Turns out, 'Superstore's' Filipino/American character is undocumented

Reprinted from AsAm News
FOR THE FIRST TIME on network TV, a regular character is being depicted as an undocumented immigrant, reports the Inquirer.

Filipino/American Nico Santos plays Mateo on the NBC comedy Superstore, which already broke ground by introducing Mateo as gay.

In the Olympic episode which aired recently in prime time right after the Olympics' closing ceremony, Mateo learns for the first time he is undocumented.

Nico Santos

It’s a good bet Superstore will return to this plot line in the future, although NBC has not confirmed this.

RELATED: Asians-on-TV revolution continues into 2016

Define American, a nonprofit which strives to improve the portrayal of immigration in the media, posted the above clip on YouTube. In the description beneath the video, Define American wrote:

“On the premiere of season 2 of NBC sitcom, Superstore, Mateo, a gay character from the Philippines, discovers that he is an undocumented immigrant. In humorous form, he discovers that the green card he has is fake. This strains an already contentious relationship with Glenn, his manager. While Mateo tries to convey this fact to Glenn, his boss; he is supported enthusiastically without real comprehension about his status.”

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California woman sentenced to four years for trying to export military technology to China

The technology for a missile-carrying drone like the one pictured was in danger of being sent to China.

A SAN DIEGO woman, Wenxia Man, aka Wency Man, 45,  was sentenced today to four years and two months for conspiring to export and cause the export of fighter jet engines, an unmanned aerial vehicle – commonly known as a drone – and related technical data to the People’s Republic of China in violation of the Arms Export Control Act.

On June 9, 2016, Man was convicted by a federal jury in the Southern District of Florida of one count of conspiring to export and cause the export of defense articles without the required license.

RELATED:

• Chinese national found guilty of smuggling military hardware
• Woman convicted of conspiring to export high-tech military secrets
• Chinese national found guilty of helping foreigners hack military secrets
• FBI employee pleads guilty of spying for China
• Asian/American scientists suffer from false accusations of being spies

According to evidence presented at trial, between approximately March 2011 and June 2013, Man conspired with Xinsheng Zhang, who was located in China, to illegally acquire and export to China defense articles including: Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engines used in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter; Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 turbofan engines used in the F-22 Raptor fighter jet; General Electric F110-GE-132 engines designed for the F-16 fighter jet; the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper/Predator B Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, capable of firing Hellfire Missiles; and technical data for each of these defense articles. 

During the course of the investigation, when talking to an undercover HSI agent, Man referred to Zhang as a “technology spy” who worked on behalf of the Chinese military to copy items obtained from other countries and stated that he was particularly interested in stealth technology.

2016 Olympics wrap up for AAPI athletes

The Rio Olympics came to an end Sunday.

ASIAN AMERICAN & PACIFIC ISLANDER ATHLETES wound up winning eight medals for the United States total of 121 medals  during the 17 days of the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

The Olympics concluded Sunday with a Carnaval-like parade with athletes from all the countries gathering in the middle of the field celebrating the event held every four years.

Swimming

• Nathan Adrian: gold in the 4x100m freestyle relay, Gold in the 4x100 medley relay, bronze medals in the 50m freestyle and the 100m frestyle
• Lia Neal: silver in the 4x100m freestyle relay

Fencing

• Alexander Massialas, silver in foil
• Gerek Meinhardt joined Massialaas to win a bronze medal in team foil

Volleyball

• Micah Christenson, Kawiki Shoji and brother Erick Shoji were part of the team winning a bronze medal

Paige McPherson, a bronze medal winner in taekwondo at the 2012 Games, was upset in the first round but she remains America's strong bet to medal in the future.

Though the badminton and table tennis teams were blanked, the young athletes gained valuable international experience and can only improve by the time the 2020 Olympics in Japan.

