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

Oct. 31, 2000: Little Saigon raises money for homeland. CONCERT: As in years past, the event's proceeds will go to help hundreds of flood victims in Vietnam.

Vietnam suffers from monsoon-induced floods every year, and Little Saigon groups have rallied like this throughout the past decade. But this year's Mekong Delta floods are the worst in 40 years, killing hundreds of people, most of them children, and displacing close to a million families in the central and southern regions.

Rain interrupts a Sunday fund-raising concert in Little Saigon to benefit victims of the worst floods in Vietnam in 40 years. More OC.Register.

Oct. 30, 2000: Close Race Opens Door to Quirky Result. Bush could win popular vote, but Gore could take electoral. These electoral quirks may not be the most likely outcome of next Tuesday's vote. But in the most unpredictable national election since 1932, they are well within the range of what is possible.

Mark DiCamillo, the director of the San Francisco-based Field Poll, looked at data from each state and concluded that if the election were held right now, Gore would probably win a total of 221 electoral votes as compared to 214 for Bush, with the remaining 103 up for grabs. It takes 270 electoral votes to win. ``If you took the average of the daily tracking polls, Bush is slightly ahead,'' DiCamillo said.``

If you look at the electoral map, Gore is slightly ahead.'' Theoretically, Bush too could win an electoral victory while losing the popular vote. But that scenario seems far less likely than Gore pulling off an electoral sleight-of-hand. More SF. Chronical.

Oct. 29, 2000: Vietnamese Voters Must Rush to Get Absentee Ballots. Printing and translation troubles have delayed mailings of the applications. Deadline for requests is Tuesday. Because of ill-timed printing and translation snafus, the County Registrar of Voters said Saturday that roughly 70,000 sample ballots, and attached absentee voter applications, were mailed late this month.

The problem, according to officials and campaign workers, is that the deadline for submitting absentee ballot applications is Tuesday. The delays have narrowed that window of opportunity for roughly 40,000 Spanish- and Vietnamese-speaking voters. In the most extreme cases, 4,000 to 5,000 Vietnamese-speaking voters may not receive their ballot translation and application until Monday, or even the day of or after the deadline. But County Registrar of Voters Rosalyn Lever said because of election law, no applications could be returned late. More LA. Times.

Vietnam Aid Efforts Becoming Tougher Sell. They are giving badges and passwords to volunteers who take coded donation boxes to Vietnamese businesses, escorted by other volunteers who videotape the transactions. And at a free concert today in Westminster, guards will be on hand as dozens of entertainers circulate donation boxes among the crowd in an effort to ensure security, said Steve Linh Nguyen, chairman of a committee organizing the fund-raiser.

Nguyen and others say the effort to demonstrate accountability stems from mounting public perception that previous donations for a host of causes may have benefited organizers or fallen into improper hands, especially those of Communist government officials in Vietnam. More LA. Times.

Oct. 27, 2000: From Spain to Little Saigon, a Vietnamese 'Carmen'. Based on the classic tale and Georges Bizet's opera, the show debuts Sunday with a 20-member all-Vietnamese cast at the Carpenter Performing Arts Center in Long Beach. It will be performed entirely in Vietnamese and organizers say this is the first time "Carmen" has been adapted for Vietnamese theater. The role of Carmen is a welcome departure from the typically innocent, demure roles Mai Phuong plays in traditional Vietnamese theater. More LA. Times.

Oct. 26, 2000: Sensitive agenda for trip to Hanoi. CLINTON'S REACHING OUT. MAY APPROACH APOLOGY. These are some of the politically charged questions that Clinton will face before he pays an official four-day visit to Vietnam in November. It will be the first such trip by a U.S. president since 1969, when Richard Nixon visited South Vietnam during the war. Clinton will be coming to Vietnam directly from the annual Asian-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, in Brunei this year.

He is expected to arrive in Hanoi the night of Nov. 16 or the morning of Nov. 17, spend two days in the capital, then make a stop in Hue, in central Vietnam, en route to Ho Chi Minh City. He is expected to spend two days in the former South Vietnamese capital -- once called Saigon -- which today serves as the country's main economic engine. More SJMN.

Oct. 24, 2000: California to raise minimum wage to $6.75. LABOR: The new rate, which takes effect Jan. 1, will be among the highest in the nation. Employers aren't happy. SACRAMENTO - California's minimum wage will rise $1 an hour, to $6.75, one of the highest in the nation, under a decision Monday by the state Industrial Welfare Commission. The commission voted 5-0 for the minimum-wage increase, which will take effect starting Jan. 1 with a 50-cent raise followed by another 50-cent raise Jan. 1, 2002. More OC. Register.

Oct. 20, 2000: Moderating and Moralizing, Lieberman Toils in the Center. WASHINGTON--Joe Lieberman is a man of the middle. For him it is a righteous place where he melds viewpoints to find a voice. He came to Washington at the start of a blood feud between Democrats and Republicans, and found allies among other Democrats who believed their survival lay at the political center.

