Phu Nguyen running for 68th Assembly District to Replace Van Tran

Phu Nguyen, a new young face,  has announced his candidacy for the 68th Assembly District to replace the term out of Van Tran. 

http://www.votephu.com/phu/welcome.aspx

Phu Nguyen is the vice president of Saigon Central Post, Inc. (SCPI), a remittance company serving the Vietnamese American Community.  This is transfer money service from US to Vietnam. Phu is also the CEO of My Vietnam Inc., a company that provides cargo and telecommunications services to Vietnam.


Phu is married to Yen Khanh, a math professor at Santa Ana College. They have an active two-year-old named Christopher and are expecting another child in the spring of 2010.

His list of endorsement reads the who's who of the OC Democratic Party.  The conventional wisdom is that he will win the Democratic primary and face the Republican candidate, Costa Mesa Mayor Allan Mansoor, for the general election in November. 

The community's reaction so far is wait and see but there is a lot of buzz within certain segments of Vietnamese-American Democrats.   He is coming from a strong Catholic background and certainly can get the Vietnamese-American Catholic voters excited, especially now that a lot of old parish priests are being replaced with young and main stream Vietnamese-American priests as head of their respective diosces. 
 
However, his business tie with Vietnam can be an issue with the extreme right wingers in the community.  The question is can he put together a coalition of traditional democratic voting bloc to vote for him.  He will likely get the majority of the Vietnamese-American votes come the general election. 
 
This will be an interesting race no matter what if Phu Nguyen can win the primary.  Allan Mansoor has his work cut out for him.
 

Madison Nguyen, Lan Nguyen and Brown Act Violation

Lawsuit filed in Santa Clara Superior Court against City of San Jose City Council for violation of the Brown Act by the Vietnamese American community is set to be heard for summary judgment by Superior Court in early Feb. 2010.   The update on the lawsuit can be viewed at:

http://vacnorcal.webs.com/

The lawsuit alleged that Councilmember Madison Nguyen had conspired to deny the Vietnamese-American community the name "Little Saigon".  The lawsuit alleged that Nguyen violated the Brown Act in cutting deals with other city councilmembers behind close door to go against the majority desire of the community.

The conventional wisdom is that the city will likely to settle before the trial because the evidence is very strong against Madison Nguyen. 

Not to be outdone by Madison Nguyen, one of her supporters in Southern California, Lan Nguyen, a school board member of Garden Grove Unified School District is in Brown Act controversial of his own.

Lan Nguyen is a right hand man of the Assemblyman Van Tran and is well known in Little Saigon as a hitman for Van Tran against OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen and  Garden Grove Unified School District school board member Kim Oanh Nguyen Lam. 

According to the OC Register:

" School board member Kim-Oanh Nguyen-Lam walked out of Tuesday night's school board meeting and has said she will not return to work with the board until they resolve a "Brown Act violation."




Nguyen-Lam alleges that trustees Lan Quoc Nguyen, Bob Harden and George West made a deal among themselves to nominate each other for the ceremonial positions of president and vice president minutes before the start of the Dec. 15 board meeting as they were seated on the dais.


Kim-Oanh Nguyen-Lam walked out of Tuesday night's School Board meeting alleging that her fellow board members violated the Brown Act.


"I was sitting right there shocked and confused," Nguyen-Lam said today. "I couldn't believe I saw what I saw."


Nguyen-Lam said she believes she witnessed a "political conspiracy" to keep her from getting those ceremonial positions."

Other OC blogs also reported the story:

www.theliberaloc.com/2010/01/06/ggsd-trustee-kimoanh-nguyen-lam-walks-from-meeting-over-lan-nguyens-violation-of-brown-act/

Joseph Cao Visits Vietnam, Expresses "Continue Relationship"

US Congressman Joseph Cao, a junior congressman from New Orleans, is currently visiting Vietnam.   Cao is a close friend of State Assemblyman Van Tran  and Dr.  Thang Nguyen, executive director of Boat People SOS.   Last year, State Assemblyman Van Tran and his cohorts brought Cao to Little Saigon and arranged for two fund raising events.  Above is the recent picture from the trip of Cao and Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen thanh Son.



See the breaking news in English on Vietnam Net.

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/politics/201001/First-VietnameseAmerican-congressperson-visits-Vietnam-887923/

Asked by the press about his feeling about visiting VN, Cao answered: " Tôi rất vui mừng khi trở về Việt Nam trong chuyến đi này. Năm 2001, tôi đã có dịp trở về Việt Nam. Sau 9 năm trở lại, Việt Nam đã phát triển rất nhiều. Tôi hy vọng hai chính phủ Việt Nam và Mỹ sẽ tiếp tục làm việc với nhau."

"I am very happy to be back to VN.  In 2001, I had a chance to visit VN.  After 9 years,  I can see that VN has grown tremendously.   I am hoping that our two countries will continue to work with each other."

Last year, Cao visited San Jose and garnered support from the Vietnamese American Community of Northern California.  The same group that was behind the recall of Madison Nguyen while calling her a communist sympathizer.



The irony here of course is that this is the same communist government that would not allow US Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez (D) to visit because of  her human rights and anti-communist rhetorics.

US Census Bureau is Hiring at $22/Hour

The U.S. Census Bureau is hiring temporary workers next year.   In most of the Bay Area, wages start at $22 per hour. Call 866-861-2010 or go to www.2010censusjobs.gov for details.

The bureau has also opened several local branch offices. Among them are:

San Leandro: 510-764-2960
Palo Alto: 650-641-8310
San Jose: 408-343-8160
Santa Clara: 408-792-6530

For information in Vietnamese:  408-500-2925

A 28 questions test will need to be taken.  A test sample can be taken at:

http://2010.census.gov/2010censusjobs/documents/Practice_Test.pdf

The higher the score, the better your chance of getting the job.  The government is particularly looking for bilangual speaker.