we gather tonight in celebration of asian-pacific heritage month. we take a moment to reflect upon our past, to understand the heroic struggles, obstacles, hardships that so many people, including this evening's tremendous honor read, had to overcome. this is a very special place. norm gave me the good fortune of putting my feet to the marble in the halls of congress. we will give the opportunity to 20 interns this summer so that they can partake in the greatest democracy that has ever resided on this planet. this is also a tremendous significance as congressmen alluded to. this is the home were people left when i came to this country, when they had to leave the fields of california from farming. that applies to the filipinos and two others. they set foot in san francisco. a generation upon generation, of residence of san francisco had to endure the struggles and have made this city a very special place. i am very excited about the leadership that presides over san francisco today. mayor lee, supervisor chiu, mar, chu, and we had the treasurer. this

we would like to welcome you to the third annual statewide celebration and recognition of asian-pacificander american heritage month. this event is hosted by the mayor. i will tell you a little bit more. it is a non-profit, non- partisan. since 2001, our focus has been on educating the public on public policy. and fostering the future leaders from our minority communities to serve at federal, state, and local levels. the mission is to empower patients and pacific islander americans in civic and public affairs to education, active participation, and leadership development. >> civic engagement, leadership development, and community servthe theme of tonight's evens a celebration of the achievements and accomplishments of asian-americans in the state of california and our nation. >> ok'ing. -- ok. i would like to introduce our host for this evening. very well known as the first asian-american mayor in san francisco history. mayor lee championed balancing the budget to keep san francisco safe, solvents, and successful. he reformed city pensions. his focus is on economic development, job crea

flavia, who are at 1870 pacific avenue unit 505, which is the property directly being affected by the project and also speaking on behalf of mr. bernard, who is at 1830 jackson street, who is not here tonight, and has not had an opportunity to send a letter and both partis are objecting to this project. i have some procedural objections to this. my office received the conditional use application this past monday, even though we had asked for it and therefore we had not had enough time to make a presentation in detail about what are the different reasons we object to it? i have been asked specifically to also voice his objections in that he apparently did not receive this notice of this application until just recently and was not able to attend tonight. now i am also informed that the sponsor and/or his architect never had a pre-approval meeting with the pacific heights association to get their input on this project. our main concern is that this project is in violation of the neighborhood aspects of the architecture. it's going to be immediately affecting my clients, not only light, b

in the middle of pacific heights, on top of these hills, it offers a great square, a peaceful beauty, large trees and grass and greenery. it features tables and benches, a playground, restaurants, and tennis courts. there are plenty of areas for football and picnics. it is very much a couple's park. there are many activities you can experience together. stroll on the pathways, bring your dog, or just picnic at one of the many tables and enjoy all that it has to offer together. many couples find this is a perfect park to throw down a blanket and soak up the sun. it is a majestic place that you can share with someone you chairs. lafayette park is also easily accessed from the 47, 49, and 90 buses. it is ada accessible. we are here at the historic palace of fine art in the marina district. originally built for the 1950's exposition, the palace is situated on san francisco's number waterfront. it is ada accessible and is reached by the 28, 30, and 91 bus lines. set against the reflecting waters of the lagoon and eucalyptus trees, the palace is one of san francisco post most -- san francis

not in europe as has been for 100 years prior to that, than the asia pacific region. secondly, that we would maintain freedom of access throughout that region. in particular, we would maintain the sea lanes in that area, whatever the challenge might be. even as we reduce our defense budget, therefore we must maintain and would maintain a powerful navy, and that that navy would be charged with maintaining the freedom of those sea lanes. we had, of course, to be concerned as to whether there would be a challenge for that. we observed that the rise and shine has more energy needs for more energy than they can produce themselves, and to maintain the economic growth which they believe is essential. we observed that the south china sea is a potential source of energy supplies for china and that there is a contention among the nations in that region as to where the ownership and rights of access are to the south china sea. and this is conceivable that china might seek to reestablish its claim there by military coercion and that could lead them into a confrontation with the u

