What's Happening in San Jose Vietnamese Community & Interested News:

Sept. 30, 1999: Clinton OKs pay raises for Congress, next president. WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Clinton today signed legislation doubling the next president's salary to $400,000 and giving members of Congress. The raises -- plus a 4.8 percent increase in federal civil servants' salaries -- were part of a $28 billion measure financing the Treasury Department and some smaller agencies for the fiscal year beginning Friday. The 3.4 percent boost for members of Congress would raise most members' pay to $141,300 beginning in January. Leaders earn more, topped by House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., who will make $181,400. Gore will also earn $181,400, while Cabinet secretaries will make $157,000. By law, federal judges would also be entitled to the same 3.4 percent increase, but Congress must approve that separately. pay increases of $4,600 or more. Full story SJMN.

Sept. 29, 1999: CIA into venture capital Agency sets up firm to foster high-tech companies. The CIA has chosen a veteran Silicon Valley software executive to head the effort, which has an office in Washington with eight employees and will have a second office in Silicon Valley. With a nod to nostalgia for the mythic gadget-laden spycraft of the James Bond era, the agency has named its new non-profit venture In-Q-It, in a reference to Major Boothroyd, a.k.a. Q, the master technologist whose basement laboratory develops advanced gadgets for the fictional British super-agent. It will be headed by Gilman Louie, an executive in the Hasbro toy company's online business group. The decision by the nation's spy agency to turn to Silicon Valley for technology assistance underscores the growing diversity of high-tech companies and the accelerated development of computer technologies. In-Q-It is being financed with $28 million appropriated last year by Congress as part of the CIA's budget, which is classified. The new company will seek out joint projects and investments in key technology areas the agency is interested in.

``There is a tremendous information explosion today,'' said John McMahon, former deputy director of the CIA and an In-Q-It board member. ``As a result, the agency was always one step behind. The agency got the idea that maybe what it needed was something that would not only appreciate its needs but be an umbilical cord that was plugged in to the brightest minds in the valley.'' Areas of concentration: The new company will supply venture capital in some cases, and in others it will hire contractors or partner with entrepreneurs in four areas: integrating Internet technology and applications into the CIA's work; developing new security and privacy technologies; nurturing data mining technologies to take better advantage of the agency's vast storehouses of records; and modernizing the agency's now-dated computer systems. Louie said that none of In-Q-It's work would be classified and that the organization would not be limited to the four major areas he outlined. He added that in contrast to many of its other activities, the agency was taking pains to make the activities of In-Q-It highly visible and public.

While In-Q-It will operate on a non-profit basis, Louie said his intention was to invest in such a way as to make the organization ultimately self-sustaining. Venture capitalists said Tuesday that the problem the CIA faces is a challenge faced every day by large organizations generally: attempting to keep up with the nimble pace of the valley's technology start-up companies. Louie is a lifelong computer gaming aficionado who a year ago sold Microprose, his Alameda-based computer gaming company, to Hasbro. He has been a well-known figure in the Silicon Valley software world since creating his first computer gaming company while he was a student at San Francisco State University in the early 1980s. Among the new company's board members are John Seeley Brown, director of Xerox Corp.'s Palo Alto Research Center; Lee Ault, director of Equifax Alex Brown; Stephen Friedman of Goldman Sachs; Norm Augustine, chairman of Lockheed Martin Corp., and William Perry, the former secretary of defense. Full story SJMN.

WESTMINSTER By LOUISE ROUG, (714) 966-5977. Mayor Frank Fry is hosting a fund-raising dinnerat the Parasol Restaurant at 6 p.m. Friday. A model of the mayor's project, a Vietnam War memorial, will be unveiled and its sculptor, Tuan Nguyen, will be at the event. The cost is $25 per person. Information: (714) 898-3311, Ext. 271. Reported by LA. Times.

