Filipina American debuts in 'Star Trek; Picard' in pivotal role

Jean Luc Picard meets the mysterioius Dahj, played by Isa Briones.

The big reveal that Marvel picked Simu Liu to play Shang-Chi, wasn't the only news coming out of ComicCon last week that AAPI fans should be excited about.

Last Spring, when it was announced that Isa Briones would be cast in CBS-All Access' Star Trek: Picard, we didn't know what kind of role she would play. It could have been one of the crew members who always linger in the background or a Red-Shirt but after seeing the trailer for the new show, it turns out that the Filipina American's role is a pretty significant one.

We still don't know what her relationship is with Jean Luc Picard, a role from Star Trek: Next Generation reprised by Sir Patrick Stewart, but it appears she's the McGuffin, the instigator, the one who gets the story going, the reason Picard is going to give up his retirement at Chateau Picard. Her character, Dahj, apparently needs to be protected and she found Picard, someone she's had history with and who she could trust.

So, who is Dahj? A lot of interesting theories have arisen among Trekkers about the identity of Dahj: from being the daughter of Data (the android who gave up his existence to save Picard) to being a reincarnation of the Borg Queen.

In the first trailer debuted at ComicCon, she shows up at Picard's idyllic vineyard 20 years after he retired from Star Fleet.

“Everything inside of me says that I’m safe with you,” she tells him.

Before he can answer her, the camera cuts away leaving fans with questions.

Later on in the trailer, she shows she has some serious (superhuman?) fighting skills as she effortlessly takes out a group of attackers while Picard watches on.

Picard quickly grasps the significance of helping this young woman and is well aware of the dangers she faces if she is captured by the wrong people.

Picard calls on Starfleet for its help but he’s ignored. “If she is who I think she is, she’s in serious danger,” he warns someone.

The mysterious Dahj is a major player. I wonder if she speaks Tagalog?

The director of the upcoming The Eternals, Chloe Zhao, has assembled a powerful and diverse cast to star in the Marvel flick about a race with superhuman powers. The brightest star to join the Marvel universe is Angelina Jolie. The film, set to debut in Nov. of 2020, will also star a buffed up Kumail Nanjiani as one of the 3,500-years -old Eternals.

Unfortunately, Warner Bros, the studio that drew raves in past ComicCons was missing this year! So we didn't get to see anything the new Wonderwoman 1984, Aquaman 2 or The Birds of Prey, the latter of which will introduce Cassandra Cain, AKA Batgirl, played by Filipina American Ella Jay Basco.

Agents of SHIELD included Chloe Bennett, middle and Ming-Na Wen, right,

It was an emotional farewell to Agents of SHIELD which is currently filming the finale for its final season. Chloe Bennett and Ming-Na Wen, who play bad-ass agents, proved you can have more than one Asian American in a cast, a rarity when the show debuted seven years ago. 

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Asian American college students remain the largest ethnic group in UC admissions

A recent graduation ceremony at UC Berkeley where Asians represent the largest ethnic group on campus.

ASAM NEWS

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the University of California is welcoming its largest and most diverse class of freshmen in Fall 2019.
“The composition of the freshman class is similar to that of last year,” according to an official statement released by the UC, with Asian American students remaining the largest ethnic group to be admitted systemwide at 35 percent, followed by Latinos at 34 percent, Caucasians at 22 percent, and African Americans at 5 percent.

This year, the system also admitted 991 more students from underrepresented groups, with 44 percent of first-generation college students and 40 percent of low-income students making up the incoming Fall class.

According to new data , the system admitted 108,178 freshmen from a pool of 176,695 applicants and 28,752 transfers out of 41,282 applicants. In addition, Californian freshmen took 71,665 of those seats as well as 26,700 Californian transfer students. Compared to last year’s record, there was about 500 more freshman admissions and around 200 more transfer admissions. According to the official statement by the UC, this year the universities are expecting the largest class from California Community Colleges.

“Yet another year of record-setting admissions underscores the tremendous interest in the world-class education at UC,” UC President Janet Napolitano said in the statement. “The best and the brightest young minds continue to make UC their university of choice.”

The LA Times further reported that the nine UC campuses experienced a steep budget cut at the same time when incoming freshmen and transfer applications doubled. Nonetheless, UC continues to increase their admission despite the budget cuts, planning to add additional 4,860 students in the next two years.

