Belated News: Gary Locke! Commerce Secretary

I'm really excited to share that G. Locke is Sec. of Commerce. He has great qualifications, very forward with the rights of citizens in the U.S. and has done well in serving his state of WA. Though, APA for Progress has a slightly different take on his appointment and shares some insight on hesitating to support Sec. Locke.

It comes down to this: Like President Obama, Governor Gary Locke supports free trade.

As a card carrying member of the DLC, Governor Locke’s trade policies fall firmly in line with the status quo. The Wall Street Journal (ugh) profiles Locke as a supporter of NAFTA and China’s entry into the WTO.

Why is this a problem? A 4-point answer.

* Progressives don’t support free trade because Progressives don’t support a 6 year old child earning 14 cents an hour, working 16 hours a day, enduring 110 degrees heat in a sweatshop in Burma.

* Progressives don’t support free trade because Progressives hate it when a laid-off American auto worker holds back tears to tell his daughter that she can’t go to college. He has no job, but thecorporation has a new manufacturing plant in Mexico.

* Progressives don’t support free trade because we know that “race to the bottom” trade policies result in wages that haven’t gone up since 1968.

* And Progressives just don’t believe in the WTO. Period.

The biggest problem is that the Office of the Secretary of Commerce is directly involved in executing the administration’s trade policies, which are no doubt those of the free trade kind.

Read more on his appointment here.

More Than Rocket Science: NASA Astronaut Daniel Tani 3/10

AARCC is bringing a real, live astronaut to UIC! Don't miss this
interesting and inspiring talk:

More Than Rocket Science: NASA Astronaut Daniel Tani

Tuesday, March 10
4:00 p.m.
Student Center East Room #302

NASA Astronaut Daniel Tani is a Chicagoland native and 3rd generation
Japanese American. He attended Glenbard East H.S., graduated from M.I.T.,
and has been an astronaut since 1996. He will share his experiences as an
astronaut both on the ground and in space (including pictures of Chicago!).
Tani has logged over 131 days in space including at the International Space
Station. Read an interview with Daniel Tani in the
February/March issue
of AARCConnections available at aarcc.uic.edu.

Sponsored by the Asian American Resource and Cultural Center. Co-sponsored
by the Northrup Grumman Corporation. For more information, visit
aarcc.uic.edu or call 312-413-9569.

Lower Citizenship Fees! Organizational Endorsement Form

Dear friend,

NAKASEC and its affiliates in Los Angeles & Chicago are working with groups across the country to gather organizational endorsements for this important national effort to lower the citizenship fees. Many of us know firsthand how the drastic fee increase has become a barrier for our community members to become citizens. Please read below the letter to be sent to Department of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano:

“Dear Secretary Napolitano:

The undersigned organizations write in support of the letter from US Rep. Jan Schakowsky and her Congressional colleagues urging you to act now to reduce citizenship fees. The Bush Administration’s decision to increase fees from $400 to $675 in July 2007 has put citizenship further out-of-reach for thousands of hardworking, patriotic immigrants who want to fully participate in our democracy. We urge you to reduce the citizenship fee back to $400, and make the American dream of citizenship attainable again. Thank you for your consideration.”

Earlier this year, local and national immigrant rights groups came together to deliver a letter with 1,200 organizational endorsements to President Barack Obama on the urgent need to enact immigration reform. With you, altogether we gathered 97 endorsements primarily from the Korean American and Asian American & Pacific Islander communities.

If you would like to endorse, please send the following information to March 9, 5 p.m. to soh@nakasec.org or fax to 323.937.3753:


Organization: ____________________________________________________



Contact Person/Title:________________________________________



Address:_________________________________________________________



Email:_______________________________ Phone Number: (_____)__________________



Thank you for your thoughtful consideration. If you should have any questions, any of the following individuals would be happy to hear from you: Sookyung Oh at NAKASEC (323.937.3703, ext. 206, soh@nakasec.org), JungHee Lee at KRC (323.937.3718, junghee@krcla.org), and/or Sik Sohn at KRCC (773.588.9158, sohnsik@chicagokrcc.org). Together, We Build America’s Future.


Sincerely,

National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC)

Korean American Resource & Cultural Center, Chicago, IL

Korean Resource Center, Los Angeles, CA

Apply for ECAASU National Board!

Apply for ECAASU National Board
http://applynational.ecaasunational.org (application and position descriptions)
deadline: March 15, 2009

The East Coast Asian American Student Union (ECAASU) is seeking interested and dedicated individuals to serve on its National Board. The National Board will provide leadership to ECAASU. This is a great opportunity for you to be a part of a national organization encompassing more than 1,000 college students and alumni. Being on the National Board will require some travel, and attendance during conference call meetings is expected. We welcome you to join us in making significant impacts on the Asian American community in the United States. The following positions are open for application (note: each of these positions can be filled with either a chair or two co-chairs or a chair/vice chair, the composition depends on the applicants--if you prefer a vice-chair, especially the vice-national chair, please indicate your preference):
• National Chair
• Marketing/Outreach Chair
• Communications Chair
• Internal Chair
• Finance Chair
• The Taskforce Chairs
• Student Issues Taskforce Chair
• Media Engagement Taskforce Chair
• Political Awareness Taskforce Chair
• Civil Rights Taskforce Chair

NOTE: if you would like to do something for ECAASU National that does not match any of these positions, let us know. We have crafted positions for strong candidates in the past. We would much rather have strong board with new positions, than weak board just to fit existing positions.

To apply, go online at http://applynational.ecaasunational.org and fill out the application by March 15th, 2009.

Good luck!
ECAASU National

Low-wage work, migration and gender conference-UIC March 13-14, 2009

*The UIC Department of Sociology invites you to:*

* Low-Wage Work, Migration and Gender Conference
March 13-14, 2009
at the Jane Addams Hull House Museum
University of Illinois at Chicago*

*Sponsored by the FORD Foundation and the Jane Addams Hull House Museum*

**

*For Preliminary Program and Pre-registration go to:
*

*http://www.uicsociology.org/
*

*or click on the link below*

*
http://www.uicsociology.org/low-wage-work-migration-and-gender-conference-2009.html
*

*or contact*

*Nilda Flores-Gonzalez or Anna Guevarra
*

*lmg2009@gmail.com
*

*(312)996-5904
*

------------------------------------------------
Anna Guevarra, PhD
Assistant Professor, Sociology and Asian American Studies
Affiliated Faculty, Gender & Women's Studies
ADDRESS: Dept. of Sociology
University of Illinois at Chicago
1007 West Harrison Street (MC 312)
Chicago, IL 60607-7140
Phone: 312-996-5904 Fax: 312-996-5104
email: guevarra@uic.edu