wave of anti-Japanese hysteria swept over the western United States. On February 19, 1942, seventy years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. The order authorized the Secretary of War and military commanders to declare areas of the United States as military areas, “from which any or all persons may be excluded.” Pursuant to the authority granted him under Executive Order 9066, General John DeWitt, Commanding General of the Western Command issued several orders and proclamations directed toward all German and Italian aliens and all persons of Japanese ancestry, citizen or not, which included a curfew order and a requirement to report to a civilian control station as a prerequisite to being excluded from the region.

At that time, Gordon Hirabayashi was a 24-year-old senior at the University of Washington. Born in Seattle, Hirabayashi had never been to Japan. He believed that as an American citizen, he had rights protected under the US Constitution. He felt that the military orders were based on racial prejudice and decided to challenge the constitutionality of the military orders by refusing to follow the curfew orders and refusing to report to a civilian control station to be excluded into internment camps. Similar challenges were made by Min Yasui in Portland, Oregon and by Fred Korematsu in San Francisco, California.

Hirabayashi was arrested, indicted, tried, and convicted by a jury in the federal district court. Yasui and Korematsu were also tried and convicted in federal district courts in Portland and San Francisco. All three men appealed their convictions to the United States Supreme Court. Hirabayashi’s attorneys argued that the military orders were unconstitutional because the government had failed to prove an emergency situation to justify a racially based classification. The orders had focused on the ancestry of Japanese, regardless of whether they were citizens or not. While the military orders had also applied to German and Italian aliens, they were not applied to German American and Italian American citizens.

The government argued that the military orders were constitutional because they were based on a reasonable judgment of “military necessity.” It took the position that given the urgency of the situation, it made individual hearings to determine loyalty impossible to hold, that with 100,000 Japanese living on the West Coast, the government had to act quickly to remove the threat of an unknown number of disloyal Japanese, that there wasn’t time to separate the loyal from the disloyal.

The US Supreme Court accepted the government’s argument and ruled that the curfew orders were justified by “military necessity.” Hirabayashi v. United States, 320 US 81 (1943). Yasui vs. United States, 320 US 115 (1943). The following year, the Court applied the same military emergency rationale to uphold explicitly the exclusion of all citizens of Japanese ancestry from the West Coast. Korematsu v. United States, 323 US 214 (1944). The highest court in the land had spoken. The convictions for all three men were affirmed.

The Hirabayashi, Yasui, and Korematsu decisions were widely criticized by legal and history scholars through the years. Starting in the early seventies, the Japanese American community led the movement for wartime reparations. In 1980, Congress created the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians to study the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. It was in the course of doing historical archival research for the Commission that Aiko Yoshinaga-Herzig, in 1982, found a copy of General John DeWitt’s original report which explained his reasons for issuing the military orders. General DeWitt’s original report differed dramatically from the official version of the report. This report did not purport to place the basis for the military orders on the urgency of the situation but instead was based on traits peculiar to citizens of Japanese ancestry; that it would be impossible to separate the loyal from the disloyal, and that all would have to be evacuated for the duration of the wars. In other words, General DeWitt’s justification for his military orders was based on racial stereotyping against Japanese American. This report was suppressed from the defense attorneys representing Hirabayashi, Yasui, and Korematsu.

Coincidentally, at around the same time in 1982, legal historian Peter Irons decided to write a book about the Japanese American wartime cases. He conducted interviews with Gordon Hirabayashi, Min Yasui, and Fred Korematsu. During these interviews, Irons suggested to the men that they should go back to court to get their convictions reversed. He explained they could file a writ of coram nobis. A writ of coram nobis is a relatively seldom used legal procedure to correct a previous error “of the most fundamental character” to “achieve justice” where “no other remedy” is available. Korematsu, intrigued by the possibility, asked Irons to represent him.

Irons enlisted the aid of Dale Minami, one of the most prominent Asian American civil rights attorneys in the country, for Korematsu’s legal representation. Hirabayashi and Yasui had also agreed to sign on. Minami assembled a legal team in San Francisco. The original plan was to have one writ of coram nobis to cover all three men. However, based on the law, the writ of coram nobis had to be submitted to the trial court which had previously convicted them. Hirabayashi had to file his petition in Seattle, Yasui had to file his petition in Portland. Legal teams had to be assembled in Seattle and Portland. Lorraine Bannai was an attorney in Minami’s law firm. She had a sister, Kathryn Bannai, who was practicing law in Seattle. Kathryn’s then sister in law, Peggy Nagae, was a prominent civil rights attorney in Portland. Kathryn assembled a legal team in Seattle. Peggy assembled a legal team in Portland. Over 50 attorneys volunteered hundreds of hours and expertise to serve on the three legal teams.

In 1983, forty years after their convictions, Hirabayashi, Yasui, and Korematsu each filed petitions for write of error coram nobis in Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco. Each petition argued that the convictions should be overturned because the government had engaged in serious misconduct by suppressing and withholding evidence that would have supported their defense in their original trials and requested a full evidentiary hearing. In 1983, Korematsu’s petition was granted and his conviction was overturned without an evidentiary hearing. In 1986, Yasui’s petition was granted and his conviction was overturned without an evidentiary hearing. The Hirabayashi petition was the only one of the three petitions that went to hearing held in 1986 in the federal district court in Seattle.

The district court held a full evidentiary proceeding on Hirabayashi’s claims. The judge agreed with Hirabayashi’s factual contentions, overturned his conviction for violating the exclusion order, but did not overturn his conviction for violating the curfew order. Both the government and Hirabayashi appealed this decision to the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1987, the Ninth Circuit, in an opinion authored by Judge Mary Schroeder, vacated both Mr. Hirabayashi’s curfew and exclusion convictions on proof of the allegations of governmental misconduct. The effect of this decision was unprecedented because it had the effect of overturning the original Supreme Court decision made over forty years earlier.

The Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at the Seattle University School of Law will host a major conference Feb. 11, 2012, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Ninth Circuit opinion in the Hirabayashi v. United States “coram nobis” case. The conference will celebrate Gordon Hirabayashi’s principled stand in challenging the military orders that led to his 1943 Supreme Court case that upheld his convictions. Members of his coram nobis legal team will provide reflections on their roles in his case nearly 40 years later. There will be panel discussions regarding the significance of this case. Judge Mary Schroeder who wrote the landmark Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision will be a featured speaker. Admission is free but pre-registration is required. Please go to: www.regonline.com.

Official Chinese Expulsion Day in Seattle

Left to right: King County Executive Dow Constantine, Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, King County Council member Larry Gossett, and Bob Santos at the Chinese Expulsion Remembrance Rally in February.