UC Admissions data for Californian Freshman can be viewed here, for Californian Transfers can be viewed here.The data tables also include campus-specific information for both freshmen and transfers.

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Governor meets with Mauna Kea 'protectors'

STATE OF HAWAII

Law enforcement personnel are greeted nose-to-nose, a Native Hawaiian custom, by Mauna Kea 'protectors,'

During a visit to Mauna Kea, Hawaii's Gov. David Ige referred to the 1000 people blocking the road to the top of the dormant volcano as "protectors," not "protesters," a major shift in tone in the controversy over a giant telescope slated to be built on the mountain.

When he visited the kapuna, or elderly, blocking the road, he was given a lei as he rubbed noses in the custom of Native Hawaiians.

The Japanese American governor says both he and Hawaii County Mayor Harry Kim understand that the issues underlying the protests are deeper than the telescope and are about "righting the wrongs done to the Hawaiian people going back more than a century."  

Ige is asking Kim to lead efforts to find common ground with protesters blocking the construction of a 30-meter telescope at the summit of the state's tallest mountain.

Native Hawaiians say Mauna Kea is a sacred mountain to them, despite the 13 observatories that are already on the mountain. The giant telescope would dwarf the other observatories. It would occupy a 5-acre site and be 18 stories high.

Mauna Kea, say scientists, is one of the prime locations on the planet for observing space.

Protectors of Mauna Kea have been blocking the road since July 15 to prevent trucks carrying building material for the observatory.

Mail bomber's lawyers blame Trump rhetoric, Fox News for his mental state

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Cesar Sayoc at a Donald Trump rally.

Donald Trump superfan Cesar Sayoc, who mailed explosives to his hero's critics, turned violent on a steady diet of Fox News, Trump tweets, and Facebook, claim his lawyers.
According to his lawyers, the 57-year old Filipino American who apparently had identity issues, Sayoc is a sexual abuse survivor who viewed Trump as a "surrogate father."

The question is not one of guilt since Sayoc admitted he sent the mail bombs to perceived enemies of Trump, wrote Sayoc's attorneys in a New York federal court on Monday (July 22).

On social media, Sayoc promoted far-right conspiracy theories and threatened people who were critical of Trump. He faces the possibility of life in prison for the mail bombings.

But Sayoc’s lawyers painted a picture of their client as a man struggling with “cognitive limitations and mental illness” who was manipulated by conservative media and the Trump's Twitter feed.

Already an admirer of Trump, Sayoc's lawyers said their client “began watching Fox News religiously,” started following political news on Facebook and and “threw himself into” Trump’s campaign once he announced his candidacy because he “came to view Trump as a personal champion—someone who had helped him through the most difficult periods of his life and who could do the same for other people across the country.” 

Isolated and abusing steroids, Sayoc lived a lonely life, his attorneys claimed in a Monday filing.

“By 2018, he was living alone in a decrepit and cramped van that had been his home for more than a decade,” the lawyers wrote. “A typical day saw Mr. Sayoc waking up in his van, showering at the gym, and cooking crockpot meals while inside the DJ booth of a strip club before heading off to his second job delivering pizza. As he grew older and more isolated, excessive steroid use increased his feelings of anxiety and paranoia.

“In this darkness, Mr. Sayoc found light in Donald J. Trump.”

Sayoc, his lawyers wrote, “began watching Fox News religiously at the gym, planning his morning workout to coincide with Fox and Friends and his evenings to dovetail with Hannity.” With his use of steroids, they said, he became paranoid and delusional about the false news stories that clogged his social media feeds.

“Because of his cognitive limitations and mental illness, he believed outlandish reports in the news and on social media, which increasingly made him unhinged. He became obsessed with ‘attacks’ from those he perceived as Trump’s enemies. He believed stories shared on Facebook that Trump supporters were being beaten in the streets. He came to believe that he was being personally targeted for supporting Trump: Mr. Sayoc thought that anti-Trump forces were trying to hurt him and they were to blame when his van was vandalized,” they wrote.

“A rational observer may have brushed off Trump’s tweets as hyperbole, but Mr. Sayoc took them to heart,” according to Sayoc’s attorneys.

