First Asian American Miss America joins calls for pageant CEO's resignation

Angela Baraquio-Grey in San Pedro, Calif. during a recent book tour.

MISS AMERICA CEO Sam Haskell resigned after 50 past Miss Americas, including Angela Baraquio-Grey, the first Asian/American pageant winner, called for his resignation after crude emails were revealed.

In 2001, Baraquio-Grey, a Filipina/American who represented Hawaii, became the first Asian/American to win the pageant.

The Huffington Post reported Haskell regularly fat shamed and slut shamed former Miss Americas.

According to the Huff Post, one email chain went like this (Caution, it includes offensive language):

“I have decided that when referring to a woman who was once Miss America, we are no longer going to call them Forever Miss Americas….please change all script copy to reflect that they are Former Miss Americas!” wrote Haskell in an email in 2014 to lead pageant writer Lewis Friedman.

Friendman replied “I’d already changed “Forevers” to “Cunts.” Does that work for you?”

Haskell responded “Perfect…bahahaha.”

Angela Baraquio-Grey won the Miss America title in 20001

After consultations with the other Forever Miss America's, Baraquio-Grey posted on her Facebook page:

"We denounce the derogatory statements made about us and our sisterhood. No one embodies the values we hold dear, better than the 'Forever' Miss Americas. No one wants to harm the pageant. That part has already been done and no more needs to be said no matter how you spin it."

It was announced Saturday (Dec. 23) that three Miss America Organization leaders have resigned because of the email revelations. i

The resignation of Haskell, who was suspended from the organization Friday as he was put under investigation, will be effective immediately, according to a statement from interim chairman Dan Meyers.

The board further accepted the resignation of chairman Lynn Weidner along with President and Chief Operating Officer Josh Randle. 

(AsAm News contributed to this report)

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Merry Christmas to All!

... And to All a 'Good Night!'

Views From the Edge will take a break today, turn off our social media and stay away from the cable news networks. We will resume our ranting and raving on Tuesday, Dec. 26i.

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Memories of Christmases past

DIOKNO

A tree of a lifetime as new ornaments hang next to old treasured momentous.

Ahh, another Christmas is upon us and I can't help but luxuriate in the warm blanket of memories of past Christmases. 

Through the years, the holidays have taken on different meanings as we go through different stages of life.

Some people say that New Years is the time of year when people pause to reflect – about their lives, about the past year, about everything.

For me, memories begin stirring with the selection of a Christmas tree. I remember when my mother went through the artificial tree phase. The aluminum kind. They were so clean, she must have thought. No messy needles to clean up. She would get one of those spotlight with revolving colored gels and aim it at the tree. It was like living in a discothèque.

Sorry, Mom. It was then that I swore I’d never buy an artificial tree.

When my daughters were younger, we’d go out to the tree farms and pick a tree to cut down. It would take hours, hiking through the trees, trying to find the perfect symmetrical tree. Of course, nature never makes the perfect symmetrical tree.

After we settle on one that kinda looked symmetrical, kinda looked straight, kinda looked like it would fit in our living room, we’d begin the process of sawing one down. The girls would try but they tired easily after a few rips and it was up to ol’ dad to do his manly job of cutting down the tree.

Afterwards, when the girls got older, we finally settled on those tree lots that popped up this time of year full of freshly cut trees from Oregon so we were told. We’d go to lot to lot searching for the perfect symmetrical tree. We’d pick one out and inspect it limb by limb. We’d circle it to make sure assure ourselves of the symmetry.

Nowadays, I go by myself. I’ve grown wise enough to stop looking for the perfect symmetrical tree. In fact, if there is a flaw I simply say the tree’s got character. It becomes my tree because of its uniqueness. No other tree has that bare spot.

Each decoration has a story. There are the brightly jeweled bulbs my mother so loved. They looked like jewelry back then but looking at them now, some of the colored glass have fallen out. I put them on the tree.

One year, before she discovered artificial trees, my mom decided to have all red silk bulbs on the tree. A few of them have survived to make it on my tree.

