More News in 2009 Community News
* President Clinton's speech: Hanoi University, Vietnam in English + Tiếng Việt by VAC
* Ðạt Ma Dịch Cân Kinh (Book of Life Renewal) May cure terminal disease beyond expectation by even doctors, Tiếng Việt. Note:English version posted 04/29/01. This excercise was founded by the founding monk at Shao Lin Temple in China centuries ago.

* Free softwares download & Read news in America and in Vietnam go to our Links page

Jan 22, 2012: Garden Grove to see broader Tet festival. GARDEN GROVE – A human chess board and cultural village filled with re-creations of Vietnamese landmarks will help bring the country's culture and traditions to life this weekend at the 31st annual Tet Festival.

The festival, celebrating the Lunar New Year and the Year of the Dragon, begins Friday at Garden Grove Park for three days of live entertainment, food and games. More OC Register

Jan 21, 2012: Lumar New Year's Festival Events: Vietnamese Hoi Tet Festival of Northern California. 11 a.m. Saturday today, continuing Sunday, Santa Clara County Fairgrounds, 344 Tully Road, San Jose.

Vietnamese Hoi Xuan Festival 10 a.m to 10 p.m Saturday Jan 28, Sunday 29 of January; Vietnam Town Shopping center on Story Road located between Walmart and Grand Century mall 1001 Story Road, San Jose.

Dec 22, 2011: IRS yanks nonprofit status of 3,200 O.C. charities. What could the Christian Blue Collar Workers in Aliso Viejo, the Korean Dentists Association of USA in Buena Park, and the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in Irvine have in common? They used to be nonprofits — but they are not nonprofits any more.

The Internal Revenue Service has yanked the nonprofit status of nearly 3,200 organizations in Orange County, according to its latest updates – an increase of nearly 1,000 since the first wave of revocations was announced in June. The IRS is culling hundreds of thousands of charities nationwide for failing to file financial details for three consecutive years. .More OC Register

Dec 11,2011: Vietnamese residents of Santa Clara County suffer health gap. Vietnamese residents of Santa Clara County suffer from higher rates of cancer, tuberculosis and heart disease than most other racial and ethnic groups, concludes a new report being released Monday by county officials.

Vietnamese community leaders say the grim findings can help in the development of better, more strategic outreach programs, screenings and public health campaigns.

Santa Clara County's Vietnamese population has burgeoned in recent decades, from 11,700 residents in 1980 to 134,525 people last year -- roughly 8 percent of the total population. San Jose has the largest number of Vietnamese of any American city, and the number of county residents is surpassed only by Orange County.

But inadequate English language skills, a lack of employer-sponsored health coverage and a difficult-to-navigate health system, many Vietnamese fare worse than their counterparts in every other racial or ethnic group -- aside from Latinos, the report states. Researchers found 1 in 4 of the county's adult Vietnamese residents lacked health coverage. More SJMN.

Nov 6, 2011: Vietnamese-American women place strict rules on men returning to homeland. HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam -- The trouble for Henry Liem begins every time he prepares to return to his homeland.Getting the required visa from the Vietnamese government is a breeze. It's the "second visa" -- from his wife worried that he will stray over there -- that requires diplomatic skills.

"My wife is always cranky every time I go," said Liem, a philosophy instructor at San Jose City College who visits Vietnam twice a year to teach at a university. "So I rarely disclose my upcoming trip until the last minute. It's pain minimization. The longer she knows, the longer I have to bear the pain." Thirty-six years after the Vietnam War ended, Communist government officials openly welcome Vietnamese-Americans back, even those who fought against them.

But another Civil War has erupted, this one pitting Vietnamese-American women against their husbands and boyfriends who want to return to the Southeast Asian country. The men's significant others contend that Vietnamese women lie in wait to ambush them, often eager for the financial stability such a match would bring. More SJMN.

