CONSTRUCTION DEATH
Clinton, Liu Aid Dead Laborer’s Wife
NEW YORK — Yue Xia Zhang sat to the side of an altar upon which was placed a picture of her dead husband, candles and incense. Mourners bowed before the altar in front of the coffin.
Zhang’s husband, Jian Guo Shen, 43, was killed June 7 when a concrete wall collapsed on top of him at a residential construction site in the New York City borough of Queens.
Shen, 43, remained unidentified for days after his death. Then his wife was denied entry into the United States to make funeral arrangements. After intervention by City Councilmember John Liu and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Zhang was able to obtain a temporary visa. The couple’s 12-year-old son remains in Shanghai.
“It’s astounding to me … how an employer could not know the identity of a worker,” Liu said.
Zhang said she plans to leave the United States shortly. New York City’s Chinese community raised several thousand dollars to support her.
“We can’t help a lot, [but] at least we can do a little bit,” said Eddie Chiu, president of the Lin Sing Association.
NYC CHINATOWN
Arrests in Driver Extortion Scheme
NEW YORK — Five gang members have been indicted and arrested on charges of assaulting and extorting money from van drivers who ferry passengers from the outer boroughs into Manhattan’s Chinatown.
An investigation revealed that since May 2003 gangs had harassed, threatened, beaten and taken money from the drivers. The vans, licensed by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, carry seven to nine passengers from Brooklyn to Market Street near East Broadway for $2 a ride.
In May 2003, gang members allegedly told the drivers that they were working on the gang’s turf and the drivers each had to pay $180 a month. By June 2004, drivers of seven-passenger vans had to pay $300 a month, and those of nine-passenger vans had to pay $400 a month.
Nothing in the Book of Mormon precludes migration into the Americas by peoples of Asiatic origin.
DEFENSE DEPARTMENT
Near Half Billion in Hawai‘i Military Spending
HONOLULU — Hawai‘i is in line to get nearly half of $1 billion in military spending for the next federal fiscal year, with millions going to telescopes on Maui and upgrades to the missile-range facility on Kauai.
House and Senate conferees approved a bill last week that earmarks nearly $496.7 million for military spending in the state, announced Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawai‘i), a senior Senate conferee.
After factoring in money already appropriated for military construction in the islands, the state’s available budget for defense spending totals more than $865 million for the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1. That’s beyond payroll or day-to-day operations, Inouye said.
“The importance of Hawai‘i in our nation’s defense is illustrated by the level of funding the state receives,” he added.
SBA LOANS
House Restores APA Business Loans
WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives has restored funding for the Small Business Administration’s 7(a) flagship loan program.
The $79 million allocated to the program delivered a blow to the Bush administration’s efforts to eliminate funding and is being characterized as a victory for nearly 1 million Asian Pacific American small-business owners.
The move was bipartisan and sponsored by Reps. Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.) and Donald Mansullo (R-Ill.).
Financing is the number one challenge facing minority businesses, according to the Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency.
Congresswoman Madeleine Bordallo (D-Guam) emphasized that because APAs often do not have access to traditional lenders, “the SBA is one of the principal sources of financing for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans.”
MILITARY BASING
Kauai Missile Testing to Continue
LIHUE, Hawai‘i — U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye says the military’s program for testing medium-range interceptor missiles will remain at the Navy’s Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai.
Earlier this month, U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) proposed taking the missile-testing mission away from the Navy range at Barking Sands, on the western tip of Kauai, and moving it to the Army’s White Sands Missile Range in his home state.
For the past decade, interceptor missiles designed to knock down hostile rockets have undergone preliminary tests at White Sands. They are then sent either to Kauai or to the Army’s missile range at Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands for final testing.
PHILLY’S CHINK’S STEAKS
Filming of Name-change Campaign Begins
A restaurant called “Chink’s Steaks”? It exists, and owner Joseph Groh refuses to acknowledge the name is racist.
Opened in 1949, the steak shop has become a neighborhood legend and was voted Best of Philly for cheese steaks by Philly Magazine in 2002. The grill was named after its founder, Samuel “Chink” Sherman.
Sherman “had slanty eyes,” explained widow Mildred Sherman, “ … and the kids started calling him ‘chink.’”
She called the controversy “ridiculous.” “We are Jewish. We’re far from racist. We have Chinese customers.”
Now Joe Kim of XploitAsian Flix is filming the campaign to change the restaurant’s name, an ongoing effort for much of this year. Many other APA groups have also weighed in, including the Organization of Chinese Americans and PERIL (People for the Elimination of Racially Insensitive Language).
