Bay Briefs
December 29, 2006
EEOC Wins $1M for Thai Welders
LOS ANGELES — The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced a settlement with Trans Bay Steel Inc. for $1 million in compensation for 48 welders of Thai descent who were discriminated against and exploited due to their national origin.
EEOC charged that the class of Thai nationals, contracted under H2B visas by Trans Bay, were held against their will, had their passports confiscated, their movements restricted and were forced to work without pay. Some workers were confined to cramped apartments without any electricity, water or gas.
Trans Bay received a large subcontract to provide services to retrofit the Bay Bridge and brought the 48 welders from Thailand to meet the needs of the project. However, only nine went to work for Trans Bay; the remaining welders were brought to Los Angeles and Long Beach, and forced to work without pay at Thai restaurants and other menial jobs.
Engineer Indicted In Military Trade Plot
SAN JOSE — Silicon Valley engineer Xiaodong Sheldon Meng was charged with stealing trade secrets from a San Jose software company and attempting to sell them to foreign governments.
Meng, 42, a Chinese national with Canadian citizenship living in Cupertino, was indicted on 36 felony counts, including economic espionage to benefit a foreign government and various violations of military technology export laws.
Prosecutors say Meng stole the underlying code for software made by Quantum3D Inc. that is used to train military fighter pilots, and tried to sell it to the Royal Thai Air Force, the Royal Malaysian Air Force and a company with ties to China’s military. No foreign government or agent was named as a conspirator in the case.
Charges May Come Against Frat Members
A Travis County grand jury is expected to conclude its investigation into the alcohol-related death of Phanta “Jack” Phoummarath. The investigation could bring charges against members of the Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity that were present the night Phoummarath, an 18-year-old business freshman, was found dead inside the fraternity’s West Campus house on Dec. 10, 2005.
The university suspended the Asian American fraternity until 2011 after an investigation found they hazed Phoummarath and other pledges. Phoummarath had a blood alcohol level of 0.50 when he died; the legal limit is 0.08.
The family named the local and national chapters of the fraternity in a wrongful death lawsuit that is still ongoing. The lawsuit accuses the fraternity of negligence, providing alcohol to minors and failing to render aid once Phoummarath became incapacitated.
Missing Kid’s Mom Pleads Not Guilty
VISTA, Calif. — Phatsary Panyavong, a Thai woman accused of murdering her toddler and stuffing his body in a trash bin near her home, has pleaded not guilty. Panyavong, 30, known as Erika, allegedly told investigators she accidentally overdosed the 19-month-old boy. Panyavong’s family and friends persuaded her to go to police.
Coroners are awaiting the results of toxicology tests to determine the child’s cause of death, and an autopsy conducted indicated no trauma to the child’s body.
The toddler’s older siblings, a 12-year-old boy and 7-year-old girl, were placed in child protective services. Panyavong, a legal resident of the U.S., arrived as a refugee from Thailand in 1979.
Community Education Fund Internship
EVENT: Chinese American Political Association Community Education Fund Internship 2007
DESCRIPTION: Internships for Asian American students who will be high school seniors or college students in coming fall to work in the office of an elected official or political organization. No previous experience required, must have desire to learn about government, politics, current events and community service.
DETAILS: Application deadline is Feb. 10, 2007.
CONTACT: Cindy Chin, cindymchin@gmail.com, www.capacommunity.org
Newsom Plans To Repave Stockton Street
SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Gavin Newsom met with Chinese community members to announce plans to repave Stockton Street, from Union Square through Chinatown, and through to North Beach, next year.
While the paving project won’t begin until the summer of 2007, infrastructure work will begin immediately after the New Year. New curb-ramps will be installed at sidewalk corners to aid seniors and people with disabilities, the water main on Stockton Street will be replaced, and the sewer main will be rehabilitated.
“The Stockton Street corridor from downtown to Chinatown is one of the most heavily traveled routes in all of the city,” said Mayor Gavin Newsom. “With this overhaul, DPW will ensure that one of our most historic and highly visited areas will not be impacted in the future by the effects of Mother Nature.”
The repaving of Stockton Street is to be completed by Thanksgiving 2007.
Vietnam College Trip Sparks Outrage
SAN JOSE — A debate about the Vietnam War has erupted in San Jose’s Vietnamese American community, threatening to derail a January college study trip to Vietnam.
The San Jose Evergreen Community College District’s board of trustees heard from students and faculty members who are planning to make the trip and community residents who are impassioned opponents of the government in Hanoi. The region’s large Vietnamese community is polarized by questions of political allegiance, fueled by accusations that the study trip amounts to an endorsement of Vietnam’s communist government.
Opponents of the trip, led by Tam Nguyen, publisher of Saigon USA, a Vietnamese-language newspaper in San Jose, said the trip is “being used by the Vietnamese government as propaganda to highlight the success of communism.”
School officials maintain the trip’s purpose is educational and cultural, not political. Fifty students and faculty members have signed up for the trip.
— San Jose Mercury News
Kissing Students Sue Principal
Charlene Nguon, caught kissing a girl at Garden Grove’s Santiago High School, was put in detention, suspended and transferred. She’s now suing then-principal Ben Wolf, alleging that his actions caused her nearly straight-A grades to plummet and drove her into a depression so deep she began cutting herself and contemplated suicide.
