On Sunday, May 2nd, please join Asian Pacific Americans for Progress as we host our annual State of Asian Pacific America House Party. We are pleased to announce that Kalpen Modi, Associate Director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, Congressmembers Mike Honda (CA-15) and Judy Chu (CA-32) and other noted guests, will be joining us, via conference call, for the nationwide event.

It all started with a simple goal: to remember Vincent Chin.

In 2007, on the 25th anniversary of his death, Asian Pacific Americans for Progress organized a series of fourteen townhalls around the country to discuss the impact of his life and legacy. We gathered many of the leading civil rights leaders in our community to ask how far had we come and how far we had yet to go. From those discussions came our award-winning documentary, "Vincent Who?", which has now toured to over 130 colleges, libraries and law firms around the country.

Remember that recent story about the city officials in the small blue-collar town of Bell, CA, who were paying themselves huge fat salaries, while laying off essential city workers? Well, it seems like these officials may been using illegal money to do it. And State Controller John Chiang is trying to do something about it. Go get 'em, John!

My husband and I were pigging out at our favorite all-you-can-eat Korean bbq when the first text came in, “So when’s the big reception!”

We immediately knew what our friend was referring to: Perry vs. Schwarzenegger and the drive to overturn Prop 8, the ballot initiative that banned gay marriage in California.

Great news out of Detroit. State Senator Hansen Clarke has won an upset victory in his overwhelmingly Democratic district. He is poised to become the next Asian American in Congress. Clarke attended the first APAP Detroit meeting last year. We;ll definitely think of ways we can help out his campaign.

Clarke upsets Cheeks Kilpatrick in key race; end

of a political dynasty?

Here's a new press release from the DCCC.  They've just added two Asian American progressives to their list of candidates they'll be supporting in the fall: Colleen Hanabusa (HI-01) and Manan Trivedi (PA-06). Both candidates are trying to take over red seats and both have been endorsed by APAP.

DCCC Announces Second Round of Red to Blue Candidates 

Great news from the judicial front. Judge Lucy Koh was just confirmed by the US Senate as the first Korean American federal judge in history and the first Asian American judge for the Northern District of California, which includes San Francisco!

Great news, everyone! We just got confirmation that Kalpen Modi from the White House's Office of Public Engagement will be joining us, via conference call, on the May 2nd event. It's still not too late to sign up to host your own party. You can hear from reps from the White House, the Congress and the grassroots on the state of the AAPI community. (We will be confirming additional speakers this week, as well.)

Washington, DC – Today, Members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus (CAPAC) celebrate the passage of historic health care legislation. The legislation provides health care coverage to 32 million more people in the U.S., and will reduce the deficit by over $1.3 trillion over the next 20 years.

Michigan State Senator Hansen Clarke, who attended the launch of APAP's Detroit Chapter last year, has just announced that he is running for Congress. Clarke, who switches from his run for Governor, becomes the seventh South Asian to run for Congress this year. All of them are Democrats.