NEW YORK—The families of two American journalists held for nearly three months in solitary confinement by the North Korean government flew here from their California homes this weekend and will appear on NBC’s Today Show at 7 a.m. and CNN’s Larry King Live at 9 p.m. EST (6 p.m. PST) on Monday, June 1. The families will also appear on Anderson Cooper’s AC360 Wednesday, June 3, 7 p.m., on CNN.
Euna Lee, 36, and Laura Ling, 32, who work for Current TV, the San Francisco-based multimedia news organization founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore, were arrested March 17 near the North Korea- China border as they shot video footage of North Korean women and children fleeing to China. They have been charged with illegal entry and intention to commit “hostile acts” and are scheduled to stand trial in Pyongyang, June 4 (June 3 in the U.S.) before North Korea’s highest court.
Iain Clayton, Ling’s husband of 12 years, and Lee’s husband, Michael Saldate, have had very limited contact with their imprisoned wives.
Clayton, a Beverly Hills-based financial analyst, was the first to go public about his wife’s ongoing imprisonment with a post on the CNN Larry King Live blog May 29.
“As the trial date of June 4th approaches, I grow increasingly apprehensive and nervous about the fate of my wife, Laura Ling, and her colleague, Euna Lee,” Clayton blogged. “They have now been detained by the Government of the DPRK [Democratic People's Republic of Korea] for nearly three months. During this time I have had very limited contact with her and really, really miss her.”
Read Clayton’s entire blog post here.
L.A.-based actor/comedian Saldate has yet to issue a public statement on his wife Euna’s now 77-day-long ordeal, but he and the couple’s young daughter Hanna are also in New York to appear on the NBC and CNN programs. The trio will be joined by Ling’s parents, Doug and Mary Ling of Sacramento, and her older sister and fellow network TV reporter Lisa Ling.
Heed The Call: Free Euna Lee and Laura Ling
May 29, 2009
A nationwide candlelight vigil will be held Wednesday, June 3 to coincide with the trial of U.S. journalists Euna Lee and Laura Ling in North Korea. Accused to illegal entry into the DPRK with intent to commit hostile acts, Lee and Ling face five to 10 years hard labor if convicted. They were arrested March 17 near the China-North Korea border while videotaping a news story on women and children who flee the DPRK.
Responding to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary R. Clinton’s May 18 call for Americans to mount an Internet campaign to publicize the journalist’s plight. a core of Lee-Ling supporters has used social media site Facebook to organize nationwide candlelight vigils in support of the reporters, who have been held in solitary confinement since their capture by DPRK border guards.
- Washington, D.C. Vigil, Freedom Plaza, 14th St., NW and Pennsylvania Ave., NW–Federal Triangle METRO, 6-8 p.m.
- New York City Vigil, Washington Square Park, 6-8 p.m.
- Chicago Vigil, Chinatown Square Plaza, Cermack and Wentworth Sts., 7:30-8:30 p.m.
- Birmingham, AL Vigil, Linn Park, 223 Carrington Lane, 7-10 p.m.
- Portland, OR Vigil, South Park Blocks, SW Main St. and SW Park St., 6:30-8 p.m.
- San Francisco Vigil, City Hall (Front Steps), 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place. 6-8 p.m.
- Los Angeles Vigil, Wokcano, 1413 5th Street, Santa Monica, 7-9 p.m.
Or, if you can’t attend a vigil, sign the online petition seeking the release of Euna and Laura, which will be delivered to North Korean Ambassador to the United Nations Han Song-ryol.
Please bring candles for the vigils.
National Organizer: Brendan McShane Creamer
Email address: blove73@msn.com
Phone 215.699.4338
No Jail Time for Indiana`Exorcist’ Eddie Uyesugi
May 21, 2009
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A Japanese American man convicted of battery and criminal confinement after trying to exorcise demons from an autistic teenage boy in 2007 was sentenced to house arrest on Thursday.
Monroe Circuit Judge Teresa Harper sentenced Edward Uyesugi, a 24-year-old former theological student, to three years in jail, with all but six months suspended. He will serve those six months under house arrest at his parents’ home in Orange County, Indiana. Uyesugi was facing a maximum 16-year sentence.
Uyesugi must also perform 400 hours of community service and was credited with one day already served in jail at the time of his surrender and subsequent arrest.
During the trial held last month, the victim’s grandmother and guardian, Mary Lou Raby, admitted she took part in the so-called exorcism, prayed in tongues and physically restrained her then 14-year-old grandson. She also said she forced her hand into her grandson’s mouth that evening. The victim’s older teenage brother also took part in the ritual, said Blanton.
