» Senators Call On U.S. to Press Thailand on Hmong
» Racial Disparities Found in Child Welfare
» Possible APA Admission Bias at Princeton
» Beijing Olympics Will Have Special Significance for Swimmer Tara Kirk
» Legislation Aims to Reduce Immigration Backlog
» Austin Police Bust Nationwide Prostitution Ring
» UC Considers Changes to Guaranteed Admissions
» Cal Students Urge For No Cuts in East Asian Languages
» API Equality to March in San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade
» New Organizational Fellowship Program Focuses on Helping Asian American Community Organizations
» Lifetime Achievement Award to Director Kitano
» Bush Administration Takes North Korea Off Terrorist List
» Olympics Could Be A Bust for Beijing Hotels
» AsianWeek Market Report
Compiled by Beleza Chan and Steffi Lau
AsianWeek Market Report: Coming soon
NATION
Senators Call On U.S. to Press Thailand on Hmong
WASHINGTON, D.C.- Seven U.S. senators want Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to look into Thailand’s repatriation of more than 800 ethnic Hmong to Laos.
The senators say they are concerned that Thailand repatriated the Hmong on Sunday without independent parties monitoring the process. They urge Rice in a letter sent this week to press Thailand to meet United Nations and basic human rights standards.The senators say they’re concerned that some of the refugees may face persecution in communist Laos.
Human rights groups said Thursday that the repatriation might have included some who were sent back involuntarily in violation of international humanitarian standards. All 837 were believed to have fled their homeland in recent years.
-Associated Press
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Racial Disparities Found in Child Welfare
Whether children of color are overrepresented in the child-welfare system is a topic that’s long been discussed in certain circles. An extensive report released Wednesday answers the question of racial disproportionality definitively.
The study, which was required by a 2007 law, began by looking at the 58,000 calls to state Child Protective Services in 2004 that reported suspected abuse or neglect. The study group tracked those cases through the process to see whether children of color fared differently from white children.
Overall, the study indicated that African American and Native American children are more likely than white children to enter the child-welfare system and to be removed from their homes for long periods. Asian American children, on the other hand, were no more likely to be removed, and they were less likely to remain in long-term care than white children. Hispanic children fared somewhere in the middle, faring worse than whites but better than African Americans and Native Americans.
-Seattle Times
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Possible APA Admission Bias at Princeton
The U.S. Education Department has broadened a review into whether Princeton University discriminates against Asian Pacific American applicants.
The case stems from a federal civil rights complaint filed in 2006 by Jian Li, a Princeton applicant who was rejected from the elite institution even though he had perfect SAT scores; was in the top-one percent of his high school class; and had earned other honors. Li claimed that Princeton has set a cap on its APA admissions, while taking in less qualified applicants from other racial groups.
Affirmative action critics argue that highly competitive college’s commitment to diversify results in tougher standards for APA students.
Princeton says that the year Li applied, 14 percent of the admitted class was APA. The university insists that no discrimination is taking place.
-Pacific Citizen
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Beijing Olympics Will Have Special Significance for Swimmer Tara Kirk
For swimmer Tara Kirk, who finished sixth in the 100-meter breaststroke at the Athens Games, advancing to Beijing in the breaststroke won’t be easy. Besides Kirk, a silver medalist at last year’s world championships, the United States boasts Olympic gold medalists Megan Jendrick and Amanda Beard, American record-holder Jessica Hardy and NCAA champion Rebecca Soni. Only two will qualify in the 100 and the 200 events. Kirk’s chances are better in the 100 because of her speed.
Qualifying for the Beijing Games has special meaning for Kirk, whose mother, Margaret, is Chinese American. She and sister Dana, also an elite swimmer, didn’t have strong ties to their Asian roots while growing up on Puget Sound.
“I know I am Chinese,” said Margaret, an electrical engineer. “Tara doesn’t look Asian. For her, she had to discover it herself.”
-Seattle Times
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Legislation Aims to Reduce Immigration Backlog
WASHINGTON, D.C.- A new bill could encapture the unused immigration visa quotas from 1992 to 2007 to reduce the current backlog, reports the World Journal. H.R. 5882, sponsored by Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., would neither increase the immigration quota nor legalizes illegal immigrants. How well the bill does in Congress will demonstrate whether some legislators oppose illegal immigration, as they have said, or whether they oppose all immigration.
If passed, the bill is expected to reduce the wait for immigrants seeking visas. Some 1.5 million of the four million immigration applications in the backlog are from Asian applicants, according to Karen Narasaki, president and executive director of Asian American Justice Center.
-World Journal
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Austin Police Bust Nationwide Prostitution Ring
AUSTIN, TX- Police officers have halted a nationwide Asian prostitution ring based in Austin.
Carl Clark, 56, and his wife, Yuzhi Jia, 44, were suspected of running a prostitution ring that exploited Asian women from an apartment.
“They were getting Asian females from different parts of the United States every month and recruiting girls to perform services,” said police Detective James Mason.
Officers said they are not sure how many women Clark and Jia sold for sex.
“Once these girls get here, they receive some money, but not a lot,” Mason said. “They feel trapped within their apartment and can’t get out.”