you can put all the continents in the world in the pacific ocean, you can put 'em all in the pacific ocean and still have room for another africa, another canada, another united states and another mexico. and that's just in the pacific. the indian ocean is vast as well. so you have this really large, very dynamic -- can't even call it a region. it's half the world. where you have historical ties between countries, bilateral, multilateral, and you have this -- there's no one security organization that's able to deal with things such as a nato. and i don't think you'll ever get to that because it's such a vast and diverse region. and so we have to rely on and have to support these multilateral organizations that allow us to capitalize on where we have like interests and to not be afraid to allow other countries to lead in those areas. so now to the earlier question, you know, we very much support india military, india taking a leadership in the security issues in and around the indian ocean, and we're looking for opportunities to participate and interoperate with them where we can. i h

when i decided to move to pacific heights in this particular building on jackson, one of the things that was really appealing as it is for all of these neighbors plus others who didn't have time to come because of the short notice was the fact we had views. some great, not all of them, but we had partial views of the water. we paid for those views. all of us paid for those views, okay? the proposed addition, not just the floor, because if you look at the plan, it's not just an additional flash, floor, but the solar panels. you are almost looking at adding two floors, not one. they block the water view and i know right to view not necessarily, but what about right to value? we pay taxes and we pay taxes on property and property is high because you have a view. well, with this thing we will no longer have any views. and the question also is addition to solar panels under the draft motion it says, "the project is desirable as in keeping with the neighborhood character of tall multi-unit buildings." what about the neighborhood character that isn't next door to the building? what about the ne

well, he seemed to conveniently forget that the building next door to this building, 1856 pacific, is an historic, old, beautifully restored home and the result of this elevation is the roof -- the extension, the penthouse will exceed considerably the roof ridgeline of this victorian mansion. so that is affecting an old, beautiful, old building at the 50' height and has been there since before the turn-of-the-century. second point, you have got to remember here that the current building has 11 rent-stabilized apartments. this one will take the top rent-stabilized apartment as i understand it, and turn it into a 42-4300-square-foot duplex penthouse that will still be ten rate-stabilized units below this pent house, but at live in four instances of those rent-stabilized units, according to the planning department notes if you read them, will be reduced southerly. substantially. in addition, the 5th floor, which is going to be added, which creates the elevation and as my neighbor says that 5th floor will have a 14.5' ceiling. that terrace on top that is basically going to support this pe

city's wastewater and stormwater making it safe enough to discharge into the san francisco bay and pacifican. >> in 2006 the puc was planning a record number of projects. >> the public utilities commission is a very infrastructure-rich organization. we're out there rebuilding the water system. we've budget working on power generation in the country. we've been doing sewer for the city. we're looking at a brand-new rebuild of all watt systems in san francisco and we haven't had a home that's been other than mental. >> they staff over 900 people. the puc is in two office locations. >> you know, this is such a great place for a building. if the puc owned that building and we could make that the icon i can sustainable building puc represents, wouldn't be a dramatic idea? >> so, one of the major decisions we made was we wanted to make a statement with this building. we wanted this building to be a lead platinum building which is very few buildings in san francisco that achieved this mark. >> leadership and energy environmental design, it takes a look at the way we think about the places where w

those four windows are on the 5th floor of the adjacent building at 1870 pacific. the white areas that were just added to the graphics show you where the new property line building walls with the addition would butt up against there. you will see that two of those windows would be covered by the proposed new construction. the other two windows would remain where they are in place. mr. lindsey mentioned the conditional use findings and i know it's been a long time, so i won't belabor these, but the project is entirely code complaint and meets the general plan and is a very appropriate for the rm-3 district. support for the project in addition to planning staff is as follows -- i'm sorry that the computer isn't showing you the property line. but the neighbor next door has given verbal support and neighbors across the street have provided letters of support and i have ten copies from each of them that mr.ionin can pass to you for the record and the objectors are next door. the main opposition stems, i think, from rooms on the 5th floor rear apartment that will -- one