40th Anniversary of the First Asian-Led Demonstration in Seattle

Photo taken during the March 2, 1971 rally at Seattle Central Community College. Photo courtesy Alan Sugiyama.

Honorary Degrees to WWII Japanese American Internees

On June 12, the Seattle University Board of Trustees honored bachelor degrees to Japanese American students whose educations were disrupted by their forced removal to internment camps during World War II. Seattle University recognized the men and women for their academic achievements and the adversity faced when they were torn away from the community. Honorees and their relatives were in attendance to accept the degrees.

Architect and Philanthropist Ark Chin Passes Away

Ark Chin passed away on Nov. 13.

Family Demands Hate Crime Charges for Danny Vega Killing

On Nov. 27, Danny Vega passed away after suffering a brutal attack by three teenagers in South Seattle in a suspected hate crime for being openly gay. Vega is remembered as being a “living legend” in the local Filipino American community. In a statement, Mayor Mike McGinn said the Seattle Police Department will fully investigate the possibility that the killing could be a hate crime. Vega’s family and friends honored Vega’s contribution to the Filipino community in a memorial service and in community gatherings. Vega had an active role in Seattle’s LGBT community, including his participation in the Miss FCS Gay and Miss Asian Gay pageants.

Non-Profit Mergers

The International District Housing Alliance and InterIm Community Development Association announced their merger on Oct. 20. The two largest housing-related nonprofit organizations in Seattle’s International District plan to leverage resources and build a stronger infrastructure to better serve Asian Pacific Islanders and refugee and immigrant populations towards finding permanent housing. Also, the Asian Pacific Islander Women and Family Safety Center and Chaya announced their own organizational merger. At the end of June 2011, after several months in an exploratory pre-merger assessment phase, the boards of both organizations signed an agreement to merge.

Minority-Majority Congressional District

With one in four Washington residents a person of color and one in eight is an immigrant, these changes afford the first opportunity to create a congressional district where the majority of residents are people of color. Doing so would give a collective minority voice and community influence over impactful policies. There was also an opportunity to create up to two Central Washington legislative districts where most residents are people of color. A coalition of civic organizations submitted a unity map that drew specific districts to maximize representation for people of color and launched an education campaign to encourage citizens to attend 18 public hearings across the state.

NATIONAL

Gary Locke Named U.S. Ambassador to China

Photo credit: Joshua Roberts, Getty Images.

Formal Acknowledgement, Regret for Anti-Chinese Laws

In 2011, U.S Representatives Judy Chu, Judy Biggert and Mike Coffman along with Senators Dianne Feinstein and Sherrod Brown called on Congress for a resolution to the formal acknowledgement and regret for the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882. The Act denied immigration of Chinese laborers until it was revoked in 1943, when China became allies with the U.S. during World War II in the war against Japan. The 2011 resolution passed the U.S. Senate but has yet to pass in the House of Representatives.

Amy Chua’s Controversial “Tiger Mom” Book

Amy Chua with her daughters. Photo credit: Erin Patrice O’Brien, The Wall Street Journal.

San Francisco Elects its First Asian American Mayor

Ed Lee, the first Asian American mayor of San Francisco. Photo credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images North America.

A Record Number of APIs Running For Congress in 2012

William Tong is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Connecticut.

“Asian Americans are increasingly going into politics because politicians can make people’s lives different,” Shinagawa said. “They realize that civic participation is very important.” Today, an estimated 17.3 million people of Asian descent live in the United States, comprising 5.6 percent of the population, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The largest subgroups (in order) are Chinese Americans, followed by Filipino Americans and Asian Indians.

The Anti-Asian UCLA Rant and the Rise of Digital Asian America

Jimmy Wong’s creative and classy response to an offensive on-line video drew millions of viewers and sky-rocketed him as one of the voices of digital Asian America. In response to a racist March video rant by UCLA student Alexandra Wallace which included “ching-chong” verbiage while venting her frustrations over Asian students apparently using the phone loudly in the library, Wong produced a one-of-a-kind, witty musical response video to Wallace. The video went viral and to-date, has over 4 million views. (To view it, visit www.youtube.com/jimmy.)

Japan’s Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Meltdown – Seattle Community Rallies to Send Support

Families recovering belongings in Kesennuma (Miyagi Prefecture, Tohoku Region) after the March earthquake in Japan

The country faced its worst crisis since the atomic bomb during World War II. The earthquake was reported as Japan’s most powerful on record and some claim it is one of the five strongest on Earth in the last 110 years. An estimated 30,000 people were situated in temporary shelters, while vast parts of the country suffered from water and food shortages.

Nuclear power plants impacted by the earthquake and tsunami were of special concern. The Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant complex endured level 7 meltdowns at three reactors, affecting hundreds of thousands of nearby residents. Around 4.4 million households in northeastern Japan were left without electricity and 1.5 million without water. Early estimates placed insured losses from the earthquake alone at $14.5 to $34.6 billion. Community groups across the globe, including many in Seattle coordinated fundrasiers to raise money for Japan’s relief.

Asian Americans Most Bullied in US Schools, Says Study

Asian Americans endure far more bulling at U.S. schools than members of any other ethnic group. When it comes to Asian Americans targeted for racial abuse and harassment, compared to other teens, the numbers aren’t even close. According to new survey data for the Bullying Prevention Summit, 54 percent of Asian American teenagers said they were bullied in the classroom, compared to 31.3 percent of whites who reported being picked on. And Asian American teens are apparently three times as likely to face bulling on the Internet. The figure was 38.4 percent for African Americans and 34.3 percent for Hispanics. The disparity was even more striking for cyber-bullying. Some 62 percent of Asian Americans reported online harassment once or twice a month, compared with 18.1 percent of whites. The researcher said more research was needed on why the problem is so severe among Asian Americans. The data comes from a 2009 survey supported by the US Justice Department and Education Department which interviewed some 6,500 students from ages 12 to 18.

Michelle Rhee Responds to D.C. Testing Scandal

Michelle Rhee. Photo credit: Gary Landsman, The Washingtonian.

A USA Today investigation found wildly improbable test erasure rates in some Washington, D.C. schools that led to inflated test score results. USA Today singled out Crosby Noyes Education Campus, which had posted laudable gains in its test scores and was recognized by Rhee, awarded extra money under new policies Rhee instituted, and received national accolades for what appears now to have been false academic progress. The USA Today investigation found that at Noyes, a large number of the erasures were from the wrong to the right answer.

Confession of Error for Hirabayashi-Korematsu Conviction

Fred Korematsu

Yao Ming Retires

In July, after 9 seasons playing in the NBA, Houston Rocket’s Yao Ming announced his retirement after becoming an eight-time All-Star. Yao has created an impact beyond the basketball court including his philanthropic contributions such as donating $2 million to rebuild schools after the 2008 earthquake in Sichuan, China. Yao Ming has also become an iconic symbol — carrying China’s flag during the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and expanding the NBA merchandise market and TV ratings throughout Asia.

