American Kim leads by a hair in S. Korea
AP via Google News
Anthony Kim may soon require a trip to the hairdresser after he battled his way to a six-under-par 66 on Friday to propel him into a three-shot halfway lead at the inaugural CJ Invitational.
The 26-year-old American, a three-time winner in the United States, did not even produce his best golf at the Haesley Nine Bridges Golf Club but ground out seven birdies in the $750,000 event in South Korea hosted by K.J. Choi.
Choi endured an error-strewn 70 for tied second place with fellow South Koreans Lee Ki-Sang and David Oh, who shot 67 and 69 respectively for a 137 total in the co-sanctioned Asian Tour and Korean Golf Tour showpiece.
Oral history? Telling it like it was
Orange County Register
Dr. Sammy Lee has a tale to tell.
Born in California in 1920, he was inspired by the 1932 LA Olympics to become a two-time Olympic gold diving champion. A respected doctor and veteran, he traveled the world and was family friends with Syngman Rhee, the first president of South Korea.
The son of immigrants, he encountered discrimination that sounds horse and buggy today – outmoded from a different time.
Lee could not practice diving at private clubs because these pools were closed to Asians. During World War II, he once wore a badge: “I am Korean, not a Jap.” He won the 1953 Sullivan Award from the Amateur Athletic Union, but was turned down twice in 1954 trying to buy a house in all-white Garden Grove — until the media got involved.
Those are the facts, an outline for a story only Lee can tell. It’s the kind of the story the Center for Oral and Public History at Cal State Fullerton wants to capture.
Palisades Park woman admits role in ID-theft and bank-fraud ring
Bergen County Record (N.J.)
A Palisades Park woman who was one of 53 suspects arrested in a massive identity-theft and bank-fraud ring last year pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiracy to produce phony identification documents, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.
Sung-Sil Joh, 47, also pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark to charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud affecting financial institutions, bank fraud and aggravated identity theft, authorities said.
Joh was arrested in September 2010 when authorities broke up an identity-theft and bank-fraud ring allegedly run by Sang-Hyun “Jimmy” Park, 44, of Palisades Park.
The ring allegedly obtained Social Security cards beginning with “586.” Cards with that prefix were issued legitimately in the 1990s to Chinese citizens who came to work in American territories such as American Samoa, Guam and Saipan.
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US citizen killed in Medan
Jakarta Post (Indonesia)
US citizen Samuel Hyein, 28, died after he was stabbed by two unidentified men riding on a motorcycle.
The Korean-American was taking a pedicab headed to his hotel from Polonia International Airport, according to North Sumatra Police chief Sr. Comr. Heru Prakoso.
“The victim had just arrived at 10:30 p.m. local time from Malaysia on an AirAsia flight,” Heru said on Thursday.
Hyein bled to death from a wound to his leg while being treated at Elisabeth Hospital in Medan.
“We are still trying to identify the perpetrators. Their features were obscured since they wore helmets,” Heru said.
Detectives were still searching for a motive, Heru said. All of Hyein’s property was accounted for, mooting assumptions that the killing was a botched robbery.
From Korean orphan to Richmond local hero
Richmond Times-Dispatch (Virginia)
Margaret Lerke Woody, whose abandonment as a Korean infant severed her ancestral bloodlines, has become a vital Richmond community lifeline as a volunteer, caregiver and champion of inclusion.
For her efforts, Woody was honored as a “local hero” during Thursday night’s Neighborhood Excellence Initiative Awards at the Virginia Historical Society. With her recognition comes a $5,000 gift from Bank of America to ART 180, an organization that seeks to transform local youth and communities through art.
Marina woman says she was imprisoned in chicken coop
Monterey County-Herald (Calif.)
A Korean woman in California locked up her Japanese mother-in-law in a chicken coop.
A 92-year-old woman reported to the Marina Police Department she was battered and locked in a chicken coop Wednesday by her daughter-in-law.
The alleged victim said Myuong Sakasegawa, 64, took her purse, battered her, and locked her in the chicken coop. She said she was released from the coop by her son about an hour later.