Sayoc’s mother has called on Trump to tone down his rhetoric. “Our political leaders, like our President Donald Trump, need to recognize that there are many sick people in this country who take their rhetoric and words of ‘War with the Media’ and ‘War with the Democrats’ to heart,” Madeline Sayoc said in a statement last year.

Sayoc's Facebook account is almost exclusively pro-Trump content, including pictures and videos Sayoc purportedly filmed at one of the president’s political rallies. And the Twitter feed is littered with far-right conspiracy theories or violent threats aimed at some of President Trump’s most outspoken critics.

Sayoc's Filipino father left the family when he divorced his Brooklyn-born wife, died in 2009. In his social media posts, Sayoc claimed to be a member of the Seminole Nation but the Native American tribe say Sayoc is not on any of their rolls.

Sayoc mailed pipe bombs to numerous Democrats, including former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, former President Barack Obama, former Vice President Joe Biden, several members of Congress and actor Robert De Niro. He also sent explosives to CNN. None of the IED's exploded.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Jed S. Rakoff, he said he didn't intend any of the bombs to explode. They were only intended to scare the recipient.

Judge Rakoff set the he would announce the Sayoc's sentence on Aug. 5.

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Parents of Parkland HS shooting victim sue FBI

Philip and April Schentrup claim the FBI could have done more to prevent the Parkland massacre that claimed the life of their daughter, Carmen, and 16 others.

If the FBI had followed protocol and acted on the warnings about the mental stability of the Parkland shooter, the country's deadliest school mass shooting might never have occurred, say the parents of a Filipina American victim.

Philip and April Schentrup say their daughter Carmen, a Stoneman Douglas High School senior gunned down last year, would still be alive if the FBI had not bungled the case.
The lawsuit filed last month seeks unspecified damages in a wrongful death suit.

Nikolas Cruz, 20, confessed to the massacre that occurred on Valentine's Day in 2018.  He killed 17 and wounded another 17 students and staff of the Florida school. His murder trial is scheduled for Jan. 20 next year.

Forty days before the mass shooting, the FBI received a tip saying Cruz was stockpiling weapons and threatening to shoot up the school. "I know he's going to explode," said the tipster.

CARMEN SCHENTRUP

The FBI employee who received the call never passed on the information to the FBI's Miami field office, the suit alleges.

“Before the Parkland shooting, law enforcement, including the FBI, received several warnings about Nikolas Cruz’s desire and capability to carry out a school shooting,” the Schentrup lawsuit says. “Despite the FBI’s awareness of Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, disturbing social media posts, and the potential of him conducting a school shooting, the FBI failed to follow established protocols that would have prevented the shooting from taking place.”

The Schentrups’ lawsuit is the second leveling blame at the FBI. The parents of Parkland victim Jaime Guttenberg, 14, filed a wrongful death suit against the agency in November.

The families of other Parkland victims have filed 22 lawsuits against the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Broward School District.

On March 14th, a month after the school massacre, then acting deputy director of the FBI David Bowdich outlined before a Senate judiciary committee investigating the shooting, the missed tips the agency received about Cruz, including:

• In January 2013, the shooter's mother, Lynda Cruz, called the Sheriff’s Office after he threw her against a wall.

• In February 2016, the Sheriff’s Office got a report from a neighbor saying Cruz was posting photos of himself with guns on Instagram and saying he planned to shoot up his high school.

• In February 2017, Cruz bought the AR-15 he used in the shooting. In the year leading up to the shooting, he purchased at least five weapons, all rifles and shotguns.

• In September 2017, a Mississippi man called in a tip to the FBI saying Cruz posted a threatening comment on YouTube saying he wanted to be a school shooter. Two FBI agents interviewed the tipster the next day, but by October, the agency had closed its file on the matter.

• In November 2017, a cousin of Cruz’s mother called the Sheriff’s Office to urge the agency to seize his weapons.

• A few weeks later, a family friend called police to report a fight between Cruz and her son. She said Cruz turned violent, punched walls and left to get a gun.

• On Nov. 30, 2017, the Sheriff’s Office got a tip from a caller in Massachusetts who said she believed Cruz was stockpiling guns and knives and could be a school shooter in the making.

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Carmen Schentrup, a Stoneman Douglas senior gunned down in one of the nation’s deadliest school shootings, would be alive today had the FBI not bungled the case, her parents claim in a new lawsuit.