Minority Babies the New Majority

For the first time, minorities make up a majority of babies in the U.S., part of a sweeping race change and a growing age divide between mostly white, older Americans and predominantly minority youths that could reshape government policies, reported the Associated Press. Demographers say the numbers provide the clearest confirmation that racial and ethnic minorities will become the U.S. majority by mid-century. The preliminary figures are based on an analysis of the Current Population Survey as well as the 2009 American Community Survey, which sampled 3 million U.S. households to determine that whites made up 51 percent of babies younger than 2. After taking into account a larger-than-expected jump in the minority child population in the 2010 census, the share of white babies falls below 50 percent. Twelve states and the District of Columbia now have white populations below 50 percent among children under age 5 — Hawaii, California, New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, Florida, Maryland, Georgia, New Jersey, New York and Mississippi. That’s up from six states and the District of Columbia in 2000. By contrast, whites make up the vast majority of older Americans — 80 percent of seniors 65 and older and roughly 73 percent of people ages 45-64. Many states with high percentages of white seniors also have particularly large shares of minority children, including Arizona, Nevada, California, Texas and Florida.

Award-Winning Journalist Reveals He’s an Undocumented Immigrant

Jose Antonio Vargas

“But I am still an undocumented immigrant,” Vargas wrote. “And that means living a different kind of reality. It means going about my day in fear of being found out. It means rarely trusting people, even those closest to me, with who I really am … And it has meant relying on a sort of 21st-century underground railroad of supporters, people who took an interest in my future and took risks for me.” Jose has launched a campaign called Define American to use stories of immigrants like him to urge Congress and the Obama administration to pursue immigration reform.

Kim Jong Il Dies

Kim Jong Il, the controversial North Korean dictator with a penchant for calling himself “Dear Leader,” passed away from an apparent heart attack on Dec. 17 at the age of 69. While Kim has been grooming one of his sons, the foreign-educated Kim Jong Un, to succeed him, his death still creates uncertainty for the isolated country’s future. For nearly twenty years, Kim’s bizarre and sometimes taunting rhetoric and actions made international leaders wary. He is blamed for recent surprise attacks on South Korea, including the suspected March 2010 sinking of a South Korean military ship and the bombing of a South Korean controlled island in November of that year, reported the Los Angeles Times. The leader reportedly suffered a stroke in 2008 but recently appeared in state media photos, touring government facilities. North Korea experts caution that the nation could be even more dangerous without the stability of Kim’s absolute rule. The leader, known for his bouffant hair and grey garb, came to power in 1994 upon the death of his father, North Korea founder Kim Il Sung.

“Who knows what a Writ of Coram Nobis is?” Attorney Peggy Nagae asked at the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association western regional conference June 4 in Portland. Only one person raised their hand. The attendees were mostly lawyers 5 or fewer years out of law school, so most were young, at least by my counting.

Just a week earlier, when talking about the coram nobis cases of Fred Korematsu, Minoru Yasui, and Gordon Hirabayashi, Karen Kai —who was the liason attorney for the legal teams of the three — commented, “One thing about the coram nobis cases of the 1980s, a lot of Nisei ladies knew what it was.”

It was pretty amazing. Only two decades later, young APA lawyers knew very little about it. In fact, the only person who raised her hand was Karen Kai.

Confession of Error:

It seemed so …“so what?” That’s what I thought as my email box lit up with comments from mostly lawyers, about Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal’s admission that the U.S. Justice Department had acted dishonorably in defending the convictions of Japanese Americans who had challenged the incarceration and curfew orders (E.O. 9066 and P.L 503) during WWII. Didn’t the three, Gordon Hirabayashi, Minoru Yasui, and Fred Korematsu already prove that with their coram nobis challenges during the 1980s? All three had their convictions vacated. Not what they really wanted, but still a victory. And Hirabayashi had an evidentiary hearing. So all the evidence that had been discovered and argued was presented to the Court and out in the open for all to read and discuss.

But there was that one thing that still bugged everyone who had worked so diligently on the cases: the vacation of their conviction had not overturned the Supreme Court decisions which justified both the incarceration and the stated rationale for it: military necessity. But, hey, they “won.” What’s so great about the Solicitor General saying what they proved, at least to judges, 20 years ago? This is what I thought when I first saw the story.

In the ensuing weeks I went to the Asian Pacific American Bar Association regional conference in Portland, and changed my thinking to, “Why was there so little mention of Katyal’s comments in Seattle?”

This is the city where Hirabayashi was arrested, tried, and convicted. His coram nobis case in the 1980s was the only one of the three in which the judge allowed for an evidentiary hearing, which included evidence that 1943 Solicitor General Charles Fahy covered up and lied about military necessity. A lot of community activists, lawyers and non-lawyers, invested time in the trial and community education.

I also remembered that President George Bush, less than ten years ago, used Korematsu v. United States as a basis for the rounding up of Muslims. Military necessity, he claimed. Surely, we can’t have Presidents claiming Korematsu every time they want to do nasty business.

Katyal’s “confession of error” was not a “so what?”; we should be celebrating the fact that the first Asian American Solicitor General had the guts to do what all the previous Solicitor Generals since Fahy should have done. Additionally, the basis of Katyal’s “confession of error” were the same documents discovered by Aiko Yoshinaga Herzig, researcher for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, and Attorney Peter Irons, who was researching the same subject.

The fact that so few APA lawyers just out of law school knew what a Writ of Coram Nobis was, made me think, in addition to celebrating the “confession,” we need to ensure that the later generations of Asian Americans have the knowledge to appreciate the folks who really stood up for our place in history, at the very least locally.

In addition to Minoru Yasui, Gordon Hirabayashi, and Fred Korematsu, here’s a list of Hirabayashi’s 1980s coram nobis legal team: Rod Kawakami and Kathryn Bannai, team leaders Nettie Alvarez Arthur Barnett (dec.) Jeffrey Beaver Camden Hall Daniel Ichinaga Gary Iwamoto Craig Kobayashi Michael Leong Diane Narasaki Karen Narasaki Richard Ralston Sharon Sakamoto Roger Shimizu Benson Wong

“They called it evacuation, but really you were scheduled to leave,” said Matsuda, 87, from a lounge at Seattle Keiro Nursing Home. “What they called camp was actually prison.”

Nearly 70 years later, she and other Japanese American students whose educations were unjustly interrupted received honorary degrees from Seattle University on June 12 during commencement ceremonies.