Investigators discovered AsianPearlGirl.com, a Web site that operated under the sensual massage parlor guise. Undercover agents posed as customers and obtained the evidence they needed to bring the husband-and-wife team down.
One of the suspected prostitutes, Yan Zhang, 45, was arrested for prostitution.
Officers said they believe there may be many more prostitutes involved.
-Austin News
BAY
UC Considers Changes to Guaranteed Admissions
The University of California is considering a major shift in the way it determines which students are eligible for admission.
The proposal, if adopted, would let campuses review the individual merits and opportunities of students instead of relying only on a set formula of courses, test scores and grades. The proposal would also eliminate the requirement for the SAT II subject exam.
Supporters say the changes would broaden access for students at inner-city and rural high schools that don’t have all the college-preparatory classes required by UC or adequate counselors to advise students on the menu of courses and tests required for UC.
But critics are voicing concerns, saying the proposal might reduce the number of African American, Latino and Asian American students who would be assured admission.
According to calculations done by the faculty, the percentage of African American students who would fall within the guarantee would dip from 4 to 3 percent; Latinos would fall from 13 to 11 percent; and Asian Americans would drop from 36 to 33 percent. Meanwhile, the percentage of whites benefiting from the guarantee would jump from 46 to 52 percent.
-San Francisco Chronicle
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Cal Students Urge For No Cuts in East Asian Languages
BERKELEY, Calif. - Representatives from the Committee to Save East Asian Languages and Korean Studies at UC Berkeley met with UC Berkeley Provost George Breslauer to protest the administration’s East Asian Language Center budget cuts, which stand to cripple Chinese and Japanese, and would completely destroy the Korean language program.
Among the demands were for the opening of general class enrollments instead of restriction to majors; preservation of Korean studies and language courses; and job security of Asian-language lecturers, many of whom need to hurdle visa requirements and residency issues.
The budget will not be finalized until June 30. Students claim that the department will suffer a 50 percent budget cut, but Dean of Arts and Humanities, Janet Broughton, said that it could be worse.
-Hokubei Mainichi News
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API Equality to March in San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade
SAN FRANCISCO- API Equality, a project of Chinese for Affirmative Action will form a contingent and march with City Assessor Phil Ting for the very first time at the 38th Annual San Francisco LGBT Pride Parade.
API Equality was invited by City Assessor Phil Ting to march alongside him on the parade route to celebrate the recent win in the court that allows gay and lesbian couples the freedom to marry and to show the community that Asian & Pacific Islanders and their allies are coming out for marriage equality.
Those interested in marching with API Equality are encouraged to meet at Assembly Area Location: K - Beale between Mission & Howard on June 29 at 10:30 am.
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New Organizational Fellowship Program Focuses on Helping Asian American Community Organizations
SAN FRANCISCO- Across California nonprofits in Asian American and Pacific Islander communities are experimenting with ways to create lasting positive change. In response, the National Gender and Equity Campaign-California, a demonstration project of Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy, has launched an organizational fellowship program to provide organizations with financial support and learning opportunities to innovate, strategize and develop partnerships.
The program will provide multi-year general operating support and tailored capacity building assistance, awarding selected organizational partners with $75,000 each year, over a three-year period.
The Organizational Fellowship Program is now accepting applications from Asian American and Pacific Islander-led community organizations in California to participate in the three-year program. The application deadline is September 5th 2008.
ARTS
Lifetime Achievement Award to Director Kitano
MOSCOW, Kyodo- Takeshi Kitano, a globally well-known Japanese film director and actor, was granted a lifetime achievement award for outstanding contribution to film arts at the 30th Moscow International Film Festival.
Kitano’s films have been gaining popularity in Russia in recent years due partly to a Japanese boom in the country. During the festival, screening of six of Kitano’s films are scheduled.
GLOBAL
Bush Administration Takes North Korea Off Terrorist List
WASHINGTON, D.C.- President George W. Bush lifted trade sanctions against North Korea and moved to remove it from the U.S. terrorism blacklist, a remarkable turnaround in policy toward the communist regime he once branded as part of an “axis of evil.”
The announcement at the White House came after North Korea handed over a long-awaited accounting of its nuclear work to Chinese officials, fulfilling a key step in the denuclearization process.
Bush called the declaration a positive step along a long road to get the nation to give up its nuclear weapons. Yet, he remained wary of the regime, which has lied about its nuclear work before. And North Korea’s declaration, received six months late, falls short of what the administration once sought, leaving it open to criticism from those who want the U.S. to take a tougher stance against the regime.
- Associated Press
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Olympics Could Be A Bust for Beijing Hotels
BEIJING- The 17-day games were supposed to generate a buzz throughout the summer, leading to a tourism windfall with fully booked hotels and free-spending customers.
Instead, Beijing’s summer tourism season has been slow, and hotels and travel agencies say many potential visitors are being put off by tightened visa rules and scarce tickets to Olympic events. Others could be reluctant to book trips because China’s authoritarian government seems more concerned with keeping out foreigners than welcoming them to the games.
China has spent a reported $40 billion on new infrastructure and stunning venues, hoping to impress visitors with a modern city when the games begin. But the lack of reservations could shake the city’s hotel industry, which has more than doubled its five- and four-star hotels offerings to 160 since Beijing was awarded the Olympics seven years ago.
- Associated Press