Philip and April Schentrup are seeking unspecified damages in a wrongful death suit filed against the agency Friday in federal court.

Nikolas Cruz, a former student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High, walked into the school with an AR-15 on Valentine’s Day last year, firing round after round. Carmen Schentrup was among 17 who died that day. Another 17 were wounded.

Cruz, 20, has confessed to the massacre and is awaiting trial.

One warning about the unstable young man who’d been stockpiling guns and threatening to shoot up a school came on Jan 5, 2018.

“I know he’s going to explode,” the tipster told the FBI.

Forty days later, Cruz walked into Marjory Stoneman Douglas High and “executed” Carmen Schentrup along with 16 other students and staff.

The FBI phone operator who took the tip that Cruz “was going to slip into a school and start shooting the place up” never passed it along to the agency’s Miami field office, the lawsuit says.

That fatal mistake was a clear violation of protocol — a fact acknowledged by the FBI just two days after the shooting.

The Schentrups’ lawsuit is the second leveling blame at the FBI. The parents of Parkland victim Jaime Guttenberg, 14, filed a wrongful death suit against the agency in November.

he families of other Parkland victims have filed 22 lawsuits against the Broward Sheriff’s Office and Broward School District.

“Before the Parkland shooting, law enforcement, including the FBI, received several warnings about Nikolas Cruz’s desire and capability to carry out a school shooting,” the Schentrup lawsuit says. “Despite the FBI’s awareness of Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, disturbing social media posts, and the potential of him conducting a school shooting, the FBI failed to follow established protocols that would have prevented the shooting from taking place.”

The suit goes on to list all the warnings and tips that went ignored.

Some of the failures detailed in the lawsuit:

• In January 2013, his mother, Lynda Cruz, called the Sheriff’s Office after he threw her against a wall.
• In February 2016, the Sheriff’s Office got a report from a neighbor saying Cruz was posting photos of himself with guns on Instagram and saying he planned to shoot up his high school.
• In February 2017, Cruz bought the AR-15 he used in the shooting. In the year leading up to the shooting, he purchased at least five weapons, all rifles and shotguns.
• In September 2017, a Mississippi man called in a tip to the FBI saying Cruz posted a threatening comment on YouTube saying he wanted to be a school shooter. Two FBI agents interviewed the tipster the next day, but by October, the agency had closed its file on the matter.
• In November 2017, a cousin of Cruz’s mother called the Sheriff’s Office to urge the agency to seize his weapons.

• A few weeks later, a family friend called police to report a fight between Cruz and her son. She said Cruz turned violent, punched walls and left to get a gun.
• On Nov. 30, 2017, the Sheriff’s Office got a tip from a caller in Massachusetts who said she believed Cruz was stockpiling guns and knives and could be a school shooter in the making.

Then came the tip in January 2018, just five weeks before the shooting.

“The caller also explained that Cruz’s Instagram accounts contained photos of animals Cruz had mutilated and killed,” the lawsuit said. “She told the FBI that Cruz’s interest in killing animals, cutting them up, and posting photos of them was a red flag.”

The parents of Carmen Schentrup, a 16-year-old Fil-Am student who was killed in a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida on valentine’s day last year filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government for negligence.

The complaint alleges that the FBI ignored a tip weeks before the mass shooting that the gunman — Nikolas Cruz — was “going to slip into a school and start shooting up the place.”

17 people were killed that day at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

The Schentrup family lawyer, Robert Stein, spoke to BA about the lawsuit.

“The FBI was provided with detailed information ahead of this tragedy and was in a unique position to prevent carmen’s death. The FBI utterly failed to follow its own protocols and procedures by failing to investigate and fulfill its duty.”

The complaint alleges that the FBI got enough warnings about the confessed shooter including one the agency reportedly received just 40 days before the shooting from a woman who knew Cruz.”

The lawsuit also shows several screenshots of Cruz’s social media accounts, including the one he posted on a youtube page that was reported to the FBI.

“The information was never forwarded to a field office or to any of our state and local partners for review or action.”

On March 14th, a month after the school massacre, then acting deputy director of the FBI David Bowdich outlined before a Senate judiciary committee investigating the shooting, the missed tips the agency received about Cruz.

“The FBI could have and should have done more to investigate the information it was provided prior to the shooting.”