they say it serves as the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the asia-pacific. the revolving door the to the prime minister's office has made it difficult. they want a reliable partner, a stable government with a strong pan date that will more coherent in its policies. in short, they would like to see an end to the political volatility. >>> abe and other ldp leaders have said they want to take a tough line on china and officials in beijing are watching japan's political transition with great interest. nhk world reports from beijing. >> china secret media closely followed japan's lower house election race. it cited the ldp's pledge of amending the constitution. the official newspaper commented on the election in the editorial. it said bilateral relations will either move forward or get worse. people in beijing voiced strong opinions about shinzo abe. they say he should pay careful attention to china. >> translator: i want to see improved relations, but it all depends on mr. abe. he shouldn't deal with bilateral relations based on personal beliefs. he should look

it flew over japan, then fell into the pacific ocean.th korean officials fired off seven missiles in july 2006. one of them is believed to have been a taepodong-2 with the potential range of about 6,000 kilometers. enough to reach alaska. >> translator: the missile launch was suspect it's part of military drills to strength. the nation's defense capability. >> reporter: despite this assertion, experts believe the missile disintegrated shortly after liftoff. in 2009, north korea decided to go one step further. authorities announced they were sending a satellite into space. again they launched what was thought to be a three-stage missile. the japanese government went on high alert and decided to release information to municipal authorities. >> translator: time of launch, around11:30 a.m. location, north korea. >> reporter: japanese officials said the first stage probably landed in the sea of japan. the rest flew more than 3,000 kilometers, passing over northeastern japan before falling into the pacific. the latest launch occurred in april,

in the middle east and in the asia-pacific region. the asia-pacific region is obviously an area of growing importance to our economy and our security. in the middle east, represent continuing threats to our security as well. even after the withdrawal of troops from iraq. we have maintained a substantial military presence in the middle east. in order to deter aggression. respond to crisis, and short regional stability in the face of historic unrest and a continuing threat from iran. last week, i visited some of our troops based in kuwait, part of a robust posture that includes roughly 50,000 troops, dozens of ships, fighters, bombers, advanced intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platforms. we are partnering closely with the gulf states to boost their capacity in critical areas such as missile defense and countermining which will help reduce the pressure to sustain these large deployments over the long term. i also visited an air base in turkey where i announced the deployment of the two u.s. patriot missile batteries as part

the united states is a pacific power and remain a pacific power and we look forward to doing our partto keep asia-pacific hopeful, peaceful and secure for decades to come. thank you. >> i think we'll take our first question right here. >> my name is betty lint. i'm with the world journal. could you address the growing chinese assertiveness in south china sea and east china sea in china just announced they're going to intercept -- [inaudible] are going to participate in talks with the chinese and what kind of message would you like to cover quite >> thank you for the question. of course the issues that are being phased in the south china sea and other areas in the north central east asia, i think are quite complicated because of the nature of the territorial dispute. some of them historic, some of them now driven by the need for access to resources in those areas and not to some degree has motivated some of the dvds you see there. the u.s. position as you know is that we don't take sides on territorial disputes. as many of those around the globe, not just the south china sea. but we do

the good news is that tropical season is starting to slow down across the western pacific. still going to be seeing some afternoon thunderstorms pop-up, at least in the near term. nothing significant across this area. let's look further to the north. we're talking about a low pressure area coming in and out of china. that's going to move over into japan. this high pressure is going to back off. it's been keeping things dry for the time being. as this works its way off, may see a dusting of snow across the korean peninsula. this is mainly going to be rain by snow because we're seeing a surge of warm air ahead of it. that's going to be changing this all over to rain showers. tokyo, high of 12 for you. seoul, you'll start to cool off as that front starts to move by. and into beijing, just getting to the 2 degree mark on your friday. let's look into the meshamerica. two different scenarios here. wet in the west and staying dry to the east. actually fire weather danger across the ohio river valley at this time. that's going to start to subside though going into the weekend. even

