VOL 37 NO 41 | OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

PRSRT STD U.S. Postage Paid Permit No. 746 Seattle, WA

VOL 37 NO 41 OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

FREE 36 YEARS YOUR VOICE

Hisashi Iwakuma Washington man gets and Ichiro Suzuki prison for overharvesting sea cucumbers

SEATTLE (AP) — The owner of a Washington seafood company was sentenced to two years in prison for overharvesting sea cucumbers and must pay $1.5 million in restitution — the second large bust of illegal sea cucumber trade in the U.S. West in just over a year.

Hoon Namkoong, 62, was also sentenced on

Sept. 28 to three years of post-prison supervision.

He pleaded guilty earlier this year in U.S. District Court in Seattle to underreporting the number of sea cucumbers he bought from tribal and nontribal fisheries in the Puget Sound by nearly 250,000

Edmonds Community College’s new president is ready to serve the community

By Jessica Kai Curry NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

■

see SEA CUCUMBERS on 16

Oregon adoptee’s DNA test leads to discovery of sister

By SAMANTHA SWINDLER THE OREGONIAN/ OREGONLIVE PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — On the night of March 23, 1984, a little boy was found crying on the steps outside the Yongsan Theatre in Seoul, South Korea. He was scooped up by the manager, a Mr. Hong, and

Screencap from YouTube video

Dr. Amit Singh started his post as president of Edmonds Community College (ECC) at the end of June 2018. Originally from northeastern India, he came to the Pacific Northwest via several other successful career stints in Ohio, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. He had never been to Washington prior to his interview for the college presidency — but he’s very glad he’s here now.

“I feel fortunate that I ended up in the Northwest, and at Edmonds Community College,” he said recently from his office in Lynnwood. “I love the community. I love the people. I love our college. There’s so much potential, and the college can do so much for this local community.”

Singh has his eye on several areas of development for the college. Even though he has been here a short while, he is savvy about the makeup of the college’s

Screencaps from YouTube video

Hisashi Iwakuma threw the ceremonial first pitch to Ichiro Suzuki at Safeco Field on Sept. 26, before a matchup between the Mariners and Athletics. Iwakuma is leaving the M’s to continue his career in Japan.

See THE LAYUP DRILL on page 8

see REUNITED on 15

Dr. Amit Singh

location and what is important for residents, and he wants to ensure that ECC appropriately responds to the needs of the students that it serves. Particularly, he realizes that the college should strive to align itself with the primary industries in the area, which are manufacturing (aerospace), medical equipment, and healthcare. While Singh understands that many graduates see SINGH on 12

Delta ends Hong Kong flights Cathay Pacific to pick up the route in 2019

By Staff NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY Delta has ended its only route service from the United States to Hong Kong, effective Oct. 4.

The airline previously operated six weekly flights between Seattle and Hong Kong — its only flight to Hong Kong.

Delta said this was a “difficult business decision,” and that Delta passengers can continue to reach Hong Kong from Seattle via Seoul Incheon on Korean Air,

which is their joint venture partner.

Meanwhile, Cathay Pacific Airways said it plans to start daily nonstop flights between Seattle and see DELTA on 3

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asianweekly northwest

2

36 YEARS

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

■ NAMES IN THE NEWS

Japan Airlines service to Sea-Tac in 2019

Photo by Assunta Ng

Photo provided by the Port of Seattle.

Hum Bows, Not Hot Dogs, 2nd edition

From left: Lance Lyttle, Sea-Tac Airport manager director, Port of Seattle Commissioner Ryan Calkins, Chikako Endo, JAL, Brad Tilden, Alaska Airlines CEO, Tadashi Fujita, Ex. VP Japan Airlines, Joe Mohan, VP Alliances and Partnerships, American Airlines, and Tom Norwalk, Visit Seattle CEO.

Photo by Assunta Ng

InterIm hosted a celebration of the second edition of the late Bob Santos’ ‘Hum Bows, Not Hot Dogs’ book on Sept.

25. The event, held at the Wing Luke Museum, included a reading of an added foreword from Sharon Tomiko Santos.

The Port of Seattle announced on Sept. 26 that Japan Airlines (JAL) will bring nonstop service beginning March 31, 2019 between Tokyo-Narita (NRT) and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. JAL previously served Sea-Tac with nonstop routes to Tokyo from 1983 to 1992.

“Along with our joint business partner, American Airlines, we look forward to welcoming more visitors to Asia for business or pleasure who will experience Japanese hospitality from the moment they step onboard the aircraft,” said Tadashi Fujita, Executive Vice President of Japan Airlines.

The flight schedule is subject to government approval.

Japan Airlines is the third airline to launch service to Tokyo-Narita from Sea-Tac Airport, joining ANA and Delta Air Lines. 

‘Hum Bows, Not Hot Dogs’ is an autobiography of Santos’ experience growing up in the Chinatown-International District and insights about activism, gentrification, and more.

Bob Santos’ ‘Hum Bows, Not Hot Dogs’ book can be found online at Amazon. 

The work of Korean-born, Seattle artist Eunice Kim was displayed from Sept. 7–29 at Davidson Galleries.

Internationally known for her signature dot-based imagery, Kim showcased an all-new body of work sourcing reclaimed wood as the material and inspiration.

When the artist and her husband tore down a dilapidated barn on their rural studio grounds, she fell instantly in

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Eunice Kim working on her creations.

Photos provided by CISC

From left: Tony Au, State Sen. Bob Hasegawa, and State Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos.

Dennis Lam

Rosa Leung

The Chinese Information and Service Center hosted a karaoke night at China Harbor on Sept. 23. Two-hundred people attended the event, which raised $20,000. 

asianweekly northwest

YOUR VOICE

■ COMMUNITY NEWS

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

■ NATIONAL NEWS

3

6th Annual API Investigation finds Maryland Candidates and culpable in death of player Issues Forum University president Wallace Loh apologizes

By DAVID GINSBURG

A coalition of Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community organizations will host the 6th annual API Candidates and Issues Forum on Oct. 11.

Established in 2012, the forum’s goal is to “provide an educational, nonpartisan forum for API civic engagement where electoral candidates and initiatives are treated fairly and provided with equal time to respond to questions on issues that are important to our API communities.” Initiatives and electoral races are considered for the forum when they affect API communities.

The forum will start at 6 p.m. with light dinner served starting at 5:30 p.m. at Asian Counseling and Referral Service at 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way South.  For nonpartisan information on

YOUR VOTE COUNTS the 2018 candidates and issues, please refer to the official King County Voter’s Pamphlet, which will be mailed out on Oct. 16.

For more information, go to kingcounty.gov/depts/elections/ how-to-vote/voters-pamphlet. aspx.

Ballot box locations are are listed at kingcounty.gov/depts/ elections/how-to-vote/ballots/ returning-my-ballot/ballot-dropboxes.aspx.

DELTA from 1 Hong Kong on April 1, 2019.

Cathay Pacific is also a partner with Alaska Airlines, and it has its own route network in Asia.

TOWSON, Md. (AP) — An independent investigation into the death of University of Maryland football player Jordan McNair has determined that trainers on the scene did not follow proper procedures after he collapsed on the field.

The report provided details of what happened and confirmed what university officials previously acknowledged.

McNair was hospitalized on May 29 after a team workout and died June 13. The family attorney said the cause of death was heatstroke.

Dr. Rod Walters, a former college athletic trainer and sports medicine consultant who led the investigation launched by the school following McNair’s death, said that it was 1 hour, 39 minutes between the time McNair collapsed and the departure of the ambulance from the campus.

“There was the failure to identify escalating symptoms associated with heat illness, including assessing vital signs, identifying the condition and aggressively treating the patient’s elevated core temperature,” Walters said. “No apparatus was used for prompt cooling of the patient. Inadequate cooling devices were used, such as cold towels, ice packs, etc.”

Flight 857 will depart Seattle at 1:05 a.m. Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday and land in Hong Kong 13 hours and 20 minutes later at 5:25 a.m. the next day.

Flight 858 is scheduled to leave Hong Kong at 11:55 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday,

Jordan McNair

Maryland athletic director Damon Evans acknowledged in August that “mistakes were made” by the training staff in the treatment of McNair, a 19-year-old sophomore offensive lineman.

University President Wallace Loh visited McNair’s parents to offer a personal apology for how the situation was handled.

Terrapins head coach DJ Durkin, who was not at the press conference, is on administrative leave while an unrelated external investigation into the culture of the football program is being conducted.

According to the report, Durkin was on the scene see MCNAIR on 12

landing 12 hours and five minutes later in Seattle at 9 p.m.  Staff can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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4

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

36 YEARS

■ NATIONAL NEWS

Amal Clooney: Pardon Reuters reporters jailed in Myanmar

By FOSTER KLUG ASSOCIATED PRESS UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Human Rights attorney Amal Clooney, who is representing two journalists from Reuters news agency sentenced to hard labor after they uncovered a military massacre, urged Myanmar leader and Nobel Peace laureate Aung San Suu Human Rights attorney Amal Kyi on Sept. 28 to immediClooney ately pardon the reporters and reverse a miscarriage of justice.

Clooney, speaking at a press freedom event at the United

Nations, sought to link the former iconic status of Suu Kyi as a human rights champion to the request for the release of Kyaw Soe Oo, 28, and Wa Lone, 32.

Clooney said the reporters were arrested in an attempt by Myanmar to keep Reuters from publishing a story on the extrajudicial killings of 10 Rohingya men and boys. She noted that Suu Kyi had once “allowed young people to hope for a free Myanmar that respected the rule of law.”

“She knows that mass murder is not a state secret and that exposing it doesn’t turn a journalist into a spy,” Clooney said of Suu Kyi. “She has said that one political prisoner is one too many, and so we’re hopeful that since these are the principles that she herself has espoused, she will step in and try to correct an injustice in this case.”

About 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh amid a brutal military campaign in Buddhist-

majority Myanmar. Myanmar’s army is accused of mass rape, killings and setting fire to thousands of homes in the aftermath of an August 2017 attack by Rohingya militants on security outposts.

