Dear Friends, As you may have noticed, since the beginning of the year, our blog has been trying to beef up our content. We hope you've enjoyed the added posts on news items, events and opportunities, as well as some of the analysis we've been providing. In the coming weeks (and months), we'll be gradually increasing our policy discussion. We hope you all read Oiyan Poon's excellent six-part series on the U.C. Admissions Scandal of 2009. If not, check it out. Oiyan will continue on as our Education Editor, providing comments on education policy. We are also assembling a team of experts on immigration, health care, urban policy and other issues, all of whom will be adding to the debate. It is our goal to make this a hub of discussion, to help percolate ideas and help establish a set of priority agenda for the community. If you would like to join our blog team, please let us know. In particular, we'd like to find people to cover the environment, labor issues and civil rights. In a similar spirit, here is a press release from the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and Congressman Mike Honda:

STATE OF THE ASIAN AMERICAN AND PACIFIC ISLANDER COMMUNITY Washington, DC – Today, Congressman Mike Honda (D-CA) issued the following statement on the State of the Asian American and Pacific Islander community: “Today, our nation faces tremendous challenge. People throughout our country are losing their jobs, their homes, and struggling to keep their families afloat. We are in tough times, and as the President stated in his State of the Union address on Tuesday, we will rebuild together, and by developing our resilience, we will emerge stronger and more unified as a nation.