Despite that admission, the Schentrup faces a tough legal battle. Their lawyer said it is generally difficult to the sue the federal government.

Another parkland family filed a lawsuit against the FBI in November 2018.

Both families claim that if the agency had just followed what they were supposed to do, then their daughters would be alive today. Both lawsuits claim wrongful death damages for their losses but they do not state monetary amount.

Meanwhile, Cruz was back in court yesterday where judge Elizabeth Scherer set January 20, 2020 as the start of the murder trial.

'The Farewell' almost never got made

ASAM NEWS

The Farewell, a new indie film starring Awkwafina, shot past the one million dollar mark in the box office in its second weekend. Fox Business reports the film from director Lulu Wang has grossed $1.67 million since being released on July 13. 

The film with an all-Asian and Asian American cast, is rated 100% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, and has received the Sundance Institute’s prestigious Vanguard Award. But the film many are talking about this summer almost didn’t happen; Wang nearly gave up all hope of making it when potential producers turned her down because they couldn’t place her story as “American” or “Chinese.”

The movie is based on a true story, or “an actual lie” as the movie trailer calls it, involving Wang’s real-life grandma.

Wang began pitching her story to potential producers, hoping to make a tender but comical movie about the lengths that family go to protect one another. But time and again, she was asked the question: “Is this an American film or a Chinese film?”

“Which is kind of like asking me, ‘Are you American or are you Chinese?'” Wang told Vox in an interview. Wang would respond that she’s American, because she grew up here, speaks English, and has an American perspective.

The American financiers weren’t buying it though. “It’s not an American film,” they told her, “It won’t work for the American market.”

So then she tried pitching to Chinese financiers, but was still met with resistance. “This Chinese producer was like, ‘You need a White guy in your movie,’” Wang said in an interview with IndieWire, “They’re so influenced by Hollywood.”

Wang gave up on making the film. “I thought if I can’t make the film the way I want to make it, I’m not going to make it at all,” she told IndieWire. But she thought maybe she could tell the story some other way, so she wrote the details down as a short story.

Wang had already made a feature-length film called Posthumous in 2014, and a 12-minute short called Touch. Neil Drumming, a producer for the radio show This American Life, saw Touch at a film festival, and approached her for more story ideas.

“He was like, ‘You’re a woman of color in Hollywood. What stories do you want to tell that no one’s letting you tell?’” Wang recounted to The Washington Post.

It took a month and a half to write and record the radio episode. “We interviewed my family, and it was such a pure experience—I got to really dig into how I felt.” What You Don’t Know aired on This American Life on April 22, 2016. Within 48 hours, producers called to say that they did want to make her story into a film, including production companies Depth of Field, and Big Beach.

“I said I wouldn’t compromise on the way it was cast,” Wang said, “and I was not going to compromise on the language. It was going to be primarily Mandarin. It will not make any sense for grandma and the family to speak English.”

Depth of Field and Big Beach signed on within a week. Big Beach producer Dani Melia recalled to IndieWire, “When we listened to the podcast, it was indicative of her strong storytelling sensibilities and these rich characters she knew so well. There was never a question in my mind about making this authentic or not.”

With financing secured, Wang’s next challenge was to choose the acting talent. Wang said she needed to find somebody that “really felt American” to play Billi, the stand-in for Wang in the movie. It was then that Awkwafina, before her breakout roles in Crazy Rich Asians and Ocean’s 8, submitted an audition tape.

“When I was first kind of placed before her, she was quizzical because she only knew me from ‘My Vag,’” Awkwafina told IndieWire, referring to her viral music video.

Wang was sold on her audition. “All of the emotion was on her face and her eyes,” Wang said. “I needed an actress who could carry the scenes even without speaking.”

Acting alongside Awkwafina was Wang’s great-aunt, who played herself in the film, and whom Wang calls Little Nai Nai. “At first, she was like…’you want me in [the movie]? I have a fat face. I’m just, like, a normal person with a normal face…. I’m going to ruin your movie, because I’m not a movie star,’” Wang recounted to Vox.

“So to be able to show her that she is a movie star, and that the family story is worthwhile, it’s really meaningful in terms of what they think of themselves and the value of our unique stories.”

The Farewell is now playing in select theaters and is generating Oscar buzz for its director and the performance of Awkwafina. The film launches nationwide on August 2nd.