Below are all the stories that Views from the Edge presented as part of the Olympic coverage:

OLYMPIC COVERAGE OF AAPI ATHLETES

• Q&A with Nathan Adrian; what's next? 
• Asian/American swimmers win medals
• All Asian/American badminton team  
• Taekwondo fighter hopes to improve on her bronze medal 

• Hawaiian volleyball players destined to excel 
• Six Asian/Americans make up the table tennis team 
• Woman with most medals fails to make Rio swim team
• Asian American fencers go to Rio to make a point
• Fencer makes history by winning a silver medal 
• Weightlifter's crazy dancing brings attention to climate change 

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Two Asian/American pioneers pass away

Frank Quan at the helm.

Reprinted from As Am News

THE FIRSTFilipino/American elected to public office on the United States mainland and the last remaining shrimp fisherman from China Camp near San Francisco have both died.

Frank Quan died of natural cases at the age of 90.

The Marin IJ reports he was the only remaining resident of China Camp which was established in the mid-1800s by Chinese immigrants.

"to his dying day, he fished in the waters there, maintained historic buildings and machinery and restored boats,” said Martin Lowenstein, executive director of Friends of China Camp. “He was a fully active member of the community, working to keep the village alive and functioning.”

At its height in 1880, China Camp was home to 500 Chinese shrimp fisherman,but water diverted to Southern California left the waters at China Camp too salty for shrimp to survive. In 1977, Quan was among those who successfully pushed to make China Camp a state park after developer Chinn Ho donated the land to preserve its legacy.

Monte Manibog

In Southern California, G Monty Manibog, 86, died Aug. 12 after a battle with lung cancer. The Asian Journal reports the former mayor of Monterey Park, Calif. was the first Filipino/American elected to public office on the United States mainland. He was elected to the city council in 1972 just as the city's Asian/American community was making its presence felt. He was the city's mayor for three terms.

"The desire to serve others is what motivated Monty to seek and to hold public office for so many years of his lifem" wrote his son, Monte Manibog Jr., in an essay about his father for Pasadena Now.

As a probate attorney, he maintained his law office in Pasadena. 

He was also an athlete and competed for the Philippines in the Helsinki Summer Olympic games in 1952 as a wrestler. In the 1990’s he won three consecutive gold medals at the California Senior Olympics.

(Views from the Edge contributed to this report.)

'Vogue' sheds a light on the Asian/American woman closest to Hillary Clinton

Julie Valasquez

When Hillary Clinton is in public, Huma Abedin is always nearby.

IF HILLARY CLINTON n is elected President, an Asian/American Muslim will be close by her side.
To most people, she's hardly noticeable. She gets lost in the crowd surrounding Democratic Presidential candidate Clinton.

A more astute observer will notice that she's always around, staying in the background on the periphery of chaos, whispering Clinton's ear, creating a path for the candidate or guiding Clinton through the crowd of journalists or followers reaching out to touch the candidate.

Who is this mystery woman?

A Vogue profile written by Nathan Heller gives us a glimpse of Huma Abedin,  daughter of a Pakistani mother and an Indian father, and Clinton's closest confidant.

“To onlookers, Clinton and Abedin seem to travel the world as a single entity joined by complementary strengths,” Heller wrote. “If Clinton, in her bold suits and impeccable coifs, distills a certain era of feminist empowerment, Abedin, with her breezy downtown dresses and mobile power-dialing, is the professional face of a younger, more wired-in female generation.”

“The nature of our relationship has changed,” Abedin told Vogue. “Over the years, we’ve shared stories about our lives, we’ve shared more meals than I can count, we’ve celebrated together, we’ve mourned together.”

Like Clinton, Abedin has her own baggage she's had to overcome.

She's married to Anthony Weiner, the shamed former congressman who was forced to resign because of his propensity for showing his privates online.

As a devout Muslim, her religion has been put under the microscope in these Islamaphobic times and her loyalties have been questioned by Clinton's detractors. At one point, she has been accused of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

Breitbart Media, the ultra conservative news site and whose chief executive Stephen Bannon, is now Donald Trump's CEO, running his campaign with the resignation of Paul Manafort. Breitbart has been beating the alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood drum for years. Clinton, along with some Republican leaders, have denounced the allegations.