Sept. 28, 1999: McCain Makes It Official -- He's Running. He stresses his military service to distinguish self from Bush. McCain, who has emerged as a credible challenger to Texas Gov. George W. Bush, implicitly drew a contrast between their life experiences, saying his ordeal in a Hanoi prison taught him ``both the blessing and the price of freedom'' and gave him the confidence to make his own judgments on issues of war and peace.  Bush has acknowledged needing tutelage on national security issues and, after questions about his service in the Texas Air National Guard during Vietnam, has been forced to deny that favoritism to his father, who was in Congress at the time, eased his way from Yale into that stateside unit. But mostly, McCain used his announcement speech to begin drawing a personal contrast with Bush, who leads the field in fund- raising and endorsements, in part because he is the son of the former president. Without mentioning Bush by name, McCain said, ``I don't begin this mission with any sense of entitlement.'' And he said America needs ``the service of all of our children, not just the sons and daughters of a privileged elite.''

In Phoenix, Ariz., Quayle, his voice firm but his eyes glistening, bid farewell yesterday to a national political career that has made him a household name -- and occasionally a household laughingstock -- for more than a decade, announcing that he was abandoning his quest for the Republican presidential nomination for lack of money and support. Full story SF Chronical.

Sept. 25, 1999: Agents: High-tech exec had low-tech methods. Silicon Valley patent lawyer and CEO Michael Rostoker may be the latest high-tech figure accused of scouring the underground for sex with underage girls, but the method authorities portray is decidedly low-tech and old-fashioned -- using wealth to reach into a poor Asian nation for a sex partner. In fact, law-enforcement officials remain more concerned with online predators using the Internet to find minors for sex, and with the exploitation of young girls in the international sex-slave trade. Far more common are cases involving Americans, Europeans and others who travel to some Asian and Latin American countries where sex with young prostitutes is readily available. Probably the most high-profile case is that of the late DHL Express co-founder Larry Hillblom. After years of legal wrangling, at least four children fathered by Hillblom with underage prostitutes in Vietnam, Guam and elsewhere in Asia are expected to receive a share of his estate, estimated to be worth as much as $4 billion.

``This is kind of an unusual case,'' said Virginia Tice, spokeswoman for the Immigration and Naturalization Service's Western region. ``What we see more commonly, rather than one-on-one arrangements, are situations where women are smuggled in by crime syndicates and work as prostitutes to pay off a debt. Dressed in county jail garb, Rostoker, 41, appeared in San Jose federal court Friday for a detention hearing. U.S. Magistrate Judge Patricia Trumbull, over the government's objections, ordered Rostoker released on a $2 million bond, much of which will be backed up by the worth of his $1.5 million Boulder Creek house. Rostoker has been charged with illegally traveling to a foreign country to have sex with a minor. Court papers filed by prosecutors allege that Rostoker arranged to pay the girl's family at least $150,000 to permit him to have sex with her, marry her and bring her to the United States. The papers also allege Rostoker was arranging to have her birth records altered to make the girl appear 18. Palo Alto attorney Tom Nolan, who represents Rostoker, was tight-lipped about the case after Friday's hearing, saying only that the girl was ``(Rostoker's) wife.'' Rostoker has not yet entered a plea but is scheduled to appear again in court in a few weeks.

Dat Nguyen, executive director of the Vietnamese American Council in San Jose, said he hoped the Vietnamese Embassy would investigate the case and try to prevent similar pacts in the future. ``In Vietnam, before the Communists took over, it was illegal,'' Nguyen said. ``And now, I believe it is (illegal). She's underage anywhere.''

Rostoker is president and CEO of Microelectronics Research Inc., the San Jose-based semiconductor subsidiary of Kawasaki Group. He apparently is well-known in the patent and technology field, with blue chip credentials listed on a Stanford University Web site. He also is the third valley executive in recent weeks to be charged in a sex scandal involving a teen. Last week, prominent Infoseek Corp. executive Patrick Naughton was arrested in Santa Monica in an undercover FBI sting operation; Naughton was attempting to meet what he thought was a 13-year-old girl he'd allegedly been courting in a chat room.

