Other things to be grateful for from last week:

• L.A.'s Little Toyko was concerned about a proposed light rail project planned to run through it. But the city is now proposing to put it underground. Community leaders oppose both plans because they could both remove key businesses and cut down on traffic through the area. I'm grateful for the neverending conflict living together in cities provides.

• Viet Am astrophysicist Trinh Xuan
  Thuan has received the Unesco Kalinga prize, which "recognises those who have made an
  outstanding contribution to bringing science to the masses in many
  fields, including science, academia, journalism, and literature." Grateful for the pride points, dude.

• More Ahmedinanigans: the Iranian government has aimed another espionage charge at jailed Iranian American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh. ... I guess I'm grateful I'm not him, because this is proving how little shame actually motivates this regime.

• Mike Honda is involved in a nationwide push to diversify the face of immigration reform. Immigration: not just for desayuno anymore. Grateful! Seriously! About time!

• In Atlanta, shops geared toward Latinos
  have been hit hardest by the recession, while shops targeting Asians
  have suffered the least. I'm grateful that we've still got the shoppin'
  spirit. And the money.

• Oregon Congressman David Wu, the first Chi Am ever elected to the House, has written a letter to the University of Oregon about two Chinese students who were hassled by local cops and shot with a taser while entering their apartment. Apparently, they were mistaken for trespassers by the apartment manager, who hadn't been there when the apartment was rented to them earlier that day. They didn't have sufficient command of English to understand the cops' orders. I'm grateful that David Wu was there for those Chinese students, with his vague-ass letter.

• We linked recently to a story on East West Bank's new acquisitions. According to this interesting article, it's part of an arms race between two growing rival Chi Am banks vying for the favors of California's huge and growing Chi Am population. And I'm grateful that we have the money for this: Chi Ams, what?

• I'm also grateful for the existence of hottie Rick Yune, who is in Ninja Assassin (which I just saw this weekend) and also in this interview.

• The BBC has an article about South Asians "coming into their own" in American film and TV. Yeah, tell that to "The Last Airbender" fans. I'm grateful for "Last Airbender" references, even though that controversy is so over people already don't know what I'm talking about.

• Speaking of which, Obama's first state dinner in honor of the US' relationship with India had Indians (mostly Indian Americans) as one third of its attendees, including Hollywood heavyweights like M. Night Shyamalan and Kal Penn. But Bollywood was snubbed! Nevertheless, Michelle displayed appropriate (or appropriated) Indian Style! And I'm grateful that Obama managed to both display his Indian fetish and prove he's not a trendy hipster, all in one dinner!

• Eunsook Lee argues in New American Media that under some of the provisions of the new healthcare bills, the poorest immigrants will subsidize everyone's heathcare. And I'm grateful to 'em.

• I'm grateful that Seattle pays its bills. The city just settled a discrimination lawsuit with an African American employee for $800K. In a related lawsuit, the jury awarded a Viet Am plaintiff over $900K, and the city paid.

• Speaking of lawsuits, an Indian American employee of Indian tech giant Infosys is suing them for discrimination ... against Americans. She claims she was harrassed and her children name-called for observing Thanksgiving, not paid overtime for working on American holidays, and disparaged for being a woman. Wow, not grateful for the T-day dis, dude!

• The WaPo takes notice of the National Gallery's acquisition and display of Byron Kim's Synecdoche. There's a long analysis of the piece, if you're interested. I'm more interested in the fact that a GenX KoreAm artist is now being considered a "master" by the WaPo and the National Gallery. Interested and grateful.

• And finally, I'm grateful that the San Francisco Chronicle is profiling our very own David Chiu, who was sworn in to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, and also elected the Board prez, on the very same day this year. We've known David here at Hyphen for a long time, since he's a classic grassroots kinda guy and very involved in the As Am community, so it's interesting to see the city paper's take on him. The article slices awfully close to model minority territory (the headline is "Gentle manner makes Chiu stand out at City Hall" and makes much of complaints about his conflict-aversion) but ends up much closer to Obama-land (young, idealistic rookie reconciles long-estranged extremes.) Whatever the spin is, let's take a moment to congratulate David on surviving his first year in City Hall! Gratitude!