New Memorial Wall to Honor Vietnamese Soldier Heroes

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

April 2, 2014

 

Contact: Janice Rombeck

Office of Supervisor Dave Cortese, 408-299-5030                            

New Memorial Wall to Honor Vietnamese Heroes

WHAT:         The unveiling of a new Memorial Wall dedicated to seven Vietnamese heroes who died in the Vietnam War.  The ceremony will feature a marching band, salute to the flags, a moment of silence, the playing of Taps and an introduction of the seven heroes in English and Vietnamese. Family members of the honored men will receive a balloon. After all the biographies have been read, family members will release the balloons.  Dignitaries will also speak. The monument is a project of the Lam Son Group in partnership with the Viet Museum and the Office of Supervisor Dave Cortese.

 

 

WHEN:           Saturday, April 5, 2014, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

 

WHERE:         Outside the Viet Museum, History Park, 1650 Senter Road, San Jose

 

WHO:           U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer

                   Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren

                   Congressman Mike Honda

                   Supervisor Dave Cortese          

                   San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and City Councilmembers

                   Loc Vu, Director of Viet Museum

                   Alida Bray, President and CEO of History San Jose

 

 

 

For more information, call the Lam Son Group at 650-823-6645 or the Office of Supervisor  Dave Cortese at 408-299-5030.

SCA-5 Caused Uproar in the Asian American Community, CA State Assembly Speaker Perez Backed Down

(Santa Ana) In an unexpected turn of events, California State Assembly Speaker John H. Perez announced today that he will hold off on moving forward with Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 (SCA 5). Supervisor Janet Nguyen, who opposed this legislation, welcomed the news but vowed to continue monitoring the bill.

 

"I am pleased that SCA 5 has been tabled because it was a divisive piece of legislation that would have significantly affected the residents of Orange County," said Supervisor Nguyen.  "However, there's a chance it could still move forward so I will continue to watch it."

 

 

 

SCA 5 would have repealed portions of Proposition 209, which was passed by the voters in 1996 and removed preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin in public education. Given the widespread impact that this legislation would have on the residents of Orange County, Supervisor Nguyen authored an opinion piece opposing it and has asked that it be included on the Board of Supervisors' agenda for the County to take an official oppose position.

 

"Although SCA 5 will not move forward at this time, it has highlighted deficiencies in the K-12 education system that need to be addressed," said Supervisor Nguyen. "I think we still need to talk about how we proactively enhance the K-12 education system to make sure that we successfully increase the chances of those who wish to pursue their dreams of attending higher education."

 

According to Speaker John Perez, SCA 5 was sent back to the State Senate without taking action in the State Assembly at the request of SCA 5 author, Senator Ed Hernandez.

 

 

Mike Honda vs. Rho Khanna For US Congress, California D17

The main stream media has been abuzz with the ability of Rho Khanna (D) to raise over $3.2 million  to unseat the incumbent Mike Honda (D).   Rho lives in the East Bay and was a mid-level member of the Obama administration.   Honda so far received about $1.1 million.

However, with the latest poll conducted by Democracy for America,  Honda is 19% ahead of Rho and 16% ahead of a Republican challenger.  The latest poll results can be reviewed in the following link -


http://www.indiawest.com/news/17232-new-poll-shows-honda-leading-indian-american-competitors-in-hot-race.html17

LSI also had commissioned a poll asking Vietnamese-Americans about the name recognition of each candidate.   A poll, conducted by a private foundation - Viet Polling Media, asked 217 Vietnamese-Americans in D17 whether they recognize  Mike Honda,  Rho Khanna and Vanila Singh.

The result is 65% either recognize who is Mike Honda or familiar with his name.   Vanila Singh is not known at all in the community while Rho Khanna is familiar in 9% of the population.   The margin of error is 5%.

Khanna hired some Vietnamese-Americans to help him get closer to the Vietnamese-American voters.   Nevertheless, their lack of credibility with the community ends up hurting Rho more than helping him.

LSI is not a gambler but with this kind of name recognition in the community,  it is safe to predict that Khanna will not even make a dent in the Vietnamese-American voting blocs that will most likely favor Honda.

Vietnam Education Foundation Community Outreach, California

February 10, 2014 (Washington, D.C.)

The Vietnam Education Foundation (VEF) is pleased to announce its Community Outreach meetings in California:

(1) in Orange County on Saturday, March 8, at 3:00pm at Viet Bao Gallery - 14841 Moran St., Westminster, CA 92683 and

(2) in San Jose on Sunday, March 9, at 3 pm at Berryessa Public Library - 3355 Noble Avenue, San Jose, CA 95132. The meetings are free and open to the public. 