. >> what about this pacific? >> the pacific is -- i get a similar combination of players -- again, a similar combination of players. google funds a vast global network. they operate almost like a telecom of their own. they put out the effort and the money into building a new cable about three years ago now. it speaks of the importance of infrastructure and the need for art internet companies to have as much control as possible with their links. that ends up with interesting consequences for the way the network operators talk about geography. another important cable across the pacific is owned by tata. what i like about them is that they are very big on marketing around the world. they say we have a belt around the world. if something happened to our cable in the this is fake, -- in the pacific, we could send things to the east rather than the west. that imagination was something that fascinated me about the people who run these global networks and to build and imagines what they should be. >> a lot of redundancy

president obama said the alliance serves as cornerstone in asia-pacific. resolving door to japanese prime minister's colson's has made it difficult for obama and those around him to cooperate substantially on any issue. they want a reliable partner, a stable government with a strong mandate that is more coherent in its policies. in short, they would like to see an end to the political volatility. >> that was nhk shin shoji from washington. >>> abe and other ldp leaders have said they want to take a tough line on china and officials in beijing are watching japan's political transition with great interest. nhk world reports from beijing. >> reporter: china state-run media closely followed japan's lower house election race and how the outcome would affect bilateral relations. china television sounded the alarm that japan may shift to the right. it cited the ldp's pledge of amending the constitution to give self-defense forces more power. the communist party's official newspaper commented on the election in an editorial. it said, bilateral relations will eithe

, it is easy to believe that the united states is, in fact, a pacific power and that to keep it that way we will maintain the best damn navy in the world. thank you very much. (applause)speaker .... >> now i'm going to introduce our next speaker, major general melvin spee splt e i've known melvin for a number of years, obviously we served together in the marine corps. i can tell you he's been with fleet week for 3 years now and the one thing about mel, he's got a lot of ideas and he accepts no as an interim answer because a lot of things that he wanted to do to make fleet week better originally the answer from authorities was no. and he made some amazing things happen just through his will. a commander can will things to happen. and i really want to thank you, mel, for that whole peer to peer medical exchange was your idea and it was just a huge hit and i thank you so much for that. he's offered to be the pifrplg hitter for admiral roughhead who was captured back in massachusetts and couldn't make it back out here and with his experience, one thing about melvin speese, he is the prem

violence exists in the pacific. china openly express their strong interest in the maritime security and also the territory along those islands. so these china sea, this is not isolated when. this is a kind of china military strategy to advance. >> that's an important point. which are basically saying this is about power. and a powerful which china is going to become more powerful. they are powerful to write history. we write history. you are seeing lines challenge, and i remember talking to george soros once when, after he so go the back of england, wrote the bank of england and what he saw as a hedge fund manager as a chance to basically drive so hard against the line that fundamentally the institutional power on the bank of england site had to collapse. and i look at asia and the power in the region, the lines that used to be a, whether the ep three incident in 2001, whether it was china's more vociferous and robust complaints about south korea and america's naval exercises, or the sailor that was detained by japa

located in the middle of pacific heights on top of a hill, lafayette park offers a great square a offul beauty. large trees border greenery. it features tables and benches, a playground, restaurants, and tennis courts. there are plenty of areas for football, frisbee, and picnics. it is very much a couple's part and there are a multitude of experiences you can have together. bring your dog and watch the mean go with the community or just picnic at one of the many tables and enjoy all of the park has to offer. many couples find this is the perfect place to put down a blanket and soak up the sun. it is a majestic place you can share with someone you cherish. it is located along the 1 and 10 buses and is accessed from the 47 and 90 buses. it is ada accessible. for more information about reserving one of these locations, call 831-5500. this number is best for special events, weddings, picnics, and the county fair building. for any athletic fields and neighborhood parks, 831-5510. you can also write us. or walking in and say hello at old lock cabin, golden gate park. and of course you can