The little lanterns are probably from the first set of Christmas decorations we had in the United States after coming from the Philippines. Their bright shiny colors have dulled and show numerous chips, but still seek them out to hang up at least one. As a three-year old, I thought, "What a great country."

The public housing we lived in then is still there. The projects are now called "affordable housing" where a new set of immigrants try to establish themselves. 

The ornaments that look like globes of jewelry were bought in Japan when our family joined my father, who was serving in the U.S. Army.

My wife started her own tradition of getting a new ornament for every year that passes. That could really add up after a few scores of years.

The beautifully hand-painted and fragile globes we bought on a trip to Austria.

My favorite ornaments are the ones made by my daughters when they were in kindergarten and the early primary grades. Their teachers must have known how valuable these keepsakes would become through the years because they always had the students make them. I can imagine their little hands meticulously making them, brows furrowed in concentration as they colored and cut them out.

One is as simple of a drawn Christmas tree that had been badly colored and then roughly cut out when the hand-eye coordination was still developing. One is a dove cut from a paper plate. One is made of macaroni that had been glued in a circle then painted gold. Clothespins glued and painted to look like a reindeer. A crudely cut gingerbread man hangs on one branch. A ring of pretzels have somehow survived through the years. One is simply colored paper encircling a photo of beautiful 6-year-old brown girl with bright eyes and chubby cheeks. Her smile is forever. A branch over is photo of another beautiful Filipina whose face lights up the tree.

Memories of Christmases past flash through my mind. Where did the years go? Where did those little girls go?

I thank the teachers who made the girls make those decorations. I hang every single treasure on my tree. We've added new ornaments from our travels: The figurines blessed at the Vatican, the clay mission from the American southwest, the delicately decorated bulbs from a Christmas store in Vienna.

This year my grandson helps decorate the Christmas tree. I pass on these warm memories and stories about his family, many of whom he will never meet. We'll laugh, and tell the stories behind each ornament. I'll try to not shed a tear.

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter. A shorter version of this post was published in the Contra Costa Times.

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Gay newspaper bought by Asian American journalist

BAR / Cynthia Laird

Michael Yamashita

ASAM NEWS

MICHAEL YAMASHITA has become the first Asian/American to both own and publish a LGBTQ newspaper.

He will take over the Bay Area Reporter, a publication he has been involved with for 20 years.

The 51-year old has been publisher of the paper for four years. He became the majority owner after purchasing shares from two investors.

The move ensures the San Francisco publication will remain locally owned and operated by someone from the gay community.

Yamashita will also run BAR Media, which formed four years ago as part of the paper’s restructuring. Bob Ross founded the paper in 1971. Ross hired Yamashita as assistant editor and made him the paper’s general manager six years later.

“I believe in the B.A.R. as a community resource in our fight for equal rights and am honored to play a role in keeping it a local institution and connected to San Francisco,” said Yamashita.

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Judge delays deportations of Cambodians

Southeast Asia Resource Action Center

Cambodian activists protest the US’s repatriation policy outside the White House in Washington.

NINE MORE Cambodians have been deported from the United States and arrived in Phnom Penh Wednesday (Dec. 20) morning. They join the 78 other Cambodians who have been deported since a Donald Trump directive in September.
Another group of about 50 Cambodians were due to be sent back this month but get to spend the New Years in the U.S. after a district judge in California blocked their deportation. Their hearings are scheduled for Jan. 11.

Last week Judge Cormac J. Carney granted a temporary restraining order against the removal of the 50 Cambodians, most of whom are refugees.

“Given the speed with which the Government intends to remove Petitioners,” Carney wrote, “the Court finds that a temporary restraining order is necessary to stay removal until the Court can give proper consideration to the complex issues presented in this action.”

The additional time also will allow families of detainees to put together support letters or further documentation that may help them stay in the country.

Mavis Polyngam's husband Narun was detained by ICE only four months after they buried their 15-year-old son, who had been shot 27 times in the street, a bystander to gang violence in their hometown of Stockton, Calif. Polyngam, who battles depression, stated, "I don't know how I can go on living after losing both my son and my husband, my rock."