From 1982 to 1988, Lieberman created a modern attorney general's office. He added 60 lawyers and filed class-action lawsuits on behalf of consumers. He sued Realtors, polluters and the insurance industry. Also, the self-described "people's lawyer" ran regular public service announcements: Bought a car that's a lemon? Call Joe Lieberman. Can't collect from a dead-beat dad? Call Joe Lieberman. More LA. Times.

Cheney a Man of Big but Limited Ambitions--the Perfect No. 2. That, say many who have worked with him, explains why Cheney is qualified to occupy the Oval Office himself but is a candidate for vice president instead. Before the 1996 presidential campaign, he strongly considered a run for the White House. But even backers concluded he lacked the proverbial "fire in the belly."

....Just more than a year later, Rumsfeld left the White House to become secretary of Defense and Cheney got the staff chief's job. He was only 34 years old. How he did it goes to the heart of Cheney's gifts: He was courteous, nonthreatening and a truly honest representative of differing views when a presidential decision was needed. He was a quick study and politically shrewd as well. More LA. Times.

Oct. 17, 2000: Presidential debates reach round three. CREDIBILITY BECOMES A FACTOR AS RACE GOES DOWN TO THE WIRE. WASHINGTON -- Vice President Al Gore and Texas Gov. George W. Bush meet tonight in St. Louis for their final debate, with Gore under pressure to sharpen his differences with Bush and convince voters that he is best equipped to keep the economy prospering. More SJMN.

Moderator Lehrer criticized for lack ofaggressiveness. Lehrer has been a target of intensifying criticism from partisans and analysts who complain that he did not sufficiently probe the candidates in the first two debates and was not aggressive in following up his questions. The result, these critics say, is that the nominees were let off the hook on vital matters and the debates meandered to the point where they verged on being downright tedious. More SJMN.

How affair with aide changed City Hall. S.J. Mayor in romance betrayed confidences. Standing before a battery of television cameras last month to admit an extramarital affair with a 25-year-old member of his staff, Mayor Ron Gonzales told San Jose the affair was wrong and insisted four times that it had ``ceased.''

But even as the mayor was promising to rebuild his relationship with the community, he and his aide were privately telling a very different story about their romance than the mayor told the public, sources said.

He shared with Nuñez details of personnel matters involving other staff members and solicited her opinion on how he handled them. He frequently forwarded his e-mail correspondence with other staff members and with members of the community to Nuñez.

Gonzales said last week he saw nothing inappropriate about sending Nuñez the e-mail. He said the same about almost all the e-mails he shared with Nuñez. The others, he said, he could not recall forwarding.

Gonzales also solicited Nuñez's advice on handling members of his staff. Nuñez also counseled the mayor about the responsibilities of a chief of staff. She advised him on how to keep his staff happy. More SJMN.
What the mayor said Sept. 7 about his affair.

Oct. 16, 2000: Firestone to recall 1.4 mln more tires. The additional tires, beyond the current recall of 6.5 million AT, ATX II and certain Wilderness tires, were identified by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) as having high separation rates, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said in a statement. More SJMN.

VIETNAMESE SUFFERING AS WATER RUSHES FROM ALL DIRECTIONS. Worst floods in seven decades. The waters have risen as high as 20 feet in some parts of the fertile flatland that makes up the southernmost tip of Vietnam. The waters began rumbling, churning and swelling in July, two months earlier than usual. And now it is spreading farther and longer than average.

By the time the deluge reached Vietnam, it had already traveled some 3,000 miles from high up in the Tibetan Plateau, across southern China and then through Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, gathering momentum along the way. More SJMN.

Oct. 15, 2000: How many people are there in China? The count is on. Six million census-takers, who will delve into issues as personal as whether families cook with gas and have flush toilets, have just a few weeks to knock on 350 million doors.

At the last count in 1990, China had 1,133,680,000 people. Many tens of millions have been added since then, swelling the population to an estimated 1.26 billion now. Census takers who will visit all of China's estimated 350 million households on Nov. 1-15 will ask how many family members there were at that freeze-frame in time. More Seattle P-I.

Oct. 14, 2000: USS Cole was ready for anything but this. WEAPONS: The destroyer had a vast arsenal and the most sophisticated radar. WASHINGTON - The USS Cole, a 505-foot U.S. Navy destroyer, was well-equipped to protect itself against almost anything - except the small, bomb-carrying boat the Navy says rammed into the Cole during a routine mooring.

The massive but speedy $1 billion USS Cole, powered by four jet engines similar to those used in airliners, is one of the Navy's most advanced warships, built around the high-tech Aegis combat system, which employs the latest anti-aircraft and anti-submarine technology. The Cole is among 101 U.S. Navy ships. More OC. Register.

S. Korean leader wins peace prize for seeking to bridge nations. KIM DAE JUNG HELPED DEMOCRATIZE HIS OWN COUNTRY. TOKYO -- In awarding the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday to South Korean President Kim Dae Jung, Norwegian authorities recognized a former political prisoner's persistent efforts to reconcile warring nations on the Korean Peninsula, as well as a lifetime devoted to bringing human rights and democracy to his own nation.