The chat-room partner turned out to be an FBI agent. And last month, authorities working another sting arrested William Michael Bowles, 50, who went to a Sacramento shopping mall allegedly to contact a teenage boy he met on the Web. Bowles was chairman of the board and founder of IBeam, a Sunnyvale Webcasting company, and the youth he allegedly traveled to Sacramento to meet was in fact a sheriff's deputy. A man who identified himself as ``Edward'' and a friend of Cole's told the Mercury News Friday that he has helped Cole translate letters from an American lawyer who wanted to meet girls in Vietnam. Edward said he believed the lawyer was Rostoker. Full story SJMN.

Sept. 24, 1999: Mourning Raisa Gorbachev. She gets respect denied earlier. MOSCOW (AP) -- Several thousand Russians paid their last respects Wednesday to Raisa Gorbachev --and some also asked forgiveness for a nation that reviled her while she lived for being the antithesis of  the typical Soviet leader's wife. A solemn procession for the wife of former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev lined up outside the Russian Culture Fund, which she founded. Mourners  waited more than an hour to lay flowers at the foot of her coffin, which was heaped with blossoms. The mourning ceremony was scheduled to last five hours, but Mikhail Gorbachev decided to extend it when the flow of people showed no sign of abating. ``That love and loyalty was unbelievable -- worthy of Romeo and Juliet,'' said Lyudmila Anis, an entrepreneur from Moscow. Gorbachev had been by his wife's bedside almost around the clock for the nearly two months she was hospitalized in Münster, Germany. A memorial service was set for today, to be followed by burial in Moscow's Novodevichye Cemetery, where many of Russia's cultural and political figures are interred. Born Raisa Titarenko in 1932, Gorbachev is survived by her husband, a daughter, two granddaughters and a younger sister. Full story SJMN.

Sept. 22, 1999: Westminster. The City Council is trying to get two Vietnamese groups together to discuss having one unified Tet parade rather than two celebrations. The city recently received two parade applications, one from the TET Parade Foundation for Feb. 6, and one from the Vietnamese Community of Southern California to conduct the festival Feb. 5.  The council will decide whether to grant the permits at its Tuesday meeting. Tet Nguyen Dan, or Tet, is the Vietnamese celebration of the Lunar New Year. Observing the arrival of spring, it is the most important cultural and religious holiday for Vietnamese Americans. Reported by LA. Time.

EARTHQUAKE IN TAIWAN. `Pulling the dead out one by one' Rescue: At least 1,712 dead and 4,000 injured; more than 100,000 are homeless. By Valerie Reitman Los Angeles Times. More than 24 hours after the magnitude 7.6 quake violently shook awake many of this island's 22 million residents, about 2,700 people were believed to be trapped in the rubble and more than 4,000 were injured and 156 still missing. Some reports said more than 100,000 people were left homeless. Rescue efforts in one of the island's worst-hit areas -- the mountainous Nantou County epicenter, about 90 miles south of Taipei -- were hampered by the destruction of a bridge, which left relief efforts largely dependent on helicopters. Full story SJMN.

Sept. 21, 1999: Westminster Councilman Wins $8,500 From Political Foes. Courts: Two who allegedly organized protests at Tony Lam's restaurant are ordered to pay part of his legal fees. Lam filed a lawsuit in March, accusing political opponents Ky Ngo and Xuan Dang of disrupting his business during the 73-day picket, said Lam's attorney, Edward Susolik. Ngo allegedly organized the protest, while Dang, who is Lam's landlord, allowed protesters to use his premises to launch the demonstrations outside Lam's Vietnamese restaurant, he said.  The defendants filed a motion arguing that Lam's lawsuit against them was likely to fail and asked that it be dismissed, Susolik said. But Orange County Superior Court Judge Robert Monarch noted that Lam already had succeeded in obtaining two temporary restraining orders and an injunction against Ngo and Dang and found the motion frivolous, the attorney said. Lam said the ordeal has cost him more than $80,000--and emotional stress.  Although contributors at a recent fund-raiser gave him $30,000 toward his legal fees, Lam said he is still struggling financially. The members of Westminster's City Council, including Lam, were advised by the city attorney not to take a public position on the issue for liability reasons. Full story LA. Time.