“They should be worrying about whether or not they’re going to win the Pulitzer prize, not whether they can get out of prison any time before 2024,” Clooney said of the reporters. She said their families have asked the government for the pardon, which would have to be granted by the country’s president in consultation with Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi has rejected criticism over the show-trial conviction last month. “The case has been held in open court,” Suu Kyi said. “If anyone feels there has been a miscarriage of justice, I would like them to point it out.” see CLOONEY on 14

Feds investigate allegations of discrimination at Yale

SpaceX’s 1st traveler is Japanese fashion tycoon

By COLLIN BINKLEY ASSOCIATED PRESS

CHRISTOPHER WEBER ASSOCIATED PRESS

The Trump administration is opening an investigation into Yale University’s admissions practices following accusations that it discriminates against Asian-American applicants, officials said on Sept. 26.

It’s the latest in a series of federal inquiries taking aim at admissions practices used by the nation’s most selective colleges, and it comes less than a month after the Justice Department sided with an Asian American group that’s suing Harvard University over similar accusations.

The Yale investigation responds to a 2016 complaint from the New Jersey-based Asian

American Coalition for Education. In it, the group accuses Yale, Brown University and Dartmouth College of unfairly denying Asian Americans admission based on their race.

Education Department officials dismissed the complaints against Brown and Dartmouth but said they had enough information to investigate at Yale. In a letter to the coalition, they showed special interest in “a particular Asian American applicant’s experience applying to Yale.”

The coalition’s complaint notes that the percentage of Asian Americans at Yale and other Ivy League schools has declined even as they make up a growing share of see YALE on 16

LOS ANGELES (AP) — After announcing that he’ll take the first-ever commercial rocket trip around the moon, Yusaku Maezawa said he wants company for Yusaku Maezawa the weeklong journey. The Japanese billionaire said he plans to invite six to eight artists, architects, designers and other creative people to join him on board the SpaceX rocket “to inspire the dreamer in all of us.”

The Big Falcon Rocket is scheduled to make the trip in 2023, SpaceX founder Elon Musk announced at an event last month at its headquarters near Los Angeles.

Maezawa, 42, said he wants his guests for the lunar orbit “to see the moon up close, and the Earth in full view, and create work to reflect their experience.”

Musk said the entrepreneur, founder of Japan’s largest retail website and one of the country’s richest people, will pay “a lot of money” for the trip but declined to disclose the exact amount. Maezawa came to SpaceX with the idea for the group flight, Musk said.

“I did not want to have such a fantastic experience by myself,” said Maezawa, wearing a blue sports jacket over a white T-shirt printed with a work by the late painter Jean-Michel Basquiat. He said he often mused about what artists like Basquiat or Andy Warhol might have come up with if they’d traveled into space.

“I wish to create amazing works of art for humankind,” Maezawa said.

Maezawa didn’t immediately say who will be on his guest list for the spaceflight, but in response to a question from a reporter he said he’d consider inviting Musk.

“Maybe we’ll both be on it,” Musk said

with a smile.

Musk said the BFR is still in development and will make several unmanned test launches before it takes on passengers. The reusable 118-meter (387foot) rocket will have its own dedicated passenger ship, and its development is expected to cost about $5 billion, Musk said.

The mission will not involve a lunar landing.

The average distance from Earth to the moon is about 237,685 miles (382,500 kilometers). Astronauts last visited the moon during NASA’s Apollo program.

Twenty-four men flew to the moon from 1968 through 1972, and half of them made it to the lunar surface.

NASA is planning its own lunar flyby with a crew around 2023. The space agency also aims to build a staffed gateway near the moon during the 2020s.

The outpost would serve as a steppingoff point for the lunar surface, Mars and points beyond.

Maezawa, a former musician, founded the retail firm Start Today in 1998 and built it into one of Japan’s most successful companies. In 2012, he started the Tokyobased Contemporary Art Foundation to support young artists. He made headlines in 2016 when he paid more than $57 million at auction for an untitled work by Basquiat. A year later, he paid more than $110 million auction for another piece by the same artist.

Musk outlined a somewhat different SpaceX lunar mission last year. He said then that two people who know each other approached the company about a weeklong flight to the moon and back.

Musk did not name the clients last year or say how much they would pay.

That original mission would have used a Falcon Heavy rocket — the most powerful rocket flying today — and a Dragon crew capsule similar to the one NASA astronauts will use to fly to the see SPACEX on 14

asianweekly northwest

YOUR VOICE

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

■ WORLD NEWS

5

Honda recalls Accord, Insight vehicles for software problem The Tokyo-based automaker said that apart from the U.S. recall, Honda is recalling 14,000 vehicles in Canada, more than 6,000 vehicles in Germany and nearly 3,000 in South Korea for the same problem.

The software will be updated free of charge, the company said.

It said the rear camera display does not show the images properly when the driver shifts into rear in the affected vehicles, a problem that can be dangerous and does not comply with U.S. requirements. 

Tamaki, critic of US bases on Okinawa, wins election

By YURI KAGEYAMA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Denny Tamaki

TOKYO (AP) — Denny Tamaki, who campaigned criticizing the American military presence on the southwestern Japanese islands of Okinawa, won the election for governor on Sept. 30, defeating a ruling party-backed candidate pushing the status quo.

The race was to choose a successor to Takeshi Onaga, who died in August of pancreatic cancer. He wanted the bases off Okinawa.

Tamaki, a legislator who had pledged to continue

with Onaga’s “spirit,” thanked his supporters as his campaign office broke into a cheer and later began dancing Okinawa-style, after several major Japanese media polls, including Kyodo news service, declared him the winner.

“The strong feelings of Takeshi Onaga, risking his life to stop the construction of any more bases, helped bring this victory,” Tamaki told reporters.

He defeated Atsushi Sakima, a mayor who had argued that Okinawa should work with the national see TAMAKI on 15

Adultery verdict is latest progressive ruling by India court

By ASHOK SHARMA ASSOCIATED PRESS NEW DELHI (AP) — The chief justice of India’s Supreme Court has presided over a string of recent rulings that grant more rights to women, gay couples and religious minorities, challenging deeply conservative Indian society before he retired.

In the latest decision on Sept. 27, Chief Justice Dipak Misra and the rest of the five-member court struck down a 158-year-old law that treated adultery in certain cases as a criminal offense

punishable by up to five years in prison.

The court called the law, which did not allow wives to prosecute adulterous husbands, unconstitutional and noted that a “husband is not the master of woman.” Adultery can still be grounds for divorce in India, the verdict said, but a criminal penalty violated women’s protection to equal rights under the law.

The verdict was hailed by activists and left-of-center members of India’s Parliament.

American, Japanese win Nobel for cancer research

By JIM HEINTZ and DAVID KEYTON ASSOCIATED PRESS STOCKHOLM (AP) — Researchers from the United States and Japan won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Oct. 1 for discoveries that help the body marshal its cellular troops to attack invading cancers. One cancer doctor said “an untold number of lives ... have been saved by the science that they pioneered.”

James Allison of the University of Texas and Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University will share the $1.01 million prize for 2018. Their parallel work

concerned proteins that act as brakes on the body’s immune system.

Their research, which has led to drugs that release the brakes on the immune system, constitutes “a landmark in our fight against cancer,” said the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute, which selects the winners of the prestigious award.

The discoveries by Allison, 70, and Honjo, 76, “absolutely paved the way for a new approach to cancer treatment,” Dr. Jedd Wolchok, chief of the melanoma and immunotherapeutics service at the Memorial Sloan Kettering see NOBEL on 13

see ADULTERY on 15

Nintendo wins damage suit against Tokyo go-kart business Credit Mari Car’s Facebook page

TOKYO (AP) — Honda is recalling about 232,000 2018 Accord vehicles and 2019 Insight hybrid cars in the U.S. for malfunctioning software for the rear camera display.

There have been no reports of accidents or injuries related to the problem, Honda Motor Co. spokeswoman Tomoko Takemori said on Sept. 28.

TOKYO (AP) — Those low-riding carts zipping around Tokyo will no longer be able to dress up riders as Super Mario.

The Tokyo District Court ruled on Sept.

27 that Mari Mobility Development must stop renting the Super Mario costumes, and pay 10 million yen ($89,000) in damages to Nintendo Co., the game maker behind the hit series, Nintendo spokeswoman Nobuko Izumi said.

Mari Mobility, previously MariCAR, acknowledged the ruling and said it was considering an appeal.

The name MariCAR had been contested in Nintendo’s lawsuit, which was filed last year, but the company changed it in March.

The carts have been popular, mostly with tourists from abroad. But their presence on busy Tokyo streets raised worries over safety. The transportation ministry says seatbelts and headrests were added to address those concerns. 

asianweekly northwest

6

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

36 YEARS

■ COMMUNITY CALENDAR OCT 4-6

CHINA IN DANCE 2018 Meydenbauer Center Theatre, 11100 NE 6th St., Bellevue 7:30 p.m. $30–$50 https://bpt.me/3605018

6 EDI’S 25TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION Seattle Design Center, 5701 6th Ave. S., Seattle 5 p.m. $175 ediorg.org JAPAN WEEK Bellevue College, 3000 Landerholm Circle S.E., Bellevue 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Free admission SIFF WITH “ON HAPPINESS ROAD” Uptown Cinemas, 511 Queen Anne Ave. N., Seattle 12-3 p.m. siff.net

9 NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON U.S.-CHINA RELATIONS

BY WASHINGTON STATE CHINA RELATIONS COUNCIL Dorsey & Whitney LLP, 701 5th Ave. 43rd Floor, Seattle 3-5 p.m. https://bit.ly/2y3sSOM

2018 CHINA TOWN HALL

BY SEATTLE UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR GLOBAL BUSINESS WITH HON. CONDOLEEZZA RICE, Y.P. CHAN, YITAN LI, AND DAVID MCHARDY REID Seattle University, 901 12th Ave., Seattle 3-5 p.m.