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Hawaii's Lt. Governor questions inevitability of Mauna Kea telescope

Hundreds of protesters have converged on the road leading to the top of Mauna Kea.

As the protests against the construction of a giant telescope atop Mauna Kea entered its second week, authorities sought a way to deescalate the tension and avoid any violence.

After a lengthy visit Monday with TMT protesters blocking access to Mauna Kea’s summit, Lt. Gov. Josh Green said the controversial telescope project might have to “move on” if an agreement with its opponents can’t be reached.

Protesters numbering 1500 camped out at the side of the road leading up to the 5-acre site for the Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT), protesters consider the dormant volcano, Mauna Kea, a sacred mountain to Native Hawaiians.

There are already 13 observatories on the mountain but they would be dwarfed by the $1-billion TMT, which would stand 18 stories high. If built, the Thirty Meter Telescope would be capable of capturing images 12 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope.

“We are not anti-science,” says Pua Case, one of more outspoken Native Hawaiian activists protesting the TMT. “We are against the building of anything 18 stories over our watershed, water aquifers, on our sacred mountain. It could have been anything; it just happens to be a telescope.”

Lt. Gov. Green, the highest ranking official to visit the site, also said he’d urged Japanese American Gov. David Ige to remove law enforcement from the mountain. Last week the governor assigned 80 members of the Hawaii National Guard to secure the mountain site.

“One project can’t be allowed to disrupt the fabric of our state’s ohana,” Green told Hawaii News Now. “So if there can’t be a brokered peace that prevents that, then the TMT would have to move on.

“I think we have to have a reckoning once and for all about if TMT should go forward," Green said. "If we go forward with the TMT without absolute buy-in from the Hawaiian people that will mean that we have not respected the Hawaiian people and after all, we are in Hawaii.”

In a statement, TMT officials said they remain “hopeful” that the project “can find a way forward." The statement continued: "TMT has become an icon for larger issues within the community. We respect those who express opposition and understand the pain they feel. However, whether or not TMT is built will not bring closure to it. We remain hopeful that we can find a way forward, with mutual respect.”

In an email to Popular Science, Scott Ishikawa of Becker Communications, who identified himself as "the spokesperson with the Thirty Meter Telescope project," wrote "We respect the rights of everyone—both supporters and protesters—to express their opinions." The mountain is special, he went on, and TMT is working to "protect and conserve Mauna Kea's cultural and natural resources, becoming a model of sustainable astronomy."

“The selected site below the summit has no archaeological shrines or features and no burials,” he went on. “It has also been documented that the site was not used for traditional or customary cultural practises.”

Meanwhile, over the weekend, demonstrations and marches against the construction of the observatory spread to Waikiki, Alaska, Maui, Las Vegas, San Francisco  and Times Square in New York City. 

The Standing Rock Sioux also sent a delegation to Hawaii in support of Native Hawaiians' quest for national recognition as an indigenous people and the Hawaiians' right to protect their sacred lands.

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Manny Pacquiao wins welterweight crown

Manny Pacquiao looked like a much younger fighter after knocking down the previously unbeaten Keith Thurman.

He may have lost some of the speed and power when he was in his prime, but thte 40-year-old Manny Pacquiao showed that he still had plenty of boxing left in him.

From the start of the fight in Las Vegas Saturday, the amazingly fit and energetic Pacquiao  seemed to surprise champion Keith Thurman, who tasted defeat the first time in his boxing career. 

The Filipino boxer quickly lunged in to deliver a barrage of punches to the body and head and just as quickly, Pacquiao would jump back and out before Thurman could counterpunch. Pacquiao knock down of Thurman in the first round looked like vintage Pacquio, pleasing the partisan audience at the MGM Resort.

In the middle rounds Thurman seemed to realize that he was being outscored and managed to win a few rounds but Pacquiao remained unfazed. Pacquiao fought back enough to counter the points being made by his opponent.

The older Pacquiao showed his stamina by becoming the agressor again the 10th and 11th rounds, apparently hurting Thurman with body blows.

Pacquiao's aggressiveness in the early rounds and Thurman's strong comeback mad the outcome of the 12-rounder uncertain even with the sold-out audience favoring the Filipino.