Sept. 20, 1999: Raisa Gorbachev dies of leukemia. Former professor, 67, roused admiration, jealousy as wife of last Soviet leader. MOSCOW (AP) -- Raisa Gorbachev, wife of the last Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev, died Monday after a battle with leukemia, the Gorbachev Foundation said. She was 67. Raisa Gorbachev died in a hospital in Muenster, Germany, hospital at 5 a.m. today, said a spokesman from the Gorbachev Foundation in Moscow. She had been at the Muenster University Clinic since July 25. She originally underwent chemotherapy and had shown some improvement, but her condition worsened in recent days, doctors said. Mikhail Gorbachev stayed in Muenster to be near his wife throughout her illness.

Bright, slim, fashionable and outspoken, Raisa Gorbachev was the very antithesis of the typical Soviet leader's wife. With the sole exception of Vladimir Lenin's wife, Nadezhda Krupskaya, she was the only Kremlin wife ever to carve out a public role for herself -- something few Russians ever accepted. A former philosophy instructor, she charmed Western audiences with her intellect, poise and designer clothes. ``We were bound first of all by our marriage, but also by our common views on life,'' Gorbachev wrote. ``We both preached the principle of equality.

We shared our common cares and helped each other always and in everything.'' Raisa Maksimovna Titorenko was born Jan. 5, 1932, in southern Siberia, and met Gorbachev while both were students at Moscow State University. She studied sociology; he studied law. The two were married in September 1953, and moved to Gorbachev's home region of Stavropol in southern Russia when he graduated in 1955. Raisa Gorbachev taught Marxist-Leninist philosophy in Stavropol, and later took a job as a lecturer at her alma mater, Moscow State, when her husband returned to Moscow as a rising Communist Party official. She gave up her job when Gorbachev became Communist Party chief in 1985. Raisa Gorbachev never fully adjusted to life as the wife of a Soviet leader. ``She was never quite comfortable among the `Kremlin wives,' '' her husband wrote.

But she never let that stop her from exercising her role as her husband's No. 1 adviser. Describing the intense preparations for a Communist Party congress in 1986, Gorbachev wrote: ``Raisa Maksimovna was there practically the whole time, listening to our discussions and participating in them. Her experience in social research, her work with university youth, and simply her knowledge of everyday life and female intuition, proved to be useful.'' Later, after Gorbachev had lost his position in the collapse of the Soviet Union, she conceded that their lives had become ``a bit more gloomy.'' In 1996, she told a Russian newspaper that she had begun selling off her wardrobe of evening dresses because she no longer needed them. Full story SJMN.

Sept. 19, 1999: Vietnamese vote straysfrom GOP. Newcomers show less party loyalty. Because of their staunch anti-communism and unswerving loyalty to the Republican Party, Vietnamese refugees have long been dubbed the ``Cuban-Americans of California.'' But a new analysis of California voter registration data has uncovered a striking trend: Vietnamese-Americans are beginning to abandon the GOP in favor of the Democratic Party or no party at all. In Santa Clara County, home to the second-largest Vietnamese emigre community in the country, more new Vietnamese-American voters registered as Democrats than Republicans in the past three years, says American Data Management Inc., a Santa Clara firm that sells voter-registration data to political campaigns nationwide. Last year, 33 percent of new Vietnamese-American voters in the county registered Democratic vs. 27.9 percent Republican.

That contrasts sharply with the early 1990s, when there were three Vietnamese-American Republicans registered to vote for every Democrat. Political analysts attribute the trend to two main reasons: the growing assimilation of Vietnamese- and Chinese-Americans, and a perceived ``anti-immigrant'' GOP attitude that began with former Gov. Pete Wilson's push to pass Proposition 187, the 1994 ballot initiative that sought to cut off public benefits to illegal immigrants. The measure fueled a national debate on immigration and resulted in federal legislation two years later that cut off most public aid to legal immigrants who weren't yet citizens. The trend has significant political ramifications. If it continues, the Asian-American vote could become another large Democratic bloc of minority voters, as are Latinos and African-Americans.

