By CALEB JONES Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Former Sen. Daniel Kahikina Akaka, the first Native Hawaiian elected to Congress who served for more than three decades, died on April 6. He was 93. Akaka died in Honolulu after being hospitalized for several months, said Jon Yoshimura, the senator’s former communications director. The Democrat served […]
California governor pardons 5 men facing deportation
By PAUL ELIAS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California Gov. Jerry Brown on March 30 pardoned five ex-convicts facing deportation, including two whose families fled the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia four decades ago. The pardons don’t automatically stop deportation proceedings, but eliminate the state convictions federal authorities based their deportation decisions on. […]
Asian American monument gets county approval
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Commissioners in New Mexico’s most populous county have approved a purchase agreement for a public art sculpture that will recognize a landmark Chinese American civil rights case that predates statehood. Bernalillo County commissioners voted unanimously last week in support of a motion authorizing the county manager to approve the purchase agreement. […]
Mom mistook labor for bad Chinese food
PENSACOLA, Fla. (AP) — A Florida woman awoke to what she believed were the consequences of a bad dish of General Tso’s chicken, but instead had an unexpected baby in arms three hours later. The Pensacola News Journal reports 29-year-old Crystal Gail Amerson thought food poisoning was responsible for the stomach pains that woke her […]
American Samoa-Citizenship
By SOPHIA YAN Associated Press HONOLULU (AP) — Meet John Fitisemanu, who works for a lab company in Utah, and has paid U.S. taxes and been subject to American laws his whole life. But the 53-year-old father and husband isn’t considered a U.S. citizen by the federal government, because he was born in American Samoa, […]
New Asian American, Brazilian apostles make Mormon history
By BRADY McCOMBS Associated Press SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Mormon church made history and injected a bit of diversity into a previously all-white top leadership panel on March 31 by selecting the first-ever Latin-American apostle and the first-ever apostle of Asian ancestry. The selections of Ulisses Soares of Brazil and Gerrit W. Gong, […]
US Senate confirms Robert K. Hur as Maryland US attorney
BALTIMORE (AP) — The U.S. Senate has unanimously confirmed Robert K. Hur as Maryland’s U.S. attorney, succeeding Rod Rosenstein, who left the post to become deputy attorney general. Hur, a former assistant U.S. attorney in Maryland, was supported by Republicans and Democrats when he was nominated by President Donald Trump in November. Hur is 45, […]
Poll: Americans open to Trump’s planned North Korea talks
By MATTHEW PENNINGTON and EMILY SWANSON Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans appear open to President Donald Trump’s surprise decision to negotiate directly with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, and at the same time are less concerned than in recent months by the threat posed by the pariah nation’s nuclear weapons. That’s according to […]
Muslim engineer sues after Kansas flap over Malaysian flag
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WICHITA, Kan. — A Muslim aerospace engineer has sued the Spirit Boeing Employees Association for religious discrimination stemming from a party at a lake in Wichita. The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit last week on behalf of Munir Zanial, a Malaysian national of Indian ancestry. The association declined to […]
Interior secretary defends Japanese comment to congresswoman
SASABE, Ariz. (AP) — Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is defending his use of a Japanese greeting when responding to a question from a congresswoman of Japanese descent. The Arizona Republic that Zinke was asked about his use of the word “konnichiwa’’ while touring the U.S-Mexico border in Arizona on March 17. Zinke told reporters: “How […]