“These individuals, who were our students, were required by federal order to leave our community as a result of the fear, racial hatred and hostility that prevailed in the wake of Pearl Harbor,” said SU President Stephen Sundborg said. “We honor these former students to recognize their courage and sacrifice, to address the injustice that occurred, and with hope that this recognition contributes to the healing process.”

Shigeko Young	Uri Matsuda bY Marcus Donner
Uri Matsuda	June Sakaguchi

Professor Lori Bannai, associate director of SU’s Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at the School of Law, said recognizing the wrong done to these students and presenting the degrees they would have received is important.

“While these students suffered grievous losses, they endured and survived, and most were able to pick up the broken pieces of their lives and rebuild,” said Bannai, whose own parents were incarcerated during the war and who was one of the attorneys who represented Fred Korematsu in successfully reopening his case in 1983.

Matsuda said she appreciates the university’s recognition of what she and many others went through. It’s good to talk about her experiences now, but she says it took her years to open up about her incarceration.

“When you’re young, you have all these ideas and dreams that you could do anything,” she said. “It’s hard to live with it.”

Honorees identified included:

• John Fujiwara, who was never able to complete his college degree but found success as a Boeing photographer for 30 years.
• Ben Kayji Hara, who volunteered with the Army soon after he was incarcerated, was sent overseas and died in Tokyo in 1945.
• Shigeko (Iseri) Hirai, who eventually completed her nursing degree before moving to Chewelah, Wash. to farm seed potatoes with her husband.
• Dr. May (Shiga) Hornback, who moved to Montana to avoid incarceration and went on to earn a Ph.D. and become a nursing professor at the University of Wisconsin.
• Collette (Yoshiko) Kawaguchi, who was incarcerated at Minidoka and lived many years in Chicago before returning to Seattle, where she lives today.
• Lillia Uri (Satow) Matsuda, who was incarcerated at Minidoka but eventually completed her nursing degree in Peoria, Ill., and worked as nurse for many years there and in Seattle.
• June (Koto) Sakaguchi, who moved to Colorado to finish her nursing degree and eventually settled and raised her family in Milwaukee, Wis.
• Mitsu Shoyama, who went on to receive her nursing degree at St. Boniface Hospital in Manitoba, followed by a successful nursing career in Kamloops, British Columbia.
• Caroline (Kondo) Taniguchi, who continued her nursing education in Colorado and worked at several hospitals in Chicago as a medical records specialist. She lives in the San Francisco Bay area.
• Madeleine (Iwata) Uyehara, who continued her nursing education in Colorado and worked at a blood bank before settling down to marry and raise her son in Milwaukee, Wis.
• Joanne Misako (Oyabe) Watanabe, who was incarcerated at Minidoka, then returned with her husband to Seattle several years later and raised eight children.
• Tom Yamauchi, who went onto a successful career with Boeing and the Northrup Corp.

Read more at www.seattleu.edu/commencement.

China’s practice of blocking Taiwan’s websites is an impediment to the goal of increasing information and cultural exchange between the two sides of the Strait, said Liu Te-shun, spokesman for the Mainland Affairs Council. “We’ve told them news exchange does not refer to the exchange of reporters only,” Liu said. “What is really important is the free exchange of information.” The improvement of ties since the Kuomingtang’s Ma Ying-jeou took power in 2008 has not resulted in Taiwan’s gov.tw sites being accessible to mainland internet users, reports the Associated Press.

The Kuomingtang won the presidential election and a majority of seats in Taiwan’s legislature on a platform of improved relations with China. The blockage is even presenting difficulties for China’s own government officials who must access official Taiwanese data in order to process governmental interactions, said Liu. “They must face up to this issue if they hope to see further news and information exchange,” he said. In 2009, Taiwan eased restrictions on the stationing of reporters from China, and now allows each Chinese media outlet to deploy up to five reporters on Taiwan.

OC Authorities Crack Down on Vietnamese Cafes

The tinted windows at Cafe Miss Cutie in Garden Grove, Calif., are a giveaway that this isn’t your ordinary coffeehouse. At about 20 tables, men play cards and smoke, tossing cigarette butts onto the wood floor seconds before lighting up again. High-pitched pop music pulsates as waitresses dressed in sexy lingerie — and sometimes less — deliver the brew the customers crave: Vietnamese coffee, strong and sweet, in a small glass topped with whipped cream. The cafe is one of about 20 in this Orange County city, which includes part of Little Saigon, one of the largest Vietnamese American enclaves in the U.S.

It also is among those raided in March by more than 150 federal and local law enforcement officials, exposing an underbelly of what police say includes nudity, gambling and prostitution. Even the Garden Grove police weren’t prepared for what they found. “We were shocked,” Sgt. Tom Dare, with the department’s special investigations unit, said of the proliferation of arcade-like gambling machines. In the raid, police seized 186 arcade machines that they say can be turned into a keno or blackjack machine with the push of a button. Also confiscated was more than $145,000 in suspected gambling profits, including $35,000 from one cafe alone. The investigation is on-going.

Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Faces Tax Evasion Charges

Ai Weiwei, the dissident artist whose arrest has prompted an international outcry, is being charged with evading “huge amounts” of taxes, Chinese state media reported on May 20. The brief dispatch on the New China News Agency was the first official disclosure of the charges being leveled against the 54 year-old artist, who was arrested without warning at Beijing’s international airport on April 3, reported the Los Angeles Times. The report also said that his company, Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., had “intentionally destroyed accounting records” and committed other criminal acts.

Artist Ai Weiwei

The Inventor of Bubble Tea?

Lin Hsiu Hui. Photo credit: Derek Chang, CNN.

“Everyone at the meeting loved the drink and it quickly outsold all of our other iced teas within a couple of months — even after 20 years on the menu, bubble tea makes up 80-90 percent of our sales and Taiwanese are proud of this home-grown drink,” says Lin.

Today, bubble tea shops occupy nearly every corner of Taiwan’s streets. They spread to neighboring countries like Japan, South Korea and China and then to the rest of the world.

Oakland: Redefining Sex Trade Workers as Abuse Victims

The New York Times published an article on Asian American youth in Oakland, Calif., who are being lured and forced into the sex trade, and the organizations, like Asian Health Services, that are trying to help these young girls. The numbers are staggering. Once viewed as criminals and dispatched to juvenile centers, where treatment was rare, sexually exploited youths are increasingly seen as victims of child abuse, with a new focus on early intervention and counseling.

In Oakland, a handful of organizations have developed new programs for Southeast Asian minors that take into account the complex culture of foreign-born parents and their American-born children. An estimated 100,000 to 300,000 American-born children are sold for sex each year. The escalating numbers have prompted national initiatives by the F.B.I. and other law enforcement agencies, and new or pending legislation in more than a dozen states. The Oakland health clinic is confronting an underground within an underground — the demand for Asian American girls, with Cambodian Americans among the most vulnerable. According to the article, a stable of four girls can earn over $600,000 a year in tax-free income for a pimp. That kind of money motivates abusers to recruit and kidnap girls from the streets and even from their own families.