The government won't confirm the number but as many as 100 to 200 Cambodians nationwide may have been detained, according to community advocates. Most of them fled Cambodia as children with their families during the reign of the Khmer Rouge.

Officials said the roundup of Cambodians is part of an ongoing effort to repatriate Cambodian nationals who have committed crimes.

“The United States continues to work with the Government of Cambodia to establish a reliable processes for the issuance of travel documents and their acceptance of the prompt, lawful return of Cambodian nationals who are subject to removal from the United States," ICE spokeswoman Lauren Mack said in an email.

Staff with Asian Americans Advancing Justice in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and Sidley Austin LLP last month filed a national class action lawsuit challenging the detention of Cambodian immigrants by ICE, saying they are unlawful.

During the Obama administration, immigration officials were given great discretion to pursue options other than deportation. The priority went to cases of importance to national security and public safety.

Under the Trump administration, things changed. Essentially, anyone who is undocumented is a priority for removal or deportation. 

“There has been a lot of fear in the community because there have been so many people rounded up, over a hundred," said Katrina Dizon, immigration policy manager with the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, an advocacy group with offices in Sacramento and Washington, D.C.

Dizon said her group has fielded calls over a couple of weeks about Cambodian immigrants arrested nationwide, mostly in California.

"I have folks from Fresno, Monterey Park, Anaheim, Stockton, Orange, Long Beach, Oakland," Dizon said.

Cambodia has long been considered among so-called "recalcitrant" nations that do not fully cooperate with U.S. officials in accepting back deported nationals. While Cambodians have been deported over the years, U.S. officials have had problems getting that country's officials to issue travel documents, which are needed to repatriate deportees.

In September, the Trump administration announced visa sanctions against Cambodia, Eritra, Guinea, and Sierra Leone "due to lack of cooperation in accepting their nationals ordered removed from the United States." Temporary visitor visas for traveling Cambodians were discontinued as a result.

Jenny Zhao, a staff attorney for Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus, said many of the immigrants who were detained were lawful permanent residents with valid visas but were subject to deportation because of past criminal convictions. ICE was previously forced to release them because their home countries didn’t honor U.S. removal orders, she said.

The released Cambodians had to check in annually with authorities.

Since being given a second chance, most of them have lived normal American lives, attending school, going to work and supporting their families.

ICE spokeswoman Mack said the U.S. has more than 500 travel document requests pending with the Cambodian government, some dating back nearly a decade. She said there are more than 1,900 Cambodian nationals in the U.S. who have final deportation orders, and that the majority of these have criminal convictions committed when they were young.

The majority of the individuals facing deportation to Cambodia are people who came to the U.S. as refugee children, and who came into contact with the criminal justice system before their families were able to naturalize. All of them finished serving their sentences, and some had returned to their families and communities years ago, living transformed lives and supporting their loved ones.

"This is one of the largest round-ups the Southeast Asian American community has seen," said Quyen Dinh, executive director of SEARAC. "We call on both the U.S. and Cambodian governments to do the right thing by stopping the deportation of refugees. Our families have suffered enough for one lifetime. Enough is enough."

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Pioneer Asian American politician, March Fong Eu, dies at 95

March Fong Eu, gained fame with her campaign against paid toilets.

ASAM NEWS

MARCH FONG EU, the first Asian American woman to hold an elected constitutional statewide office in the United States and who was not shy about using political stunts to gain publicity, has died at the age of 95.

California Governor Jerry Brown and his wife Anne released a statement offering their condolences late this afternoon.

“Anne and I were saddened to learn of March Fong Eu’s passing. She was a pioneering woman who helped open doors to public service for more women and Asian Americans. On behalf of all Californians, Anne and I express our deep condolences to March’s family.”

The Los Angeles Times reports Eu died Thursday following surgery after falling in her home in Irvine.

March Fong Eu

Born in 1922 her parents were immigrants from China. She grew up in the back of a laundry.

The former dental hygienists, in 1966 Eu was elected to the first of four term in the California State Assembly, representing Oakland and parts of Castro Valley.

During this time, Eu earned statewide recognition during the late 1960s and early ’70s with her crusade against coin-locked toilets, which she called discriminatory, because urinals were free.