Nevertheless, because of Bannon's penchant for conspiracy theories, look for this anti-Muslim fear-mongering angle to put Abedin back in the news again. She'd prefer to stay in the background.

It is said the Vice President is a heartbeat away from the President. If Clinton is successful in her presidential bid, Abedin would be a step away.

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California legislators fast for farmworkers' overtime

Assemblyman Rob Bonta

EIGHT HOURS a day is a typical workday for most of us. Forty hours a week is the standard for most workweeks. Anything more than that constitutes overtime with pay commensurate with the extra work.

But ... not for farmworkers!

Amazing, right? It's 2016!

Harvesting your produce, picking your artichokes, tomatoes, fruit, lettuce is hard, backbreaking work. Yet working in the field in California is the only job where overtime is defined as 10 hours a day.

State Assemblyman Rob Bonta joined others in a fasting for farm workers movement — calling for the passage of AB1066, a bill that would expand overtime benefits for farm workers. The proposed legislation would bring farmworkers in line with other workers. It would  define overtime for farmworkers is anything over eight hours a day or more than a 40 hour week.

"It's a long struggle," he told a reporter. Mexican and Filipino farmworkers have worked for justice for all workers he pointed out. "It's going to be a close vote."

If passed, AB 1066 would gradually phase in new standards for farm workers, to lower the current 10-hour work day to eight, and ensure overtime pay when those hours are exceeded. The goal is to put workers in this industry in line with every other hourly job in the state.

An earlier version of the bill failed on the Assembly floor. For smaller family run farms, the new pay structure would be phased in over several years was an added to 1066 to make it more palatable to lawmakers from rural districts.

As legislation seeking fair pay and conditions for farm workers awaits approval on the senate floor, lawmakers across the state took part in a 24-hour fast to rally in support of AB 1066. 

Bonta's parents were union organizers for farmworkers and he was successful in passing legislation in 2014 to include the crucial role played by Filipino farmworkers in the farmworker strikes of the 1960s that led to the creation of the UFW and better working conditions for farmworkers. Last year, he passed a bill for a Larry Itliong Day to honor the Filipino/American union activist.

"It's a way to really bring attention to the fact of, and to the plight of the farm workers, not just on this overtime issue, but obviously on the conditions they are working under and to bring about this need for equality," said Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, one of the bill's key authors.

The fast harkens back to the fast by Cesar Chavez which successfully brought attention to the working conditions of the Mexican and Filipino farmworkers. 

Wednesday morning the fast was broken with a service at the Cathedral of Blessed Sacrament in Downtown Sacramento. Gonzalez says it was a showcasing to bring awareness to the hardships that farm workers endure on a daily basis.

"It's a small sacrifice to symbolize the huge sacrifice that these workers make every day, to make sure that we have fresh fruits and vegetables on our table," Gonzalez said.

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More possible victims of man who used dating sites to find women then drug and assault them

Kwangmin Jin

A MAN WHO DRUGGED and sexually assaulted multiple women in the San Francisco Bay Area has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, police officials said.

In September of 2015, police detectives from Fremont, Calif., with assistance from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Police Department, arrested Kwangmin Jin, 21, in Illinois on suspicion of drugging and sexually assaulting at least seven victims and possibly more in the Bay Area. Jin was extradited to California to stand trial.

According to Fremont police, Jin pleaded no contest to six counts of rape while intoxicated. On August 4, Jin took a plea bargain and will spend 20 years in prison.

During the investigation, Fremont detectives learned that between May - August 2015, Jin used fake aliases to arrange meetings with female victims over social media sites. Once in person, Jin would give the victims an alcoholic beverage tainted with a sedative drug. The victims were rendered unconscious for several hours, during which time Jin sexually assaulted them.

Because the victims were rendered unconscious, police said there’s a possibility that there may be more women who came into contact with Jin and did not know what transpired. Police said the meetings were arranged through Tinder, MocoSpace, Skout and Facebook.

He adopted a number of fake names, including Kevin Park, Kevin Jin, Jeremy Lee and Kevin Lee.