Jun 12, 2011: Computer class gives Vietnamese orphans a window to the world. The children sat at their desks, bare feet dangling next to power cords, as the instructors unpacked the small, plastic laptops. As they waited, they kept their eyes fixed on the tiny machines that transport them beyond the high walls of the neat but sparse orphanage — if only for a few hours. More SJMN.

Jan 18, 2011: New Vietnam Communnist Party Chief. Nguyen Phu Trong, current Speaker of the House was elected Vietnam Communist party Chief as the general secretary of the polibureau on Jan 18, 2011 which also has 14 members and including current prime minister Nguyen Tan Dung. To be announced would be the new Head of State and the coming prime minister soon. More Vnexpress, ThanhNien, SaigonTT.

Nov 25, 2010: Le Van Ba, the Ray Kroc of Vietnamese sandwiches, dead at 79. Le Van Ba was a successful businessman in Vietnam when war forced his family to start over from scratch in a foreign country. Arriving in San Jose in 1980, Le and his children within three years had launched Lee's Sandwiches, a chain that now has more than 30 Vietnamese sandwich shops in California, plus locations in four other states.

Le Van Ba, who died of cancer Tuesday at the age of 79, was the patriarch of a creative and industrious clan that includes his wife, Nguyen Thi Hanh, and their five sons and four daughters. The family landed in San Jose as refugees, with Le becoming the Ray Kroc of Vietnamese sandwiches by adapting the American fast-food restaurant principles of Kroc's McDonald's to the delicious meats, pates and spices of Vietnamese cuisine, all served on freshly baked French-style baguettes. MoreSJMN.

Nov 15, 2010:Vietnamese-American returns to Vietnam as U.S. general consul. When Vietnamese first meet An T. Le, they don't know quite what to make of the new U.S. consul general in this bustling commercial center.

"They are curious, 'Who is this guy? Why is he so tall?' " the broad-shouldered, 6-foot-2-inch diplomat recalled in his office at the American compound on Le Duan Boulevard. "They think I'm a Korean-American or Japanese-American or Chinese-American. I say, 'I must have ate Wonder Bread.'

"They are even more taken aback when Le, the first Vietnamese-American to hold such a high-level diplomatic post -- he is ranked just under the ambassador -- speaks to them in Vietnamese. The appointment of the seasoned State Department official, whose previous postings include Beijing, Singapore and Paris, has created a stir among the Vietnamese diaspora, from Silicon Valley to France. The Vietnam-born official assumed the three-year post in August. More SJMN.

Nov 3, 2010: A Humbling Loss for Obama: How it Happened. Hope and Change Put Democrats in the White House -- A Recession and a Series of Miscalculations Cost them Control of Congress. More CNN.

Democrats Outrun by a Two-Year Comeback Plan. The presentation was the product of a strategy session held 11 days before Mr. Obama’s inauguration, when top Republican leaders in the House of Representatives began devising an early blueprint for what they would accomplish in Tuesday’s election: their comeback.

How they did it is the story of one of the most remarkable Congressional campaigns in more than a half-century, characterized by careful plotting by Republicans, miscalculations by Democrats and a new political dynamic with forces out of both parties control. More New York Times.

Sanchez, Tran keep watch on election results. Democrat Loretta Sanchez and Republican Van Tran hunkered down Wednesday to wait out election officials who were still counting thousands of last-minute votes, with central Orange County's seat in Congress hanging in the balance. Sanchez held what appeared to be a commanding lead, but refused to declare victory until late absentee and provisional ballots were added to the tally. Tran needed those late ballots to break his way in big numbers, but said it was still too early to concede defeat. More OC Register.

Oct 30, 2010: Intel opens billion-dollar factory in Vietnam. Intel's new billion-dollar factory, which opened Friday and has a clean room the size of five-plus football fields, rises up from former rice paddies like a Walmart on steroids."On behalf of Intel's 85,000 employees, I would like to say, 'Hello Vietnam,' '' company CEO Paul Otellini told an auditorium packed with enthusiastic government officials, employees and other dignitaries during a ceremony that featured a dragon dance and women in ao dais, traditional Vietnamese gowns. more SJMN.

