In the 20 years since Aung San Suu Kyi first emerged as the leader of Burma's pro-democracy movement, she has inspired admiration in people around the world. She has also captured the imagination of a…

‘New York Times’ report says plan designed to end disagreements among US government agencies about how to pursue  al-Qaida leaders, but newspaper says those same disagreements prevent plan from being implemented

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Opposition member of parliament-elect Shepherd Mushonga said ZANU-PF militia forced two MDC supporters in Mazowe, Mashonaland Central, to drink poison as their families looked on

The Conference on Asian Pacific American Leadership (capal.org), founded here in Washington in 1989 to encourage Asian Pacific American participation in government, has helped almost two decades’ worth of summer interns to learn how government works.
Among the scholarships offered to bright young APAs when they work in a congressional office or federal agency is the Senator Paul Simon Scholarship. There is a reason that Sen. Simon’s name graces a scholarship for up-and-coming APA community leaders. Simon was a newspaper publisher and good government advocate, who served as a Democratic representative and then United States senator from Illinois in a career that spanned 32 years.
Born to parents who were missionaries to China, he had a special understanding of and concern for the Asian Pacific American community. He hired APA staff and championed issues of concern to the APA community. A strong advocate of both fiscal and social responsibility, he was an early advocate of balanced federal budgets as well as civil rights for APAs and all people.
I thought of Sen. Simon recently when I attended a conference in Chicago and met several alumni of his congressional offices, including his Chicago Director Nancy Chen, who now serves as co-chair of Sen. Obama’s APIA National Leadership Council.
One Asian Pacific American who distinguished himself on Sen. Simon’s staff is now poised to bring Sen. Simon’s approach to good government to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. David Chiu, the son of Chinese immigrant parents, went on to earn undergraduate, law and public policy degrees from Harvard. He is now running for a seat as District 3 representative to the board, an area that includes North Beach, Chinatown and other communities in the northeast corner of the city.
If Chiu wins on November 4, it will be the first time that San Francisco’s Chinatown has been represented by a Chinese American. Other APAs have served on the Board of Supervisors from other districts and in at-large capacities, but one of the oldest and most widely recognized APA communities in the nation has never been represented by a Chinese American supervisor.
Looking at his campaign Web site (votedavidchiu.org), Chiu is clearly immersed in the issues that affect San Francisco and especially his neighbors in District 3. He currently serves as the chair of a neighborhood association and as a San Francisco small business commissioner.
He also founded an award-winning, nationally recognized technology company, Grassroots Enterprise, after working as a criminal prosecutor in the San Francisco District Attorney’s Office and as a civil rights attorney with the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. In his spare time, he has served as a local Democratic Party activist, as the board chair of nonprofit organizations dedicated to affordable housing and youth leadership, and as president of the largest local Asian American bar association in the country.
For some of us on the East Coast, however, we knew that David was destined to follow in the honorable public service tradition of Paul Simon 20 years ago. I personally remember speaking at a conference bridging diverse ethnic communities that David organized when he was a sophomore at Harvard in 1988.
After earning his law degree and moving to Washington, I remember meeting David again at events that he helped to organize for CAPAL. In fact, he was on the committee that set up the Paul Simon scholarship.
David served as Democratic counsel for Sen. Simon on the Senate Judiciary Committee in the mid-1990s, when Sen. Simon was a powerful voice for socially progressive and fiscally responsible policies in Washington. Sen. Simon, with David’s counsel, could be counted on for opposition to the gun lobby, the death penalty and unfair laws such as the Defense of Marriage Act.
Chiu also served as Sen. Simon’s budget aide, and was responsible for crafting a balanced federal budget plan that significantly increased health care, social services and education spending, while cutting back on waste in the Pentagon budget. During an era of budget deficits, Simon’s balanced budget proposal became a blueprint for subsequent Clinton White House budgets that led to huge budget surpluses when Clinton left office in 2000.
I live in Maryland, so I cannot vote for David Chiu for supervisor on November 4. But given all that I have seen of this promising public servant over two decades, I hope that the citizens of District 3 give him a chance to bring his socially progressive and fiscally responsible views to the Board of Supervisors on November 4.
Related articles:
District 3 Candidates For Supervisor Debate
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Following the Golden Rivers” is an experience every young person or new Californian should participate in, as the California Historical Society tells the real story of the challenges that early Chinese pioneers faced in changing California’s raw land into the Golden State it is today.
The Chinese pioneers of 150-plus years ago fought against unspeakable odds, hatred and discrimination to make their homes in America. Their stories are a triumph over incredible adversities.
While over 130 Chinese camps or settlements along the West Coast have disappeared, burned down or become ghost towns, four enduring early settlements — Locke, Old Town Sacramento, Marysville and Oroville in Northern California — were revisited and relived by curious modern-day tourists.
Led by knowledgeable guides Gary Holloway and Dr. Steve Yee, background information was provided by Locke historians Connie King and Clarence Chiu and longtime Sacramentan and descendant of Fiddletown’s Yee family, Dr. Herbert Yee.
Marysville Chinatown and Bok Kai Temple was narrated by Brian Tom, and the Chinese American Museum of Northern California and Oroville’s Confucian Temple was introduced by the Dr. Gaing Chan family.
Places such as the long-shut Sacramento Railroad Yards were brought to life, thanks to Dr. Steve Yee and Thomas Enterprises.
As a descendant from Locke and Sacramento, I can still recall the noisy trains with locomotives that were as big and fearsome as movie monsters, all sitting in a rail yard as large as the Chicago stockyards or large football fields. It was truly awesome, but it is all buried and gone like the China Slough, which is just a memory for the Chinese today.
In revisiting Locke, I was thrilled to see the Chinese School House, built right next to my uncle Ping Lee’s and his parents’ home, the Lee Bings’ house.
The theater where sexy entertainers performed is still there, quiet and shuttered. Only one gambling house out of five is still open, so that visitors can peruse the style of gambling in the early days.
Very charming was historian Connie King’s hobby of gardening and her collection of toilets turned into colorful plant holders in the residential part of Locke.
Adding to the atmosphere and frontier feel of Locke were the 300 shiny Harley-Davidsons, whose guys and gals roared into town, did a chili cook-off and drank the bars empty, while we enjoyed a tame lunch at “Al, the Wops” Lunch Room. It was definitely a frontier town-feel for the visitors with the California Historical Society members who went on to “Old Sacramento,” enjoying the delightful upscale Chinese cuisine at “Fat City’s” Dining Room with water cascading just like the river of gold.
Congratulations to the East Bay Veterans of Foreign Wars Chinatown Post 3956 who recently celebrated a 50th anniversary at the Peony Restaurant in Oakland. Comrade Alfred Chan introduced Feelo Wong and Post Commander Edward Yu, the many past and present commanders of various VFW chapters, and other dignitaries.
A program of patriotic music and songs beginning with “God Bless America” saluted all the brave servicemen and women who fought for our freedom in World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Afghanistan and the Iraq war. A special video of the history of Chinese veterans was presented by Christina Lim. Closing the memorable evening were martial arts demonstrations by advanced class students, dinner and dancing.
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SAN FRANCISCO — Over 130 people gathered for a relaxing day of picnicking and hiking on Angel Island to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Club of Northern California on June 15.
Organizers and volunteers brought food, drinks and ice from the Ferry Building to historic Angel Island on public ferry boats. Alums ranged from the classes of 1948 to 2007.
Alternative Media Inc. and the Artists’ Vocal Ensemble sponsored the event.
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Yeah, you’ve heard about the Supreme Court ruling and its fallout. It’s been blogged, re-blogged, hashed and rehashed.
So what do folks on the street think of it all? Watch the video and find out.