10 SOICHI SUNAMI EXHIBITION TO INCLUDE TOKITA ART Cascadia Art Museum, 190 Sunset Ave. #E, Edmonds 6-8 p.m. cascadiaartmuseum.org

11 CONVERSATION ON LEADERSHIP WITH PHYLLIS CAMPBELL Keiro Northwest, 1601 East Yesler Way, Seattle 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Free event Registration is required jaclcampbell.eventbrite.com BUILDING A ROBOT BUTLER: TOWARDS FLUENT HUMAN ROBOT INTERACTION WITH SIDDHARTHA SRINIVASA University of Washington, Kane Hall 130 7:30 p.m.

6TH ANNUAL API CANDIDATES & ISSUES FORUM ACRS, 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S., Seattle 6-8 p.m.

13 SEATTLE WATER LANTERN FESTIVAL Green Lake, Seattle 2-7:30 p.m. waterlanternfestival.com

19 2018 SCIDPDA ANNUAL FUNDRAISER Pacific Tower, 1200 12th Ave. #401, Seattle 5:30-8:30 p.m. buytickets.at/scidpda

KAWAIIWEEN 2018 Yesler Community Center, 917 E. Yesler Way, Seattle 12-7 p.m.

23 PEACETREES’ 23RD ANNIVERSARY LUNCHEON Four Seasons Hotel, Seattle 11:30 a.m.

Register at 206-441-6136, info@peacetreesvietnam. org

25

THE WING’S HOUSE PARTY HOSTED BY WING LUKE MUSEUM Wing Luke Museum, 719 S. King St., Seattle 7-11 p.m.

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WASHIN KAI LECTURE

BY PROFESSOR PAUL S. ATKINS, “FRIEND FROM A WORLD UNSEEN: FUJIWARA NO TEIKA AND MEDIEVAL JAPANESE POETRY” UW Seattle Campus, Kane Hall, Room 210 7:10 p.m.

20湖景墓園 Lake View Cemetery 26

RAINIER CUP JUDO CHAMPIONSHIPS Pierce College, CELEBRATING THE 9401 Farwest Dr. SW, LEGACY OF RACHEL Lakewood 自1872年起服務西北岸社區 8 a.m. 非營利獨立協會HIDAKA Seattle Central College, FILM SCREENING, “1987 1701 Broadway, Seattle WHEN THE DAY COMES” 5:30-7:30 p.m. $50/person Renton Public Library, 206-934-6964 100 Mill Ave. S., Renton 1 p.m.

Free admission, first come first served 425-226-6043

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11 a.m. seattlefukushima100.eventbrite.com ACRS’ 45TH ANNIVERSARY GALA Hyatt Regency Bellevue, 900 Bellevue Way NE, Bellevue 7 p.m. $200/ticket RSVP by September 24 Show your love for ACRS by wearing red acrs.org/acrs45

NOV 1

SEATTLE MODERN ORCHESTRA’S CONCERT 1 - THE INVISIBLE Chapel Performance Space, 4649 Sunnyside Ave. N., Seattle 8-10 p.m. seattlemodernorchestra.org

Lake View Cemetery Seattle’s Pioneer Cemetery Est. 1872 An Independent, NonProfit Association

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asianweekly northwest

YOUR VOICE

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

■ COMMUNITY NEWS

7

Photos by Sam Le

Bridging Japan and America in the Pacific Northwest

Co-chairs of the Grassroots Summit Committee, Tay Yoshitani and Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos.

Recognition of local session hosts.

By Sam Le NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Kawauchi Middle School and Katsurao Middle School students waiting to perform at the closing ceremony.

The Japan-America Society of the State of Washington partnered with the John Manjiro-Whitfield Commemorative Center for International Exchange and the ConsulateGeneral of Japan in Seattle to continue the efforts to bridge relations between Japanese and American citizens.

From Sept. 18–24, the 28th Japan-America Grassroots Summit hosted over 150 participants from Japan at 14 local cities in Washington state. The local sessions invited participants to stay with host families for local tours and community activities. The interactions between participants and the local communities was a key part of the summit’s goal.

At the closing ceremony emceed by KING 5 anchor Lori Matsukawa, speakers remarked on the importance of continued international relations between Japan and the United States.

John Chelminiak, Bellevue’s mayor, shared how the long-standing international trade and the continued study abroad programs between Japan and Bellevue has played a beneficial role for the growth of the city.

Further, Courtney Gregoire, Port of Seattle Commission president, expressed gratitude towards the founders, staff, and volunteers of the Japan-America Society for their continued efforts in fostering key relations and partnerships between families, businesses, and organizations.

The next Japan-America Grassroots Summit will be held in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan.  For more information, visit jassw.org.

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asianweekly northwest

8

■ SPORTS

36 YEARS

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

The Layup Drill

Welcome to another edition of The Layup Drill. This month, we look at the hellos and goodbyes in sports.

Hello – Osaka wins U.S. Open

full circle since her father used to drive a Nissan while growing up. Adidas came through as she extended her contract with the company, which now is valued at $8.5 million per year. It’s the richest in the history of women’s tennis, which says a lot considering that Serena Williams has been a longtime sponsor of Nike.

Although she was born in Japan, Osaka’s family moved to the United States when she was 3 years old. She turned pro when she was just 16 years old. At only 20, Osaka is reaching the top of her game at a very young age.

AP Photo/Adam Hunger

Goodbye – Kuma says goodbye to Seattle

Naomi Osaka holds the trophy after defeating Serena Williams in the U.S. Open on Sept. 8.

Naomi Osaka defeated Serena Williams at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York in September. At the age of 20, she was the first Japanese tennis player to win the Grand Slam. Osaka, who is part Japanese and part Haitian, professed that Williams was her hero growing up.

Osaka was on top of the tennis world for the two weeks in New York as she dominated the competition. This included a straight set tournament championship victory over Williams. Osaka’s moment of triumph was overshadowed in part by an outburst from Williams against the umpire.

Williams went on a tirade after she was assessed a penalty for allegedly obtaining coaching from the crowd (a violation of the rules). The crowd took issue with the situation by booing the umpire as Williams pled her case. Despite the fiery words from Williams, she did not mean it as disrespect to Osaka. At the end of the match, she embraced Osaka and congratulated her on the win.

Unfortunately for Osaka, her moment of glory became awkward as fans showed their disapproval for the umpire, but it appeared as if they were booing Osaka. She showed tears of joy when she took the podium after the match to receive her trophy. She started her victory speech by apologizing for her victory.

She recently admitted that the win was not a favorite moment in her life. Despite the victory, beating her childhood idol and the fans reaction due to the conflict between Williams and the umpire left her victory tainted. In a recent interview at the China Open tennis tournament, Osaka said, “The memory of the U.S. Open is a little bit bittersweet. Like right after, the day after, I really didn’t want to think about it because it wasn’t necessarily the happiest memory for me.”

While Osaka may have experienced bad feelings for her win, sponsors have gravitated toward her as a result. Deemed the “new face of tennis,” Osaka signed new endorsement deals with Adidas and Nissan. Osaka remarked that being a “brand ambassador” for Nissan comes

Iwakuma and Ichiro embrace at Safeco Field before a matchup between the Mariners and Athletics on Sept.

26.

As the Seattle Mariners’ season ended with another year without making it to the playoffs, the team said goodbye to starting pitcher Hisashi Iwakuma, as he decided to continue his career in Japan. Iwakuma attempted a comeback for almost two years due to recurring shoulder issues. However, he experienced several setbacks throughout the process. Nevertheless, Iwakuma was able to make it back to rehabilitation starts for the Mariners’ minor league teams, with brief stints in August. Yet, Iwakuma decided that the next step would be to return to Japan to finish out his career.

Iwakuma signed with the Mariners from Japan in 2012. At 31 years of age, he contributed in his first season with the club, posting 9 wins and 5 losses. The next year, 2013, was his best year as he posted 14 wins and 6 losses and became an All-Star for the American League. He finished 3rd in the Cy Young voting for the best pitcher in the American League. The last season he played in was early last season where he did not win a game in 6 starts for the team.

Prior to injuries, he was stoic and a reliable number two starter behind the team’s ace, Felix Hernandez. The two provided a much-needed 1-2 punch for the Mariners, as they sought pitching stability.

Iwakuma made just one All-Star team during his major league career with the Mariners, but the accolades did not equate to the value he had for a baseball team in need of solid starting pitching.

The most memorable moment from Iwakuma’s career has to be his no-hitter during an afternoon game against the Baltimore Orioles on Aug. 12, 2015. In that game, Iwakuma struck out seven in a 9-inning performance, where he did not allow a hit. It was special for him since it was one of the few times that his family traveled to Seattle to watch him pitch.

Iwakuma said goodbye on Sept. 26 during the Mariners’ final homestand of the season, as he threw out the ceremonial first pitch. Catching for Iwakuma for his

last pitch on the mound was friend Ichiro Suzuki.

The loss of Iwakuma hurts the Mariners’ pitching rotation next year, as the team will once again struggle to find help with pitchers. Iwakuma was another one of the great players coming from Japan. Kenji Johjima, Kazuhiro Sasaki, and, of course, Ichiro Suzuki have all been bright stars for the Mariners. Iwakuma will be missed, but it may be poetic that he ends his career in Japan where he started.

Hello again – Tiger makes triumphant return to form He’s back.

Tiger Woods won the 2018 TOUR Championship in Atlanta, making it number 80 in his career of PGA Tour wins. It was the first since returning from numerous back surgeries, injuries, and personal struggles.

Woods was emotional after sinking the final putt on the 18th green. Arms outstretched in the air in triumph, Woods reflected on what it meant that his kids could see his joy in playing golf. In a post-event interview, he talked about how his kids, 11 and 9, associated golf with him being in pain due to the numerous injuries. He was happy that they could see how good he is at the sport and it is something that brings him joy.

Fans, as they had when he was a young phenom, followed him throughout the course. The sea of people following Woods on the final hole was enormous. Despite his

AP Photo/John Amis

By Jason Cruz NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

Tiger Woods holds Calamity Jane the official trophy of the tournament after winning the Tour Championship golf tournament on Sept. 23.

past faults, the fans chanted and cheered his name, as it remained atop the leaderboard.

