DR. CARLA YAMASHIRO 

Ecologic dentistry practice in Bonney Lake considers the whole patient

Dr. Carla Yamashiro (left) hams it up with patient Michelle Mui.

By Kai Curry

NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Dr. Carla Yamashiro, DDS, NMD, IBDM, of Ecologic Dentistry in Bonney Lake takes a natural and holistic approach to dental practice.

Voted Seattle Met Top Dentist in 2020, Yamashiro knew she wanted to be a dentist from an early age, yet took a circuitous route when those around her didn’t understand what she was meant for—but she did. Now, she helps clients who drive from miles away just to be able to take advantage of her innovative and caring services.

Yamashiro grew up in Hilo, Hawai’i, and now lives in Seattle. She remembers her childhood dentist who did not use anesthetic.

“He’d say, ‘steady now,’ and start drilling. It was torturous!” This introduction to dentistry fueled Yamashiro to look for a different and better approach. Like many, she was familiar with the “old way” of making fillings.

“When I heard the mercury amalgam being mixed in a machine called ‘the wiggle bug,’ I felt relieved because I knew the torture was soon to end.” And it was at that moment of pressing the mercury into her tooth that Yamashiro knew she wanted to be a dentist.

“It’s ironic that the act of placing mercury amalgam into teeth was the moment I wanted to be a dentist. And today, I am certified to safely remove it.”

At Ecologic Dentistry, their forward-thinking methodology is backed by scientific research and a desire to do right by their clients. They provide routine dental care—cleanings, x-rays, and the like—in the safest way possible, and also offer ground-breaking treatments that include removal of poisonous mercury fillings (and replacing them with a safer alternative) and jaw realignment. The latter can remedy a variety of ailments from tooth grinding and snoring to overbite/underbite.

“We don’t just have a mouth with teeth to be drilled and filled,” said Yamashiro. “We need to have an understanding that what we do and don’t do to our teeth affects our entire body and vice versa. When patients come to see me, my job isn’t to determine what we need to drill and fill. Rather, my job is to ask ‘why’ so that I can try to understand the root cause of your issue. Unless we know ‘why,’ then we are merely placing bandages on what might be a much deeper wound.”

Yamashiro’s high school counselor steered her away from her dream.

“She looked at my file and, without uttering a single word of advice, handed me a dental hygiene pamphlet. I took that to mean that I didn’t have what it took to be a dentist. Thus began my long-detoured journey.”

She went into secondary music education at the University of Hawai’i. But soon after, got back on track by working at a dental laboratory and as a dental assistant.

“I basically had to start all over.” She completed dental school, and also took further education in Integrative Biological Dental Medicine and Naturopathic Medicine, which she has been practicing since 2008.

see DENTISTRY on 12

“For many of the people who come before the court, this is their first stop in the legal system. I am applying my 25 years of legal experience and commitment to restorative justice to ensure it is their last.” - Adam

ENDORSED!

Voters would be well-served by returning Judge Adam Eisenberg to the bench. His work on effective interventions, particularly with domestic violence offenders, serves as a model for how best to balance public safety with second chances.

SELECT ENDORSEMENTS:

Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu and over 100 other judges, prosecutors, and public defenders, 32nd, 34th, 36th LD Democrats, LGBTQ Victory Fund, Teamsters Locals (Court Clerks)

“Exceptionally Well Qualified”

King Co. Bar Assoc. Joint Asian Evaluation Committee Washington Women Lawyers Latina/o Bar Assoc. Loren Miller Bar Assoc. Q-LAW (LGBTQ+) Bar Assoc.

Weekly Specials

Prices Valid November 2-8, 2022

Thin Sliced Kurobuta Berkshire Pork 9.99 lb

Liu Yi Shou Hot Pot Soup Base

Select Flavors. 200 g 2.99

Mizkan Goma Shabu

Sesame Sauce for Shabu Shabu. 8.4 oz 4.99

Shirakiku Premium Sanuki Udon

Frozen. 5 pc 3.99

Hokto Eryngii King Oyster Mushroom

6 oz 3.99 pkg

Shinshuichi Instant Miso Soup

Assorted Variety. 8 pk 2.99

We’re Hiring!