Supreme Court Upholds Arizona Law Penalizing Businesses For Hiring Illegal Immigrants

The Supreme Court has sustained Arizona’s law that penalizes businesses for hiring workers who are in the United States illegally, rejecting arguments that states have no role in immigration matters. By a 5-3 vote, the court said May 26, that federal immigration law gives states the authority to impose sanctions on employers who hire unauthorized workers, reports the Huffington Post. The decision upholding the validity of the 2007 law comes as Arizona appeals a ruling that blocked key components of a second, more controversial Arizona immigration enforcement law. The decision applies only to business licenses and does not signal how the high court might rule if the other law comes before it.

Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor, all Democratic appointees, dissented. The fourth Democratic appointee, Justice Elena Kagan, did not participate in the case because she worked on it while serving as President Obama’s solicitor general. Breyer said the Arizona law upsets a balance in federal law between dissuading employers from hiring illegal workers and ensuring that people are not discriminated against because they may speak with an accent or look like they might be immigrants. Employers “will hesitate to hire those they fear will turn out to lack the right to work in the United States,” he said. Business interests and civil liberties groups challenged the law, backed by the Obama administration. The measure was signed into law in 2007 by Democrat Janet Napolitano, then the governor of Arizona and now the administration’s Homeland Security secretary.

Top Supreme Court Lawyer Says WWII-Era Predecessor Hid Key Information on Japanese Internment

Nearly 70 years after the Supreme Court upheld the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the U.S. Department of Justice has finally admitted it made mistakes and acted dishonorably in defending the convictions of Gordon Hirabayashi and Fred Korematsu. The “confession of error,” posted by acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal on the Justice Department’s website recently, is the first such admission of wrongdoing since the 1940s, when the Supreme Court ruled against Korematsu and Hirabayashi, who challenged the incarceration and related curfew orders that compromised the civil rights of Japanese Americans.

Fred Korematsu

“The report confirms that the Seattle Community Colleges are vitally important to the overall strength of our region, but just as important, we affect the quality of life of thousands of individuals and families,” said district Chancellor Jill A. Wakefield.

The report was produced by Economic Modeling Specialists, Inc. (EMSI), which calculated the economic impact based on the skills of graduates over 30 years; spending for college operations, including earnings of faculty and staff; and spending by students, including international students. The college district employs just over 1,900 faculty and staff. Approximately 97 percent of alumni remain in Washington and contribute to our state’s economic growth. The report found that the Seattle Community Colleges generate a 7 percent rate of return on investment to state and local taxpayers.

•Taxpayers see a cumulative return of $1.90 for every dollar invested in support of the colleges, based on state and local tax collections of alumni in the workforce.

•Students receive a 21.6 percent average rate of return on their educational investment. The average annual income of the typical associate’s degree graduate in King County at the midpoint of his or her career is $60,600, which is 35 percent more than someone with a high school diploma.

•Earnings of the district’s alumni expand the tax base by more than $158 million each year, based on their increased skills and reduced impact on social services related to higher education levels.

An Executive Summary and Overview Fact Sheet are included on the Chancellor’s message website: www.seattlecolleges.com/DISTRICT/chancellor/blog.aspx.

——————————————————————

Vietnamese American Community Share Leadership Vision
The Vietnamese Community Leadership Institute (VCLI), a grassroots organization dedicated to leadership development, will partner with various community organizations to host a “Vietnamese Leadership Capacity Building Forum” to attract and engage 50+ Vietnamese American community members in civic and community building activities on Saturday, May 28, 2011. The public forum, to be held at Viet TV Studio, 259 SW 41st Street, Renton, WA 98057 from noon to 3 p.m., will feature seven local successful civic Vietnamese American leaders and two nationally recognized Vietnamese American leaders to share and discuss their experience and vision around the themes of leadership development and “Creating a Common Future.” IE Editor Diem Ly is included as a panelist. Linh Thai, VCLI member and founder, finds it critical for a community to develop an effective and visionary leadership development strategy. For more information, please contact Nhi Tran at (206) 322.6134 or e-mail: nhi@sngi.org.

——————————————————————

LIHI celebrates 100th Anniversary of Historic Hotel
On May 10, the Low Income Housing Institute (LIHI) commemorated the historic Frye Hotel’s 100th Anniversary with a community celebration in the hotel on Yesler Way in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. Built by Seattle pioneer George F. Frye and his wife Louisa (Denny) Frye, the Louisa C. Frye Hotel was named after George’s wife. When it was built in 1911, the Frye Hotel was the largest hotel north of San Francisco. The Frye Hotel was built for $1 million as a luxury hotel with interior finishes of marble and mahogany. It predates the Smith Tower (which was not built until 1914). President Teddy Roosevelt was a guest at the Frye Hotel’s grand opening and nearly 3,000 people attended the event on April 6, 1911. Today the Frye Hotel has federal historic landmark status and is part of the Pioneer Square Historic District. During WWII, from 1942 to 1944, the Frye served as military housing for the Army and from 1944 to 1945 for the Navy. After the war, it was a VA Resource Center and housed military dependents. In the early 1970’s Abie Label purchased and renovated the hotel into subsidized Section 8 housing. As the subsidy program was ending, the hotel came under threat of conversion to market-rate housing. In 1997, LIHI purchased and renovated the hotel to preserve 234 units of housing for low-income families and individuals, seniors, and people with disabilities. If LIHI had not raised the funds to purchase the Frye Hotel, the owners were ready to sell it to a for-profit developer who had made a back-up offer to purchase the building. The residents were at risk of being displaced and signed a petition to then Seattle Mayor Norm Rice to save their homes. LIHI purchased the building for $5.4 million and spent $7 million on renovations, including seismic upgrades.

——————————————————————

The Hong Kong Association of Washington’s business luncheon will feature questions that impact people in the Northwest today: When and how much will the tolling on 520 impact you and your business? Also, what’s the Alaskan Way Viaduct update and its impact? Discover ways to save for your business, including discounts and tax credits related to transportation cost. The HKAW Business Luncheon is on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Tea Garden Restaurant, located at 708 Rainier Ave S, Seattle. Guest Speaker: Mike Rimoin from Commute Seattle. Cost: $20 members, $25 for non-members. Please RSVP and pre-pay online at www.hkaw.org.