Fremont Police detectives are requesting anyone who may have had contact with Jin, or with one of his aliases over social media and/or in person, to please contact Fremont Police Detective Ken Kwok at kkwok@fremont.gov or 510-790-6900. Reference FPD case #150810044.

Jin is currently in custody at a jail in Champaign County, Illinois, awaiting extradition to Alameda County.

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Olympics: Taekwondo fighter hopes to improve on her 2012 Bronze Medal

Paige McPherson

Filipino/African/American

Sport: Taekwondo
Discipline(s): Taekwondo, Sparring Taekwondo
Weight Class: 67kg
Height: 5-8
Weight: 140 lbs.
DOB: 10/1/1990
Birthplace: Abilene, Texas
Hometown: Sturgis, S.D.
High School: Black Hills Classical Christian Academy
College: Miami-Dade College
Olympic Experience: London 2012 Olympic Games, bronze (-67kg)
Personal: Her nickname is "McFierce." Enjoys going to the beach, shopping, and going to the movies...Hobbies include dance, snowboarding, and volleyball...Favorite foods are Asian food, her mom's cooking, and cheeseburgers...Was adopted when she was four days old.

Quote: "My brother is from Korea. My little sister is from St. Lucia. I'm Filipino and African/American, (and her parents recently adopted two Native American children) so we are all around the world. I've never lived with anyone that is the same like me, so it's practically normal for me to be around people with different personalities."

McPherson will start her competition Friday, Aug. 19,

Case of the murder of UC Berkeley student is solved 24 years later

TWENTY-FOUR years after the death of a Filipina/American student at UC Berkeley, police have finally solved her murder.

UC Berkeley police believe Grace Asuncion, a 20-year-old pre-med student, was stabbed to death in February 1992 by John Iwed, who died from a drug overdose in 1993. 

Grace Asuncion

Iwed was a suspect early in the investigation but police were not able to gather the evidence needed to convict him of the murder. Police did not say why they focused on him initially but did say he had no affiliation with the university and did not know Asuncion.

UC Berkeley police Sgt. Sabrina Reich said in a release last week that the case is considered closed. She said police are "confident we had identified the right person."

The Alameda County district attorney’s office reviewed the case, but prosecutors could not file charges because Iwed succumbed to a drug overdose nearly a year after Asuncion was found dead, according to Reich.

Police informed Asuncion’s family in July of the new evidence, said her older brother John Asuncion in Agoura Hills, California

“It was a surprise, as you can imagine,” John Asuncion, 47, told the Los Angeles Times. “It opened up the old wounds, of course. Speaking for myself, I had accepted — it is what it is. A cold case.”

Before his death, Iwed had confessed to his wife that he attacked and killed Asuncion while high on psychedelic drugs, KTVU-TV reported. His wife later told police, but detectives could not verify the account.

Grace Asuncion, a resident of Agoura Hills, California, who was majoring in molecular and cell biology, was stabbed multiple times Feb. 7, 1992,  in the offices of the student group, Pilipino American Alliance. Reports at the time said she often stayed after hours to do her homework in the fifth floor office. 

Her body was found by a custodian. There were no signs she was sexually assaulted or robbed and no motive was ever released.

A year after her death, Asuncion's parents filed a wrongful death suit against the university which ended with a $750,000 settlement.

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Olympics: Behind the scenes with Lia Neal

YouTube

Simone Manuel, left, and Lia Neal, center, are media favorites.

LIA NEAL, who won a silver medal as a member of the U.S. 4x100 freestyle relay team, has been prolific on social media, especially on Youtube, giving us a glimpse of what an Olympic athlete's life is like outside of the arena - or in her case - outside the water.

As you can see, below, it is not all a life of glitz and glamor. Aside from the men's and women's basketball team who are housed on a cruise ship, athletes are placed in barely furnished apartments " during the Olympics which looks more like a locker room with beds.
 