She was elected Secretary of State in 1974 and went on to serve for 20 years. She launched many things voters take now take for granted including absentee ballots, vote by mail, results on the internet and including candidate statements in voter pamphlets.

“Registration by mail was part of my platform … and when I assumed office in 1975, it was a high priority,” Eu said to the Orange County Register in 2006. “I felt that in-person registration made it a challenge for many people to register. I opposed this artificial barrier to participation, and made a change in the system my first goal as secretary of state.”

She was also the first woman governor of California in 1976 when she served for one day while Brown was out of the state.

She was born in Oakdale, near Modesto, to Chinese immigrants.

In 1988, Eu ran for the U.S. Senate, but pulled out the race so that her second husband, Henry Eu, would not have to disclose his financial holdings.

In 2002, Eu sought to regain her seat as Secretary of State, angered about hanging chads in Florida that may have been the difference in handing George Bush the presidency over Al Gore.

She lost in the Democratic primary.

Her son Matt served four years as California’s treasurer beginning in 1995. He died of cancer in 2011.

(Views From the Edge contributed to this report)

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Nebraska motel owners plead guilty for enslaving immigrant

MODERN DAY SLAVERY could be occurring right under your nose.

For years the man from India working at a Super 8 Motel in Kimball, Nebaska, was forced to work fo low wages and threatened with deportation.

Two men, Vishnubhai Chaudhari, 50, and Leelabahen Chaudhari, 44, of Kimball, Nebraska, pleaded guilty Monday (Dec. 18) in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, to one count of conspiracy and one count of alien harboring for financial gain.

According to documents filed in court, the defendants admitted to conspiring to harbor the victim, an Indian national who lacked immigration status, between October 2011 and February 2013. 

The man was identified only as “M.C.” in court documents. He eventually escaped with the help of a motel guest and local law enforcement.

 During that time, the defendants required the victim to work long hours, seven days a week at the motel, performing manual labor, including cleaning rooms, shoveling snow, and doing laundry. 

Although the defendants promised to pay the victim, they never did, but rather claimed to apply that amount to a debt the victim owed. The defendants further restricted the victim’s movement, isolated him, and verbally abused him.  

Vishnubhai Chaudhari also threatened to find the victim if he ever left the motel, and  Leelabahen Chaudhari regularly assaulted the victim, including on one occasion when she slapped his face several times because he had failed to clean a bathtub to her standards. 

Sentencing is scheduled for March 19, 2018, before the Honorable Laurie Smith Camp. The defendants face a possible sentence of up to 18 months in prison according to their plea agreements. Since they are also in the U.S. without documentation it is expected that the two will be deported  upon the completion of their sentences.

The defendants also paid the victim $40,000 in restitution at Monday's change of plea hearing as a condition of their guilty pleas.

Human trafficking is not that uncommon. Some estimates say 24.9 million people worldwide are victims of labor and sex trafficking, according to the International Labour Organization.

“This case is a reminder that forced labor occurs in the United States, not just overseas, and federal law targets those who profit from human trafficking and related crimes,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Robert C. Stuart of the District of Nebraska.
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TGIF Feature: 'Crazy Ex-Girlfriend' Season 2 gag reel released

THE NEXT EPISODE of season 3 doesn’t air until January 5th, so here’s a Crazy Ex-Girlfriend gag reel from season 2 to hold you over until then. 

Look for Vincent Rodriguez III, the Filipino American southern California bro and Rene Gube, the hip priest.

Also, it turns out that the cast can also mix-up Rebecca Bunch with Rachel Bloom so you’re not alone in that. It makes you realize how "normal" these performers are in real-life.

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Asian Americans will feel brunt of hidden realities of GOP's tax reform

FOR MANY PEOPLE, it's hard to get past the talking points to find out what the real impact of the Republican tax reform bill will have on individuals and their families. The tax bill passed by both houses of Congress Wednesdy (Dec. 20) is supposed to be about pocketbook issues, but hidden in the 500-page bill are measures that will hurt Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. 

In the end, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare -- the real targets of the GOP -- are at risk.

