Girl Charged with Making Racial Slurs, Punching Asian Woman
In Edison, New Jersey, a teen girl has been arrested in the coronavirus-related hate crime attack on a 55-year-old Asian woman. According to police, the girl and a group of others surrounded the victim and yelled racial slurs regarding the origins of the coronavirus, then punched the woman on the back of the head. The teen was charged with bias intimidation, riot, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct, as well as one count of violation of an emergency order because her presence outdoors during the stay-at-home order was not authorized or deemed essential.
Philly Lawyer Sues for Defamation Over Instagram Post
Last month in Philadelphia, Tess Wei got into an altercation with Josiah Knapp while she was jogging. Wei alleges that Knapp told her to "go back where you came from" and then coughed in her face. She posted a photo of Knapp on Instagram, saying "PHILLY! This man yelled at me and then came right up to me and coughed in my face. who tf is he?" Wei's cousin, Peter Chau, re-posted the photo, asking, "Anybody recognize this piece of shit?" Now Knapp, an attorney, is suing Wei and Chau for defamation.
Crisis Text Line Sees Spike in Activity from Asian Americans
The mental-health support Crisis Text Line received a fairly regular number of texts this year from people identifying as Asian -- until the week that Donald Trump called the coronavirus the "Chinese virus." The line also saw a large increase in crisis counselor applications from Asian Americans in the latter half of March.
Irene Hirano Inouye, champion of Japanese American causes, dies at 71
Irene Hirano Inouye, a prodigious fundraiser who led the nation’s premier Japanese American museum in Los Angeles and built bridges across cultures with groundbreaking projects, has died after a battle with with leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. She was 71.
'Green Hornet and Kato' Movie Project Lands at Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures and Amasia Entertainment are partnering on The Green Hornet and Kato, which is currently in feature development. The Green Hornet which originated as a radio show during the 1930s, follows the adventures of publisher Britt Reid, who moonlights as the titular masked vigilante. The 1966 TV series is probably best known as the show that introduced U.S. audiences to Bruce Lee, who played The Green Hornet's intrepid, capable sidekick Kato. So... the most important question, as I always ask when talk about a new Green Hornet starts up: who's going to play Kato?