Oct 10, 2010: After tanking in China, Yahoo's a hit in Vietnam. After failing miserably in China under the tight restrictions of the Communist government, Yahoo is enjoying spectacular success next door -- in Communist Vietnam. Even officials of the authoritarian government here prefer Yahoo over politically correct local services.

Ninety-five percent of Vietnam's Internet users -- now topping 23 million -- rely on Yahoo's sites and services. Young people squeeze into Yahoo-sponsored Internet cafes, tapping away at keyboards day and night. The company's Mail and Instant Messenger technology -- on PCs and mobile phones -- are part of the daily rhythms of the country. Yahoo's 360 Plus blogging service is a platform for millions of Vietnamese to gossip about celebrities and write. More SJMN.

July 23, 2000: New charge against Vietnamese activist Ly Tong in Santa Clara attack. Santa Clara County prosecutors filed a new felony charge this morning against controversial activist Ly Tong, increasing his maximum possible prison sentence to six years and eight months. Details of new charge filed by Santa Clara D.A. office here, by SJMN.

Hundreds flood courtroom in support of Vietnamese activist Ly Tong. Wednesday's first court appearance for "freedom fighter" Ly Tong — accused of dressing like an old woman so he could pepper-spray a Vietnamese pop star during a concert last weekend in Santa Clara — lasted barely a few minutes.

His bail also was increased from $52,000 to $100,000, with a hearing on whether to lower that amount set for Friday morning. Tong faces as many as five years in prison if convicted of all charges, or he could receive a penalty as light as probation. Given the crowds that poured in nearly two hours before Tong's brief appearance, extra deputies were on hand to quell any outbursts in the courtroom, said Amy Cornell, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. Not that they were necessarily needed."Everybody was very quiet and respectful," Cornell said.

Tam Nguyen, one of Tong's attorneys, said supporters are hoping to bail him out by Friday so he can attend protests outside Hung's next show, scheduled for Saturday in Anaheim. Nguyen said Tong is proud that he ambushed Hung and that the choice of pepper-spray — typically used in self-defense — was purposeful. More SJMN.

Santa Clara police: Activist Ly Tong arrested in pepper spray attack on singer. It was a seemingly sweet moment, captured on video near the end of a Vietnamese pop star's concert Sunday in Santa Clara. Someone who appeared to be an old woman approached the stage with a long-stemmed flower, and singer Dam Vinh Hung bent down — amid great applause — to accept it. And that sweet would-be admirer? Santa Clara police say "she" was none other than Ly Tong, the self-styled anti-communist "freedom fighter" best known locally for a 2008 hunger strike aimed at persuading San Jose officials to name a retail district "Little Saigon." More SJMN.

Jun 10, 2010: San Jose mayor breezes to re-election, council fights for 2 open seats. But Councilwoman Madison Nguyen, who last year handily defeated a recall attempt, seemed likely to face a November runoff against Minh Duong.

In Central San Jose's District 7, Nguyen was the only incumbent to draw well-funded opposition. Duong, a furniture store owner, enjoyed backing from the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce. Patrick Phu Le, a pharmacy manager, lent heavily toward a campaign aimed chiefly at Vietnamese voters. Vietnam Nguyen, a recreation program specialist, raised no campaign money, and Rudy Rodriguez, an insuranceagency specialist, largely self-financed his bid. More SJMN.

May 31, 2010: San Jose council race features echoes of 'Little Saigon' brouhaha. Accusations are flying as the only seriously contested race against a sitting San Jose City Council member heads into the home stretch. That movement spawned a lawsuit accusing Nguyen and other city officials of violating the state's open-meeting law and a recall vote that Nguyen survived by a 10-point margin last year. Rodriguez ran against Nguyen in 2005, when she defeated another Vietnamese-American candidate in a bitter campaign to become the city's first-ever council representative from that ethnic community. About one in 10 city residents is Vietnamese. More SJMN

Feb 14, 2010: Tet Festival launches San Jose's Lunar New Year celebration. It was Lunar New Year's Eve, which meant that throughout the first day of the 28th annual Tet Festival at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds on Saturday, everyone was eagerly awaiting the moon's appearance.