Instead of a real middle-class tax cut, the overwhelming majority of the benefits of this bill — an astounding 83% — go to the top 1% over the next decade. With corporate profits at an all-time high, this plan permanently lowers the corporate tax rate and increases taxes on 57% of middle-class Americans over the next decade. 

In states with a high number of Asian/Americans, including California, New York and Hawaii, many families will also see a tax increase as a result of changes to the state and local tax deduction. Coincidentally, they also overwhelmingly voted for Democrats in 2016.

Health care

Unable to repeal the Affordable Care Act after over 70 attempts, the Republicans sought to sabotage the ACA by taking away its primary funding mechanism.

Donald Trump gloated Wednesday (Dec. 20) when he pointed to the healthcare changes contained in the tax bill, saying the elimination of the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate amounts to a repeal of Obamacare.

"The individual mandate is being repealed, that means Obamacare is being repealed because they get their money from the individual mandate," Trump said.

Uh ... no. As usual, Trump is wrong. The bill doesn't repeal Obamacare, but it does weaken it considerably. Potentially, over 1.2 million AAPI enrollees in the ACA could be adversely affected.

“In order to include tax loopholes for the wealthy, this bill removes a crucial element of the Affordable Care Act – the individual mandate—and will undoubtedly destabilize health insurance markets and cause millions to lose coverage,” said Kathy Ko Chin, president and CEO of the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum.

The loss of the mandate means younger, healthy people will think they don't need insurance and will thus, opt out. 

Many people pay insurance premiums for years and never file a claim. In the case of the ACA, this can lead younger and generally healthier people to think they´re wasting money and cause them to cancel their coverage. In the event they suffer a loss, however, they must pay the full cost themselves. But, if you are young, you think you're invincible and you're willing to take that risk.

When anyone buys an insurance policy, you´re buying protection. You´re protected against unexpected medical costs, whether you ever actually use the coverage or not.

With the expected loss of younger people essentially supporting the system, insurance companies will have to raise their rates to the point where over 13 million people will no longer be able to afford health insurance. 

AAPI have always had a favorable view of the ACA. It's difficult to determine why this is so but some say people are attracted to the ability to keep young adults (up to 26 years of age) under the family coverage and the fact so many AAPI have small businesses that can't afford the expensive private insurance plans but can afford the ACA.

The available data suggest that Asian Americans have obtained health insurance through the marketplaces created by Obamacare at a higher rate than other groups. Thus, if Obamacare were repealed, Asian-Americans might see their dramatic gains in health insurance coverage reversed.

The ACA has helped to reduce the national uninsured rates for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders by 59%, the greatest reduction of any racial or ethnic group. Before the ACA, many groups, such as Koreans, Cambodians, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi Americans had uninsured rates above 20%. 

Immigration

In a press conference before convening a cabinet meeting Wednesday, Trump rambled on about the Damned Wall, need to cut out "chain migration" that allows immigrants to bring over their family, and he expressed his disdain for a "visa lottery."

“They’re not putting their best people in the lottery,” he said of some unspecified countries. “It’s common sense . . . They put their worst people into the lottery.”

As onerous as those proposals are, they had nothing to do with the just passed tax bill. Perhaps Trump just wanted to rile up those voters who are having second thoughts about him because the tax changes would benefit Trump and his rich pals but are still xenophobes.

However, the bill does impact those tax filers who use the Individual Taxpayer Identification Number — most of whom are undocumented. They would need to provide Social Security numbers for each child in order to claim the refundable part of the credit, which kicks in when the credit exceeds the filer's total tax liability. The Senate version would require an Social Security number for the regular credit as well.

According to Samantha Vargas Poppe of the Latino advocacy group UnidosUS, the change would directly impact about a million undocumented children. But it could also hurt those born in the United States whose non-citizen siblings are no longer eligible for the credit. That income hit would impact the whole family.

In addition, the House bill tightens up the rules for the Earned Income Tax Credit in such a way that immigrants covered by the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program will no longer be able to receive the credit when their work authorization expires. The Trump administration announced in September its decision to terminate the program, which means those immigrants will lose their protected status over the next few years unless 
Congress intervenes.