“We understand that the original owner may not have meant any harm. The reality is that the word has a history of hate and violence. There are numerous academic studies that show a definitive link between hate speech and violent crimes,” according to PERIL.
NATIONAL GOVERNORS ASSOCIATION
Locke’s Last Hurrah is for Health Care
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Hosting his final meeting of the National Governors Association, Gov. Gary Locke took up a combative tone in challenging President Bush’s record on health care.
Locke, who is not seeking a third term as governor, said his state still leads the pack when it comes to insuring children. He blamed the federal government for not helping more.
“We really need a comprehensive, national approach to health care,” Locke said. “The states can’t do it on their own.”
Locke’s criticism of the Bush administration signals a more partisan tone for the governors’ conference. The National Governors Association usually discourages participants from mixing political fundraising with its twice-yearly meetings, but both Democrats and Republicans scheduled events during the Seattle conference.
Locke’s term ends in January. He serves on the national steering committee for Sen. John Kerry’s campaign. His wife, Mona Lee Locke, is expecting their third child in early November.
DEPARTMENT OF LABOR
Chao, Mexico Sign Worker Safety Accord
WASHINGTON — Labor Secretary Elaine Chao announced agreements with Mexico pledging to improve compliance with U.S. labor laws and increase safety for Hispanic workers in the United States.
The declaration included no mention of additional funding or an increase in inspections and enforcement.
The agreement and a Hispanic safety and health conference in Orlando, Fla., follow reports by The Associated Press that the death toll for Mexican-born workers has soared, with an average of one dying every day in the United States, based on federal statistics.
“This administration is committed to ensuring that [Mexican workers] are safe on the job and fully and fairly compensated for their work,” said Chao, who signed the agreement with Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary, Luis Ernesto Derbez.
GUAM REPARATIONS
Congress Pushed on Guam War Claims
HONOLULU — Sixty years after Guam’s liberation from the Japanese, a congressional committee is considering compensation for Guam residents who suffered because of their loyalty to the United States.
“I’m becoming an endangered species,” said Benjamin Garrido Blaz, a survivor of the Japanese occupation and Guam’s representative in Congress from 1985 to 1993. “If we prolong this agony of war reparations for Guam, you may not — in time — have any live witness to appear before you.”
A federal commission recommended that the U.S. government pay an additional $125 million to survivors of the occupation.
The Japanese took control of Guam on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. During the 32-month occupation, Japanese soldiers tortured and terrorized the Chamorros, the indigenous people of Guam, who concealed the presence of American soldiers.
“Our burden as an American community was exceptionally heavy,” said Madeleine Bordallo. “Our historical injustice in being left out of the key war-claims legislation after the war is exceedingly bitter.”
WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION
Textiles Pressure for China Quotas
WASHINGTON — More than 100 textile and apparel executives visited congressional offices as part of the industry’s largest lobbying effort in almost two decades, a last-ditch effort to prevent the complete removal of Chinese textile quotas next year.
The lobbying day, called “Unity 2004,” underscores that the once fiercely divided industry is coming together against a Chinese threat they fear could doom American textile plants.
Next January, as a condition of China’s recent membership in the World Trade Organization, all remaining American textile quotas are expected to be lifted.
“If the current process takes place, we could see devastating effects around the world,” said Allen Gant, chairman of the newly formed National Council of Textile Organizations.
The dilemma for the United States is how to save the industry at home without turning its back on a signed trade agreement that grants China the rights of any card-carrying WTO member starting next year.
COURT INTERPRETERS
ACLU Pushes for SE Asian Interpreters
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — The American Civil Liberties Union wants the federal government to ensure Rhode Island has trained, qualified court interpreters.
The state’s General Assembly has approved spending for five interpreters and one coordinator. However, the new hires would be Spanish-language interpreters, and there is concern that Southeast Asian populations, among others, will be left out.
A 1999 state law requires that translators be provided for people with limited English skills whose native language is Spanish, Portuguese, Cape Verdean or Khmer (Cambodian).
A state judiciary document acknowledges that interpreters must have “full command of two languages, skill in simultaneous and consecutive interpretation, as well as the knowledge of courtroom procedure, legal vocabulary, the overall court and legal system, and an understanding that the ethical role of the interpreter consists not of abridging or editorializing, but of exactly interpreting every word that is spoken without emendation or amendment.”