"(All the Team USA athletes} live in the same building and as far as we're concerned, we have everything we need. We have so many resources - we brought our own I.T. guy and we have two maintenance people that we flew out here just to take care of us. So it's been great for us. Living hasn't been a hassle at all here because we've been taken care of."

Not surprising, Simone Manuel is among Lia's BFF's. When the teammates are not competing for the U.S., they swim for Stanford University and they get to know the world calibre swimmers in the PAC12, many of whom are on the Olympic swim team in Rio. They are constantly being sought for interviews by the multitudes of media from around the world at the Rio Games.

The significance of Manuel's historic feat, becoming the first African/American woman swimmer to win an individual gold medal, is not lost on Neal, who can count Chinese and African bloodlines in her own heritage. Her mother made sure that Manuel is also fluent in Cantonese. She said the constant questions about being a black swimmer can be difficult, “but I think that’s just what comes with the territory of making history. You’re going to be faced with the question a lot, because it’s so new,” she said before Manuel’s gold-medal race.

The Stanford teammates are articulate and nimble in their handling of the many media requirements place on the athletes and great representatives of the United States. Below, the BFF's go to a press conference. "You see athletes everywhere but the dining hall is the premiere spot to really people watch," she told Cosmopolitan. "Everyone has to go through the dining hall; it's one of the coolest places in the village, if not the coolest. It's massive. You're just sitting down, watching the world's best athletes walk by."

At the age of 17, Neal went to the Olympics in London and earned a bronze medal as part of the 4x100m relay team. This time, four years older, a little more mature, and no longer a naive teenager. 

"London was such a blur for me because I was just so young. I didn't know what to expect. I had a lot of fun, and I was like, How will anything ever top that?! But I've had so much fun this time around too! I think just being older has allowed me to form more bonds with the team. I've just realized how great everyone is - this team really melds together well."

"The first day, we saw the U.S. women's gymnastics team. Not only was I starstruck, but I was sitting with the rest of our swim team and everyone is like, 'Oh, my god, there they are! They're so cute! They're smaller in person!'"

The Brooklyn-born Neal took a year off of school to prepare for the Olympics so this fall it will be back to the books where she will be in her senior year.

RELATED

• Q&A with Nathan Adrian; what's next? 
• Asian/American swimmers win medals
• All Asian/American badminton team 
• Hawaiian volleyball players destined to excel 
• Six Asian/Americans make up the table tennis team 
• Woman with most medals fails to make Rio swim team
• Asian American fencers go to Rio to make a point
• Fencer makes history by winning a silver medal 
• Weightlifter's crazy dancing brings attention to climate change 

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Olympics: Pacific Islander weightlifter's dances bring attention to climat change's impact on his nation

YouTube

David Katoatau's crazy dancing has a deeper purpose.

By Louis Chan
Reprinted from AsAm News

DAVID KATOATAU of Kiribati placed 14th in the Olympic’s 105KG, but that’s not why people are talking about him.

The 5’7″ 231-pound Olympian is doing his best to raise awareness of both his country and climate change.

He has people talking with the way he exits the stage after his lifts.

Kirabati is an island nation in the Central Pacific. Most have never heard of it. Katoatau hopes his antics will bring more attention to his country and to the plight of climate change.

“I wrote an open letter to the world last year to tell people about all the homes lost to rising sea levels,” he told Reuters. I don’t know how many years it will be before it sinks. We don’t have the resources to save ourselves.”

Katoatau began his dancing crusade during the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland two years ago. That was the first gold medal in any global sporting event for his tiny island nation of Kiribati, according to Reuters.

RELATED: 

• 'I'm an island boy,' says Obama at Climate Conference
• Work of Filipino/American scientist critical to climate talks

His dancing as Kiribati's flag bearer at the Rio Games' opening ceremony made him a social media sensation.

Kiribati, located in the Central Pacific, is suffering "extreme coastal erosion not just of the beaches but also of the land" according to its government.