——————————————————————

Governor Gregoire Appoints Joey Ing to PSA
Governor Christine Gregoire appointed Joey Ing to a 3-year term on the Public Stadium Authority (PSA) which governs Qwest Field. Ing’s appointment takes effect on May 27, 2011 and will continue until July 15, 2013. In a letter to Ing, the governor said, “Thank you for your willingness to join me in serving the citizens of Washington. We need people like you, who are willing to give their time and abilities to our state.” The governor also expressed in the letter the importance of diversity to the state and “that all people deserve to be heard … In government we deal with many complex and often divisive issues. We will not always be able to make everyone happy, but we must ensure individuals are listened to.” Ing is a retired architect with Ing & Associates and has served on the InterIm Community Development Association Board since 2003.

——————————————————————

Tosa Night Market 2011 100 Bites Of Taiwan
In celebration of the Republic of China’s Centennial, the Taiwanese Overseas Student Association (TOSA) from the University of Washington is hosting “TOSA Night Market 2011: 100 Bites of Taiwan”. Open to the general public, the event will be held on Red Square at the University of Washington from 6 to 10 p.m. on Saturday, May 21, 2011. The night market is a representation of Taiwanese culture, which offers entertainment, games, and delicious, inexpensive food. An exciting lineup featuring live performances by the “rising R&B music sensation” Jason Chen and a famous singer from Taiwan, Z-Chen, will make this event one of the most anticipated throughout the school year.  The Night Market is hosted by (TOSA) Taiwanese Overseas Student Association, a student organization at the University of Washington that is geared towards promoting Taiwanese cultures and serving mainly but not limited to Taiwanese students.

——————————————————————

API Freedom School Empowers Youth
The Asian Pacific Islander Freedom School is a ground-breaking grassroots effort of community-based organizations and activists in the Pacific Northwest to mobilize and empower youth. Inspired by the work of the Tyree Scott Freedom School, the API Freedom School will target API youth — with special outreach to recent immigrants, refugees and low-income students — through a curriculum focused on diverse API history, art, culture and critical contemporary social issues using a broad-based anti-oppression approach.

Set to launch in July 2011, the week-long APIFS will provide a safe, dynamic learning space for API youth to learn from local API community leaders. The APIFS will build strong inter-community and -generational connections to grow the next generation of API community leaders, and expand the sustainability of larger social justice movement work. The API Freedom School is an effort of a coalition of community organizations, leaders, and activists in Seattle, including, but not limited to, Sahngnoksoo, WAPI Community Services, Tadaima, NAPAWF, and others.

The Asian Pacific Islander Freedom School is from June 25 – June 29, 2011 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. each day. Seattle University Campus. Registration is open now for young people ages 14-18. Go to http://apifs.wordpress.com to download the application form. Contact Lynne Nguyen, coordinator for API Freedom School by e-mailing: apifreedomschool@gmail.com; or call (858) 598-4649.

——————————————————————

Seattle U Recognizes Nisei With Honorary Degrees

On May 17, 2011, Seattle University hosted a program both to recognize its 1941-42 Nisei students (Japanese born in the U.S.) who will be receiving honorary degrees at spring commencement and to share the lessons of their incarceration.  There was a special recognition of the university’s Nisei students whose educations were disrupted by their forced removal and incarceration during World War II.  Those who will be awarded honorary degrees include John Edward Fujiwara, Ben Kayji Hara, Shigeko (Iseri) Hirai, Madeleine (Iwata) Uyehara, Colette Yoshiko Kawaguchi, Masuko Caroline (Kondo) Taniguchi, June (Koto) Sakaguchi, Joanne Misako (Oyabe) Watanabe, Lillia Uri (Satow) Matsuda, Dr. May (Shiga) Hornback, Mitsu Shoyama, and Thomas Tamotsu Yamauchi.

Recognition of their struggles were shared in the program, as well as a few words from surviving relatives. The community was also invited to other sessions held during the day, including a discussion of the incarceration and the legal cases arising from it; a special showing of the film “Of Civil Rights and Wrongs – The Fred Korematsu Story,” a documentary on the life of Fred Korematsu, including the historic Coram Nobis case in the 1980s.  His daughter, Karen Korematsu, lead a discussion immediately after the showing; and an evening program on the present-day relevance of the incarceration consisted of  showing the film “Pilgrimage,” a documentary recounting the beginnings of the Manzanar pilgrimage and a panel discussion.

The honorary degrees will be awarded at the university’s commencement ceremonies at Key Arena on June 12, 2011. For more information, please see the Seattle University Honorary Degree website at www.seattleu.edu.

——————————————————————

Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn is holding an ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDER COMMUNITY FORUM on Wednesday, June 8 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the Asian Counseling & Referral Service (ACRS). This is an opportunity to hear about the Mayor’s initiatives, meet department representatives, ask questions and engage in dialogue with the Mayor. Turn out to share your ideas and concerns as an API community member with the Mayor.  RSVP by June 1 to Thao Tran at thao.tran@seattle.gov or call (206) 684-4033 or contact Joanne Cheung at joannec@acrs.org.

——————————————————————

The 2011 Seattle Japanese Queen Scholarship Celebration is set for May 28, 2011 at Meydenbauer Center in Bellevue. The Seattle Japanese Queen Scholarship Organization will crown its 2011 queen at its annual scholarship celebration at 7 p.m. at the Theatre at Meydenbauer Center, 11100 N.E. 6th St., in Bellevue. For ticket information, go to www.seattlejqc.org. For more information, contact Mari Sugiyama at (206) 669-2535 or visit: www.seattlejqc.org.

WASHINGTON – Today, President Barack Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key administration posts:

·         Sefa Aina, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Debra T. Cabrera, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Kamuela J. N. Enos, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Frances Eneski Francis, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Farooq Kathwari, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Hyeok Kim, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Ramey Ko, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Rozita Villanueva Lee, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Sunil Puri, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Amardeep Singh, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Unmi Song, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Dilawar A. Syed, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Khampha Thephavong, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Doua Thor, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Hector L. Vargas, Jr., Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Hines Ward, Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

·         Admiral John B. Nathman, USN (Ret), Member, Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy

·         Lieutenant General Frank E. Petersen, USMC (Ret), Member, Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy

President Obama said, “Our nation will be well-served by the skill and dedication these men and women bring to their new roles. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead.”

President Obama announced his intent to appoint the following individuals to key administration posts:

Sefa Aina, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Sefa Aina is the Director of the Asian American Resource Center (AARC) at Pomona College.  Prior to coming to Pomona, Mr. Aina worked at the UCLA Asian American Studies Center as a counselor, organizational advisor and instructor.  He’s also a founding member of Pacific Islander Education and Retention (PIER), which does tutoring and mentoring for Pacific Islander youth in the Carson, Long Beach and Inglewood areas of Los Angeles.  He’s a founding member of the National Pacific Islander Educators Network (NPIEN) and Empowering Pacific Islander Communities (EPIC).  Mr. Aina graduated from UCLA with a BA in History and is currently starting the Masters program in Asian American Studies also at UCLA.