The cheers grew louder when it became clear he would finally break through the drought and secure a tour victory.

The final round of the PGA Tour tournament occurred on a Sunday, when the NFL occupies the television sets of many people. However, many sports fans turned their television to golf —specifically see LAYUP DRILL on 11

asianweekly northwest

YOUR VOICE

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

■ AT THE MOVIES

9

“On Happiness Road”

By Andrew Hamlin NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

“On Happiness Road,” the animated debut feature film from Taiwanese director Hsin-Yin Sung, follows the flights of fancy from its main character, Hus-Chi Sung, known to everyone as Chi. The grand prize winner in the feature film category at the 2018 Tokyo Anime Award Festival, the film goes through 40 years of Taiwanese history, centered around Chi. As the film progresses, Chi gains and loses friends, loves and hates her parents, journeys through childhood

through adulthood without ever becoming what her parents want her to become. Over the course of the story, from Chi’s girlhood to adulthood as an expat in America, both the daughter and her parents must cope with dashed expectations, and the tough but necessary acceptance of serious, sometimes maddening, flaws in the ones we love.

Director Sung asserted that her film is not an autobiography, although she did borrow some aspects from her own story. Like Chi, she’s long used to making the best out of bad situations.

“I was born in Shezidao in Taipei City, and I grew up in industrial Xinzhuang, a satellite city of Taipei,” Sung remembered. “The most memorable thing in my childhood was a really dirty large drainage ditch next to where I lived.

“I often played paper boats and paper airplanes around there. Even though it was quite dirty, they were part of the happy memories of my childhood.”

Sung attended film theory school in Kyoto, Japan, and later earned an additional degree from Columbia College of Chicago. She wrote for the “Liberty Times” in Taiwan and recalls with much pleasure shaking hands with director David Lynch, at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival in France.

When asked to compare her Japanese education with her American one, she remarked, “Japanese [culture] emphasizes details, they place importance on simple beauty and emotions. Americans take pride in their independence and aggressive self-promotion.”

One interesting element for Westerners, and something true to Sung’s own experience, is how several generations of Taiwanese kids grew up watching Japanese anime TV programs, a practice that continues today.

Chi and her friends rush home, or rush inside from playing outside, to catch the latest episodes of “Candy Candy” and “Gatchaman,” both popular in the early-tomid 1970s. The kids use their vivid imaginations (which they’ll eventually, except for Chi, lose as they age) to turn themselves into “Gatchaman”-style superheroes, flying between buildings.

The narrative, for all its whimsy, also examines serious problems in Taiwanese society during the years of martial

law (1949–1987), including censorship, political arrests, and torture.

Closer to Chi’s own childhood experience, she’s shut out of the “cram school” held alongside regular classes, because her parents, who struggle with money, haven’t paid the required fees. And “cram school,” at that time at least, consisted of the kids with money getting all the questions, and all the answers, to all the important exams.

Sung used her Taiwan connections to secure wellknown voice talent for the film:. “I cast them because their personality fit the characters,” Sung explained. Chi herself is voiced by popular actress Lun-mei Gwei, who starred in “Girlfriend, Boyfriend,” a live-action film set, like “On Happiness Road,” during the martial law years.

For the role of Chi’s cousin, and occasional mentor, Sung recruited Te-sheng Wei, better known as a film director.

Wei directed, wrote, and co-produced “Cape No. 7,” a romantic musical drama, currently the highest-grossing Taiwan-produced film in the country’s history, and secondhighest grossing film overall behind 1997’s “Titanic.”

Asked about future projects, Sung allowed that she’ll probably be working in live-action next, but she’s not quite sure yet where to go from her animated feature.

“I’m working on a couple stories: Drama, thriller, and science fiction,” she concluded. “Haven’t decided which one to make.

“The only thing I’m pretty sure of, is that the protagonists all are female.”  “On Happiness Road” shows Saturday, Oct. 6, noon, at the SIFF Cinema Uptown, 511 Queen Anne Avenue North, as a presentation of the Taiwanese American Professionals, Seattle chapter (TAP-Seattle). A Q&A session with director Hsin-Yin Sung follows the film. For prices and additional information, visit siff.net/year-round-cinema/ on-happiness-road.

Andrew can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

■ WORLD NEWS

China orders actress Fan Bingbing to pay massive tax fine million for tax evasion, according to an Oct. 3 announcement carried by China’s official Xinhua

see BINGBING on 16

The 6th Annual API Candidates & Issues Forum Featuring: Legislative Districts* 34, 37 & 41

By GILLIAN WONG ASSOCIATED PRESS BEIJING (AP) — Chinese tax authorities have ordered “X-Men” star Fan Bingbing and companies she represents to pay taxes and penalties

totaling $130 million, ending speculation over the fate of one of the country’s highest-profile entertainers three months after she disappeared from public view.

Of the total amount, Fan is being personally fined around $70

Congressional Districts* 7&9

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asianweekly northwest

10

36 YEARS

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

■ PUBLISHER’S BLOG

Foods I used to hate, and now love Bitter melon, goji berries, durian, Formosa shredded pork, even milk

By Assunta Ng NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

you will like it,“ they urged. I declined every offer when I was in Hong Kong.

Today, I enjoy durian ice cream and cakes, too. Durian does taste great if you cover your nose — just kidding. Once you taste it, you forget about the horrible odor. You can buy frozen and fresh (when they are in season) durian at Lam’s Seafood.

Photo by Han Bui

Photo by Assunta Ng

FORMOSA PORK FU

Photo by Han Bui

GOJI BERRIES

The Chinese have known for centuries that goji berries have high nutritional value.

However, the West has just begun to appreciate goji for the past decade.

I didn’t care for goji berries when I was a kid because my mom never educated us on why they were essential.

She just told us to eat it.

Sometimes, our rebellious streak sank deep in our body and we Organic goji berries in package wouldn’t eat it, no matter what. Why I resisted it when I was little, was mom normally mixed them with other ingredients in the soup. By the time the soup was cooked, goji became tasteless.

Yet, as I age, I was seeking foods that are good for my eyes, as I have overextended them by reading too much on the computer — a hazard for my profession. Only when I went back to visit mom, did she tell me about the benefits of goji.

Formosa brand pork floss

Many of my relatives are from Taiwan. Whenever they visited us in Hong Kong, they usually brought Formosa dried shredded pork, a Taiwanese specialty. I was not fond of it.

Now, it’s one of my favorite snacks. You can eat it with bread or congee. The pork is not greasy and its flavor is delicious.

You can buy this pork in Seattle’s Asian grocery stores.

MILK

Stir-fried swamp cabbage topped with goji berries

Then, soak them in a small bowl of water. I save that water for my dish. After my stir-fried veggies are almost done, I pour the goji on top and cover the pan for 2 minutes. If you want to steam fish, just put the goji on top of the fish and steam it together. If you are making a salad, just mix the goji after you have drained the water from the soaked berries. I now eat goji three times a week.

DURIAN

When I was a 12-year-old in Hong Kong, my step dad brought home a durian from Vietnam. I thought the smell was like an unwashed toilet and rotten fruit. I quickly ran away, and covered myself with a quilt on the bed from head to toe. What is funny is that my staff members love that smell.

Fresh durian Family members laughed at me. They loved the fruit as if they had received a magic fruit from heaven. They urged me to partake. “Try it,

Photo by Han Bui

Photo by Assunta Ng

“Grandma, please don‘t make bitter melons for dinner,” I begged my grandmother as a child. “It tastes so bitter, I can’t swallow it.”

“Bitter melon is good for you,“ said grandma. “You will cherish them when you get older.”

“How do you know?” I wanted to say, but never had the courage to challenge her. It would be seen as a sign of disrespect. That’s the problem with many Chinese elderly.

They always say this and that food is beneficial to you, just because their parents or grandparents told them, from generation to generation, without ever giving proof and a logical explanation.

The irony is, grandma was right. Foods I resisted or feel indifferent about when I was a kid, I now appreciate. Bitter melon is known as half-life melon, according to grandma.

You like that stuff either in the first or second half of your life. If you eat it and like it when you are little, you probably can’t stand it when you get old. My logic is that people’s taste buds change over time. Now, I welcome them, especially learning that bitter melon has properties which can cleanse your system. A little bitterness is like adding certain spices, enhancing flavors of the whole dish.

In fact, many Chinatown restaurants cook bitter melon with huge success. My favorite is scrambled eggs with bitter melon. Or you can order the popular entree, stir-fried bitter melon with beef.

Have you wondered why Chinese restaurants can serve bitter melon without the bitter taste?

They boil the melon in hot water for several minutes to get rid of it. That‘s why I don‘t want to cook it myself. Too much work.

“You wonder why my eyesight is great even when I am old,” mom said many years ago. “It’s goji. I would use them in every soup I make.”

Chinese culture has immense wisdom on foods. The sweet goji consists of amazing elements. From improving eyesight to boosting energy, it strengthens your internal organs, too.

Also, it is an antioxidant and can help your insomnia.

Creativity is what I apply with goji, much different from mom. They taste fantastic with stir-fried vegetables, seafoods, and salads.

The bright red color of goji can make any dish look appealing. Sprinkle a few goji on top, it will beautify your whole entree.

How do you cook goji? Easy. You can buy goji in Asian grocery stores. They come in dried packages. Wash them first.

Photo by Han Bui

Scrambled eggs with bitter melon

Photo by Assunta Ng

Stir-fried bok choy topped with goji berries

Those of you who live in North America take milk for granted because it is available everywhere. In many foreign countries, milk doesn’t taste fresh and it’s expensive. I didn’t have the luxury of drinking milk as a child. Currently, I pay for the consequences of suffering from osteoporosis due to inadequate calcium in my body. My bones are fragile. Now, I make up for it by consuming a glass of milk every day to give me nutrients including several vitamins. I consider myself fortunate as many Asians who are not used to drinking milk are lactose (a sugar found in milk) intolerant. It’s a blessing my body can digest milk.