RELATED

• Q&A with Nathan Adrian; what's next? 
• Asian/American swimmers win medals
• All Asian/American badminton team 
• Hawaiian volleyball players destined to excel 
• Six Asian/Americans make up the table tennis team 
• Woman with most medals fails to make Rio swim team
• Asian American fencers go to Rio to make a point
• Fencer makes history by winning a silver medal 

Some scientists have predicted a catastrophic effect on Kiribati's 21 inhabited islands, which has a population of about 100,000.

"Most people don't know where Kiribati is," Katoatau told Reuters. "I want people to know more about us so I use weightlifting, and my dancing, to show the world.

"I wrote an open letter to the world last year to tell people about all the homes lost to rising sea levels. I don't know how many years it will be before it sinks."

(Views from the Edge contributed to this report.)

Olympics: Q&A with Nathan Adrian; what's next after medal performances?

YouTube

Nathan Adrian flashes the gold medal that he earned anchoring the 4x100m medley relay team.

NATHAN ADRIAN, whose killer smile and 6-pack abs are drawing a lot of attention from his growing legion of fans on the Internet, has won the most Olympic medals for an Asian/American athlete in this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

The Chinese/American swimmer won four medals in Rio, two golds in the 4x100 freestyle relay and the 4x100 medley relay. both of which contributed to Michael Phelps' historic run for gold which now stand at 23. Adrian also won two bronze medals for the freestyle at 50m and 100m.

Back in the San Francisco Bay Area where he makes his home, Adrian told NBC that Saturday’s 4X100m race also meant sharing a special moment with Phelps, who announced his retirement via Facebook Live on Saturday, while also celebrating fellow (Cal Bear Ryan) Murphy's first win. 

“More special being with Ryan, setting that world record, and Michael being his last race, I get to take credit for a small part of that,” he explained.

Here's a quirky factoid: Adrian's time for the final leg of that race was 47 seconds flat; .58 seconds faster than the gold medal time for the 100m in which Adrian won a Bronze. That says a lot about the vagaries of swimming.

That makes eight Olympic medals for Adrian, starting in 2008, when he got his first medal as a member of the 4x100m relay at the age of 15.

So what's next for the 27-year old, who was an honors student majoring in public health at UC Berkeley? His bio says he aspires to become an MD.

RELATED

• Asian/American swimmers win medals
• All Asian/American badminton team 
• Hawaiian volleyball players destined to excel 
• Six Asian/Americans make up the table tennis team 
• Woman with most medals fails to make Rio swim team
• Asian American fencers go to Rio to make a point
• Fencer makes history by winning a silver medal 

If he wants, blessed with good looks and his lean swimmer's body on his 6'6" frame, he could certainly make a living as a model -- and that suits his sponsors Tommy HIllfiger and Speedo just fine. 

Here's a clue: Nathan will be 31 in 2020 when the Games will be in Tokyo - the same age that Michael Phelps is this year.

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Third Asian/American family to debut on American television

Lilan Bowden, left, and Peyton Elizabeth Lee star in "Andi Mack." 

WE WERE overjoyed with the arrival of Fresh Off the Boat and its portrayal of an Asian/American family on television. When Dr. Ken debuted last year, we were absolutely giddy.

A program with a third Asian/American family is set to debut in 2017. It's almost an embarrassment of riches. I don't know how to react!

The Disney Channel has picked up the family series Andi Mack starring newcomer, 12-year old Peyton Elizabeth Lee in the title role.

"The story introduces Andi [Mack] as she's about to celebrate her 13th birthday," the synopsis reads. "She's eager to have just a little teenage fun and adventure, but that may never happen because her strict mother is doing everything in her power to keep her from turning out like her older sister, Bex, who dropped out of school as a teenager and left home and now, in her late 20s, still doesn't know what she wants out of life."

In other words,  it's basically about a young teenager living in the shadow of her older sister's failures, which is a breath of fresh, relatable air for all the pre-teens with older siblings.

It has great DNA. Terry Minsky, who created the cult classic Lizzie McGuire, put the Disney Channel on the map and helped shape today's young 20-something's who grew up with that hit show that starred Hillary Duff.