In 1998, Kim became the first opposition politician ever to become a freely elected leader of South Korea. The new president, a devout Roman Catholic, made forgiveness one of his first official actions: He pardoned members of the ruling party who had sentenced him to death while he was an opposition leader. More SJMN.

Oct. 8, 2000: Opening hands to Vietnam. In the first such poll of the Bay Area Vietnamese-American community, two-thirds say they believe that free trade will help human rights in Vietnam and that it will bring about reform in the Communist country .

Even more -- nearly 7 in 10 -- say free trade will be a boost to the Vietnamese economy. The July poll, conducted in Vietnamese and English, surveyed 607 Vietnamese adults in Santa Clara, Alameda and San Francisco counties, one of largest Vietnamese-American communities in the country -- .

While the Vietnamese community grows more pragmatic on the issue of trade, passions and emotions about an old symbol -- Ho Chi Minh, founder of communist Vietnam -- remain a charged subject. More SJMN.

Oct. 7, 2000: Eight-hour concert raises funds for flood victims in Vietnam. The concert was free and the idea was simple: Pass small cardboard boxes among a generous crowd, then fly a group of San Jose residents back to their native homeland to hand-deliver the donated money to flood victims.

Thrown together in just 10 days, the eight-hour concert at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds attracted an estimated 5,000 people within the first few hours.

The total amount of donations was not available Friday night. Organizers said they will take the money, minus the $12,000 it took to put on the event, to three villages including Dong Thap and An Giang in south Vietnam. More SJMN.

Oct. 5, 2000: Running mates'turn to debate. LIEBERMAN, CHENEY PREPARE TO HIGHLIGHT DIFFERENCES IN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES. But for both Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., and his Republican opponent, former Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, tonight's debate will provide probably their best chance to influence the outcome of what remains an exceptionally close contest. More SJMN.

Foreign-born grow numerically in census. CHINESE, INDIANS HAVE SHARPEST GAINS, REPORT SAYS. Asians make up more than half of the foreign-born people in the Bay Area, proportionately more than any other metro area in the country, according to a U.S. Census Bureau report released Wednesday.

Of the country's 25.8 million foreign-born residents in 1997, the most recent detailed data available, about a quarter, or 6.8 million were born in Asia; 13.1 million were born in Latin America, according to the report, which provides a general profile of the country's foreign-born population.

In the San Francisco-San Jose-Oakland area, 54.3 percent of the foreign-born are Asian. In the Los Angeles-Orange County area, 28.5 percent of the foreign-born are Asian; and in the Chicago-Gary area, 20.6 percent. More SJMN.

Oct. 3, 2000: First Presidential Debate Tonight. The first of three presidential debates between Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore airs tonight from 6-7:30 p.m. The debate will be at the University of Massachusetts-Boston and will be moderated by PBS' Jim Lehrer. ABC, CBS, CNN, C-SPAN, MSNBC, PBS and BAY TV will carry it live. It will be tape-delayed on KRON at 9 p.m. and 8 p.m. on KSBW.

Oct. 2, 2000: Olympic Medal Final Standings.
Vietnam win first Olympic medal. Vietnam won their first Olympic medal - a silver - after Tran Hieu Ngan fought her way into the final of the women's 57 kilograms class in taekwondo on Thursday but then lost to South Korea's Jung Jae-eun.

After Ngan won her semifinal match 9-6 against Virginia Lourens of the Netherlands 9-6, guaranteeing Vietnam at least the silver, she celebrated by hugging her opponent, kissing the floor and jumping into the arms of her coach.

Ngan, 26, is the fourth of eight children and comes from the small fishing town of Tuy Hoa, capital of the central coastal province of Phu Yen, where her family runs a sweet shop. The town is about 350 km (220 miles) northeast of Ho Chi Minh City. Ngan, who was recently engaged, took up taekwondo when she was 14 and won her first national championship in 1994. She also won an Asian tournament in 1998. More Sidney 2000.

Vietnam medallist's family lost for words. HANOI. The family of Vietnam's Tran Hieu Ngan were lost for words on Thursday when they learned she had just secured Vietnam's first-ever Olympic medal.

As live television coverage of the Games has not been shown in Vietnam, one of the world's poorer countries, Ngan's fiance and oldest sister heard of her silver medal win in the women's taekwondo from Reuters. "This is such a great honour for me to be the first Olympic medallist from Vietnam," she said. "This medal is for my country and all the people who live there."

Ngan, 26, is the fourth of eight children and a student at a sports college. She has been engaged to Phuong, who works for a state telecommunications firm, for two years and likes to sleep in her spare time. "She goes training all day long and when she's free, she sleeps to restore her energy," Phuong said.

Ngan took up taekwondo when she was 14 and won her first national championship in 1994. She also won an Asian tournament in 1998. Earlier this year she spent three months training in South Korea. More Sidney 2000.

Last Month September 2000 News