The Nichi Bei Times, which has been covering the Northern California Japanese American community for 63 years, will cease publication after its Sept. 10 issue.

This subject gets rehashed every few months, and this article in Marie Claire magazine by Ying Chu doesn't add much to the discussion

The article just seems to point out that a number of rich and powerful white men are married to Asian women, so therefore, they are trophy wives. Woody Allen and Soon Yi-Previn have been together forever, so there's nothing new to report here.

Some sad news. Over the weekend, Michelle Maykin died. Her fight against leukemia inspired a nationwide outreach campaign to register bone marrow donors.

Maykin was 27. She was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia in 2007 and after chemotherapy went into remission, but relapsed in 2008.

Calling it a setback and "an opportunity to keep fighting," Lt. Dan Choi faces discharge from the Army National Guard for violating the "don't ask, don't tell policy" for gays and lesbians in the military.

A military administrative board recommended
Tuesday that Choi, who outed himself on national TV in March to protest
"don't ask, don't tell," be discharged for violating the policy against
homosexual conduct.

President Obama had promised to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" but hasn't done anything about it so far.

It could be a year before Choi is actually discharged, so stay tuned. In the meantime, support Choi by signing his petition.

We've collected remembrances of some of the great people who've passed recently: scholars Ronald Takaki and Him Mark Lai, civil rights activist Richard Aoki, poet Al Robles, and judge Sandra Otaka. See the remembrances here. 

In his latest piece at SFGate, Asian Pop columnist Jeff Yang wonders if the term Asian American has relevance in today's world. Activists began using "Asian American" during 1960s civil rights movement as a way to forge their own identity in a society that considered them orientals and outsiders.

What does Asian American mean now? It's a question we grapple with at Hyphen all the time. We've made a conscious decision to avoid topics such as anime and other pop culture from Asia, to keep the American provenance clear. But is the line between Asian and Asian American less crucial or meaningful to watch, now?

Distinguished Asian American historian Ronald Takaki took his own life Tuesday. He had struggled with multiple sclerosis for many years. "He couldn't deal with it anymore," his son Troy Takaki said in an obituary in the Los Angeles Times.

The Oakland Tribune also ran a nice obituary on Takaki.

A public memorial service is being planned. The family requests that any memorial donations be sent to the Asian Law Caucus, 55 Columbus Ave., San Francisco, CA 94111.

A celebration of the life of historian Him Mark Lai will be held June 20 in San Francisco. Lai, known as the dean of Chinese American history, died May 21. He was 83.

Hyphen's own Lisa Lee was honored by our old friend Angry Asian Man on his 30 Under 30 list of influential Asian Americans.

Angry Asian Man picked Lisa, Hyphen's publisher, "Because she's making sure Asian Americans have a voice in print."

Lisa has energized Hyphen since taking over as publisher in 2007. Our circulation has grown, our
partnerships and community involvement have grown, our website
has been redesigned and our blog is more vibrant than ever. 

Hyphen's Family Issue is at the printer and will hit newsstands and mailboxes soon. Here's a little behind-the-scenes look at the cover shoot, which featured Mr. Hyphen Aristotle Garcia, his 105-year-old grandmother and several other family members.

A big thanks to everyone who came out to Hyphen's sixth anniversary party on Friday night at Club Six. We had a great crowd, great music, great fashion show and great cake.

Film adaptations of comic books are a dime a dozen in Hollywood these days, with a track record that suggests studios are pumping out more Batman Forevers than Dark Knights. But what happens when your task is to bring the words of history's most acclaimed graphic novel -- and one of Time magazine's 100 greatest novels of all time -- to the big screen?

Enter Alex Tse, a San Francisco native who is the co-screenwriter of the much-anticipated Watchmen adaptation, which opened last week to the tune of $55 million. Tse first came onto the scene as the writer of 2004's multiethnic crime drama, Sucker Free City, directed by Spike Lee. Now with the success of Watchmen, he's in demand but still making time to return to his roots. Hyphen caught up with Tse before his visit to the 2009 San Francisco International Asian American Film Festival to learn about his climb from a kid in journalism camp to bona fide Hollywood screenwriter.

Read the interview in our web features area and comeback here if you have a comment. (Unfortunately, our publishing system doesn't allow commenting on articles.)

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal's Republican party response to President Barack Obama's speech the other night is being panned by the left and the right.

Former President George Bush appointed record numbers of Asian Americans in his administration, but on the whole, his polices on immigration, civil rights and education were detrimental to the community. That's the assessment from Hyphen contributor Connie Zheng in her analysis of the Bush years, just published as a Web feature.

New San Francisco Supervisor David Chiu was elected president of the the board after seven rounds of voting to pick the leader of the city's governing body. Chiu is the first Asian American supervisor elected to represent the area that includes Chinatown and one of three Chinese members of the board.

AsianWeek laid off all its employees and will publish its last paper edition on Friday. In a letter to readers released yesterday announcing the shutdown, AsianWeek blames the downturn affecting all newspapers and a faltering economy.

Hyphen's next issue is almost back from the printer and should be on newsstands and in subscribers' hands in the next week or so.

Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is resigning, according to the San Jose Mercury News and other sources. Yang has told Yahoo employees that he will stay on until a replacement is found.

This may not come as a great shock, but a new comprehensive study of Chinese Americans finds that they face "glass ceiling" obstacles in the workplace.

According to a press release about study:

Chinese Americans, one of the most highly educated groups in the nation, are confronted by a "glass ceiling," unable to realize full occupational stature and success to match their efforts, and that on average, Chinese American professionals in the legal and medical fields earn as much as 44 percent less than their white counterparts.

In a survey of likely Asian American voters in California, 57 percent said they oppose Proposition 8, which would ban gay marriage in the state.

Among a younger, urban non-immigrant crowd this result may not be so
surprising but newer immigrants may be more anti-gay, as the article
points out. The data are part of a broad survey that was possibly the most comprehensive national polling
done among Asian Americans. Usually Asian Americans are left out of
surveys because the numbers are low compared to other racial groups.

Feeling the heat from criticism, the LPGA today backed off its new policy of suspending international players who do not learn to speak English.

Kathie Lee Gifford did a little Mickey Rooney-Mr. Yunioshi imitation on the "Today" show on Monday. See the video at Gawker: Kathie Lee Gifford Imitates Al Roker Imitating Chinese Person, Adds Helpful Squinting Gesture!

Singer-songwriter Goh Nakamura, who performed at the Hyphen Hybrid Issue party, releases his second album with a show at Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco on Wednesday. From the preview I've heard, the tracks sound great.