The first judge gave the fight to Thurman but the next two judges awarded the WBA world welterweight crown to Pacquiao. Post fight analytics showed that Pacquiao outpunched Thurman by 686 to 571.

It was the Filipino senator's 62nd win of a remarkable 71-fight career that has spanned 24 years. The welterweight crown is the ninth title for Pacquiao. Veterans at ringside described the performance as Pacquiao's best since his dazzling win over Antonio Margarito in 2010.

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Mauna Kea protests continue vs. giant telescope

Mauna Kea is located on Hawaii, the Big Island.

As officials brace for more protests against the construction of a telescope on Mauna Kea, Hawaii's governor expressed the desire to avoid the possibility of violence.

Since mid-July, protestors have blocked the road leading up to the telescope's site atop the dormant volcano, Mauna Kea, preventing the delivery of construction material.

Gov. David Ige said that his priority is to keep everyone in the community safe, including the activists at the base of Mauna Kea. The 80 National Guard members on the Big Island since the start of the protests will remain, state officials said.

“We will not be utilizing tear gas, as some of the rumors have been (saying),” Ige said. “We are looking for the best way forward without hurting anyone.”

The only Asian American governor in the US stopped short of removing the State of Emergency, which allows the troops to remove protestors, who claim the site is sacred and is of cultural significance for Native Hawaiians.

The latest to weigh in is Presidential candidate, Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, whose district includes  Mauna Kea. In a statement, she said:

"To many Native Hawaiians, kamaʻāina, and malihini alike, Mauna Kea is so much more than a mountain. It's a revered and sacred sanctuary connecting keiki and kupuna to the past, present and future, and where Native Hawaiians practice their customs and traditions.

"The materialistic way that developers and corporations are viewing Mauna Kea — ignoring the spiritual significance and relationship many Native Hawaiians have with the Mauna — is at the heart of the problem.

"It is hypocritical that many TMT proponents speak of their own spiritual quest for knowledge and wisdom, while simultaneously closing their eyes to the spiritual inspiration and significance that Mauna Kea offers — not only to Native Hawaiians but to humanity at large. Spiritual nourishment and inspiration is of much greater and lasting value than anything money can buy.

"It is this spiritual blindness often born out of arrogance or greed that is at the root of the desecration of our precious environment throughout the country and around the world."

More than 1,000 people descended on what they consider sacred Hawaiian land last week to form a blockade to stop the construction of a controversial giant telescope on Mauna Kea.

Police moved in to make  33 arrests, reported KHON. Among the first arrested, were kapuna, or elderly, protestors. All 33 where given citations and released the same day.

“This mountain represents more than just their building that they want to build,” longtime activist Walter Ritte said in a video interview livestreamed by Hawaii News Now, via Twitter on Monday, reported Colorlines. “This mountain represents the last thing they want to take that we will not give them.” Ritte was one of eight people who chained themselves to a grate in the access road at the mountain’s base to block construction.

According to the BBC, the 30 meter telescope (TMT) would be the largest in the world. Mauna Kea is held by the state in trust, supposedly for the benefit of Native Hawaiians.

Protests, led by Native Hawaiians, have dogged the project since it was announced in 2009. Last Oct.  the Supreme Court of Hawaii upheld the building permit granted by the State Board of Land and Natural Resources. Construction was scheduled to begin on July  15 this year.

Gizmodo reports that the protestors have won the support of some 200 astronomers who published an open letter .

“We call upon the astronomy community to recognize the broader historical context of this conflict and to denounce the criminalization of the protectors on Maunakea,” read the letter.

“We came to protect our sacred land,” Hawaii News Now reported that a protester at Mauna Kea said last week during the arrests. “There’s not much more we have left.” There are already thirteen working telescopes at and around the top of Mauna Kea. If TMT is not built on Mauna Kea, there is a backup site in the Canary Islands."

ASAM NEWS CONTRIBUTED TO THIS REPORT

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Asian Americans protest casting of new musical

A production number from a new musical 'Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise.'

The practice of whitewashing and yellowface isn't just a problem in Hollywood. Asian American actors have a similar problem getting parts on Broadway.

A recent production of the musical Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise drew protests from the Asian American Performers Action Coalition along with other Asian American community groups when it case an Asian character with a non-Asian actor. 

Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise tells the story of a secret sect in Flushing, Queens, that possesses the magical power to extend human life, and the twin brother and sister caught in the struggle to control it. The pop artist Sia wrote the music.

A recent report conducted by AAPAC looked at casting on Broadway over the last five years. African American performers filled 13% of all available roles, Latinos/Hispanic American actors were represented at 4%, and Asian American actors were 2%.  Not surprisingly, white actors, who secured 80% of the roles, were the only ethnicity to over-represent compared to their relative population size.

Asian Americans were the only minority group to see their numbers decline over the 5-year period. 

The AAPAC along with several theatre companies and Asian American advocacy groups recently  released an open letter to the artistic leadership of The Shed, the new multi-million dollar cultural center in Hudson Yards, Manhattan, in response to the casting of a Caucasian actor in an Asian role in their current production of Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise.

Below is their letter in its entirety.

"We are a coalition of theatre artists and Asian American advocacy organizations around the nation. We have heard several complaints from our members who saw your production of Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise at The Shed. Your production appropriates Chinese culture, mixing it with western pop influences, relying on the most reductive tropes of the kung fu genre while providing no cultural context. It makes little effort to humanize or add nuance to the Chinese American characters, but instead, relies on stereotypes for characterization. In a multi-million dollar production which made use of public funds, you chose to employ a predominantly Caucasian writing, music and producing team who deemed it appropriate to give a Caucasian actor the principal role of the Grandmaster, "Lone Peak." As the archetypal wise elder who is the keeper of ancient Chinese secrets and the father of "Little Lotus," it is clear that he is intended to be an Asian character--or should be. The decision to use yellow face casting is offensive and unacceptable to us and we demand a public explanation.

"No doubt, the leadership of The Shed thought that entrusting Chen Shi-Zeng, a Chinese-born director, fulfilled any obligations they might have had in bringing true authenticity to the production. It didn't matter that Mr. Chen has a history of implementing yellow face casting: his production of The Orphan of Zhao at Lincoln Center in 2003 was cast entirely with Caucasian performers playing Asian roles. 

His director's note in the program for Dragon Spring states: 'My intention was to cast actors regardless of their ethnicity because I believe human experience is not exclusive but rather transcendental in nature. Our 'Chinese story' is acted by performers of many backgrounds. Like America at its best, Dragon Spring Phoenix Rise is about shared cultural values and experiences.' 

This sounds to us like another way of saying, "we don't see race" and conveniently sidesteps the long history of misrepresentation, exploitation and erasure that Asians have experienced in this country. Erasing our culture, our humanity and our bodies from our own story is a form of racism at its most insidious. The fact that Mr. Chen grew up overseas does not excuse him from being ignorant of the long history racism against Asians in America. He has been in this country since the 90s.

"We agree that human experience is transcendental-we are forced to see ourselves in Caucasian protagonists all the time. This is an issue of representation. Mr. Chen's lofty goal of "rainbow casting" may be apt if the playing field were level, but it is not. Asian stories are rarely produced, and opportunities for Asian American actors remain unequal. It is perhaps even more disappointing, if that were possible, that, when there are Asian performers in this production, they never rise above the level of being stereotypes: the dutiful Asian kids; the Asian woman who has no defining characteristics except to be a wife and mother, etc., all of which speaks to the apparent disregard the creators have for accurate representation in storytelling. The fact that this orientalism went unchallenged betrays an extreme lack of leadership on the part of The Shed across all levels.

"It begs the questions: Who is this production for, really? What does this production add to the story of Asian immigrants in America when it treats the culture it aims to honor so superficially? Doesn't this actually diminish the culture? What does this production do for Asian and Asian American voices in the theater when its own voice is more reflective of the history of American appropriation of East Asian culture? Can we expect this concept of "rainbow" casting in upcoming projects at The Shed for all racially-specific stories? If not, why was this story treated differently? It's one thing if The Shed fails to live up to its stated mission of "shared cultural values", but it's another when its product negatively affects our community and how we are perceived. We must speak out against it.

"We hope you will address these questions with us in a public forum at a mutually beneficial time in the future, one that will allow multiple perspectives to be expressed. We hope you can be in the room with us to listen to the experience of those who have been hurt by your production and to publicly address what you intend to do differently (if anything) moving forward. We look forward to your response to our invitation. You may contact us at aapacnyc@gmail.com.

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