Until now, Japanese-Americans, Filipino-Americans and Korean-Americans have voted Democratic -- only to be ``canceled out'' by Vietnamese-Americans and Chinese-Americans voting Republican. Asian-Americans make up 3.5 percent of California's registered voters, but that percentage is growing rapidly as immigrants become citizens. In Santa Clara County, Asian-Americans already represent 9 percent of voters. Bob Mulholland, campaign adviser to the California Democratic Party, said party officials launched a plan to attract voters like Vu in 1992, when candidate Bill Clinton met with Vietnamese-American leaders in Orange County's Little Saigon. Lee said most Asian-American voters are moderates at heart, one reason so many Chinese- and Vietnamese-Americans decline to state a party preference. But Mulholland contends that more Asian-Americans will continue turning away from a party they see as led by ``mostly white, older fellows who are affluent and a little bit selfish.'' Full story SJMN.

Sept. 18, 1999: Korean community cautiously optimistic on trade move. REACTION: But some condemn the easing of restrictions as a form of capitulation. Euiwon Chough, chairman of the Orange County Korean Chamber of Commerce governmental relations and outreach committee, said any change in trade rules should be carefully coordinated with the South Korean government, but hoped the new move might relieve tensions on the divided Korean Peninsula. "We would all welcome that," Chough said. Washington's decision to ease strict trade, banking and travel restrictions against North Korea is the most significant gesture toward the communist government since the end of the Korean War in 1953. In return, North Korea has pledged to forgo testing long-range missiles. Ho Chung, the Korean-American mayor pro tem of Garden Grove, took a harsher line, calling the deal a kind of appeasement. "The North is desperate. They need outside    assistance, money, food, medical supplies, everything," Chung said. "The agreement not to develop long-range missiles is part of their game, just like when they agreed not to develop (a nuclear weapons capacity)." Full story OC. Register.

Poll: Hispanics pro-Democratic. WASHINGTON — Seventy percent of Hispanics eligible to vote in 2000 say they will go to the polls. And by an overwhelming margin they say they will vote Democratic in the presidential and congressional elections. "They see Democrats as fundamentally with them on the issues and Republicans as not," said Penn. He cited Hispanic opposition to the GOP tax-cut proposal and findings that show Hispanics trust Democrats to do the better job. The survey was taken Sept. 2-9 in English and Spanish among Hispanics in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, Miami and Houston. The margin of error was 4.4 percent. Full story OC. Register.

Sept. 15, 1999: Hispanics, Asians account for almost all O.C. growth CENSUS: Together they make up 41.8% of the county's inhabitants. The county now has more than 1.1 million Hispanic and Asian residents, and demographers predict that by 2005 the county will have a minority majority. Orange County ranks fifth among the nation's 3,000 counties in number of Hispanics. It's third for Asians, behind Los Angeles County and Honolulu, Hawaii. The Hispanic population jumped by about 37 percent to 775,280 from 1990 to 1998. The Asian population climbed by about 43 percent to 361,200. Nationwide, the trend in Hispanic and Asian populations is similar. The Hispanic population increased from 22.4 million in 1990 to 30.3 million in 1998, a gain of 35 percent. The Asian and Pacific Islander population increased from 7 million in 1990 to 10.5 million in 1998, a gain of 40.8 percent. Full story OC. Register.

Diversity is part of growth POPULATION: Hispanic and Asian leaders know demographic changes from the inside. "For years, the Asian community, as well as the Latino community, has known that the numbers are growing. It hasn't been subtle," said Pena, a Santa Ana businessman. "Many people are fearful of that diversity, of people being different," Reyna said. "What a missed opportunity. The world comes to you, right here in Orange County, and then we are afraid of exploring it." "The real impact is in that the growth of those populations are really accounting for much of the county's growth," Gayk said. The population makeup changes will not result in immediate political power or representation changes. "For the most part those increases are going to have impact down the line," said Don Nakanishi, director of UCLA's Asian American Studies Center. "It translates into potential voters," he added. Full story OC. Register.