Families streamed into the fairgrounds all day under a surprisingly warm sun, dressed in brightly colored ao dai, traditional formal wear of the Vietnamese New Year celebration.This is the Year of the Tiger, or more precisely the white metal tiger. More SJMN.

Feb 8, 2010: Vietnamese community's Year of the Tiger celebration will go on despite tough times. Nothing brings people closer together than hard times. That includes San Jose's Vietnamese community, whose members have bickered over signs, politics, sponsors, festivals and parades. Some say that the recent global economic recession has actually revealed a silver lining on the road to organizing the 2010 Tet Festival at the Santa Clara County fairgrounds next weekend to celebrate the Lunar New Year. More SJMN.

Jan 30, 2010: San Jose police chief chooses Vietnamese-American as new deputy chief. At a time when relations between his department and the Vietnamese community are seriously strained, San Jose police Chief Rob Davis announced Friday that he has chosen a Vietnamese-American as one of his four deputy chiefs.

The appointment of Capt. Phan S. Ngo, who as a child was airlifted out of Saigon during the last days of the Vietnam War, is historic. He is not only the first Vietnamese American to serve as a deputy chief in San Jose, but he is believed to be the highest-ranking Vietnamese-American officer on any major U.S. police department. More SJMN.

Jan 12, 2010: Citing cyber attacks, Google threatens to pull out of China. Responding to a highly sophisticated cyberattack on opponents of the Chinese government, Google said Tuesday that it is no longer willing to operate a government-censored search engine in China — and may shut down its Chinese operations altogether.

Google's stunning announcement could cost the company billions of dollars in lost future revenues, since experts said it's unlikely the Chinese government — which broadly filters Web content and blocks access to social networking sites such as Facebook — will back down and open up what has been dubbed "the Great Firewall." More SJMN. The Washington Post. The New York Times.

Nov 11, 2009: Unique homecoming to Vietnam for US commander. DANANG, Vietnam -- On the day his side lost the Vietnam War, Hung Ba Le fled his homeland at the age of 5 in a fishing trawler crammed with 400 refugees. Thirty-four years later, he made an unlikely homecoming - as the commander of a U.S. Navy destroyer.

Le returned on the Lassen, an $800 million, 509-foot destroyer equipped with Tomahawk missiles and a crew of 300. The ship and the USS Blue Ridge, the command vessel for the U.S. Navy's 7th Fleet, are making the latest in a series of goodwill visits to Vietnam, which began in 2003 when the USS Vandergriff paid a port call to Ho Chi Minh City, the former Saigon. "I thought that one day I would return but I really didn't expect to be returning as the commander of a Navy warship," Le said after stepping ashore Saturday. "It's an incredible personal honor." More Washington Post. U.S. Officer Revisits His Past in Vietnam, The New York Times.

Oct 27, 2009: Cops' attorneys: Officers in video did nothing wrong. Speaking through his attorney, the officer who was captured on a cell phone video last month hitting an unarmed college student with a baton insisted Monday that the student was "responsible" for the violent confrontation because he combatively resisted the officer's orders.

"Mr. Ho is responsible for his conduct, and he is responsible for not taking lawful directives from a police officer," said Bowman. "He is being combative and noncompliant, and he raises the stakes of the game." The grainy video depicts the event as Siegel struck Ho, a math major from Vietnam, more than 10 times with a baton in the hallway of the house. Payne shocked Ho with a Taser gun. Ho does not appear to be combative in the video, although it does not record the entire interaction between Ho and the officers. More SJMN.

Oct 26, 2009: San Jose police officers caught on video using baton, Taser gun on suspect. A cell phone video shows San Jose police officers repeatedly using batons and a Taser gun on an unarmed San Jose State student, including at least one baton strike that appears to come after the man is handcuffed, as they took him into custody inside his home last month.