Learn more at uwajimaya.com/careers Spirit of Taiwan

Stinky Tofu

Frozen. Fermented Tofu. 1.2 kg 6.99

L&W Rice Sticks

16 oz 3.69

Tokon Sanriku Cut Wakame

Cut Dried Kelp. 15 g 2.99

Mishima Furikake

Assorted Variety. Rice Topping. 1.58-1.94 oz 3.29

CEO of election software firm held on ID info theft charges

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The founder and CEO of a software company targeted by election deniers was arrested on Oct. 11 on suspicion of stealing data on hundreds of Los Angeles County poll workers. Konnech Corporation’s Eugene Yu, 51, was arrested in Meridian Township in Michigan and held on suspicion of theft of personal identifying information, while computer hard drives and other “digital evidence” were seized by investigators from the county district attorney’s office, according to the office.

Local prosecutors will seek his extradition to California.

“We are continuing to ascertain the details of what we believe to be Mr. Yu’s wrongful detention by LA County authorities,“ Konnech said in a statement that ended: “Any LA County poll worker data that Konnech may have possessed was provided to it by LA County, and therefore could not have been `stolen’ as suggested.“

Konnech is a small company based in East Lansing, Michigan. In 2020, it won a five-year, $2.9 million contract with LA County for software to track election worker schedules, training, payroll, and communications, according to the county registrar-recorder/county clerk, Dean C. Logan.

Konnech was required to keep the data in the United States and only provide access to citizens and permanent residents but instead stored it on servers in the People’s Republic of China, the DA’s office said.

The DA’s office didn’t specify what specific information allegedly was taken. But officials said it only involved poll workers, not voting machines or vote counts and didn’t alter election results.

“But security in all aspects of any election is essential so that we all have full faith in the integrity of the election process,” District Attorney George Gascon said in a statement.

“With the [upcoming] mid-term General Election, our focus remains on ensuring the administration of this

election is not disrupted,” said a statement from Dean C. Logan, the LA County registrar-recorder/county clerk. There wasn’t any evidence that any election worker was bribed or extorted and an investigation was pending into whether any of the data went into inappropriate hands, the DA’s office said. Konnech previously said that all the data for its American customers were stored on servers in the United States, the New York Times reported. The paper reported that Konnech and Yu, who was born in China, became the target of claims by election conspiracy theorists that the company had secret ties to the Eugene Yu Chinese Communist Party and had supplied information on 2 million poll workers. There wasn’t any evidence to support those claims, but Yu received threats and went into hiding, the paper said. Konnech also has contracts with Allen County, Indiana, and DeKalb County in Georgia, the Times said. On its website, Konnech said it currently has 32 clients in North America. 

Key players in trial of J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thao, ex-cops charged in Floyd’s killing

By Amy Forliti

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

MINNEAPOLIS (AP)—Jury selection began Monday, Oct. 24, in the trial of two former Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s death. J. Alexander Kueng and Tou Thou are both charged with aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter.

Floyd, who was Black, died on May 25, 2020, after another former officer, Derek Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for about nine minutes while Floyd was handcuffed and pleading that he couldn’t breathe. Kueng knelt on Floyd’s back during the arrest, and Thou held bystanders back. Another officer, Thomas Lane, has pleaded guilty to a state charge and is not facing trial.

Among key figures for the trial:

The judge

Hennepin County Judge Peter Cahill handled Chauvin’s trial and is back on the bench for this one. Cahill started in the county public defender’s office in 1984 and worked for 10 years as a prosecutor, serving as top advisor to U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar when she was the county’s head prosecutor.

Cahill, a judge since 2007, is known for being decisive and direct. He allowed livestreaming of Chauvin’s trial because of immense public interest and COVID-19 limitations, saying at a national judicial conference recently that he thought if he hadn’t, the result was “never going to be accepted by the community.”

But cameras are typically not allowed in Minnesota courtrooms, and with COVID-19 restrictions loosening, he’s not permitting livestreaming this time.

Prosecution

Attorney General Keith Ellison led the Chauvin prosecution at the behest of Gov. Tim Walz, after civil rights advocates in the community said Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman didn’t have the trust of the Black community.

Ellison, the state’s first African American elected attorney general, previously served in Congress and worked as a defense attorney. He appeared in court at times during Chauvin’s trial, but was not part of the trial team.

Matthew Frank and Steven Schleicher, both of whom helped convict Chauvin, are back to lead

see FLOYD’S KILLING on 14

From left: J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao