VOL 41 NO 25 | JUNE 18 – JUNE 24, 2022

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VOL 41 NO 25 JUNE 18 – JUNE 24, 2022

FREE 40 YEARS YOUR VOICE

NORMAN MINETA A life well lived By Ruth Bayang NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

“I am so proud to be your son.” David Mineta was one of several people who spoke at a memorial service for his late father—Norman Y. Mineta. David Mineta The first Asian American to hold a Cabinet position, Mineta died on May 3 at age 90. “To be sure, living a public life has not always been easy for our family… there were some tough years but as I’ve grown older, I cherish being Norm’s son,” said David. At the June 11 service in Washington, D.C.—the first of three memorials for the former Transportation Secretary—Speaker Nancy Pelosi called him the “patriarch” of the Asian American community, a trailblazer and mentor for a generation of AAPI public servants. “I was humbled to partake in this special memorial,” said Elaine Ikoma Ko, who traveled from Seattle for the service, along with former Uwajimaya CEO Tomio Moriguchi. Ko said, “I was overcome with a sense of respect and gratitude for this humble man. His accomplishments and contributions to this country makes him equal to the greatest American leaders of all times.” Civil rights advocate Karen Narasaki worked with Mineta

while he served as Secretary of Commerce, and then Transportation. “Secretary Mineta was an accomplished law maker and civil rights leader. He taught all of us how much could be Karen Narasaki achieved when one does not care who gets the credit.” Narasaki also credited him for creating the current infrastructure of national AAPI advocacy and leadership building. “At a time when he would joke there were so few APA members they could meet in a telephone booth, he worked to create the Congressional APA Caucus that includes members of Congress who are not APA but have 5% or more in their district.” Narasaki added, “Many AANHPIs who are elected officials, presidential appointees, congressional or agency staff today, owe their opportunities to the institutions he pushed to be created.” Beyond his life of public service and resume, all those who paid tribute spoke of Mineta’s kindness. “Dad loved family,” said Stuart Mineta. “He loved the sense of togetherness and closeness that family provided … and Dad see MINETA on 16

Credit: Weber Thompson architects

New building a possible transition between CID and downtown

By Mahlon Meyer NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY The artist’s first rendering of the proposed 29-story tower was not too popular with activists, who were once again, well organized with several speakers who oppose the project. The opposition, voiced at a June 14 International Special Review District (ISRD) review board meeting, was partially about the project’s height and thus its potential to block sunshine to surrounding areas. But the architect for the project, dubbed Fujimatsu Village, came in hand with a

series of slides that showed how his firm had repositioned the tower from the south side of the site to the north and had broken it up into smaller wedges that appear less imposing. The changes also seemed to indicate there would be less blockage of sunlight. Members of the review board were pleased with this “evolution,” as the architect described it, and said that it more fully coalesced the proposed construction into the landscape of the buildings around it. Board member Ming Zhang said see ISRD on 12

Stuart Mineta

U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia to meet with local community

U.S. Ambassador to Cambodia W. Patrick Murphy will visit Seattle later this month, to share his views and experience on recent developments affecting Cambodia and its future. Murphy will attend a Cambodian American Community Dinner Reception at China Harbor Restaurant on June 27 in Seattle. William Oung, chair of Seattle-Sihanoukville Sister City Association, will also speak at this event.  The dinner cost is $50 per person. If you are interested in attending, RSVP by June 17 to any of the following:  Pakun Sin (206) 579-0960, pakun.sin@caccwa.org  Bill Oung (206) 437-2079, william.oung@caccwa.org  Thyda Ros (206) 850 -9180, thydaros@gmail.com

Washington justices: Race a factor in analyzing police stops

By GENE JOHNSON ASSOCIATED PRESS SEATTLE (AP) — A person’s race and ethnicity must be taken into account when deciding whether they were free to leave an encounter with police, the Washington Supreme Court said on June 9 in its latest decision seeking to counteract bias in the justice system. The unanimous ruling concerned Palla Sum, a man identified in court records as Asian Pacific Islander. When a Pierce County sheriff’s deputy found him sleeping in his car in Tacoma in 2019, Sum gave a false name and birth date, drove off as the deputy was checking for warrants, and

crashed in someone’s front yard. Whether Sum was free to leave when he did was a key point in his case. At his trial, he sought to suppress evidence of his false statements, saying they were made only after the officer detained him by implying that he was under investigation for car theft. In reality, the car was not stolen, and the officer had no reason to detain him until after he sped off, the justices said, meaning the initial detention was unlawful and a lower court judge should not have allowed evidence of the false statements at trial. While the court might have reached the see POLICE STOPS on 13

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