The confrontation arose as Phuong Ho, a 20-year-old math major from Ho Chi Minh City, was arrested on suspicion of assaulting another of his roommates. The video shows police standing over Ho in a hallway of his house for more than two minutes. During that time, one officer strikes Ho with a metal baton more than 10 times — at times swinging it with both hands — while another officer leans in and uses his Taser gun.

The Mercury News was unable to reach either officer seen using force during the incident, despite written requests sent both through department officials and their union. More SJMN.

Sep 12, 2008: Where newspapers thrive: Orange County's Little Saigon. The enclave is home to five papers catering to Vietnamese Americans' interests - and one of them just started up this summer. Despite the economy, all are doing well. In a dimly lighted warehouse at the end of an alleyway in Orange County's Little Saigon, five reporters sat side by side on mismatched chairs, talking on telephones and typing away on their keyboards. There was no air conditioning, and two large fans provided little relief from the muggy air.

This was the temporary home of Viet Herald Daily News, the newest paper to hit the stands in this ethnic enclave. At a time when most U.S. newspapers are struggling to survive, Vietnamese-language news media here are flourishing.

There are four other dailies and numerous weeklies and magazines to serve the county's roughly 150,000 Vietnamese Americans. There are also several Vietnamese television broadcasting substations, as well as Little Saigon Radio (KVNR-AM 1480) and Radio Bolsa and VNCR, which share time on KALI-FM (106.3). More LA. Times.

Sep 03, 2009: Westminster city councilman pleads guilty to DUI. Andy Quach sentenced to three years of informal probation, nine months of alcohol education and community service. Councilman Andy Quach this morning pleaded guilty to misdemeanor drunk driving charges stemming from an Aug. 2 traffic accident when he crashed his Mercedes S550 into a pole knocking out power to about 300 homes. Quach did not attend the hearing, but his attorney Bart Kasperowicz entered the guilty plea on the councilman's behalf. Commissioner Thomas Rees sentenced Quach to three years of informal probation, a nine-month alcohol education program, 10 days of Caltrans community service to be completed by Feb. 2, a $390 fine and various other fees and penalties. Quach did not return phone calls Wednesday. More OC Register.

Jul 18, 2009: Budget cuts raise concerns for future of Southeast Asian archive. UC Irvine's extensive collection preserves the stories of refugees, but researchers worry that cuts will hinder documentation of the evolving immigrant community. Researchers and academics from across the country, even from as far as Japan and Germany, have come to dig through UC Irvine's Southeast Asian Archive -- the only collection in the world that continues to document the transitions of refugees and immigrants from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to life in the United States. "This is part of a larger picture of public universities facing severe cutbacks," said Linda Vo, head of UC Irvine's Asian American Studies Department, who is also a member of the archive advisory board. "We are facing drastic cuts that are going to impact our libraries and collections in various ways."More LA Times.

Jun 30, 2009: Vietnamese American returns to homeland to help disabled. At age 15 in 1968, Do Van Du lost a leg and part of an arm while serving as a combat interpreter for the U.S. Special Forces near the Cambodian border. He moved to the United States in 1971 and became a successful software engineer and systems analyst. Then, seven years ago, Du returned to his homeland to help found a college-level program run by Catholic Relief Services to train disabled young people to be software engineers and tech workers — a first for Vietnam. More SJMN.

May 22, 2009: Tech-reliant Vietnam hit hard by downturn. HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — It's hard to see hints of an economic downturn on the horn-blaring streets of this commercial hub. High-end restaurants are overflowing, fashionably dressed young women fill chic stores, and everyone seems to be talking on cell phones while plowing motorbikes through roundabouts swarming with Honda scooters and SUV taxis. Vietnam's main stock market, after losing 66 percent last year, has been riding a seven-month high, up more than 20 percent this year. More SJMN.

May 20, 2009: Despite their success, Asians not rising to heights of Silicon Valley's corporate world. In Silicon Valley, "Asian" and "success" often seem synonymous. Asians lead all racial groups in levels of education and income, and they are a quarter or more of undergraduates at elite universities like Stanford and the University of California-Berkeley. Last week, the Census Bureau said Santa Clara County had the largest annual Asian population growth in the United States — for the third successive year.