Fresh milk wasn’t something my family in Hong Kong could afford, so we bought cheap condensed milk (less than 50 cents at the time) for a family of five. It’s unhealthy with highly-concentrated sugar. A can of condensed milk would last the whole family a week. Whereas one small bottle of fresh milk, slightly bigger than a glass, just enough for one person, would cost $1 US or more.

As a kid, I would drink condensed milk every day as an after-school snack. Simply add hot water with one tablespoon of condensed milk, its sweetness satisfied me as a child.

In our fridge, we have two kinds of milk, skim as well as whole milk. I drink them interchangeably for cereal, milk tea, and with nuts, and I never get tired of it. Studies have now found that whole milk is better than skim, especially for preventing obesity. My wish is to build strong bones, so that one day my doctor would say, “Hey, what happened to your osteoporosis, it’s gone!”  Assunta can be reached at assunta@nwasianweekly.com.

asianweekly northwest

YOUR VOICE

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

■ COMMENTARIES

11

Yes, another quality public school option for our communities is something to celebrate

By Walter Chen, Principal of RVLA Middle School And Arneidra Lloyd, Principal of RVLA High School Thanks to the community’s warm welcome and the hard work of so many, Rainier Valley Leadership Academy (RVLA) Middle School opened its doors last year for the first time to the families of Rainier Valley. This fall, we are welcoming a partnering high school, RVLA High School, to the family of Green Dot Public Schools in Washington. Like our middle school, RVLA High School offers a high quality, public, tuition-free education focused on college prep — aimed at serving the diverse populations of Southeast Seattle.

A ribbon cutting ceremony was recently held to celebrate the schools and the opening of RVLA Middle School’s new campus — and yes, this is something we should celebrate as a community.

There are people who would argue otherwise. The past few years have generated intense public education debates throughout our city and the state on what public education options should be available to families and students. Why is another quality public education option for our families a bad thing? Politics aside, new academic opportunities that reflect our community are something we can all embrace. The one thing we as educators hear over and over again is that parents

want to enroll their children at local, high-quality public schools that are good fits for their kids. RVLA is here to help answer that call.

RVLA Middle and High School offer rigorous college preparatory programs and intentionally tailor practices and programs to fit the unique needs of the communities we serve.

So what does that look like in our community in South Seattle?

Our robust STEAM curriculum focuses on computer science and coding, the arts, and our own unique set of instruction tactics that ensure all students — not just some — get the attention they need and are set on a path to college.

We’re lucky we get to live in such a vibrant, diverse neighborhood — and we want that to be mirrored in what our students learn and who teaches them. We provide our students with a diverse range of academic resources and learning tools that represent a myriad of perspectives in history and literature — in a way that parallels the different cultures and voices of our community. Like us, many of our teachers come from our community and from diverse backgrounds. We know how important it is for our students to see themselves reflected in the people who teach and mentor them every day in their road to higher education.

Of course, we want our students to succeed not just in college but in life beyond it. This is why we focus on student

growth academically, emotionally, and mentally — because the steps students make in their paths to success are far more reflective of their hard work than a single test score could ever be. To us, success is more than just academic — it’s the growth we see every day as our students gradually become the critical thinkers and leaders of tomorrow.

RVLA seeks to add to the family of public education options our community has to offer — and continues to drive a conversation about the role of great public education in closing the opportunity gaps that have historically left our community behind. We are proud of what we’ve been able to achieve in just a short amount of time — recent data showed that Green Dot’s students exceeded nationally-normed growth projections in both math and reading. Our own RVLA Middle School students showed tremendous academic growth on the SBAC exam, as they scored the highest across the national Green Dot network in math and second-highest in English Language Arts.

While some people protest our schools and question our motives, we know why we are here and why we fight to stay: to do right by our kids — all kids — and give each of them every opportunity to grow, succeed, and thrive. 

Why we voted to strike at the Marriott On Sept. 14, workers at the Westin Seattle voted 98 percent to authorize a strike against our employer, Marriott International. Within a two-week span, over 8,000 Marriott workers in Boston, Honolulu, Maui, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose, Oakland, and Detroit voted overwhelmingly to do the same.

We are room attendants, bell attendants, house attendants, and dishwashers at the Westin. We are also members of UNITE HERE Local 8 and union leaders who have decided along with our coworkers and with union Marriott workers across the country that striking is a necessary next step in our campaign for a fair contract.

All of us immigrated to the United States from China and the Philippines. Most of our coworkers are from other countries as well. For many of us, the first work we were able to find in Seattle was in hotels.

That is why it is so important to us to organize through our union to make our jobs better. The decision to strike is not an easy one for us and our families. Already, too many of us are struggling to afford housing, feed our families, and keep

up with the cost of living in Seattle. We have less money to send to family back home. But it is precisely because we are struggling that we have chosen to take this stand and fight for a better future for ourselves, our families, and our communities.

Marriott bought Starwood Hotels & Resorts and took over operations of the Westin Seattle in 2016, making us employees of the largest and richest hotel company in the world. But Marriott’s management has only made our jobs harder.

Through programs like “Make a Green Choice,” where guests are encouraged to refuse housekeeping services, our hours have been cut and our income has become unreliable.

Paradoxically, when work is available, it is more difficult and physically demanding than ever before. Many of us don’t make full-time hours yet do the work of multiple people. As Marriott considers adopting various forms of new technology, ranging from mobile check-in to room service robots, our jobs are under further threat.

Throughout this campaign, our message to Marriott has been simple: One job should be enough. Marriott is the largest and the richest hotel company, and they need to do better

for the people who work for them. There is no reason why Marriott employees should be going to work in pain, losing sleep over reduced hours, or struggling to pay rent, while Marriott shareholders reap the profits of our hard work.

Our successful strike authorization vote means that we can make the decision to strike at any time. And when we do, we need the support of the community in order to be successful. If and when a strike against Marriott is called, we hope that you will stand with us by joining us on the picket line, donating to our hardship fund, and refusing to eat, sleep, or meet at a Marriott hotel.  — Andy Huang, Bell Attendant — Xingyi Huang, Room Attendant — Joel Paclibon, Dishwasher — Flora Tabalbag, Room Attendant — Jian Hua Wu, House Attendant — Weizu Xie, Room Attendant

LAYUP DRILL from 8 to watch Tiger finish off the tournament.

The rejuvenation of Woods’ career is amazing, considering the extent of his back problems in a sport where it is required that he twist and contort his body when he swings the golf club.

There is also his admitted self-doubt about ever coming back to a level where he could win a major tournament.

Everyone loves a comeback story in sports. Woods is a special one considering his level of dominance in the sport of golf prior to his back injuries. Then, there was his personal indiscretions which shed light on a personal life which shattered his clean image. At one point, Woods was unable to swing a club and suffered several setbacks on his road to recovery. Time will tell whether Woods’ back will hold up to maintain at the level he currently is playing.  Jason can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

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12

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

36 YEARS

■ WORLD NEWS

Nobel-winning optical fiber pioneer dies at 84 HONG KONG (AP) — Charles K. Kao, who shared a 2009 Nobel Prize in physics for pioneering work in optical fiber technology that helped to lay the foundation for modern telecommunications, has died. He was 84.

Kao, a former vice chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, died on Sept. 23 in hospice care, according to the Hong Kong government and news reports.

He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease but no cause of death was announced.

Kao was a researcher at ITT Corp. when in 1966 he and a colleague published a paper

that showed pure glass fibers could be used for communication. That technology, along with developments in lasers, gave rise to a new industry.

Kao’s work “made the internet possible,” The South China Morning Post newspaper said in an editorial.

Charles Kuen Kao was born Nov. 4, 1933, in Shanghai, according to a biography released by the Nobel Foundation. His mother wrote poetry and his father was an American-educated judge.

The family left in 1948 for Hong Kong,

where Kao finished high school. He received a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Woolwich Polytechnic in London.

Kao was vice chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 1987-96. He helped to found its department of electrical engineering in 1970 during a leave from ITT’s British subsidiary.

Kao was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2004. He and his wife, Gwen, set up a foundation in 2010 to raise awareness of the disease and promote support for people who care for sufferers. 

HAVE A STORY IDEA THAT YOU THINK WOULD FIT PERFECTLY IN NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY? WE WANT TO KNOW ABOUT IT. SEND IT TO US AT INFO@NWASIANWEEKLY.COM.

Charles K. Kao

MCNAIR from 3 when McNair collapsed. His role in the events that followed was not made clear.

Much of Walters’ report focused on recommendations that would prevent a tragedy like this from happening again.

Loh met with the media after Walters presented his findings.

“We have protocols and policies which are good, but it is not enough that they are good,” the university president said. “They have to be implemented and there has to be training. That is where we’re short and we have to do a better job.”

In a release issued before the news conference began, the university wrote: “We made immediate changes following Jordan’s death and have continued to make enhancements informed by the preliminary

observations of the external review (by Walters) we received this summer.”

The list of changes already implemented, according to the school, include an increase in doctors and training at practices and games; additional on-site cooling stations to football training camp and practices consisting of portable spray misters, recovery drinks and cooling towels; and increasing the number and length of recovery breaks.

Loh was very candid in August when talking about the school’s role in McNair’s death.

“They entrusted their son to us, and he did not return home,” Loh said of McNair’s parents. “The University accepts legal and moral responsibility for the mistakes that were made on that fateful day. ... They misdiagnosed the situation.”

SINGH from 1 of the college will migrate to King County and work in the tech field, his research nevertheless reveals that Snohomish County has 21 percent of manufacturing jobs — and those jobs need to be filled.

According to Singh, about half of ECC students expect to transfer to a larger institution, while the other half are at Edmonds to get a degree and “get back into the workforce.”

Some of the degrees that attract students to Edmonds are nursing and cybersecurity. The college has also recently broke ground on a new STEM building. Regardless of student intentions, and in spite of society’s periodic attacks on the relevance of higher education, Singh is adamant that some kind of college degree is still important. He is also optimistic about developments under the current administration, as students have benefitted so far from increased allotments for Pell Grants and, at Edmonds, a TRiO Grant for low-income students.

