Nation Briefs
July 29, 2005
Microsoft Sues Google over Lee
SEATTLE –– Microsoft Corp. has sued Kai-Fu Lee, who had been former head of its Internet search technology, and the company that just hired him away, Google, Inc.
Lee will head up Google’s first research and development center in China, scheduled to open in a few months.
Lee was corporate vice president of Interactive Services at Microsoft, and oversaw development of a desktop search service released earlier this year.
In the suit, Microsoft argued that by taking a job with a direct competitor, Lee broke a 2000 contract he signed with Microsoft. Microsoft also accused Google of “intentionally assisting Lee.”
Google shot back with a statement saying: “We’re thrilled to have Dr. Lee on board at Google. We will defend vigorously against these meritless claims.”
Bulosan’s 75th Anniversary
SEATTLE –– Carlos Bulosan collapsed on the lawn of the King County Courthouse one day in 1956 and died at 44, poor and unemployed. He was buried in an unmarked grave.
Today, Bulosan’s literary work is widely read, and his 1946 masterpiece, America Is in the Heart, is one of the most widely used books in Asian American studies.
“It is considered the premier text of the Filipino American experience,” said Greg Castilla, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Bulosan.
A Bulosan tribute mural and pictorial exhibit grace the lobby of Seattle’s Eastern Hotel, where Bulosan first landed in America on July 22, 1930. His once-unmarked grave now has a fancy granite headstone.
Fred Cordova, 72, of the Seattle-based National Filipino American Historical Society, knew Bulosan in the early 1950s, when his days as a celebrated author were behind him.
“He was unassuming and very quiet –– a very gentle person,” Cordova said. “But he wrote like a lion.”
Democrats Ponder Minorities’ Role in Primaries
WASHINGTON –– The Democrats’ election calendar leaves minorities feeling left out of the presidential nominating process because it starts with Iowa and New Hampshire, two states that don’t reflect the nation’s diverse population, activists told a commission examining the Democratic primary system.
But commission member and AFL-CIO union president John Sweeney said early states should be matched up with another state more representative of diversity and union membership. “The diversity issue is a major, major issue,” he said.
Ginger Ehn Lew, of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, urged the party to schedule a state with a significant number of Asian American voters, like Washington or Oregon, early in the calendar and to recruit more Asian American delegates.
“This should not be a last-minute, token effort,” Lew said.
Jindal asks Bush to Fly Over State
NEW ORLEANS, La. –– U.S. Rep. Bobby Jindal (R-La.) is at odds with the Bush administration over getting a greater share of royalties from oil and natural gas offshore drilling, to repair Louisiana’s rapidly deteriorating coastline.
Louisiana’s coast has already lost an area the size of Delaware since the 1930s and could lose another 700 square miles by 2050.
“I invite you all to fly over the [affected] areas with me in order to see the submerged foundations of houses that used to be on solid ground, the water lapping at roads that used to be protected, and the graves that now rest under water,” Jindal wrote.
Louisiana says the loss of land endangers the nation’s energy supply, and that oil and gas operations have contributed to the land loss. The state says it should be compensated for that.
Comments
Got something to say?