Veteran actress Lauren Tom will play Celia, the mother of the family, and Lilan Bowden will play the older sister Bex. In the early press releases about the show, no mention was mentioned about a father. Will Celia be a single mom?

“Andi only existed as words on a page until Peyton Lee walked into the room,” said Minsky. “I will never forget the magic of that moment – to meet the character I wrote. Actually, it wasn’t until I met Peyton that I really knew who Andi was.”

With FOtB based in Florida and Dr. Ken out of California, Andi Mack  will be produced in middle America -- Salt Lake City -- not exactly a place with a lot of AAPI. I hope that fish-out-of-water aspect will be part of the storyline as young Andi tries to fit in as a teenager.

4-way Presidential Town Hall highlights journalists' confab (Update with video)

Filipino/American clarifies Trump's statements about the Philippines

From top left, clockwise, Bill Clinton, Gary Johnson, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and Jill Stein
spoke at the AAJA/APIAVote Presidential Town Hall.

A SURROGATE for Donald Trump tried to clarify the GOP's presidential nominee's comments last week about banning immigration from the Philippines. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, a Filipino/American, told a large crowd of Asian/American community leaders and journalists that he had received permission to explain Trump's comments.

The Democrats, meanwhile, was represented by former President Bill Clinton in the Presidential Town Hall held Friday (Aug. 12) at the Asian American Journalists Convention in partnership with AAPIVote. Also addressing one of the largest gatherings of AAPI people was Libertarian presidential candidate, former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and Green Party bet Jill Stein.

Reyes, who is of Filipino descent, said that when Trump suggested that the Philippine immigration should be under extra scrutiny because terrorists had taken root there, he was referring to the “terrorist elements that do exist in the Philippines,” not the country as a whole.

RELATED: 

• Trump says he would limit immigration from the Philippines
• Filipino/American anger mounts against Trump statements
• Legislators, community leaders react to panl to ban immigration from the Philippines

“What Mr. Trump was trying to communicate, and I have the full authority to make this clarification, is that he welcomes law-abiding Filipinos who want to come and have a better life and better opportunities, whether they want to live here or send money back to the Philippines,” Reyes said.

Knowing he was speaking to an audience that was already leaning towards Clinton, Reyes spent most of his speech trying to build bridges.

"We may not agree on everything. Some of you ... might not agree on anything,” Reyes said. "But it’s important we come and listen, with humility and respect.”

He said that he wasn’t always a supporter of Trump, and he doesn’t agree with everything he says. However, he said that Trump would eliminate many of the regulations that impact Asian-American small businesses and fight affirmative action in colleges, which he said unfairly targets AAPI students.

“Mr. Trump believes in America first, no exceptions,” Reyes said.

Clinton's speech explained Hillary Clinton's policies would help small businesses, implement comprehensive immigration reform, and support quality, affordable education and immigration.

However, he said, the election is referendum on what kind of nation we want to be.

"E pluribus Unum means expanding our definition of 'us' and shrinking our definition of 'them' -- not the other way around," he said. "The metaphor of this election may be walls or bridges."

Johnson touched on a host of issues, according to the Las Vegas Sun, from supporting the legalization of marijuana to starkly opposing any new taxes. He called free trade the “opposite of crony capitalism,” saying that it was devoid of government interference.

He said his support is growing and according to polls, he could garner 15 percent of the vote allowing him to participate on the three scheduled debates.

Stein, meanwhile, lost her bid to be placed on the Nevada ballot a few hours before the forum. 

She talked about how the environment was a crucial issue for Asian and Pacific Island countries due to rising sea levels attributed to climate change. She said if she was president, she would introduced policies that would pay for clean energy technologies by cutting spending on health care because a cleaner environment would be a healthier environment.

The historic four-way, three and one-half hour Presidential Town Hall was the highlight of the Asian American Journalists Association's National Convention held at Ceasar's Palace in Las Vegas.

APIAVote data shows that Asian Americans, though far from monolithic, increasingly identify as Democrats and have been turned off by exclusionary rhetoric from Republican candidates.