“Of course I’m biased,” he laughs. “But also, I’m gonna be neutral. What I really believe in — and it’s not just because I work in higher ed — people talk about liberal arts education and they talk about technical education, right? To me, it’s not either/or. You need to have both.”

If robotics, increased automation, and artificial intelligence is the wave of the future, Singh pointed out that that could very likely cause certain types of jobs to disappear. In order to prepare, Singh said people should be thinking about the types of skills that cannot be taken away — skills provided by a well-rounded college degree.

“Higher level mental skilled jobs,” Singh emphasized,

On that day, the law firm of Murphy, Falcon & Murphy, which represents the McNair family, wrote in a statement: “While Marty and Tonya will never get another day with Jordan, Dr. Loh’s words were meaningful to them and give them some comfort that he will put the University on the path to change the culture of the program so that no Terrapin family will have to endure the heartache and grief that they feel.”

Request for comment from the law firm on Sept. 21 was not immediately answered.

In the wake of McNair’s death, an ESPN story reported that the coaching staff engaged in physical and mental abuse of the players.

Durkin’s future as the head coach remains unclear.

He was placed on administrative leave on

are those that will still be in demand for human workers.

“Problem solving. Systems thinking. Critical thinking.

That education comes from liberal arts education.”

Singh stressed that it remains important to have a degree, but not just any degree.

“The difference is that, 30 or 40 years ago, if you had a higher (education) degree, you were in demand. That’s not the case anymore…You need to have the right degree to get the right job,” he explains. “The right skills and knowledge.”

ECC has what Singh calls a guided pathway. ECC gets involved with students starting in high school for what Singh describes as “career exploration.” The idea is to make sure that students follow their interests, but in focused ways that will allow them the best chance to succeed in the job market. To that end, Singh intends to ensure that the college forms community partnerships in order to assess what type of labor force is needed.

“My focus right now is learning where are the skill gaps, what are we not doing to help our business and industry… then we will build the curriculum, build the courses and programs to support that.”

Singh’s ability to view a situation neutrally, and to seek out what is best for the community at large, has served him well in other, less inclusive populations, such as when he worked in Georgia. “There was a lot of issues with race, all the time,” he said, unlike what he senses in the Pacific Northwest. Singh’s approach was to pay attention to all of the forces at work, such as the local economy, “I would tell the truth, so people respected me for that. Everybody in the community, whether Black or

Aug. 11. Strength and conditioning coach Rick Court resigned two days later, and head trainer Wes Robinson, along with Steve Nordwall, an assistant athletic director for training, remain on administrative leave.

Loh distinguished between training staff and coaching staff in August when he spoke about mistakes that led to McNair’s death, but added the reports of “bullying behavior” by football coaches “are totally inconsistent with what we stand for, and our values.”

An eight-member commission has been appointed to look into the culture of the football program.

That investigation is ongoing.

“We will give that body the time and independence they need to get the facts,” Board of Regents Chair James Brady said. 

white, embraced me in South Georgia, because they saw somebody who’s not political, not biased, just telling the truth…I was neutral and I was focusing on what’s good for the community.”

While Singh himself has not experienced any significant incidents of discrimination in his own life or career, he is aware that others do. He understands the importance of promoting diversity and cultural competence, particularly in a community such as Lynnwood where, as Singh reported, 40 percent of the residents are non-Caucasian and 30 percent speak English as a second language.

“It’s a very diverse community, and our college is very diverse…This is also the reality — that our state, our community, and the country, we’re going to become more diverse…so we need to continue to work with our diverse population…so they can be successful.”

Most of Singh’s family members reside in the United States now, and they own property in India that he visits yearly to check up on. Singh is enthusiastic about living a little closer now to a sister who resides in Canada. And Sing and his wife are eager for their son — about to graduate from college in Ohio with a degree in computer science — to come to Washington and take advantage of all the area has to offer. Singh’s wife, who taught computer science prior to caring for their now 3-year-old daughter, is eager to return to work in tech as well. The Singhs are enjoying the sights, such as a recent visit to Pike Place Market, and Singh admits he loves the fall weather and the omnipresence of coffee.  Jessica Kai can be reached at info@nwasianweekly.com.

asianweekly northwest

YOUR VOICE

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

■ ASTROLOGY

13

Predictions and advice for the week of October 6–12, 2018

By Sun Lee Chang

Rat — As much as you want to rush ahead to the end, there are some good parts in the middle that are worth slowing down for.

Dragon — You and your partner are in perfect lock step with each other right now. Your continued collaboration should yield handsome dividends.

Monkey — Has something been bothering you lately? Concern soon turns to relief as you find out that all is actually well.

Ox — There are some combinations that are hard to visualize by their very nature. You may have to rearrange them a few times to get the look you desire.

Snake — The conditions could have changed quite a bit since the last time you checked. Before you leave, get one last update.

Rooster — Despite your initial misgivings, things have turned out much better than expected.

However, don’t let your guard down just yet.

Horse — While there is something to be said for linear progress, some deviations may be necessary to find the right path to continue on.

Dog — Are you tired of playing games?

Lay it all on the table by being direct about what you want.

Goat — You are about to go into something of a maze, but rest assured that your experience should go a long way in helping to navigate you through.

Pig — A small window of opportunity is opening up to you. If you are leaning towards pursuing it, then you must act quickly.

Tiger — Although there is more than one way to tackle the same project, choose the one that works the best for your style.

Rabbit — Avoid making up your mind too early, for it could stop you from taking in new information that should be reviewed and considered.

WHAT’S YOUR ANIMAL SIGN? RAT 1912, 1924, 1936, 1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008 OX 1913, 1925, 1937, 1949, 1961, 1973, 1985, 1997, 2009 TIGER 1914, 1926, 1938, 1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010 RABBIT 1915, 1927, 1939, 1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011 DRAGON 1916, 1928, 1940, 1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012 SNAKE 1917, 1929, 1941, 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013 HORSE 1918, 1930, 1942, 1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014 GOAT 1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015 MONKEY 1920, 1932, 1944, 1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016 ROOSTER 1921, 1933, 1945, 1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017 DOG 1922, 1934, 1946, 1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018 PIG 1923, 1935, 1947, 1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007

*The year ends on the first new moon of the following year. For those born in January and February, please take care when determining your sign.

NOBEL from 5 Cancer Center in New York, told The Associated Press.

He said the idea of releasing the brakes on immune system cells has led to drugs for the skin cancer melanoma and for cancers of the lung, head and neck, bladder, kidney and liver. Just last week, such a drug was approved for treatment of another kind of skin cancer called squamous cell cancer, he said.

Wolchok said “an untold number of lives ... have been saved by the science that they pioneered.”

The approach to cancer treatment that was honored with this year’s Nobel was used to treat former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who was diagnosed in 2015 with melanoma, which had spread to his brain.

One of Carter’s treatments was a drug that blocked the immune-cell “brake” studied by Honjo. Carter announced in 2016 that he no longer needed treatment.

Althoughtheconceptofusingtheimmunesystemagainst cancer arose in the 19th century, initial treatments based on the approach were only modestly effective.

“Everybody wanted to do chemotherapy and radiation.

The immune system was neglected because there was no strong evidence it could be effective,” said Nadia Guerra, head of a cancer laboratory at Imperial College London.

Allison’s work, much of it done at the University of California-Berkeley, changed that by proving the immune system could identify tumor cells and act against them.

“It’s like your body uses your own army to fight cancer,” she said.

Allison studied a known protein and developed the concept into a new treatment approach, while Honjo discovered a new protein that also operated as a brake on immune cells.

“I’m honored and humbled to receive this prestigious recognition,” Allison said in a statement released by the university’s M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, where he is a professor.

“A driving motivation for scientists is simply to push the frontiers of knowledge. I didn’t set out to study cancer, but to understand the biology of T cells, these incredible cells that travel our bodies and work to protect us,” he

said.

T cells are key immune system soldiers.

At news conference in Kyoto, Honjo said what makes him most delighted is when he hears from patients who have recovered from serious illnesses because of his research.

Honjo, an avid golf player, said a member of a golf club once walked up to him suddenly, thanking him for the discovery that treated his lung cancer.

“He told me, ‘Thanks to you I can play golf again.’ ...That was a blissful moment.

A comment like that makes me happier than any prize,” he said.

The American Cancer Society’s chief medical officer says he and colleagues gave a celebratory toast to Allison at a party on Sept. 28 — days before the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Medicine — because they agreed this could be his year.

Dr. Otis W. Brawley, a close friend of Allison’s, said the Nobel committee

usually waits about ten years to make sure a scientific discovery “sticks as being really important.”

He said Allison’s work a decade ago “really opened up immunotherapy” as a fifth pillar of cancer treatments, after surgery, radiation, chemotherapy and precision therapy.

“The discovery of Jim Allison led to the first drug that routinely caused patients with a metastatic disease — melanoma — to go into complete remission,” he said.

Allison’s drug, known commercially as Yervoy, became the first to extend the survival of patients with late-stage melanoma. In a statement, he urged more support for basic science research.

Allison said scientists need to better understand “how these drugs work and how they might best be combined with other therapies to improve treatment and reduce unwanted side effects. We need more basic science research to do that.”

“It’s a great emotional privilege to meet

cancer patients who’ve been successfully treated with immune checkpoint blockade. They are living proof of the power of basic science,” he added.

Allison’s and Honjo’s prize-winning work started in the 1990s and was part of significant advances in cancer immunotherapy. Such treatment is also called “checkpoint therapy,” a term that inspired the name of the Checkpoints, a musical group of cancer researchers for which Allison plays harmonica.

“In some patients, this therapy is remarkably effective,” Jeremy Berg, editor-in-chief of the Science family of journals, told the AP. “The number of different types of cancers for which this approach to immunotherapy is being found to be effective in at least some patients continues to grow.”

Therapy developed from Honjo’s work led to long-term remission in patients with metastatic cancer that had been considered essentially untreatable, the Nobel Assembly said. 