Colleagues come to Lam's aid. POLITICS: Elected officials find themselves vulnerable to suits and protests even as they execute public policy. Some Orange County elected officials say they understand Westminster City Councilman Tony Lam's dilemma. Lam followed the city attorney's advice to all council members to stay away from Little Saigon protests earlier this year. The result: protesters kicked around his effigy and picketed his restaurant. So far, it has cost him $80,000 in legal fees. Now Lam, deft at raising money, is calling in the big guns. He has sent out 500 invitations for a $100-per-person fund-raiser today at the Huntington Beach Waterfront Hilton. Orange County Supervisors Todd Spitzer and Chuck Smith, a former Westminster mayor, will be the hosts. Lam, the first Vietnamese-American elected city official in the nation, is finding that his predicament has won him the good will of politicians around the county. Smith, along with Lam and two other council members, was sued by firefighters twice when he was on the City Council. One case is on appeal; firefighters prevailed in the other. Lam, who raise his re-election campaign — more than any rival — expects to net $15,000 from the Hilton event. Full story OC. Register.

Sept. 14, 1999: Vietnam sentences members of S.J.-based movement. HANOI, Vietnam -- A Vietnamese court has convicted 24 people said to belong to a San Jose-based anti-communist political party. A court in the southern province of An Giang handed down prison sentences ranging from three to 20 years after a three-day trial, a court official said Monday. According to the verdict, all 24 defendants joined the People's Action Party of Vietnam when living in Cambodia. The party first burst into the news in December 1996 when, over the angry objections of the United Nations, Cambodia deported 19 party members to Vietnam. The People's Action Party again hit the headlines last March when Dr. Ngai Nguyen, a prominent Vietnamese-American cardiologist from San Jose who co-founded the party, was detained by authorities while on a teaching mission to Vietnam. The doctor said he had been brutally interrogated for three days about his anti-communist activities. On Monday, Nguyen called the charges ``ridiculous'' and said his group will appeal to U.S. State Department officials to help get the party members released. ``We are completely peaceful,'' he said. ``We've never talked about killing communists or overthrowing the government.'' Nguyen said the fact that Vietnam held a trial at all was ``a victory'' for his party because the government had effectively ``responded'' to a June 21 letter he wrote to Le Kha Phieu, secretary general of the Vietnamese Communist Party. Full story SJMN.

Sep. 13, 1999: Vietnam court jails 24 for subversive plot. HANOI, Sept 13 (Reuters) - A court in southern Vietnam has jailed 24 people for a combined 224 years for illegally entering  the country and plotting to overthrow the communist government, official media reported. Saigon Giai Phong (Saigon Liberation), in an article seen on  Monday, said at least five key people in the group had been sentenced to terms ranging from 18-20 years.  "After three days of trial on September 8, the criminal  court...has sentenced 24 defendants convicted of illegally  entering the country and opposing Vietnam's revolutionary  authorities," the paper said. It added that authorities began to make arrests from July  1997, but it was unclear why it had taken so long for some of  the defendants to be tried in court. "Investigators seized a lot of material evidence such as  cameras, mobile phones, code-books and other reactionary propoganda documents," the paper reported. Under Vietnam's "administrative detention" rules suspects  can be jailed without trial for up to two years. Despite requests, Vietnamese authorities have not given any  further details on the group, and government and police  officials in Cambodia have denied all knowledge of the incident. Full Story ABC News.

Sept. 12, 1999: WWF? NFL? No, it's a race to be mayor. Chaotic 3-way battle in San Francisco. Hide the children and warn the squeamish. It's time for San Franciscans to pick a new mayor. Unlike some of the bland campaigns of Silicon Valley, where there's enough polite discourse to lull the hyperactive into a gentle snooze, the San Francisco mayor's race among front-runners incumbent Willie Brown, former Mayor Frank Jordan and campaign guru Clint Reilly is starting with a chaotic bang. Old problems Beneath the din and looniness is the challenge of governing a fractious, almost ungovernable big city.