If you want to  listen to almost four-hour entire town hall, watch the video below. (Earlier versions of this post did not include the video.)

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Short Takes on Miss Saigon, Vanessa Hudgens, Hailee Steinfeld, MindyKaling & Awkwafina

Eva Noblezada stars in the new Miss Saigon production.

Jon Jon Briones

Miss Saigon returns to Broadway

to introduce two new talents

MISS SAIGON, the smash 1989 musical that introduced Lea Salonga to the world is returning to Broadway. A new star may be in the making when the New York critics discover 30-year old newcomer Eva Noblezada playing the role that Salonga made famous. The production is moving from a successful run in London where Filipina/American Noblezada took over the role when she was only 17. From Charlotte, North Carolina, she will be joined by her London castmate, Filipino/American Jon Jon Briones. Born and raised in the Philippines, Briones has won accolades for his portrayal of the Engineer. Miss Saigon, which takes place in Saigon during the Vietnam War, will have a heavily Asian/American cast and should help continue efforts to diversify Broadway's stages. The show's producer, Cameron Mackintosh, announced that the revival will be housed in the Broadway Theater, where the show began its original Broadway run in 1991. Mackintosh also noted that the limited production will only be running until January 2018, and will then tour throughout North America. Previews will begin on March 1, with opening night scheduled for March 23.

Vanessa Hudgens will star in super hero comedy series

Vanessa Hudgens returns to TV

VANESSA HUDGENS is staging a return to series television. The High School Musical  star has signed on to star in an NBC comedy pilot titled Powerless – about regular people living in a world of annoyingly powerful superheroes. The show is set at “one of the worst insurance companies in America — with the twist being that it also takes place in the universe of DC Comics. The show is about the reality of working life for a normal, powerless person in a world of superheroes and villains.” Hudgens will star as the ordinary human Emily Locke, an “insurance claims adjuster who loves her job because she gets to help people. Emily likes to fly under the radar and just get her work done. She finds herself increasingly exasperated by the disruptive antics of the various superheroes that proliferate in her city.” The stills from the show is confusing showing "ordinary" Emily and another version in which she wears a superhero-looking costume. Is that latter shot a spoiler of what's to come?

Hailee Steinfeld has a new movie coming

AS COMING-OF-AGE stories go, The Edge of Seventeen starring one of the busiest actresses in Hollywood, Hailee Steinfeld, looks like it’ll be following in the recent footsteps of The Duff, delivering a smart (and smart-mouthed) look at the complications, conflicts, and crisis of an outsider girl’s attempts to figure out who she is and what she wants in the years preceding college ala Breakfast Club, Pretty In Pink and American Graffitti. It also seems like an ideal lead role for Filipina/American Steinfeld, who on the basis of the film’s debut promo, will get plenty of opportunities to exhibit the same sort of feisty attitude that marked her breakout role in the Coen brothers’ True Grit. The Edge of Seventeen premieres in theaters on Sept. 30. This is 19-year old's second film to premier this year. Term Life with Vince Vaughn was released in January. On top of it all, this month's Seventeen magazine's cover features ... who else?

Mindy Kaling and Awkwafina join 'Ocean's Eight' cast

Awkwafina

OCEANS EIGHT, the upcoming all-female spinoff of Ocean's 11 will have loads of star power and one of the most racially diverse casts gathered for a single movie. Mindy Kaling and Nora Lum -- aka rapper/comedian Awkwafina -- joins a heavyweight cast including Academy Award-winning actresses Cate Blanchett, Anne Hathaway and Sandra Bullock, Helena Boham Carter who was nominated for Oscars twice and super pop star Rihanna.
Casting is still going on, and there's no hint who the the eight member will be. Ealing, we know is the creator and star of Hulu's The Mindy Project, but Awkwafina is not as well known outside of the Asian/American community. She is not your Asian woman fetish or Dragon Lady, far from it. A Chinese-Korean-American rapper, comedian and TV personality, she is one of those Asian artists who has gained a following in the digital world. Her debut comedy rap track “My Vag” when viral in 2012.