KING COUNTY NOTICE TO BIDDERS Sealed bids will be received for C01253C18, TRANSIT FACILITY IMPROVEMENTS WORK ORDER CONTRACT; by the King County Procurement and Payables Section, 3rd Floor, 401 Fifth Avenue, Seattle, WA 98104, until 1:30 PM on October 16, 2018.

Late bids will not be accepted.

Scope of Work: Contractor shall mobilize and perform repairs or modifications at Transit Division facilities. Sites may include Transit Bases, Park-and-Ride lots and bus zones. Contractor shall furnish labor, tools, equipment, materials, incidentals, superintendents, work & subcontractor coordination; legally disposing & documenting disposing of all debris, and restoration of above and below ground facilities.

Not-To-Exceed contract price: $1,000,000 Pre-Bid Conference by Skype: 11:00 a.m., October 10, 2018. Bidders have the choice of attending: (1) in person at Dahlia Conference Room, 3rd Floor Chinook Bldg., 401 Fifth Ave., Seattle, WA or (2) via conference call 1-206-263-8114, then entering Conference ID 119038. A site tour is not scheduled.

SCS Utilization Requirements. The Contractor shall ensure that at least 10% of the total price for all executed Work Orders shall be performed by King County Certified Small Contractors and Suppliers (SCS) over the life of the Contract.

Complete Invitation to Bid Documents, including all project details, specifications, and contact information are available on our web page at: https://procurement.kingcounty. gov/procurement_ovr/default.aspx

asianweekly northwest

14

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

36 YEARS

SPACEX from 4 International Space Station as early as next year.

The era of space tourism began in 2001, when California businessman Dennis Tito paid for a journey on a Russian rocket to the International Space Station. The trip was organized by the Virginia-based company Space Adventures, which has

CLOONEY from 4 An email seeking comment from Myanmar’s mission to the U.N. wasn’t immediately answered.

Stephen Adler, the president and editor-in-chief of Reuters, said his reporters’ arrest “was clearly aimed at unmasking Reuters sources and keeping us from publishing the account of the massacre.” He called the attack on the reporters “a chilling warning” to other journalists worldwide.

“We know about the massacre because they did what good reporters do,” Adler said. “Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo went with open minds and left with facts. Except they didn’t really get to leave, did they? Only the facts did. In an astonishing miscarriage of justice, our reporters were set up and arrested.”

Rohingya Muslims have long been treated as outsiders in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, even though their families have lived in the country for generations. Nearly all have been denied citizenship since 1982, effectively rendering them stateless. They are also denied freedom of movement and other basic rights. Suu Kyi has been criticized for failing to ensure fair treatment of the Rohingya The discussion was arranged by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which also highlighted the repression and abuse

of reporters in countries including Bangladesh, Egypt and Kyrgyzstan.

Joel Simon, executive director of the committee, said few countries have been held to account for oppressive practices, in part because the United Nations and its member states “follow diplomatic protocol and refuse to name names.”

“The General Assembly must be more than just a parade of speeches,” he said. A failure to do more by the U.N. and its members allows the jailing of journalists, which “is successfully censoring coverage of key global issues and violating our collective right to seek and receive information.”

The Reuters case has drawn worldwide attention as an example of how democratic reforms in long-isolated Myanmar have stalled under Suu Kyi’s civilian government, which took power in 2016. The country had been under military and military-backed rule for more than five decades.

Clooney said Suu Kyi “knows better than anyone what it is like to be a political prisoner in Myanmar.”

“She has slept in a cell at the prison where Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo now sleep, but today she holds the key; the key to their liberty; the key to reuniting them with their young children; the key to freedom of the press,” Clooney said.

“History will judge her on her response.” 

SERVICE DIRECTORY CONTACT JOHN TO PLACE AN AD ON CLASSIFIED PAGE 206-223-5559 JOHN@NWASIANWEEKLY.COM

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since sent several more paying customers on spaceflights.

SpaceX already has a long list of firsts, with its sights ultimately set on Mars. It became the first private company to launch a spacecraft into orbit and safely return it to Earth in 2010, and the first commercial enterprise to fly to the space station in 2012 on a supply mission. 

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asianweekly northwest

YOUR VOICE

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018

15

Screencaps from Youtube video

REUNITED from 1

reported to the local police station.

The boy was estimated to be about 2 and a half years old, given the name Hong Ki Hong after his rescuer, and quickly prepared to be placed for adoption.

Less than 24 hours later and a mile or so away, a little girl was dropped off by her father at a marketplace, given 1,000 won, and told to buy herself a treat. He said he’d come back for her, but he never did. When a woman found the child alone, she discovered a note in the girl’s pocket which read, “Please send this child to an orphanage through police station. At present, she has no parents.”

The girl said she was 4 years old and was able to tell police her name, Jee Young Lee; her father’s name, Kyung Kuk Lee, and that she lived with an older sister, Sang Yeon Lee. The girl said her mother ran away because her father drank too much and beat her. Records from the Social Welfare Society Inc. don’t say whether police ever tried to find her family before placing her up for adoption as well.

Through different agencies, the children were each adopted by families in the United States. The boy was raised as Justin Kragt and grew up mostly in Salem. The girl became Renee Alanko and grew up in Northern California.

And until this year, they never knew they were brother and sister.

In 2014, searching for some distant blood relatives, Kragt did a DNA test through the company 23andMe.

ADULTERY from 5 “Excellent decision,” tweeted Sushmita Dev, a lawmaker and president of the opposition Congress party’s women’s wing. She said “a law that does not give women the right to sue her adulterer husband ... is unequal treatment and militates against her status as an individual.”

Amnesty International India said the decision was “a progressive judgment” and the old law was a “remnant of a time when a woman was considered to be the property of her husband.”

The scrapped law allowed men to file charges against other men who had affairs with their wives. Women having affairs could not be prosecuted, but they also couldn’t file a complaint against cheating husbands.

Last month, the Misra-led court also struck down a

TAMAKI from 5 government to sort out the problem.

Tamaki’s victory throws into further question Japan’s plans for a new air base still under construction in coastal Okinawa.

Okinawa houses about half of the 54,000 American troops stationed in Japan and makes for 64 percent of the land space used by the U.S. bases, under a bilateral security treaty, according to John S. Hutcheson, spokesman for the U.S. Forces in Japan.

The arrangement has long been protested by some as an unfair burden on Okinawa, which makes up less than 1 percent of Japan’s land space.

Japan remains highly dependent on the U.S. for defense, but crimes by members of the military, including hit-and-runs as well as rapes, have outraged the people of Okinawa. They are also angry about noise pollution and the dangers of crashes from military aircraft.

Tamaki, whose father is a U.S. Marine he has never met, has often said he is a symbol of the predicament of his people.

His mother is Japanese.

“I was hoping to find a fifth cousin, as weird as that sounds,” Kragt said. He did find some distant connections and was happy with the outcome.

Kragt was born with congenital heart failure, which required open heart surgery at age 4. He had assumed he had been abandoned because he had special needs.

“I was content with that,” he said. “I heard other people that had horrible stories and I just thought I’ll believe in my Harry Potter story.”

But Alanko, who had known the name of her father and sister, had always wanted to know more about her birth family.

She had traveled to South Korea for a birth family search in 2008. With the help of an adoption agency detective, she sent out more than 200 letters to people who might be the father whose name she had given police. She heard nothing back.

This summer, Alanko, now living in the San Francisco Bay Area, took her own DNA test because she was thinking about having children. After the search in 2008, she was looking for health indicators, not family.

So it was a shock when the results of her 23andMe kit predicted she had a sibling living just 600 miles away in Salem.

Alanko’s adoption report makes no mention of a younger brother, only the older sister — and that woman, she knew, might actually be an aunt or caregiver. But her adopted mother told her that when she was very young and had first arrived in the U.S., she did speak of how her cute “baby brother” was.

When she reached out to Kragt and discovered they had been abandoned in neighboring districts and within a day of each other, the pieces came together. At some point, however briefly, they had been a family.

Why their father abandoned them separately is one of many questions that still linger.

They talked over the phone and shared photos but saw each other for the first time last month when Alanko flew into Portland International Airport for a tear-filled reunion.

Kragt’s adoptive family was there on what happened to be Kragt’s 36th birthday.

“I could not have planned a better gift to give Justin than this,” said his adoptive mother, Sue Maguire.

Life was not easy for Kragt as a child.

He was abused by his adopted father, who is now estranged from the rest of the family. But this moment, he said, was a joyful one.

“I always thought I was alone in the world, and I was content with that,” he said before tearing up.

His sister, standing next to him, put her head on his shoulder and hugged him tight.

“Now you’re stuck with me,” she joked, and the pair laughed.

“I have a lot of holes that need to be filled in my heart,” he said, “and this does, it patches it up.” 

colonial-era law that made gay sex punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The 1861 law, a relic of Victorian England that hung on long after the end of British colonialism, was “a breach of the rights of privacy and dignity,” the court ruled. It added that “history owes an apology to the members of this community and their families, for the delay in providing redressal for the ignominy and ostracism that they have suffered through the centuries.”

On Sept. 27, the court also decided not to reconsider a 1994 decision that would have delayed proceedings in a case over the ownership of the site of a mosque that Hindu hard-liners demolished in 1992.

The court’s recent pace of decisions speaks to another feature of Misra’s tenure: expediting cases in a country where they routinely take decades to resolve.

There are 33 million court cases pending in India,

government figures show.

Misra stepped down as chief justice on Oct. 2 he turned 65, the mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court judges.

He joined India’s highest court in 2011. His 13-month tenure as chief justice has won him accolades from advocates of disadvantaged groups but drawn unprecedented criticism from other members of the bench.

In January, the four most senior justices held a news conference against Misra, who as chief justice controls the court’s roster and decides who will take which cases, listing a litany of problems that they said afflicted the court and risked undermining India’s democracy. Misra met with the dissenting judges, who continued on the bench. 

“I can clearly state we no longer want in Okinawa the U.S. bases that destroy our peace and destroy our nature,” Tamaki, 58, said during his campaign.