Facing the new mayor will be old problems of homelessness, an unreliable public transportation system and a scarcity of affordable homes. In addition, local newspapers have revealed an ongoing FBI probe into possible city corruption in the Housing Authority and Human Rights Commission. After all, his top contenders in the Nov. 2 election are Jordan, the former career cop he unseated from the mayor's office four years ago, and Reilly, the cutthroat campaign consultant who directed Jordan's failed bid in 1995. Only this time, with Jordan and Reilly competing for the same prize, they're whipsawing Willie Brown with their campaign attacks.

Also, the Chinese-American vote, which has been growing in influence in the city, will be splintered by the decision of San Francisco Supervisor Leland Yee not to run for office, despite efforts to draft him. `They all have baggage,'' said David Lee, executive director of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee. ``Brown's baggage is his years in the Assembly and his law clients, which include many of the special interests. Reilly's baggage is he has many of the same kind of clients.''  Jordan's baggage, alas, is his reputation as a nice guy who was in over his head. And, critics note, he's already had his try. Jordan also won most of the Asian-American vote, a sector with growing clout in the city.

Since then, both Brown and Reilly have invested a lot in courting that vote. The share of Asian-American voters in the city is about 18 percent, said Lee, up from about ``10 or 11 percent five or six years ago.'' Some don't see much choice. ``All of the three major choices have their own baggage,'' said Lee. ``Who do you hold your nose and vote for?''.Full story SJMN

Sept. 11, 1999: Embattled anti-communist Little Saigon leader atacked. WESTMINSTER — A man who came under fire after collecting thousands of dollars in donations during demonstrations in Little Saigon was assaulted Friday, police said. Tuan Anh Ho, leader of the Committee of Just Cause for Free Vietnam, was taken by an employee of his sign shop to Garden Grove Hospital, where he was treated and released. Ho was kicked in the stomach and groin about 9:20     a.m. as he stood outside his shop on Moran Street and snapped photos of protesters and their signs, said Westminster police Sgt. Darrick Vincent. Tho Ngoc Pham, 41, and Khoi Vo, 70, both of Westminster, were arrested on suspicion of assault and battery, Vincent said. Ho said he was taking the photos for evidence in any future lawsuits. Ho has been criticized by some community members who said he misused about $265,000 collected after this year's 53-day Little Saigon protests. Pickets began to rally in front of Ho's shop after he denied misusing the funds, declined to disclose Just Cause's books and closed escrow on a $311,000 building last month. Full story OC. Register.

Sept. 10, 1999: S.J. council dash for cash begins. With term limits set to end the careers of four San Jose City Council members, would-be replacements swarmed to post offices Thursday to send letters soliciting campaign donations on the first day they were legally allowed to do so. Pat Dando, the incumbent in District 10 (Almaden Valley), is the only council member eligible to run for another term. The 2000 elections are particularly important for Mayor Ron Gonzales, who is in his first year in office. Gonzales has endorsed a candidate in just one of the open council races -- San Jose/Evergreen Community College District Trustee Ken Yeager in District 6 (Willow Glen/Rose Garden). In South San Jose, development plans for Coyote Valley -- including a controversial proposal for a new power plant -- will serve as a backdrop for the District 2 (Santa Teresa) race. Maria Ferrer, a member of the Santa Clara County Board of Education, said supporters would be at her house Thursday night to help her prepare 2,000 solicitations.

In District 4 (Berryessa/Alviso), attorney Chuck Reed has the backing of Councilwoman Margie Matthews, seven other council members and a daunting list of politicians and business and community leaders. Despite Reed's early start, the race has attracted at least three other candidates. They include Kansen Chu, owner of the Ocean Harbor restaurant who hopes to become the city's first Asian-born councilman in part by tapping into Berryessa's huge Asian population, estimated now at more than 40 percent. Also expected in the race are  J. Manuel Herrera, an East Side Union High School District trustee, and Jim Canova, a Santa Clara Unified School District trustee. Canova lives in far north San Jose, which is part of the Santa Clara school district. In the fast-growing District 8 (Evergreen), retiring Councilwoman Alice Woody has endorsed Eddie Garcia, a former aide to Alvarado, as her replacement.