Debra T. Cabrera, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Debra T. Cabrera is currently a social science faculty member at St. John’s School located in Tumon, Guam.  From 2008-2009, Dr. Cabrera was Dean of Academic Programs and Services at the Northern Marianas College in Saipan, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. Prior to that, she served many years as a faculty member at the college, earning recognition for her teaching in the social sciences.  She has been active in community organizations, namely the Northern Mariana Islands Council for the Humanities, where she served as the board chair.  Dr. Cabrera holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Kentucky, an M.A. in Sociology from Ohio University, and a B.A. in Sociology from Washington State University.

Kamuela J. N. Enos, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Kamuela Enos is currently the Director of Community Resource Development at MA`O Organic Farms, where he works with low income communities to combat major health issues and promote sustainable agriculture. He worked previously at Empower Oahu on economic and community development initiatives and with the Department of Urban and Regional Planning, where he served as a research assistant in the Office of Youth Services Strategic Planning Process.  He is a Director of the Hawaii Rural Development Council.  Mr. Enos holds a B.A in Hawaiian Studies and a M.A. in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Hawai`i at Manoa.

Frances Eneski Francis, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Frances E. Francis is currently a partner with Spiegel & McDiarmid LLP, a Washington DC law firm specializing in energy, telecommunications, and regulatory matters.  Ms. Francis has primarily worked in the fields of hydroelectric regulation, nuclear decommissioning, and electric rate regulation and contract negotiations. She has also been a visiting professor at George Washington University Law School, an attorney with the Federal Power Commission, and a consultant for the Energy Policy Project and the New England River Basin Commission.  Ms. Francis holds a B.A. from Dickinson College, an LLB from Yale Law School, and an M.P.A. from Harvard University.

Farooq Kathwari, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Farooq Kathwari is the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ethan Allen Interiors. He has been President of the company since 1985, and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since 1988. Mr. Kathwari serves on many non-for-profit organizations including the chair of the Kashmir Study Group; a member of the Council on Foreign Relations; a director of the International Rescue Committee, the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy at Georgetown University; a director and former chairman of Refugees International; and a director and former chairman of the National Retail Federation. He holds a B.A. degree in English Literature and Political Science from Kashmir University, an M.B.A. in International Marketing from New York University, and also holds two honorary doctorate degrees.

Hyeok Kim, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Hyeok Kim is currently Executive Director of InterIm Community Development Association, a nonprofit community development agency that works to preserve and revitalize Seattle’s Chinatown/International District, and which advocates on behalf of low- and moderate-wage residents and small businesses in the broader Asian and Pacific Islander community in the Puget Sound region.  From 1999 to 2008, Ms. Kim worked for the Washington State Legislature, first as a Legislative Assistant to State Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos and then as a policy analyst for the House Democratic Caucus researching and analyzing child welfare, human services, and affordable housing issues.  She has also worked as a lobbyist for the Children’s Alliance, a statewide children’s advocacy organization and for the Children’s Administration in Washington.  Ms. Kim is a 2010 Marshall Memorial Fellow, as well as a 2010-2011 Fellow with the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Children & Family Fellowship program.   Ms. Kim holds a B.A. from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

Ramey Ko, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Ramey Ko is currently Associate Judge of the City of Austin Municipal Court.  Before being appointed a judge by the Austin City Council in January 2010, Judge Ko was an attorney at the Texas Advocacy Project, a non-profit organization that provides free legal services to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking.  Prior to his position with the Texas Advocacy Project, Judge Ko was an Equal Justice Works Fellow with Texas RioGrande Legal Aid, Inc. and focused on direct representation, education, and outreach related to housing issues faced by survivors of domestic violence.  Judge Ko is an Advisory Board Member of the Texas Asian Chamber of Commerce and serves on the City of Austin Public Safety Commission.  Judge Ko holds a B.A. from Yale University and a J.D. from the University of Chicago.

Rozita Villanueva Lee, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Rozita Lee is currently the National Vice Chair of the National Federation of Filipino American Associations.  From 1991 to 2010, she was the owner of RVL, Inc., a Polynesian/Hawaiian Entertainment company.  Previously, she served as Vice-President of the Nevada Economic Development Company, as special assistant to former Nevada Governor Bob Miller, and as an administrator of the Diversity Training Program at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV).   From 1981 to 1983, she produced and hosted a television program called SPECTRUM  for PBS Television Channel 10 KLVX TV featuring various ethnic groups in Las Vegas. She was the founding Chairwoman of the Board for the Asian Chamber of Commerce and President of the Las Vegas Chapter of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.

Sunil Puri, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Sunil Puri is the President and sole owner of First Rockford Group, Inc., a real estate development firm he founded in 1984.  He also sits on a number of boards including the Rockford Area Economic Development Council and the Rockford College Board of Trustees.  Mr. Puri holds a B.S. in Accounting from Rockford College.  He has also pursued graduate work at Rockford College, London Business School, as well as continuing executive courses at Harvard Business School.

Amardeep Singh, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Amardeep Singh is the co-founder and presently the Director of Programs at the Sikh Coalition, the nation’s largest Sikh civil rights organization.  Prior to joining the Sikh Coalition in 2002, Mr.Singh worked as a Researcher in the U.S. Program of Human Rights Watch (HRW). While at HRW, he authored its report, “We Are Not the Enemy: Hate Crimes Against Arabs, Muslims, and Those Perceived to be Arab or Muslim after September 11.”  Mr. Singh was also an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race where he taught a course on the intersection of ethnic identity and the law. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the South Asian Bar Association of New York. Mr. Singh holds a B.A. from Rutgers University and a J.D. from Case Western Reserve University School of Law.

Unmi Song, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Unmi Song is Executive Director of the Lloyd A. Fry Foundation, a private foundation that awards $8 million in grants annually to nonprofits serving low-income communities in Chicago with a focus on Arts Education, Education, Employment, and Health.  Prior to joining the Fry Foundation in 2003, Ms. Song handled employment program grantmaking, which covered job training and welfare policy issues, at the Joyce Foundation.  Before she moved into the nonprofit sector, Ms. Song was vice president of Bankers Trust Company and held positions at Citicorp Investment Bank in New York City, at the First National Bank of Chicago and at Gold Star Tele-Electric Company in Seoul, South Korea.  Ms. Song holds a B.A. and an M.B.A. from the University of Chicago.