The purpose of these meetings is to share information about VEF. Brief presentations will be made that will also cover the requirements for applying for various VEF grants and scholarships. In addition, VEF Fellowship recipients, who are pursuing graduate degrees in leading California universities, will present their research endeavors via an interactive poster session.

Furthermore, Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, who is a member of the VEF Board of Directors, will be speaking at the event on Saturday, March 8. 

Several additional VEF Board members from the U.S. Vietnamese-American community will be speaking: Ms. Anhlan Nguyen, IT Portfolio Manager at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center; Mr. David Duong, CEO of California Waste Solutions; Ms. Quyen Vuong Executive Director, International Children Assistance Network; and Dr. Kim Oanh Nguyen Lam, Director, Advanced Training and Research, International and Foreign Language Education in the Office of Postsecondary Education, U.S. Department of Education.

In addition, a presentation will be given by Dr. Lynne McNamara, VEF Executive Director.  

VEF is an independent U.S. Federal Government agency, whose mission is to build the relationship between Vietnam and the United States through educational exchanges. As per the VEF legislative mandate, VEF activities focus only on the STEMM fields: sciences (natural, physical, and environmental), technology (including information technology), engineering, mathematics, and medicine.  
VEF educational exchange activities consist of three programs: (1) Fellowship Program, which sends Vietnamese nationals to the United States for graduate degree programs; (2) Visiting Scholar Program, which supports Vietnamese nationals, who already hold a doctorate, to further develop their professional skills via studies, research, and/or observational activities at leading U.S. academic institutions; and (3) U.S. Faculty Scholar Program, which supports American professors to teach courses in English at Vietnamese institutions for one or two semesters by teaching on site in Vietnam or by teaching via interactive, real-time videoconferencing from the United States



VEF began operations in 2003, and the year 2014 marks its 11th anniversary. The first VEF Community Outreach event took place in Houston, Texas, in 2013, and focused on sharing information about VEF programs with members of the community.  This is the second time that VEF is holding a public outreach meeting in the United States to introduce VEF programs and activities more widely to the public in order to promote public awareness. VEF is pleased to have an opportunity to reach out to the community in California, a key region for VEF and home to the largest community of Vietnamese-Americans in the United States.  

So far, VEF has sent 466 VEF Fellows to study at 92 top-tier U.S. universities of which 28 VEF Fellows are pursuing, or have received, graduate degrees, at the following universities in California: University of California, Berkeley University of California, Davis University of California, Los Angeles University of California, San Diego University of California, Santa Barbara University of Southern California 

VEF is pleased to invite all members of the community, who are interested in learning more about VEF, to come to the Community Outreach events. Refreshments will be served. 
For more information on VEF, please visit the VEF website at www.vef.gov.

How to Politically Attack OC County Supervisor Janet Nguyen

District Attorney Clears Supervisor Janet Nguyen of Politically Motivated Complaints

 

 

Garden Grove, CA - - Stephen Larson, an attorney for County Supervisor and Cal Optima Board Member Janet Nguyen, announced today that the Orange County District Attorney's Office, in correspondence prepared by Senior Assistant District Attorney Michael Lubinski, has confirmed in writing that it has completed its investigation concerning conflict-of-interest allegations concerning Supervisor Nguyen.  

 

 According to Mr. Lubinski, the District Attorney has concluded -- after conducting witness interviews and reviewing campaign finance documents, contracts, and voting records -- "that no criminal conflict of interest laws were violated by Janet Nguyen" in her position as a Cal Optima Board member.   

 

Although Supervisor Nguyen has always been confident that nothing improper ever occurred and that the complaints submitted to the District Attorney were politically motivated, she is pleased to receive this written confirmation from the District Attorney and, through that office, the FPPC.

Madison Nguyen No Show at the 32nd Tet Festival in San Jose

The 32nd Tet Festival at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds attracted tens of thousands of people.   It was one of the largest crowd ever in the history of the event.   It was a resounding success for the VTF committee who put many volunteer hours and efforts to pull off such a great event.  

Interestingly enough, during the two festive days,  San Jose Councilmember Madison Nguyen, who is running for mayor, decided not to show up.   There are 5 candidates running in 2014 and County Supervisor Dave Cortese is the clear favorite in the Vietnamese-American community.   His long standing relationship and ever presence in the community is so well like and respect that it is not surprising.

This fact is significant since it was the Asian-American votes that got the current Mayor Chuck Reed into the run-off and won it all against Cindy Chavez.   With 1/3 Asian, 1/3 Hispanic and 1/3 White,  the electoral demographics favor whoever won the non-White votes will have the best chance to win the election.
 

Obamacare in Little Saigon

With the community asking for more information and participation in Obamacare,  OC County Supervisor Janet Nguyen and her staff conducted a Q & A forum to help explaining the program.

In San Jose,  Santa Clara County supervisors Cindy Chavez and Dave Cortese also arranged for different events to help the community.