"Instead of passing a clean DREAM Act for undocumented youth at risk of detention and deportation, the GOP continues to prioritize the insatiable greed of corporations and billionaires at the expense of those fighting for their lives," said Kim Geron, 1st vice president of Asian Pacific Americans Labor Alliance. 

Social safety net at risk

"Congressional leaders have acknowledged the incredible $1.5 trillion deficit caused by this bill and have already promised to close that deficit by attacking programs that millions of Americans are relying on to be able to eat and count on coverage for their children through SNAP and Medicaid," said APA Health Forum's Chin. 

"It is a shameful day that our leaders in Washington have chosen to prioritize tax cuts on the backs of low- and middle-income Americans.”

The tax bill will have a devastating impact on millions of working families. The wealthy and corporations benefit the most immediately. An analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that 83 percent of households in the top 1% would receive a tax break in 2018 with an average benefit of $193,380. For the middle 20 percent of earners, the average tax cut would be $930. Over half the bill's total benefits would go to the top 10 percent of earners.

In the longer term, the bill lays the groundwork for future attacks on the poor, disabled, elderly, and other vulnerable Americans. The bill will escalate the federal deficit (estimates range from $1.4 trillion by the Congressional Budget Office to over $2.2 trillion by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities), and the Republicans will use the increased debt and the reduced tax as the excuse they need to defund safety net programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security.

"Congressional leaders have acknowledged the incredible $1.5 trillion deficit caused by this bill and have already promised to close that deficit by attacking programs that millions of Americans are relying on to be able to eat and count on coverage for their children through SNAP and Medicaid," said Chin. "It is a shameful day that our leaders in Washington have chosen to prioritize tax cuts on the backs of low- and middle-income Americans.”

“This is one of the greatest transfers of wealth in our nation’s history,” said Doreena Wong, Director, Health Access Project Director at Advancing Justice-Los Angeles. “This bill pays for huge tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans and large corporations by increasing the burden of working families. It would also dismantle the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) by repealing the individual mandate, reducing health care for 13 million Americans and raising premiums by an average of 10 percent.”

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Seattle's Filipino community awarded $11 million for senior housing

A rendering of the proposed Filipino Community Village housing project in Seattle.

IT'S THE BEST CHRISTMAS GIFT that could ever be given to the Filipino community in Seattle.

The Filipino Community Center Monday (Dec. 17) was awarded $11 million to construct homes for low-income seniors as well as a youth center.

Along side the existing center, the Filipino Community Village, a four story building with 94 affordable housing units designed for low-income seniors. The project is part of the city’s plan to invest $101 million into building and preserving 1450 affordable homes throughout the city.

“The Filipino Community Center has been a dream for many of the community for many many years,” said Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan. “This community has been at the heart of trying to preserve the culture of the Filipino community.”

The Filipino Community Village project started nearly a decade ago and has involved the purchase of seven parcels of land near the community center, said Filipino Community of Seattle Executive Director Sheila Burrus. Although the center already provided free lunch and classes to low-income seniors, a 2012 community survey also revealed the overwhelming need for senior housing.

“Our elders are aging and they don’t want to be far from the community center,” Burrus said. 

“We’re hoping to … mitigate some of our seniors leaving the city,” Burrus said, adding that many Filipino elders are “disproportionately targeted” by rising rent because of their low incomes.

The center already offers the seniors culturally appropriate food, as well as health examinations from volunteer doctors and nurses from within the Filipino community. Yet rising rent has forced many seniors to move farther away from these services to Kent, Bryn Mawr-Skyway, and Renton, she added. 

The new housing project will include space for performing arts as well as a gym. The project should be completed in the year 2020.

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Mindy Kaling is a new mom to a baby girl

The obviously pregnant Mindy Kaling dubbing her lines for 'The Mindy Project.'

ASAM NEWS

MINDY KALING has given birth to a baby girl.

E! reports 38-year old Kaling welcomed Katherine Swati Kaling into the world on December 15.

No word on the baby’s weight or height or even hair color.

The Indian/American comedian/writer/producer has been extremely coy about her pregnancy.