While studying to be a pastor at the Cherry Hill Christian Center, Uyesugi, then 22, lived at the center’s parsonage. Mrs. Raby was a member of the Cherry Hill Christian congregation.
Uyesugi, testified Mrs. Raby invited him into her home and asked him to cast 12 demons out of her grandson and that he tried to do so following procedures taught at Cherry Hill Christian Center.
“Eddie’s actions were consistent with the teachings of Cherry Hill Christian Center,” Blanton maintained throughout the trial.
Blanton told the jury that exorcism, deliverance and root spirits were part of the Cherry Hill Christian Center’s curriculum. “One of the textbooks was on demonic possession,” he added.
“Basically, this was a case of the Cherry Hill Christian Center leaving Eddie holding the bag,” said Blanton.
U.S. Media Loses Interest in Swine Flu
May 21, 2009
The U.S., for now, has moved on from the so-called “swine” flu, but much of the rest of the world continues to apply measures to stem the spread of the H1N1 virus and drug companies rush to bring a vaccine to the market.
The mainstream media in the U.S. has turned its attention away from the swine flu and redirected its focus to the economy, crime and American Idol.
This despite the fact that confirmed cases continue to rise on the east and west coasts and reports that a H1N1 vaccine isn’t due for several more weeks.
Fresh outbreaks of the virus are being reported in the northeast region of the United States, centered around the greater New York City area, and health officials now fear that H1N1 now appears to be spreading in Japan, pushing the world to the brink of a full-fledged swine flu pandemic.
A headline in the May 21 global edition of the The New York Times read: “Japan Is in Crisis Mode,” and detailed the growing fears about the the spread of H1N1 virus in what is perhaps the world’s most hygienic nation.
Meanwhile, the EU this week issued a travel advisory about travel to the U.S.
Track the spread of the H1N1 cases in the U.S. and around the world with FluTracker interactive maps:
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- Seasonal vaccines won’t protect against H1N1, Scientific American
- Heighten Risk for Pregnant Women, MSNBC
- With Flu Fears Rising Japan Is in Crisis Mode, The New York Times
EDISON TOWNSHIP, NJ—Political opponents are mounting a race-based campaign against incumbent Mayor Jun H. Choi as he seeks reelection and supports a three-person reform ticket of township council candidates.
Choi, 37, became the first Korean American elected mayor in the continental U.S. in 2005. Born in South Korea, Choi grew up in Edison, a city of more than 100,000 and the home of famed inventor Thomas Alva Edison’s Menlo Park lab. He holds a bachelors degree from M.I.T. and a masters in public policy from Columbia Univ.
Choi is facing Councilwoman Antonia Ricigliano, who has been endorsed by the Edison and Middlesex County Democratic committees. The Democratic primary is set for June 2.
According to Choi for Mayor campaign manager Mike Barfield, race became an issue when a direct mail flyer from an opposition slate of council candidates urged Edison voters to “send Mayor Choi a one-way ticket out of Edison.” Then, at a recent public form, council candidate Thomas Hanke quipped: “Let’s send Choi a one-way ticket back to Korea.” (Read entire post)
- Jersey Boy, The American Prospect
- Korean American Mayor Scores Political Win, The Korea Times
- Jun H. Choi Backgrounder, Wikipedia
- Edison’s Mayor Running Again Without Party’s Endorsement, The Star-Ledger
- Letter to the Editor: Choi Uninterested in Needs of Edison, Courier News
- Mayor’s Page, edisonnj.org
- Choi for Mayor Campaign Page, junchoi.com
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PYONGYANG, North Korea—The Swedish ambassador to North Korea has met with two US journalists arrested near its border with China in March, the BBC and South Korean newspaper JoongAhn Ilbo are reporting.
Euna Lee, a Korean-American, and Laura Ling, a Chinese-American, are charged with illegal entry after allegedly crossing from China into North Korea and with “hostile acts” against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
Ambassador Mats Foyer met with each woman separately on May 15, the U.S. State Department confirmed Saturday. He did not comment about what they talked about or on their physical or psychological conditions. Foyer, who often oversees U.S. interests in North Korea where Washington has no embassy, last saw Lee and Ling six weeks ago.
The journalists are scheduled to stand trial June 4.
What Ever Happened to Michelle Branch?