(HT Marmot’s Hole)
Manoa school featured in George Clooney movie
KHON2.com (Honolulu, HI)
The upcoming film “The Descendants,” starring George Clooney and directed by Alexander Payne was shot entirely in Hawaii and hundreds of local students auditioned for small parts in the movie. One of them was high school student Esther Kang, who had a scene with the Academy Award-winning actor.
“He was like making jokes, he was a super cool guy, like, I had a conversation with him. It was sweet just to meet him,” said Esther Kang. “When I found out [I was cast] I was so happy it was like the best day of my life.”
Adoption satire mostly hits mark
Minneapolis Star Tribune
In “Four Destinies,” Korean-American playwright Katie Hae Leo’s smart, cutting social satire now up in a premiere in Minneapolis, a meddlesome character named Katie Leo (played by Katie Bradley) declares that she wants to speak for all adoptees. And she does, with tongue firmly planted in cheek.
Beckman’s Kim runs over Northwood for five TDs
OCVarsity
It turns out last week was just a warmup for Jeff Kim.
After rushing for 191 yards and two touchdowns last week against Woodbridge, Kim ran for 253 yards and five touchdowns Thursday in visiting Beckman’s 52-31 victory over Northwood in a Pacific Coast League game at Irvine High.
Kim, who was not allowed to play in three games because of undisclosed reasons and returned to action for the Woodbridge game, had 218 yards in the first half and scored four touchdowns in the second quarter.
For the season, Kim, a 5-foot-11, 190-pound senior, has rushed for 621 yards and 10 touchdowns.
Organizers Accused of Sexually Harassing Beauty Queens
Chosun Ilbo
Contestants of an international beauty pageant hosted by Korea were sexually harassed and offered places in the competition in exchange for sex, contestants claim.
Amy Willerton (19), who competed in the 2011 Miss Asia Pacific World in Korea from Oct. 1 to 15, was quoted by the Sun on Wednesday as saying, “I had two of the organisers sexually assault me — one tried to pull my top down.”
“Girls were pulled aside and told they knew what they had to do if they wanted to win — we all knew they meant sex,” Willerton said.
About 50 contestants participated in the pageant, the first of its kind, in Seoul, Daegu and Busan between Oct. 1 and Oct. 15. The top prize was US$20,000.
Contestants were put in a hotel without enough beds and fed just one meal per day, Willerton said. An optional “talent round” was won by Miss Venezuela, who had not even entered that section of the competition.
Latest hot Korean medical tour: Voice feminization surgery
CNNGo
A little over a decade ago, Dr. Kim Hyung-tae, 48, was your standard otolaryngologist, or a doctor specializing in ear, nose and throat.
Now he is being touted as the best in a highly specialized area — voice feminization surgery, which he developed while treating anemic patients at Catholic University Hospital in Seoul.
Initially devised as a way to combat the voice-deepening side effects of treating anemic female patients, voice feminization surgery is becoming increasingly sought after by transsexuals from overseas who fly in to specifically to receive this treatment, reported Joongang Ilbo today.
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Name released of victim in fatal Wednesday crash near Drummond
KBZK.com (Bozeman, Mont.)
Powell County authorities released the name of a man killed in a Wednesday morning crash on I-90 near Deer Lodge as Yun Seok Kang, 41, of Denver, Colorado.
A passenger car with two people hit an elk while traveling westbound in Powell County at around 3 a.m. Wednesday, according to Montana Highway patrol Trooper Tom Gill. Gill said after hitting the elk, the driver lost control of the vehicle, which then crossed the median into the eastbound lanes and hit a semi truck head-on.
Kang was a passenger in the car. The driver, a female, was taken to Deer Lodge by ambulance and then airlifted to a Great Falls hospital.
Student group raises awareness about North Korea
The Pitt News (Univ. of Pittsburgh)
Pitt’s chapter of Liberties in North Korea is a nonprofit student organization designed to break down those walls of silence.
“We raise awareness about not only the human-rights atrocities going on in North Korea, but also the refugee situation in China,” T.J. Collanto, president of Pitt’s Liberty in North Korea chapter, said.
Last year, former Pitt seniors Laura Lee and Jimmy Eppley launched the organization on campus. They devised a way to involve Pitt in the national organization after watching a documentary screening of the crisis in North Korea. Eppley is now a fifth-year senior and Lee has graduated, but the club’s message resonated with the people who joined.