But an eye-opening first-of-its-kind "census" of local executives shows that while Asians make up more than a third of the work force at some of Silicon Valley's biggest tech companies, they are far less prominent in the boardroom or the highest executive offices: Asians represent about 6 percent of board members and about 10 percent of corporate officers of the Bay Area's 25 largest companies. More SJMN.

May 1, 2009: Orange County's Vietnamese immigrants reflect on historic moment. Every April, as the anniversary of the communist takeover of their homeland approaches, they look back -- and try to make sure their descendants know and appreciate their history. Thirty-four years after tanks smashed through the gates of Saigon's Presidential Palace, marking a symbolic end to the Vietnam War, the bitter memories still burn among many of the refugees who live in Orange County's Little Saigon. LA Times.

Apr 20, 2009: Vietnamese man wins defamation case. OLYMPIA, Wash. A former South Vietnamese army lieutenant who fled after the communist takeover has been awarded $225,000 for defamation after being called a communist sympathizer. Turning aside defense warnings of damage to freedom of expression, a Thurston County Superior Court jury on Thursday found in favor of Duc Tan, 65.

It also awarded $85,000 to the Vietnamese Community of Thurston County, which he founded to help Vietnamese refugees and promote Vietnamese culture and traditions among immigrants. To find against defendants Norman Le, Phiet Nguyen, Dat Ho, Nga Pham and Nhan Tran, jurors had to find that they acted in "reckless disregard for the truth." The defendants made no immediate comment after the verdict. Testimony indicated about 60,000 Vietnamese-Americans live in Washington. Seattle Time.

Apr 15, 2009: Multinationals take a longer view of Vietnam. Vietnam's motivated workforce, stability and young population attracted investors. But companies found that many university graduates lacked the practical and technical training needed for careers with them.

By other measures, Vietnam's economy is faring better than most in the region. Thanks to a rise in trade of consumer goods, government spending on infrastructure and numerous plant openings in the past, the country's gross domestic product, or total economic output, is likely to grow by 5.5% this year. That would be the second highest in East Asia after China, according to the World Bank.

Businesses complain that, even after several years, workers still haven't finished the highway from Ho Chi Minh City's airport to downtown. Unlike China, relocation of families is painstakingly slow.

Nor does Vietnam have the depth of skilled labor that some thought. While young Vietnamese show a penchant for learning, universities tend to be heavily theoretical. Many of their graduates lack the practical and technical training needed for careers at multinational companies. More LA Times.

Cost of Iraq war will surpass Vietnam's by year's end. If Congress approves the latest funding request, as expected, the Iraq war will have cost about $694 billion, making it the second most expensive conflict in U.S. history behind World War II. Added to the amount spent through 2008, it would mean the Iraq war will have cost taxpayers a total of about $694 billion. By comparison, the Vietnam War cost $686 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars and World War II cost $4.1 trillion, according to a Congressional Research Service study completed last year. LA Times.

Vietnamese Americans take action against redbaiting. Some in Orange County's Little Saigon who have been labeled as communists, including a former school superintendent and the owner of a newspaper, are suing their accusers for slander and harassment. Being called a communist sympathizer is enough to ruin a reputation in Little Saigon.

In this staunchly anti-communist Vietnamese enclave in central Orange County, where the flag of fallen South Vietnam continues to wave, business owners, politicians and even pop singers know the label can spark street protests and damaging reports in the Vietnamese press. And in the past, those targeted have generally endured the attacks, knowing it would be futile to counter the accusations.

But now, some Vietnamese Americans -- including a former superintendent and the owner of the nation's oldest Vietnamese-language newspaper -- are pushing back by taking their accusers to court, suing for slander and harassment. More LA Times.

