Daily Dose: 08/06/08
August 6, 2008
» AsianWeek Market Report
» Boston Councilor Testifies on Behalf of Small Business Dry Cleaners
» Dentists Launch Food and Toy Drive for Hayward Charity
» Local Student Attends Theatre Arts Conference
» Jackie Chan Set for ‘Spy’ Comedy
» Korean Wins Women’s British Open
» U.S.-China Relationship Turns to Athletics
» First Asian Bank Releases Promising Numbers in Struggling Economic Climate
» Joint Programs Increase Diversity in the Utility Industry
» One Laptop Per Child Expands in Asia
» Indian Stampede Victim Collected With The Dead Awakes In Morgue
Compiled by Miriam Ling
| AsianWeek Market Report | ||||
| Asian Stock Indexes | ||||
| NIKKEL_225 | Tokyo | 13,254.89 | 340.23 | 2.63% |
| HANG SENG | Hong Kong | 21,949.75 | -565.17 | -2.51% |
| KRX | Busan | 3,273.16 | 92.94 | 2.92% |
| SSE IX | Shanghai | 9,047.14 | -33.08 | -0.36% |
| BSE | Bombay | 15,073.54 | 112.47 | 0.75% |
| HOSE | Ho Chi Minh | 437.45 | 7.19 | 1.67% |
| SET | Bangkok | 676.35 | 9.23 | 1.38% |
| Asian American Market Report | ||||
| Yahoo! | YHOO | 19.86 | -0.14 | (-0.70%) |
| Citigroup | C | 19.65 | -0.05 | (-0.25%) |
| Amkor Technology, Inc | AMKR | 8.89 | -0.25 | (-2.71%) |
| Sybase | SY | 34.37 | 0.32 | (0.94%) |
| UnionBancal Corp | UB | 56.49 | -0.67 | (-1.17%) |
| East West Bank corp,Inc | EWBC | 14.26 | -0.34 | (-2.33%) |
NATION
Boston Councilor Testifies on Behalf of Small Business Dry Cleaners
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Boston Councilor Yoon testified on July 31 before the International Trade Commission in Washington, D.C., on behalf of small business dry cleaners.
Yoon’s testimony was in opposition to a pending tariff on imported wire hangers and is a follow-up to the over 500 opposition letters from dry cleaners he delivered to the ITC.
“Dry cleaners purchase 85 percent of wire hangers consumed in the United States,” said Yoon. “They have seen their costs more than double. This issue is obviously critically important to their economic future.”
Councilor Yoon was joined by over 50 cleaners from Korean Dry Cleaner Associations across the country that includes Washington, D.C., Maryland, Virginia, Chicago, New Jersey, New York, New England, Northern California and Los Angeles.
The pending tariff has offered an opportunity for these associations to unify in one voice.
BAY/CALIFORNIA
Dentists Launch Food and Toy Drive for Hayward Charity
HAYWARD, Calif. - Two dentists are leading a food and toy drive to assist Help for the Heart, a food bank and toy donation service that had its Hayward warehouse destroyed in a fire last Thursday.
Scott Chong and his father Leonard Chong said they are encouraging patients and other community members to bring nonperishable food and new toys to their office in Union City over the next three months.
People who donate items will receive tickets for a raffle drawing with prizes such as an Apple iPod and gift cards for local retailers.
The dentists said they are donating the raffle prizes, making a $500 cash donation directly to Hope for the Heart and offering storage space for the donated goods.
Scott Chong said Victoria Popejoy, who co-founded Hope for the Heart with her mother, Vivian Vargas, is a former patient at the dental office he shares with his father.
-Associated Press
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Local Student Attends Theatre Arts Conference
SAN FRANCISCO - Brandon Cheng, a student at Lowell High School, attended the 2008 Congressional Student Leadership Conference on Theatre Arts, sponsored by LeadAmerica, at Fordham University in New York City. The Conference is a college-accredited invitational leadership program for academically talented and promising young leaders from across the United States and internationally. Exceptional high school students, with a record of academic achievement and extracurricular or community involvement, were invited to participate in the summer program.
The CSLC on Theatre Arts is a 10-day leadership program in which students get an inside look at this exciting field. In a hands-on learning environment, Brandon and fellow students learned from professional set designers, producers, actors and theater administrators. They participated in daily workshops on playwriting, improvisation, production and design. While in New York from June 29-July 8, Brandon attended Broadway shows, visited studios and museums and took in the city’s sights.
ARTS/ENTERTAINMENT
Jackie Chan Set for ‘Spy’ Comedy
LOS ANGELES - Chinese film star Jackie Chan has signed up for the lead role in the new big-screen action-comedy, The Spy Next Door.
The Hollywood Reporter said the movie is to be directed by Brian Levant, whose films include Problem Child 2, The Flintstones, Snow Dogs and Are We There Yet?