The father has not been revealed and his name is not on the birth certificate. Nor has she been linked to anyone romantically.

Besides the obviously cool alliteration, Kaling gave no reason for the choice of the baby's first name. Her middle name Swati was picked because it was also the name of Kaling's late mother, who died of pancreatic cancer in 2012.  Swati is the Indian name for the third-brightest star in the night sky.
 
A check of her Instagram feed finds very few photos of her baby bump.

It’ll be interesting to see if she even posts photos of baby Katherine.

Speaking on The Today Show back in August, Kaling spoke publicly for the first time about her pregnancy.

“As you know, it’s so easy to criticize parenting until you’re a parent, so one of the nice things about becoming a parent is that I’ll be able to openly criticize other parenting, because I’ll have a child.”

The new mom is never at a loss for a good one liner.

Kaling recently ended her long-running sitcom, The Mindy Project, on Hulu. She will star in the motion picture Oceans 8 which is scheduled to debut in June.

(Views From the Edge contributed to this report.)
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Tim Lincecum training ... for a comeback?

TIM LINCECUM is planning a comeback. 

The last time we saw Lincecum he was attempting a comeback after a couple of disastrous seasons with the Giants.

This time around, he was in a Padre's uniform pitching against the Oakland A's.

Unfortunately, the comeback didn't work out. He couldn't reach 90 mph on his fastball. Halfway through the season, the Padres let him go. 

Since then, he has been MIA. The Giants didn't know where he was.

A Bay Area newspaper sent a reporter up to Seattle to see if he could be found. No such luck.

Occasionally, he'd be spotted in one of San Francisco's pizza joints. Rumors on the sports talk shows said that he was spotted in Hawaii where his Filipina/American mother's family still lives. Fans said he was taking part in the Women's March in San Francisco.

Well, maybe after his Hawaiian vacation ... A short drive from his Seattle digs, Lincecum turns up with Kyle Brody who tweeted the above photo and message. Brody owns Driveline Baseball, a training analysis that teaches pitchers how to throw harder.

When Lincecum's career appeared to end in the 2016 season, the velocity on his  fastball couldn't reach 87 mph. Just a few years ago, during his years as the best pitcher in baseball, the two-time Cy Young winner could throw up to 95 mph. 

Once that fastball was established, he could keep hitters off balance with his change-up and curveball.

Lincecum never officially retired. He just disappeared off the face of the earth.

He was 5'10" but in his prime, he was unhittable and fans loved him. “It was a little guy taking on the world,” recalled broadcaster Duane Kuiper. “Everybody likes that.”

In the photo he looks like he's buffed up and at age 33, training for comeback. Driveline says that in the near future he'll throw teams in a showcase.

The odds may be against his return, but I, for one, would love to see him come back. even if it's not as a Giant. It would be a heckuva story.
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Asian Americans dominate Team USA speed skating

Courtesy Team USA

Speedster JR Celski made his third Olympic team.

ASAM NEWS

THREE OF THE FIVE speedskaters on the U.S. Olympic team are Asian/Americans.

Leading the way is two-time Olympic veteran JR Celski. He’s one of three Asian Americans to make the team at the Olympic Trials in Kearns, UT. The others are Thomas Hong and Aaron Tran. John-Henry Kruger and Ryan Pivirotto round out the team.

Celski, whose mother is Filipino and father is Polish, is a two-time Olympic veteran who won a pair of bronze medals in 2010 in Vancouver in the 1500m and 5000m relay and a silver in the 500M in 2014 in Sochi, Russia.

“I’m ecstatic. A lot of up-and-down emotions. I really couldn’t get it together after the first fall today, but I turned it around and I told myself I have to come out and skate and do what I can, so I made it happen,” said Celski to Team USA.

Thomas Hong

Celski, who qualified by finishing second in the 1500 meter, went to the same middle school in Federal Way, Washington, as his teammate Tran. “We both went to the same middle school, went to the same high school and now we’re going to the Olympics together, so it means a lot,” Celski said. “I’m so happy for him, his family and everyone that supports him.”