May 15, 2009
Admit it. We were all Michelle Branch fans a few years ago, and in the summer of 2000 we were humming songs off of her The Spirit Room album.
The Indonesian-American singer out of Sedona, Ariz. was part of a wave of solo female vocalists that included Norah Jones, Avril Lavigne, Jewel, Nelly Furtado, Lisa Loeb and Liz Phair. Branch provided young corpuscles for the Grammy-winning collaboration with legendary guitarist and known vampire Carlos Santana (“The Game of Love”) and she was also nominated for a best new artist Grammy in 2003. All of this at 19.
Then, Michelle Branch all but vanished from the scene, and she hasn’t been heard from creatively in six years. So what ever happened to her?
Michelle married her bass player Teddy Landau in 2004 and a year later gave birth to a daughter, Owen Isabelle. She and Jessica Harp formed a duo called The Wreckers in 2005 that lasted two years. She sold her Los Angeles home in2007 and moved to Nashville, where she planned to open a pastry shop with a friend. But came another 180-degree turn back to composing and her solo career.
Last year, Branch wrote and performed “Together” for the soundtrack of The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. Her next solo album, Everything Comes and Goes, is set for release in late summer. Rumors say it’s country inspired.
Michelle Branch, “This Way,” Everything Comes and Goes (Unreleased)
Big in Japan: Reverse Nazis
May 13, 2009
Saberi: I Just Want to Be With My Parents
May 12, 2009
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Mother’s Day and Memories of Nori Musubi
May 10, 2009
Misora Hibari, the legendary Japanese singer/actress of the post-World War II era, emerged at just the right moment to flip the script for a defeated and demoralized Japan. The arc of her career paralleled the nation’s rebirth during the 1960s and ’70s, and her death in 1989 foreshadowed the fall of Japan, Inc. in the ’90s.
My mom was a big Hibari fan. On Saturdays we went to see Hibari’s latest movie the Toho La Brea or Kokusai theaters in West L.A. Hibari’s face was all over the house— under bold headlines in Japanese women’s magazines like Shufu no Tomo, on album covers and airbrushed calendar illustrations. And, of course, the music—everywhere—was the beat of mom’s heart.
愛燦燦 (Ai San San), Misora Hibari
Kogi Taco Truck Busted in Buena Park
May 8, 2009
Apparently fearing an explosion of flavor or a galbi taco riot, police in Buena Park ordered a line of Kogi Korean BBQ taco truck dinner customers to disperse May 2. Oh, well, so it goes when you’re the hottest thing happening in culinary America.
Timed perfectly for both Mother’s Day and the season’s premiere of the TLC reality show Jon & Kate Plus Eight come rumors of infidelity in the crowded house of Jon and Kate Gosselin of Wernersville, Pennsylvania.
The Gosselins are the parents of twin girls and sextuplets (three girls/three boys) and two dogs. We’ve witnessed the family’s daily life unfold via two Discovery Health specials in 2007 and then in the form of the popular TLC reality series Jon & kate Plus Eight.
The way the tabloids are angling it, it’s a sorry and sordid tale that has Korean American Jon, 32, cheating on his baby mama, Kate 30, with a younger woman. Dropping the “tabloid dime” on the couple? The “other woman’s” older brother (and roommate). Don’t spend it all at once, Jason.
Evidently, things have not been right in the Gosselin household since early in the year after Jon met 23-year-old elementary school teacher Deanna Hummel at the Chill Inn in Reading over three-dollar shots. The Gosselins have denied the alleged infidelity and announced that the issue will be addressed in the upcoming season of their show, which premieres May 25. How convenient.
PARIS—American journalist Roxana Saberi on a hunger strike for two weeks to protest her imprisonment in Iran was briefly hospitalized after she intensified her fast by refusing to drink water, Reporters Without Borders said Monday.
Reza Saberi, the 32-year-old reporter’s Iranian-born father, told the group over the weekend that his daughter stopped drinking water after Iranian authorities denied she was on a hunger strike.
He and his Japan-born wife, Dr. Akiko Saberi are in Tehran seeking the early release of their daughter. The Saberis live in Fargo, North Dakota.
Meanwhile, Japan called on Iran to have more transparency in the case of the jailed Iranian-American journalist, informed sources in Tehran said Sunday. Visiting Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a meeting Saturday that although Tokyo respected the judiciary’s independence but still expected more transparency in the Saberi case.
Roxana Saberi, who worked for National Public Radio, was sentenced to eight years in prison last month on charges of spying for the US government. Her attorneys have filed an appeal.
