Images from the Los Angeles candlelight vigil for Laura Ling and Euna Lee.
Photos courtesy Natasha Bishop.

The Obama administration is working "through all possible channels" to win the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, sentenced to 12 years of hard labor in North Korea.

UPDATES June 8, 2009 -

US working all possible channels to win the release journalists in North Korea

The real question as reported by Christian Science Monitor correspondent Don Kirk, is whether the North would be willing to talk further about their fates in a period of worsening confrontation between North Korea and the United States and between North and South Korea.

June 7, 2009 -

Associated Press reports North Korea's Central Court sentenced the women to 12 years of reform through labor.

St. Paul, Minnesota -

On July 22, 2006, 19 year old Fong Lee was shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer.

On May 28, 2009 a Federal jury ruled that Officer Jason Andersen did not use excessive force when he shot and killed Lee, ruling against Fong Lee's family's wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis. Lee's family asserts that Fong was unarmed and running away on foot from the police officer.

Elvis Thao, a member of the Hmong community in Minnesota, and actor, hip-hop performer and musician in Clint Eastwood's award-winning 2008 movie Gran Torino, contributes this poem in tribute to Fong Lee.

St. Paul, Minnesota -

On July 22, 2006, 19 year old Fong Lee was shot and killed by a Minneapolis police officer.

On May 28, 2009 a Federal jury ruled that Officer Jason Andersen did not use excessive force when he shot and killed Lee, ruling against Fong Lee's family's wrongful death lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis.

Elvis Thao, a member of the Hmong community in Minnesota, and actor, performer and musician in Clint Eastwood's award-winning 2008 movie Gran Torino, contributes this poem in tribute to Fong Lee.

"In the Memory of Injustice" is written and performed by Tou SaiKo Lee ft. Xaiesque and Proto-J

The Verdict:

News story by Brandt Williams Minnesota Public Radio.

The Case:

by Sing Tao Daily - New America Media

June 29, 2009

OAKLAND -

The City of Oakland first green job training commencement was held at Laney College on Monday. The Sing Tao Daily reports 38 graduates from different ethnic groups said, We are ready to the millions of green job opportunities that President Obama had promised.

All the graduates had been previously laid off. They learned how to install solar panels; fix wind power electricity generators; produce bio-fuel and took other classes on recyclable energy resources in the 12-week training program.

According to the American Solar Energy Society, there will be 16-37 million green jobs available to people being laid off by 2030.

by Sing Tao Daily - New America Media

June 29, 2009

OAKLAND -

The City of Oakland first green job training commencement was held at Laney College on Monday. The Sing Tao Daily reports 38 graduates from different ethnic groups said, We are ready to the millions of green job opportunities that President Obama had promised.

All the graduates had been previously laid off. They learned how to install solar panels; fix wind power electricity generators; produce bio-fuel and took other classes on recyclable energy resources in the 12-week training program.

According to the American Solar Energy Society, there will be 16-37 million green jobs available to people being laid off by 2030.

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