the clerk is erica cheng. this call the roll. >> (roll call) we have quorum. >> thank you very much and we want to welcome our newly elected supervisors who by virtue of their election are now members of the san francisco county consultation authority commissioners london bree and norman yee. i look forward to working with you. please call item 2. >> this is an action item. >> before we act on this item i would like to open any public comment, any member of the public who would like to speak on item two come forward. seeing none public comment is closed. madam clerk if you can do a roll call. >> (roll call) the item passes. >> chairman: i'm wondering is legally a member of the commission is allowed to abstain; i assume there is no problem with that. proceed. >> the item passes. >> thank you very much. if you can please call item number 3. chair's report. >> chair: welcome to the new calendar year i have brief remarks given that it's only been a month since we had our meeting and we just started this legislativ

my name is claudine cheng. i'm speaking as a past president of oca, organization of chinese americans. every year is special; this year is specifically more special because historically the first year honoring chinese heritage was in 1993, this is the twentieth year anniversary of that; we are proud and happy that the happy new year series is continuing -- by the united states postal service. oca is a national organization 20 years ago urge the postal service to issue a series of stamps to honor the contributions of chinese americans and we have the support of many local organizations, the chinese chamber of commerce, the chinese consolidated benevolent associations and many other national organizations and national leaders that joined asking the post office to consider doing that. we see the stamp as an important part of the american cultural heritage; chinese-americans are a big part of it. this is a special year, our twentieth year. i would like to introduce our mayor, ed lee, this is his press conference. m

the clerk is cheng and we want to thank the following members of sfgtv staff for covering the meeting. madam clerk, could call roll call? >> camposes? >> present. >> chiu. >> present. >> chu. >> present. >> cohen? >> fer ill absent. >> mar? >> mar, present. >> kim, absent. >> olague. >> we are absolutely a quorum. >> and i did hear that commissioner cohen and commissioner weiner as well. if you could call item two. >> approval of minutes of the november 20, 2012 this is an action item. >> colleagues this is an action item, before we take action, i want to open it up to public comment, any people of the public who would like to speak on the minutes? seeing none, public comment is closed. if we could have the roll call. >> avos. >> aye. >> chiu >> aye. >> chu. >> aye. >> cohen. >> elsbernd? >> fer ill? >> aye. >> kim, absent. >> mar, olague? >> aye. weiner? >> aye. and item passes. >> thank you very much. item passes if you could call item number three. three, chair's report, information item. >> thank you very much. first of all i want to wish every one a happy holiday season. and i al

cheng said the demand is unacceptable because the islands are chinese territory. but he said he will convey the message to government leaders. >>> japan's new defense chief brought up the senkaku issue when he spoke with his counterpart in the u.s. for the first time. the two agreed to work closely on the matter. the defense minister and u.s. secretary of defense leon panetta spoke by phone. onodera has been in the post since last month, and panetta leaves this month. onodera says he hopes to work closely with the u.s. to strengthen forces and improve deterrence. he says japan is dealing with it in a rational manner and says the government will take appropriate measures in response to provocative acts by china. panetta replied the japan/u.s. alliance is extremely significant and forms the basis of peace in the region. >>> people in china took to the streets for a second day of protests against alleged government censorship. authorities responded by mobilizing police officers to the scene. about 100 people gathered on tuesday at the headquarters of the nanfang zhou

. >> jennifer: cheng uygur hopeful on gun safety measures, i'm feeling good about it.an say. we'll be watching your show. >> cenk: thank you. >> jennifer: it's a new year with a knew a new congress, and that means plenty of ideas on how to tackle the country's problems. not all of them are good ones and some come straight out of crazy town. the first really bad idea is the definition of hypocrisy, which is aig. the large insurer/reckless investor that nearly sunk our financial system. aig does not like their multi billion taxpayer bailout. they don't like the fact that it was, get this, too harsh. yes. you heard me. the money you and i gave them to save them from their own stupidity wasn't nice enough. aig is actually considering a lawsuit, a lawsuit against the u.s. government. against you because the terms of this bailout meant less profit for their shareholders. even though that's profit their shareholders wouldn't have had without the bailout in the first place. newly elected massachusetts senator elizabeth warren responded with a statement saying in part, aig shou

cheng, the last time most americans heard about you you were on your way out of china after a tense couple of weeks. what's your life been like since then? >> (translated): it's hard to put it in one word. it's been eight months and i would say my life is much fuller now and the most importantly i'm free. i haven't been really rested for years and now i'm in a very good environment and there are a lot of things to be done and tha i'd like to do so i have to be very engaged. it's a very, very full of things to do and i'm very happy about that. >> suarez: are you able to keep up with events in china as closely as you were when you were doing your human rights work there? >> (translated): there are many ways to get -- to become informed. in a sense, it's easier to be informed here than when i was in china. i'm not saying that in china things cannot be done. what i'm saying is that things can be done from many different angles to promote what we need to promote. >> suarez: well, since you left the country there have been continued arrests of dissidents, suppression of press freedoms with the s

cheng, the last time most americans heard about you you were on your way out of china after a tense couple of weeks. what's your life been like since then? >> (translated): it's hard to put it in one word. it's been eight months and i would say my life is much fuller now and the most importantly i'm free. i haven't been really rested for years and now i'm in a very good environment and there are a lot of things to be done and that i'd like to do so i have to be very engaged. it's a very, very full of things to do and i'm very happy about that. >> suarez: are you able to keep up with events in china as closely as you were when you were doing your human rights work there? >> (translated): there are many ways to get -- to become informed. in a sense it's easier to be informed here than when i was in china. i'm not saying that in china things cannot be done. what i'm saying is that things can be done from many different angles to promote what we need to promote. >> suarez: well since you left the country there have been continued arrests of dissidents, suppression of press freedoms with the so