The problems began in December 2004, during Nguon’s junior year, when someone spotted her kissing her then-girlfriend, Trang Nguyen. Throughout the following months, the principal repeatedly disciplined the girls for public displays of affection.
Nguon says she was reprimanded because she was kissing a girl, but Wolf insists the problem was that, regardless of whether it was a girl or boy, Nguon continued the kissing despite repeated warnings to stop.
The suit also seeks district policy changes that would prohibit administrators from revealing a student’s sexual orientation or selectively enforcing discipline on that basis.
— The Los Angeles Times
Origami Decorates City Hall’s Tree
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, along with LGBT charity Rainbow World Fund and the Mihara family of Japantown, invites people worldwide to submit their wishes for the future of the world through the website www.rainbowfund.org/wish. The wishes, folded into thousands of origami cranes, will decorate a Tree of Hope in San Francisco’s City Hall, on display until Jan. 2.
Vicky Mihara Avery and Linda Mihara of Paper Tree in San Francisco’s Japantown coordinated the folding of cranes with community organizations and origami enthusiasts nationwide. The tree is covered with 3,400 origami models. Participation in the campaign/art project encourages individuals to experience the power of creation and individual action.
“The Tree of Hope is an exciting community project and a chance for the City of San Francisco’s compassion to be seen and heard throughout the world promoting peace and humanitarianism,” said Mayor Newsom.
Victim Of Serial Rapist Speaks Out
SACRAMENTO — A victim of the so-called Nor Cal rapist spoke out in an attempt to help police solve a series of sexual assaults that have taken place in Sacramento and elsewhere over the past 15 years.
Investigators said the woman and her roommate were attacked in their home on Oct. 13.
“I’m standing here because I believe in justice and I believe that justice will always win in the end. I hope you do, too,” said the woman, whose identity has not been released, at a news conference.
Police said the rapist is likely responsible for at least nine rapes and is described as a man in his late 30s, 5’ 8″ to 6’ tall, 200 to 250 pounds and with light-brown hair.
The rapist has been targeting women in their 20s and 30s. He initially went after white women, but has more recently attacked Asian women.
— KCRA 3
Influx of English Learners Strains CA Schools
Nearly 30% of the non-English speakers in the U.S. live in California in “linguistically isolated” households because they lack adults or teenagers proficient in English, according to the 2000 Census.
This disproportionately high number of non-English speakers living in California is straining the state’s education system, according to school officials interviewed about the report, as immigrants continue moving here, primarily from Mexico, Central America and Asia.
The immigrants and their children are eager to learn English and to acculturate to mainstream America. The task of teaching immigrants and their children is a difficult task for California, whose schools face a serious shortage of teachers trained to teach ESL students.
APA Residents Voice Outrage Against Chevron
RICHMOND — Dozens gathered in front of Richmond’s oil refinery to voice outrage against Chevron Corporation’s impact on the environmental health and safety of residents in Pandacan, the Philippines and Richmond, Calif. Protestors called for Chevron to recognize and implement corporate responsibility toward communities both locally and internationally.
“Chevron Corporation is endangering the lives of the 84,000 Pandacan residents who live on the fenceline of Chevron’s active oil depots,” said Gala King of the Filipino/American Coalition for Environmental Solidarity (FACES), which organized the event. Their international campaign aims to build public awareness and to pressure Chevron Corporation for international accountability, clean up and reparations.
The low-income, minority residents are vulnerable to health problems including asthma and cancers, especially in children. In Richmond, the Chevron refinery emits a million pounds of toxics and 500,000 pounds into the bay annually, making it one of the top five chemical polluters in California.
First ThaiAm Elected to Office
LA PALMA — Henry Charoen, 33, one of this town’s newest City Council members, is estimated to be the first elected official of Thai descent to hold public office in the United States.
Upon Charoen’s election, many in the Southern California Thai community took notice.
“I’m happy. I jumped up and down,” said Paul Rugtaengam, editor of Thai Town USA, a Glendale-based weekly Thai-language newspaper. “This is the first time I’ve had such joy in writing a story.”
Charoen first ran for the La Palma City Council two years ago, but fell 23 votes short. This year, Charoen’s council peers selected him as mayor pro tem, the acting mayor when the mayor is unavailable.
“Nobody thinks that they can do it until someone else does,” Charoen said, adding that he wants to increase cultural awareness in his 15,500-resident city, particularly within the Asian community.
— Orange County Register
Wie Accepted Into Stanford
THOUSAND OAKS — Michelle Wie has been accepted into Stanford University and is planning on entering the school Tiger Woods attended.
The 17-year-old said she would enroll next year, dispelling any talk she would concentrate exclusively on her professional golf career once she finished high school in Hawai‘i.
“No one really believed me,” Wie said. “Now that I got into Stanford … it was one of my dreams, and I want to go through with it.”
Wie has been mixing school and tour golf since playing three U.S. LPGA Tour events at age 12. She earned close to $20 million this year from endorsements, earnings and appearance money overseas.
Wie, who has yet to win on the American women’s tour, had a grandfather, an aunt and an uncle that also attended Stanford. She will not be eligible to play U.S. college golf.
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