He has promised policies that care about “the weak,” helping workers, students and those who face discrimination.

Before running for governor, Sakima, 54, was mayor of Ginowan, where the Marines air base called Futenma is located.

Futenma is at the center of the controversy over the government relocation plan for U.S. troops to less densely populated Henoko in Nago, Okinawa.

The planning dates back to the 1995 rape of a schoolgirl in which three U.S. servicemen were convicted. But the planning and construction of Henoko has repeatedly been delayed because of local opposition to the bases.

Some are also pointing to the threat that base construction, which includes a landfill, may bring to the environment, including to a coral reef and dugong and other marine life.

Outside of Okinawa, the national government and public opinion appear to support strengthening Japan’s security

measures as it faces nuclear threats from North Korea and the growing military might of China. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration also has been pushing Japan to do more to defend itself.

Tamaki, facing his supporters, who at times broke into joyous chants of “Denny!

Denny! Denny!” said his win showed that

the people don’t want the new base in Henoko.

“Henoko will not be allowed,” said Tamaki.

“We are all family on earth,” he said of dealing with the U.S. “How we can coexist in understanding and peace should be our starting point.” 

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asianweekly northwest

16

36 YEARS

OCTOBER 6 – OCTOBER 12, 2018 SEA CUCUMBERS from 1 pounds between 2014 and 2016. His company, Orient Seafood Production, then sold them to seafood buyers in Asia and the United States.

The illegal harvest amounted to nearly 20 percent of the total allowed harvest of the sea creatures statewide, said U.S. Attorney Annette Hayes, and did serious damage to the Puget Sound.

“This illegal activity damages the health of the Puget Sound ecosystem by endangering the sustainability of the sea cucumber population,” Hayes said.

“Illegal harvesting undermines quotas designed to protect the resource and keep the Sound healthy for our children and generations to come.”

Sea cucumbers, which are shaped like cucumbers with small feet and measure up to 6 feet, are echinoderms, a family that includes starfish and sea urchin.

They are served dried or fresh and often braised with fish, vegetables, and traditional Chinese sauces. They are sought to treat various health issues and are increasingly in demand in China and southeast Asian countries.

Harvesting sea cucumbers is permitted in the United States and many parts of the world, but with limited quantities and only during high season.

Illegal trade is becoming increasingly common and lucrative.

Last year, federal officials filed charges against a father-son partnership for allegedly smuggling more than $17 million worth of sea cucumbers to the United States and exporting them to Asia.

The pair was accused of buying the illegally harvested animals from poachers in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula and then shipping them overseas after bringing them across the border in San

Diego.

According to court records, in the recent Washington case, Namkoong bought Puget Sound sea cucumbers from both tribal and nontribal fishers over three seasons.

Sea cucumber harvests are regulated by both Washington state and tribal authorities and are tracked by fish tickets signed by both the fisher and the purchaser.

As part of his plea, Namkoong said he falsified fish tickets over three seasons and frequently paid fishers in cash, so there would be no financial record of the total amount of sea cucumbers taken.

Those actions are a violation of the Lacey Act, a federal law that prohibits illegal trafficking in wildlife, fish, and plants. 

BINGBING from 9

YALE from 4

News Agency, citing tax authorities.

Fan would not be investigated for criminal responsibility for tax evasion as long as the taxes, fines and late fees amounting to nearly $130 million are paid on time, the report said.

The announcement gave no indication of Fan’s whereabouts but indicated her agent is being held by police for allegedly obstructing the investigation.

Fan hasn’t been seen or heard from in public in any verifiable way for three months.

One of China’s wealthiest entertainers, Fan pulled down tens of millions of dollars for her roles, along with handsome sums in appearance fees and product endorsements. Some of those contracts may have landed her in hot water with the authorities.

Fan’s name has been mentioned in reports about a reportedly common entertainment industry practice — an actor having a public contract stating an official salary and a private contract detailing the true, much higher payday.

A talk show host, Cui Yongyuan had said in May that Fan had such an arrangement — which allegedly helps facilitate tax evasion — and revealed details that sparked a public outcry. Cui later apologized.

At Fan’s management office in Beijing’s Dongcheng district, doors are locked, the lights are out and a calendar hanging alongside posters advertising Fan’s film appearances is still turned to July. A worker at an office across the hall said she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen anyone enter the company premises.

Fan turned 37 on Sept. 16, but only a handful of entertainment notables sent greetings online, a stark break from the past when her birthday celebrations were lavish, well-attended affairs, marked last year by a public marriage proposal from boyfriend Li Chen.

An automatic birthday greeting on her once-active account on Weibo, China’s main microblogging service, was apparently deleted by persons unknown.

Fan has starred in dozens of movies and TV series in China and is best known internationally for her role as Blink in 2014′s “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” a cameo in the Chinese version of “Iron Man 3,” and star turns on the red carpet at Cannes as recently as May. Before her disappearance, she had been booked to star with Penelope Cruz in the Hollywood film “355.” She has a role in the upcoming Bruce Willis-Adrien Brody feature “Air Strike.”

Fan posted an apology on her official account on the social media site Weibo.com saying that she accepts the tax authorities’ decision and would “try my best to overcome all difficulties and raise funds to pay back taxes and fines.”

“I am unworthy of the trust of the society and let down the fans who love me,” she wrote in her first update of her Weibo.com microblog since June 2.

A man surnamed Liang, who identified himself as a staff member of Fan’s studio when reached by phone, refused to comment on the announcement or on Fan’s location.

Her disappearance coincided with a crackdown by the authorities on high salaries for actors that can eat up much of the cost of a production. In June, regulators capped star pay at 40 percent of a TV show’s entire production budget and 70 percent of the total paid to all the actors in a film.

Chinese state media said the investigation served as a warning to anyone working in the country’s arts and entertainment. A separate Xinhua report said the penalties issued to Fan would promote the “sustainable and healthy

the U.S. population. It says the decline has been fueled by negative stereotypes and that schools apply tougher admissions standards for Asian Americans.

The Education Department said it doesn’t comment on ongoing investigations. The Justice Department declined to comment on the Yale case but said it “takes extremely seriously any potential violation of an individual’s constitutional rights.”

Yale President Peter Salovey strongly denied the accusations, saying the school’s admission process considers “the whole person” and has created “a vibrant and varied academic community.”

“This investigation takes place in the context of legal challenges at other universities aimed at overturning Supreme Court precedent permitting the consideration of race in college admissions,” Salovey said, adding that he will affirm Yale’s “unwavering commitment to diversity.”

The investigation at Yale was reported first by The Wall Street Journal.

Yukong Zhao, president of the coalition, said he’s glad the Trump administration is taking “concrete action” to provide equal treatment for Asian American students.

The group was formed in 2014 to take action against Ivy League admission practices that the group says work against Asian Americans. It also filed a 2015 federal complaint against Harvard that the Justice Department took up last year and is still investigating.

A separate group, Students for Fair Admissions, sued Harvard in 2014 over claims that it is tougher on Asian American applicants and consistently gives them lower scores in categories that rate their personal characteristics.

The case is scheduled to go to trial in October.

On Aug. 30, the Justice Department issued a “statement of interest” in the Harvard case, supporting the group behind the suit and accusing Harvard of “engaging in outright racial balancing.”

In a response filed, Harvard said the department’s analysis was “flawed” and called it a “thinly veiled attack” on past Supreme Court decisions allowing schools to consider race in applications.

Many universities defend approaches that consider an applicant’s race among other factors as a way to bring a diverse mix of perspectives to campus, and the Supreme Court narrowly upheld the practice in a 2016 ruling.

But the Trump administration’s interest in the topic has revived the debate over race in admissions. Responding to news of the Yale investigation, some conservative groups renewed their calls to remove race from admissions.

“It is time for Harvard and other top schools that consider race and ethnicity in the name of ‘diversity’ to stop what they are doing,” said Mike Gonzalez, a senior fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington. “This is 2018 and the government should follow a color-blind approach.”

But others say courts have long given schools the freedom to assemble their student bodies as they choose. Peter McDonough, general counsel for the American Council on Education, which represents 1,800 college and university presidents, said the debate goes beyond admissions practices.

“This is really about institutional autonomy,” he said. “One of the things that has made our higher education system in America the envy of the world is that it’s so diverse. And concepts of freedoms and academic freedoms aren’t to be taken lightly.” 

Fan Bingbing attends De Beers flagship store opening at De Beers on December 7, 2016 in New York City

development of the film and television industry and raise social awareness on paying taxes according to the law.”

Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times tabloid known for its nationalist pro-Communist Party opinions, said, “Fan’s case must be shaking the performing arts world.”

People who try to evade taxes now will have to cough them up sooner or later, Hu wrote on his social media page. “The bigger the brand, the more likely you are to attract scrutiny. Just suffer this financial loss to be spared greater disaster, moreover these are ill-gotten gains.”

Known as a classical Chinese beauty with almond eyes and porcelain skin, Fan, 36, usually maintains a prominent presence on Weibo, where she has more than 62 million followers. Her account has been largely dormant for weeks, however, with a July 26 “like” about a posting on her charitable foundation being the last activity prior to the deletion of her birthday notice. Photos on social media also appear to show her visiting a pediatric cardiac ward at a Shanghai hospital for a charity event on July 1.

Fan’s disappearance has already taken a toll on her lucrative sideline as brand ambassador, throwing those companies’ plans into disarray. Australian vitamin brand Swisse issued a statement saying it was suspending use of her image and “continuing to monitor the situation and hope that it is resolved in the near future.”

British diamond giant De Beers, who signed with Fang just last year, appears to have already moved on: Another actress, Gao Yuanyuan, represented the company at a store opening in August in the ancient capital of Xi’an. Other firms she endorsed, from duty-free chain King Power to Louis Vuitton and Montblanc are also taking action.

“There’s a lot more risk for celebrities in China than in the United States, because the government takes much more of a moral crackdown,” said China Market Research’s Rein. “So there’s a greater risk for celebrities to get in trouble with the law and never be able to get a chance at redemption.” 