Mar 28, 2009: New UC admissions policy gives white students a better chance, angers Asian-American community. A new University of California admissions policy, adopted to increase campus diversity, could actually increase the number of white students on campuses while driving down the Asian population.

Now angry Asian-American community leaders and educators are attacking the policy as ill-conceived, poorly publicized and discriminatory."It's affirmative action for whites," said UC-Berkeley professor Ling-chi Wang. "I'm really outraged "... and profoundly disappointed with the institution." More SJMN.

Mar 5, 2009: Recall message failed to resonate beyond Nguyen's foes. A host of factors helped San Jose City Councilwoman Madison Nguyen handily fend off Tuesday's recall attempt — more money, support from the city's political institutions and division within the city's Vietnamese-American community, to name a few.

But when Tuesday's votes were tallied, the 5,696 who backed the recall barely surpassed the number who signed the petition. Nguyen garnered 7,083 votes to keep her in office, about as many as the 7,179 who backed her unopposed 2006 re-election."This did not go beyond the boundaries of a small group of people who were quite vocal but nonetheless small in numbers," said San Jose State University political science Professor Larry Gerston.

Ballot returns suggest turnout was highest among the district's Vietnamese, who comprise about a third of its residents. Of the 5,698 ballots issued in Vietnamese, 4,067 were returned, said Elma Rosas, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters. But that number was dwarfed by the 6,061 English-language ballots returned — about half of the 12,553 issued. Of the 1,591 ballots issued in Spanish, Chinese or Tagalog, fewer than half were returned. More SJMN.

Mar 4, 2009: San Jose Councilwoman Madison Nguyen survives bitter recall attempt. In a hard-fought display of political tenacity, San Jose Councilwoman Madison Nguyen on Tuesday triumphed against a fervent recall effort — born from outrage over a shopping district's name — that pitted her against many in the Vietnamese community who first elected her three years ago.

The stunning result was all but certain soon after the polls closed at 8 p.m., when the results of more than 9,500 votes cast in the weeks before Election Day were released. With all precincts counted a few hours later, and fewer than 1,200 late and provisional ballots left to tally today, voters had favored Nguyen by a wide 55 percent to 45 percent. More SJMN.

Mar 3, 2009: Polls are open for Nguyen recall. Polls opened on time at 7 a.m. and voters began casting ballots in the recall election of San Jose Councilwoman Madison Nguyen this morning. Elma Rosas, spokeswoman for the Santa Clara County registrar of voters, said as of noon she had no reports of irregular activity in the voting for the District 7 seat. "There's just not a lot going on,'' she said. But she said it was to early to assess if voting is heavy or light. It has been raining most of the day.

Nguyen would be just the second council member recalled in the past 50 years — and the first since Kathy Cole was bounced in 1994 after making racially insensitive comments. More SJMN.

Mar 2, 2009: Recall of San Jose Councilwoman Madison Nguyen hurtles into last days. Residents of San Jose's District 7 on Tuesday will decide a question asked just a handful of times in the city's long history: Should a sitting council member — Madison Nguyen, in this case — be removed from office?

Only once have voters said yes. For four other council members, the answer was a resounding "no." Now, with Election Day fast approaching— and as Nguyen's friends and foes brave wet, gray skies in their exhausting final push to turn out as many voters as possible — whether history winds up on Nguyen's side is very much an open question. But one thing is utterly certain:

Once the flurry of door-knocking and phone-banking subsides, the result — no matter which side prevails — will mark an end to one of the most contentious chapters in San Jose's recent political past. More SJMN.

Feb 24, 2009: 7,100 ballots already cast in race to recall San Jose councilwoman Nguyen. More than 7,100 absentee ballots had been turned in as of Monday, officials with the Santa Clara County registrar's office reported — a total approaching all the votes cast in each of the 2005 races that catapulted the city's first Vietnamese leader into office.With about 12,300 absentee ballots yet to be returned, that number will climb by Election Day. Turnout could reach as high as 40 percent of the district's 30,777 registered voters, the registrar's office said, an unusually high portion in a district where turnout typically has been low. More SJMN.

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