Nation Briefs
September 29, 2006
Chinatown Bus Line Agrees to Inspections
BOSTON — Fung Wah Bus Transportation, a company that runs a low-fare bus service between Boston and New York, reached an agreement with state inspectors that keeps its fleet on the road.
Under the agreement, Fung Wah buses, which rolled over due to the driver’s speeding in Auburn, Mass., injuring 34 people, will be subject to scheduled and unscheduled inspections and driver checks over the next 30 days. The company will also improve safety, and eliminate buses that have not been maintained in a safe and sanitary condition.
The agreement was signed by Fung Wah president Pei Lin Liang, and Brian F. Cristy, director of the transportation division of the Department of Telecommunications and Energy.
The Chinatown-to-Chinatown buses, selling one-way tickets for $15 between Boston and New York, have become a popular alternative to trains and more expensive bus lines.
President Proud of Philippine Americans
HONOLULU — Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo says she is proud of Filipino Americans, who she says have a higher standard of living, higher income and a better education than the U.S. average.
“My dream is that jobs abroad will be a career choice and not a necessity for a hardworking Filipino,” Arroyo said.
She joined Hawai‘i residents with Filipino ancestry in celebrating 100 years of immigration to the islands. Sugar plantation workers in Hawai‘i were among the first to come to America.
The latest Census shows about 2.4 million people identifying themselves as having Filipino heritage living in the United States.
“We honor the forefathers, the original immigrants here because they showed courage, optimism and they allowed their descendants to have a better life here in the United States and other places,” she said.
Asian Group Lodges Voting Complaint
The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund registered complaints with the Secretary of State and Boston elections officials, citing that candidates’ names were not translated into Asian languages on primary ballots, reported The Boston Globe.
Asian voters with limited English skills may have trouble identifying the candidates, said Glenn Magpantay, a lawyer for the N.Y.-based group.
A spokesman for the Secretary of State said the office received the complaint, but the concern raised was not part of an agreement reached with the Department of Justice last year. The Justice Department had sued Boston and Springfield for alleged violations of the Voting Rights Act, which mandates provision of assistance where minority voter populations are at least 5%, or 10,000.
Mother of Missing Boy Commits Suicide
LEESBURG, Fla. — Two weeks after telling police that her son had been snatched from his crib, Melinda Duckett, 21, a South Korean adopted by American parents when she was an infant, shot herself to death, deepening the mystery of what happened to the boy.
Police have refused to say whether she left a suicide note, and said nothing they have found so far in their investigation of her death has shed light on the whereabouts of her 2-year-old son, Trenton.
Investigators have stopped short of calling her a suspect, but have focused increasing attention on her movements just before the boy vanished and the notes, computer, camera and other items seized from her house.
The boy’s disappearance in this town of 19,000 people stretched the 75-member police force to its limits.
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