“It’s amazing; he’s a great role model, great leader, and I’ve always been thankful that I’ve been able to skate with him,” Tran said about Celski who he considers his role model. “He’s just a great guy, great skater.”

Tran, 21, surprised the field by placing second in the 500M to qualify for the Olympic team.

Aaron Tran

The Olympics will be a homecoming of sorts for Thomas Hong. According to the Baltimore Sun, Hong, 20, was born in Seoul and moved to the United States with his family when he was 5.

He qualified by finishing fourth in the overall classification to earn a spot on the five member team.

“I’m tremendously excited,” Hong said. “I’m extremely familiar with Korean culture. I’ve lived there for parts of my life and I’m excited to go back.”

The 2018 Olympic Games will be held in PhyongChang, South Korea, Feb. 9-25, 2018.

(Views From the Edge contributed to this report.)

Marvel's white editor apologizes for his fake persona as a Japanese author

MARVEL'S new editor-in-chief issued a statement last weekend in The Atlantic apologizing for pretending to be a comics author of Japanese descent and playing that character off as real.

After two weeks when his indiscretion was exposed, the controversy hasn't died down prompting C.B. Cebulski to issue an apology for using the pseudonym Akira Yoshida for in 2005 to sell stories to Marvel comics.

Cebulski is off to a rough start in his new position as Marvel's new editor-in-chief after it was revealed that he had been writing under the Japanese pseudonym Akira Yoshida. 

As Yoshida, he was praised for his ability to write for American audiences. 

C.B. Cebulski

“I stopped writing under the pseudonym Akira Yoshida after about a year,” Cebulski told Bleeding Cool, that broke the story on Nov. 28

The response from Asian and Asian/American writers was as it could be expected saying that the reason Marvel editors liked Yoshida's stories was because he "exoticized" his Asian characters by writing them as what white people expect Asians to be.

It should be noted that Cebulski admires Japanese culture, speaks the language and gathered his knowledge of samurais and ninjas by watching Akira Kurosawa movies.

In 2015, The New Yorker’s Hua Hsu observed that the poet Michael Derrick Hudson, who was criticized for publishing under the pseudonym Yi-Fen Chou, had engaged in the practice of “Orientalist profiteering.” 

“When it comes to such hoaxes,” Hsu wrote, “it seems somehow easier to fake Asia, a land still distant and inscrutable to many Americans; while other hoaxes work because of their thoroughness and care, the Asian-themed sort often get by with only a few details, as long as those details seem just ‘Asian’ enough.”

Although there are a couple of Asian/American writers in the business, most AAPI are employed as artists. Apparently, it is easier to draw characters of whatever color than to have stories with Asian themes.

Marvel is particularly sensitive to this with their Dr. Strange and Iron Fist as examples of white characters extracting freely from Asian cultures. Marvel has also created an alternative universe with a pantheon of superheroes of color in the lead roles including Kamala Khan, a Pakistani/American Muslim girl and the new Ms. Marvel; the queer Asian/American heroine Cindy Moon, who has the powers of Spiderman; or Ta-Nehisi Coates/Brian Stelfreeze’s Black Panther.

While the characters may be diverse racially and genderwise, the stories come from white authors with attitudes towards racial issues what they "think" a person of color would act or say.

And that's the crux of the anger directed towards Marvel and Cebulski. They might talk a good game about diversity, but they don't put it into practice.

Marvel hasn't issued an statement about the new editor-in-chief's insensitive impersonation. Cebulski issued this statement:

I’m truly sorry for the pain, anger, and disappointment I caused over my poor choice of pseudonym. That was never my intention. Throughout my career in anime, manga, and comics, I’ve made it a point to listen and learn from my mistakes, which is exactly what I’ve been trying to do with this misstep. Building honest relationships with creators has always been important to me, and I’ve continued to do that in my new position. I’ve spoken with talent close to this issue, and have had candid and productive conversations about how we can improve the industry and build better stories, while being mindful of the voices behind them. My passion has always been about bringing the best talent from across the world to work on the best stories in the world, and I’m hopeful that fans and creators alike will join us in that continued mission.

Nice words.  But those words are meaningless until Marvel lives up to its ideals in the real world.

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