Dilawar A. Syed, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Dilawar A. Syed is President and CEO of Yonja Media Group, an emerging markets internet company.  Prior to joining Yonja Media, Mr. Syed was head of business strategy and operations in the Platform division at Yahoo!. Mr. Syed was President of a non-profit entrepreneurship organization, OPEN Silicon Valley, and currently serves on the steering committee of the Fred T. Korematsu Institute for Civil Rights and Education.  Mr. Syed holds an M.B.A. from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. from The University of Texas at Austin.

Khampha Thephavong, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Dr. Khampha Thephavong is currently a primary care physician at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Fresno, California.   Dr. Thephavong  also serves on the Board of the Lao-American Advancement Center.  Dr. Thephavong holds a BSN degree from the California State University of Fresno and a D.O. degree from the Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Doua Thor, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Doua Thor is the Executive Director of Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC), a national nonprofit organization advancing the interests of Cambodian, Laotian, and Vietnamese Americans through leadership development, capacity building, and community empowerment.  Formerly she was a New Voices Fellow with Hmong National Development, Inc. (HND). Currently, she serves on the board of the Asian Pacific Islander American Scholarship Fund (APIASF), and the Red Cross National Diversity Advisory Council.  Ms. Thor holds an undergraduate degree from Wayne State University and a graduate degree from the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work with a concentration in social policy and evaluation.

Hector L. Vargas, Jr., Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Hector Vargas Jr. is Executive Director of the Gay & Lesbian Medical Association (GLMA), a non-profit association of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) healthcare professionals working for equality in healthcare for LGBT people and healthcare providers. From 2001 until earlier this year, Mr. Vargas worked at Lambda Legal, first as Southern Regional Director and later as Deputy Director of the Education and Public Affairs Department, where he played key leadership roles in the organization’s education and communication strategies. Prior to joining Lambda Legal, he also worked at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, the American Bar Association’s Section of Individual Rights and Responsibilities, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Ethics Division and Equal Justice Works (formerly the National Association for Public Interest Law). Mr. Vargas holds a J.D. and B.A. from the University of Georgia.

Hines Ward, Appointee for Member, President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders

Hines Ward is a professional football player for the Pittsburgh Steelers who was voted MVP of Super Bowl XL.  Born to a Korean mother and an African American father, he has long been an advocate for biracial youths.  He is actively involved in various philanthropic initiatives, including starting his own foundation, the Hines Ward Helping Hands Foundation, which seeks to help mixed-race children suffering from discrimination.

Admiral John B. Nathman, USN (Ret), Appointee for Member, Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy

Admiral John B. Nathman is a Distinguished Fellow and Member of the Military Advisory Board for the CNA Corporation.  He retired from the U. S. Navy in 2007 as Commander, U.S. Fleet Forces.  Admiral Nathman served for 37 years and held many high ranking positions including Vice Chief of Naval Operations; Commander, Naval Air Forces; Deputy Chief of Naval Operations for Warfighting Requirements; and Commander, Battle Force Fifty in the Persian Gulf.  His personal decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit and the Bronze Star with Combat V. He serves on the board of directors for the Custiss Wright Corporation and the Strategic Advisory Board for Boeing Defense, Space and Security. Admiral Nathman received his MS in aero engineering in 1972, graduated with distinction from the United States Naval Academy in 1970, and is a distinguished graduate of the USAF Test Pilot School.

Lieutenant General Frank E. Petersen, USMC (Ret), Appointee for Member, Board of Visitors to the United States Naval Academy

Lieutenant General Frank E. Petersen is a veteran fighter pilot who served 38 years in the United States Marine Corps.  In 1952 he became the first African-American pilot in the history of the Corps and in 1978 the first African-American Brigadier General. General Petersen served combat tours in Korea and Vietnam and held command positions at all levels of Marine Corps aviation, commanding a Marine fighter Squadron, Marine Aircraft Group and Marine Aircraft Wing. He retired in 1988 as Commander, Marine Corps Combat and Development Command, Quantico, Virginia and as senior ranking aviator in the U.S. Naval Service with the respective titles of “Silver Hawk” (USMC) and “Grey Eagle” (USN). After retirement from the military, General Petersen served as Corporate Vice President of the E.I. DuPont Company, managing the company’s international capital assets. He currently serves as Chairman Emeritus on the National Marrow Donor Board and Director Emeritus on the Education Credit and Management Corp. In 2009 General Petersen was appointed by the Secretary of Defense to serve on the Military Leadership Diversity Commission.  He is a graduate of the National War College and received his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees from George Washington University.

This report looks at several areas: The history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Washington, education, healthcare and human services, the criminal justice system, economic opportunities, housing, immigration, and political participation.

A few highlighted facts from the report:

• Asian American and Pacific Islanders make up 8.5% of Washington’s population and comprise one of the largest racial minority group representing over 47 distinct populations.
• Islanders had one of the highest annual dropout rates of 7.2% and more than 40% of Asian American high school students are at risk of academic failure in math.
• Cancer is the leading cause of death among the AAPI community and there are higher incidence and death rates for lung, breast, cervical, liver and stomach cancer.
• Washington is among the ten states with the most AAPI owned small businesses with receipts of over $6.2 billion and on average, for every dollar that a non-minority owned business earns, an Asian-owned businesses earns between 56 to 59 cents.
• AAPI borrowers in Washington were significantly more likely to receive high cost home loans than non-Hispanic white borrowers.

This report is the result of a collaboration between the Fred T. Korematsu Center for Law and Equality at the Seattle University School of Law, attorneys from Perkins Coie, fellows, and the Commission. The Center donated to the printing of over 1,000 copies of the report which will be provided to the Governor, members of the Legislature, state agency directors, and the AAPI community. A copy of the report can be found by visiting: http://www.capaa.wa.gov/data/index.shtml.

CAPAA was established by the state legislature in 1974 to improve the well-being of Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) by ensuring their access to participation in the fields of government, business, education, and other areas. It has a board made up of 12-governor appointed members that represent the diverse APA communities of Washington State.

Honorable Edward M. Chen

On Jan. 7, President Obama said he will re-nominate the Honorable Edward M. Chen to the United States District Court for the Northern District of California when the Senate reconvenes. Obama first nominated Judge Chen on Aug. 7 and the Senate Judiciary Committee approved him Oct. 15, thereby putting his nomination before the full Senate. Because his nomination was not acted upon before Congress adjourned for recess, Obama must re-nominate Judge Chen, and others, in accordance with Senate rules. If confirmed, Judge Chen would become the first Asian Pacific American federal District Court judge in San Francisco, bringing long overdue diversity to the court that first rendered many infamous civil rights decisions affecting Asian Pacific Americans. Judge Chen was a part of the original legal team that overturned the conviction of Fred Korematsu, 40 years after the fact.