now, other markets in the asia pacific, south korea's kospi is trading higher at 1,963. let's take a look at australia. it's trading higher by nearly half a percent. intelligence experts in the united states have released their predictions for global trends in the lead up to 2030. they say the u.s. won't be the world's only superpower. the council says china will pass the u.s. economically a few years before 2030. the council's analysts say the u.s. will remain unrivaled in its ability to orchestrate all aspects of power including the military it the analysts say the japanese economy will gradually shrink as the population ages and the labor force contracts. they say japan will retain fourth place in terms of overall power, trailing only the u.s., china and india. the council experts say asian countries such as india and indonesia are likely to boost their military power. but they warn of an arms race in asia. if the u.s. scales back its military commitment in the region. they say some tionmay begin developing nuclear weapons. new car sales are fueling china's economy. s

a bit of a mixed picture in the asia pacific today. the head of mitsubishi electric has decided to take it were fault. they will decide on the penalty at an executive officers meeting on friday. sources say the president will have his entire compensation cut for six months. other kexecutives are expected o receive pay reductions. the companies have been overcharging clients. they're set to pay over $800 million to the state and other entities. that's the latest headlines. here is a check on markets. >>> soldiers are shooting from re and more syrians are heading for the border. 5 500,000 refugees have fled to neighboring countries. government and opposition forces are fighting for control of the capital damascus, the northern city of aleppo and other places. officials with the u.n. office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs say there's no more safe areas where people can take fuge. they need help to feed people an treat the sick. the u.n. officials have made similar appeals but this year member nations only contributed 60% of w

the next pacific system is moving into the british isles and the pacific northwest bringing another round of wet and windy conditions as well as heavy mountain snow. the mountains will see an additional 40 centimeters snow. we have a more potent storm system. the system will head towards the great lakes region into the next 24 hours. wisconsin and iowa you could be seeing as much as 30 centimeters of snow in a period of 24 hours. chicago you haven't had measurable snow since march 4th this year. fieblly heavy snow is on the way for you. down towards the south, thunder showers to the east and great lakes region, there's a risk of severe thunderstorms, gusty winds and tornadoes. temperatures still on the warmer side in atlanta but dropping down into the single digits. 8 degrees in chicago. still on the warmer side but we'll be cooling down to the freezing mark as we head into your friday. here is your extended forecast. >>> that does it for this edition of "newsline." do join us dpen.

a slick commute in the pacific northwest.rockies into kansas and southern ill pim thunderstorms drench roads from texas to tennessee. >>> airport delays possible in dallas, denver, kansas city, st. louis, seattle and houston. >>> now to a new terror threat by the al qaeda branch considered by the u.s. to be the group's most dangerous. >> al qaeda in yemen is offering a reward for killing a u.s. ambassador. >> reporter: it's a country racked with lawlessness. now a new threat. the associated press first reported this video, claiming to be from al qaeda's yemen branch, announcing a new bounty. roughly $160,000, three kilograms of gold, for the killing of an american in yemen. abc has not verified authenticity of a video. if true, the threat comes at a critical time, just four months after al qaeda-linked militants stormed u.s. embassy compound in libya, killing ambassador chris stevens and three other american personnel. after the attack, security levels were raised at american embassies around the world. >> i think the securit

the second stage dropped into the pacific ocean east of the philippines. it's in an orbit used by telligence andbservation satellites. the object seems to be orbiting south north at an altitude of 494 kilometers kim sd the launch w aim at furthering the development of intercontinental missiles. members said the north koreans had violated u.n. resolutions. >> members of the security council condemned this launch which is a clear violation of security council resolution 1718 and 1874. >> members have agreed to keep talking about how to deal with the leadership in pyongyang. susan rice says u.s. officials apprriate action.alled rtners to she said the security council may need to impose additional sanctions. experts say one reason they went what he had the launch was to get the upper hand in negotiations with the u.s. the north koreans have developed the capability to launch missiles that could reach the u.s. mainland. i started asking about the riousness of these developments. now looking at this as a safety concern. they called the launch is provocative act.