Chan will play a guy who gets more than he bargains for when he arrives to baby-sit his neighbor’s children, then has to fight off secret agents when one of his charges mistakenly downloads a secret code on a computer.
Chan’s film credits include the Rush Hour trilogy, Shanghai Noon, The Forbidden Kingdom and The Shinjuku Incident.
-The Money Times
SPORTS
Korean Wins Women’s British Open
SUNNINGDALE, England - Shin Ji-yai is set to change her career plans after becoming the youngest winner of the Women’s British Open on August 3, the South Korean said.
The 20-year-old, the No. 1 player on the Korean Tour for the past two years, intended to play in Japan for the next two seasons, but her first victory in a major gives her a chance to move to the U.S.-based LPGA Tour.
Shin’s heroine is Se-ri Pak, Korea’s five-time major champion who, at 23, was the previous youngest winner when she lifted the British Open trophy at Sunningdale in 2001.
Shin is the third Korean to win the title after Pak and Jang Jeong, who was the champion at Royal Birkdale three years ago, and the sixth from her country to win a major.
-Vancouver Sun
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U.S.-China Relationship Turns to Athletics
BEIJING - While China has billed the 2008 Summer Games starting Friday as the coming-out party of a new world power, the United States enters the 18-day competition struggling to stay on top both in athletics and on the world stage.
Many observers are predicting a second-place U.S. finish in the total medals count as China’s giant sports program mounts a potent challenge to longtime U.S. dominance of the Olympics.
Such a result would be seen by many here as symbolic of shifting global power balances, as China’s political and economic star rises while U.S. global leadership wobbles.
This 1.3 billion-person country has quickly become the world’s third-biggest economy, behind the United States and Japan, and economists predict it will overtake the United States in three decades if present trends continue.
While the United States teeters on the brink of recession, China is in the throes of an economic boom.
-McClatchy Newspapers
COMMERCE
First Asian Bank Releases Promising Numbers in Struggling Economic Climate
LAS VEGAS - First Asian Bank, a locally owned and operated community bank serving Las Vegas and its surrounding communities, disclosed its financial performance as of June 30. In the first two quarters of 2008, assets grew $7.1 million, a 22.2 percent increase. During the same period, loans grew $16.6 million to $23.2 million, a 251.5 percent increase and deposits grew $8.1 million to $28.7 million, a 39.3 percent increase. The loan portfolio quality remains outstanding with no past due loans, no non-performing assets and no other real estate owned, stated First Asian Bank officials.
“In the midst of a difficult economic and banking environment, First Asian Bank’s performance is very encouraging. We have the cleanest loan portfolio possible, and we continue to provide loan funding and increase our assets,” said William Chu, First Asian Bank president and CEO.
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Joint Programs Increase Diversity in the Utility Industry
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Utilities Diversity Council and PJM Interconnection recently announced a joint internship and fellowship program to identify, recruit and place qualified students and advanced degree earners drawn from communities of diversity.
The purpose of the diversity internship and fellowship program is to increase the number of African American, American Indian, Asian, Hispanic, women, service-disabled war veterans and others in under-represented communities of diversity in the utility industry
The first placements are expected to take place this fall. Qualified individuals will be placed in PJM departments based on their skill sets and course background. The experience is expected to enhance their employability in the electric power industry.
In this program, selected individuals will be placed in support roles to gain insight into the culture and develop mentor relationships to advise and guide their advancement in the utility industry as a whole.
GLOBAL
One Laptop Per Child Expands in Asia
One Laptop per Child, a nonprofit organization that provides educational tools for children in developing countries, has added two new executives to help boost efforts in Asia.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based organization said on Wednesday that it has hired Anthony Wong as president of One Laptop per Child China and Satish Jha as president of One Laptop per Child India.
“With 40 percent of the world’s children located in China and India, these two countries are obviously important targets for One Laptop per Child,” Nicholas Negroponte, founder and chairman of One Laptop per Child, said in a statement.
-Boston Business Journal
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Indian Stampede Victim Collected With The Dead Awakes In Morgue
NEW DELHI - A man lying amongst corpses in a morgue startled medical examiners when he sat up and asked for a drink of water.
Mange Ram, 19, was picked up along with the dead after a stampede at a religious pilgrimage that claimed over 100 lives. He told reporters that he awoke surrounded by “a row of bodies,” after being crushed under the weight of those involved in the stampede and losing consciousness.
This has caused some to question how many others may have been alive but were carted off in piles of bodies, perhaps dying unnecessarily.
Criticism surrounds how the Himachal Pradesh government handled the Naina Devi stampede and its 146 victims. The Times of India reported that, in general, authorities hastily gathered up bodies, not checking whether they were dead or just unconsious, and took them to the morgue.
- AHN
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