A local Girl Scouts troop is speaking out against major Nationals advertiser ExxonMobil. According to a press release from The Coalition to Strike Out Exxon:
The Washington Nationals ballpark is the first stadium to be LEED Silver Certified by the U.S. Green Building Council … Yet the Nationals continue to accept millions of advertising dollars from Exxon, by far one of the world’s biggest contributors to global warming.
The Girl Scouts have joined the campaign to prevent Nationals Park from being renamed in Exxon’s honor. In the process, the scouts will fulfill every girl’s dream: Getting to wear a polar bear outfit. This Sunday, June 29, the girls will bear up to raise awareness about the Nats funder:
Sunday is “Nats Conversion Day,” when the first 10,000 fans that bring in any old MLB merchandise can trade it in for a brand-new Nats Curly W cap courtesy of ExxonMobil. The girl scouts will don polar bear suits and hold up signs about ExxonMobil and global warming as people enter the stadium.
Photo by mape s

This morning a City Paper staffer walked into my office ridiculing this morning’s WaPo Metro feature about toenails. He said it looked like a lame story, typical empty daily feature fare.
I’d read it at breakfast and liked it quite a bit. What I liked more than the story itself was the amazing photo presentation by Sarah L. Voisin. NEVER before has the front of Metro looked so inviting, mold-breaking, and all that other good stuff that design experts talk about at journalism conventions. Whereas the old and tired convention with a toenail-painting story would have been to take a shot or two of a woman getting the nails painted, Voisin, here, just took tons of pictures of painted toenails, and the layout people arranged them like a lei around the story text. It was stunningly good.
But not on the Web, goddamnit! I just spent a good ten minutes on the Post site trying to find the story. Nowhere on the homepage, so I went into the Metro page; I clicked through twice on the Metro “more stories” thingie before giving up. I refused to do a search, because a visual treatment that good shouldn’t have to be fetched online. I also refused to click on the “Day in Photos” box because it fronted a shot of gray horses, not my toenails.
I mean, when you have two boxes on the homepage dedicated to Wall*E and nothing to original content as good as the toenails, someone’s gotta be pissed, even if it’s just me.