We've gotten two emails, so we're starting a new column: "I Saw Gavin Newsom." Reader ALCSupporter writes in:

Guess who I saw last night at the Asian Law Caucus dinner? Gavin Newsom. He showed up, made fun of the items in the silent auction, didn't bid on anything, and then made a prompt beeline to the only non-Asian female in the room and started touching her.

It was Saturday night at Tosca - got there around 11 pm and the Gav was there in a very fancy tux, surrounded by a lot of other tux wearers and a ravishing, though all-too-plastic for my taste and kind of spaced-out-looking, Sofia Milos. At one point it looked like that Gav was heading back to go to the bathroom so I got up myself to go cruise him...but alas he just stood in the hallway and whispered into the ear of one of his companions. Was it secrets of Scientology? I know not. Nor do I know where they'd come from, but everyone seemed happy and deliciously enthused by their own company. The Gav schmoozed with Matt Dillon, who was fresh from being stalked by SFist MiHi. The Gav and Matty Dillon were exactly the same height!

We're so excited! We've never actually known someone we've written about in the Political Junkie column before! Usual Suspects is reporting that 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goolett Place is abuzzzzzzzz with the word that GavNew's going to appoint Phil Ting to Mabel Teng's former assessor/recorder position. Phil's the current executive director of the Asian Law Caucus, but we actually know Phil because he and your Junkie were in a Mandarin Chinese class together at a jointly-shared institute of higher education! Your Junkie was hung over through a large number of those classes but nonetheless remembers that Phil was always very attentive and had good pronunciation. (Who knew he had all that real estate experience?) Could Newsom be appointing Phil (who we've always thought of as progressive) to try and forestall Sandoval in the November 2006 assessor's election? Is Newsom trying to get Phil out of the way for the District 4 run that Phil was going to make? Is Newsom trying to get Building Inspection Commission Phil out of trouble with the land use crowd? Or is Newsom trying to make sure that Chris Daly doesn't appoint public-power Phil to the PUC board when Newsom goes on vacation? So many things to think about! Especially since everyone else in our Chinese class just went to medical school or something. If the rumors are true -- congratulations, Phil! We can't think of a nicer person to sign San Franciscans' marriage licenses. more ›

The Asian-American civil rights community has lost a hero with the passing of Fred Korematsu yesterday in his daughter's home in Marin. Korematsu, an American citizen and Bay Area resident, was 22 years old when FDR ordered the internment of all Japanese-Americans on the West Coast after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Reluctant to leave his Italian-American girlfriend, Korematsu refused to go, and was arrested. He then sued, claiming that the internment camps violated his right to equal protection under the law. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court, and established, in Korematsu v. United States, the principle that lasts until today, that the government must provide a compelling reason before race-based classifications will be upheld. Ironically, despite the strong language, the Supreme Court found that FDR's justification of a possible threat by the Japanese was in fact a compelling reason to justify incarceration of over 100,000 American citizens. The Korematsu decision is widely considered an embarrassment of American jurisprudence, and most recently, has been cited as a cautionary tale by the Muslim-American community in the wake of 9/11. In 1983, Korematsu, through the Asian Law Caucus, sued in San Francisco federal court to reopen his case and clear his name, and won. He spent the rest of his life dedicated to ensuring that injustices like the ones he faced would never happen again. We'll keep his memory alive. Picture of Fred Korematsu with Rosa Parks by Shirley Nakao and Asianweek more ›