Garcia mailed 800 letters Thursday urging supporters to help him meet his fundraising goal by the Sept. 30 deadline for disclosing campaign contributions. His opponents include David Cortese, an East Side Union High School District trustee, and Maria Fuentes, who sits on the community college board with Yeager. Patricia Martinez-Roach, who is on the high school board, also may enter the race.Full story SJMN.

Sept. 8, 1999: Forsaken site ushers U.S. back. Consulate dedicated in Ho Chi Minh City. In the heart of the old Saigon, on the site where the American ambassador fled in a helicopter from his embassy roof 24 years ago, a new U.S. Consulate was dedicated Tuesday, a symbol of a new but unsure relationship of old enemies trying to be friends. The new beige-and-green building is modest compared with the multistoried concrete block that was a nerve center for the Vietnam War. The old compound was demolished last year. Instead of dealing with body counts and B-52 bombing sorties, the consulate is generally expected to grant 25,000 immigrant and 150,000 visitors' visas a year, making it one of the busiest posts in the world. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in Ho Chi Minh City for the formal commissioning of the consulate, spoke of the changing dynamic between the United States and Vietnam, still cocooned by an orthodox Communist Party and struggling to emerge on the economic stage. The two top American diplomats in Vietnam fought here. Ambassador Pete Peterson, a former Navy pilot, spent 6 1/2 years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi, where the American Embassy is now situated. The consul general in Ho Chi Minh City, Charles Ray, served two tours as an Army officer in the war. They are both big boosters of Vietnam and contend that the emotions of the war should be replaced by closer political and economic ties. But a ceremony on the tarmac of Hanoi International Airport on Tuesday morning was a reminder that the legacy of the conflict is still very much alive. Full story SJMN.

Sept. 6, 1999: Albright to meet with Viet leaders. U.S. seeks to free up trade and financing. But she does not expect that any of the agreements will be ready for signing during her two-day visit, which follows an intensive five-day tour of the Middle East, a senior U.S. official said en route from Israel. U.S. officials said last week that negotiators had hammered out the final details and were awaiting Hanoi's approval. The financing deal requires Hanoi to provide sovereign guarantees to the U.S. Export-Import Bank, which in turn would provide export credit insurance, loan guarantees and loans to support exports to Vietnam's public sector. Other agreements cover cooperation in the war against drugs, airline code-sharing between Vietnam Airlines and a U.S. carrier, and cooperation in science and technology. Albright will have meetings today with Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai, Foreign Minister Nguyen Manh Cam and the secretary general of the Communist Party, Le Kha Phieu. But Washington says it is still concerned at the government's human rights record under the one-party system. ``Secretary Albright will be raising this, as well as issues of religious freedom,'' the U.S. official said. Full story SJMN.

Freed of Politics, State High Court Is Showing Its Independence. Displaying a fierce independent streak, the justices have become an elusive group, hard to peg as liberal or conservative.  Lawyers say they side with consumers as often as big business, rule for employees as well as management and refuse to be a rubber stamp for prosecutors or defense lawyers. Thirteen years after voters ousted Chief Justice Rose Bird and two other liberal justices, legal experts say the court is no longer shadowed by politics. With four justices having cruised to re-election last November, a new, confident court is expected to decide risky cases that set national precedents. In the past two months, the justices have struck down the Indian gaming initiative and given judges the unprecedented power to ban racial slurs in the workplace. They were the first court in the nation to rule that reporters have a constitutional right to attend civil trials. And they limited the scope of Proposition 213, the 1996 uninsured motorist initiative, by allowing suits against car manufacturers for design defects and lawsuits brought by the heirs of an uninsured motorist who was killed.  On the criminal side, the justices limited the reach of the ``three strikes'' sentencing law but then ex panded the powers of police to search homes without a warrant and allowed suspected child molesters to be prosecuted decades after the alleged crime. Full story SF Chronical