Massive Little Tokyo-Adjacent Project OK’d
Despite opposition from some in Little Tokyo (see Feb. 26, 2026, Pacific Citizen, tinyurl.com/367pznr7), the Los Angeles City Council has greenlighted plans to transform the privately owned Los Angeles Cold Storage into Fourth & Central, a $2 billion, 7.6-acre 10 building mixed-use — retail, restaurants and residential units — project that could break ground within two years.
Toyota, Joby Aviation JV to Make Air Taxis
The Japan-based automotive giant and the Santa Cruz, Calif.-based firm in late June made the joint venture announcement that the two companies would manufacture electricity-powered vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. According to published reports, the air taxi can hold five (four passengers and the pilot) with a top speed of 200 mph.
SCOTUS Upholds Order Fining TV Reporter
The Supreme Court has rejected former Fox News and CBS News telejournalist Catherine Herridge’s bid to stay a lower court’s order to pay an $800-a-day fine for refusing to reveal the identity of a confidential federal source in her 2017 reporting on a Chinese American scientist. Yanping Chen was the subject of an FBI counterintelligence investigation over allegations of having ties to the People’s Republic of China’s military and space programs. According to the New York Times, the FBI ended its investigation into Chen and brought no charges against her.
EEOC Suit: 99 Ranch Market Discriminates
According to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the nation’s largest Asian supermarket chain, based in Buena Park, Calif., discriminates against its employees who are not of Chinese heritage, the Los Angeles Times reported. 99 Ranch Market is owned
by Tawa Supermarket Inc. and was founded in 1984 by Taiwanese immigrant Roger Chen. There are 66 retail locations in 11 states.
LAPC Honors Fukuzaki With Lifetime Award
At its 68th Southern California Journalism Awards, held June 28 at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel, the Los Angeles Press Club recognized several Asian American journalists, with KABC Channel 7 sports anchor Rob Fukuzaki receiving the organization’s Joseph M. Quinn Award for Lifetime Achievement. In the Journalists of the Year category, Fukuzaki’s colleague David Ono received top honors in the TV category. Other winners and notable mentions: Photojournalist of the Year went to Ringo Chiu; first place in Local Politics/Government Reporting, Schools and Universities, went to Maylin Tu of AfroLA; third place in Obituary/In Appreciation, Politics/Business/Arts Personalities, went to Gwen Muranaka of Zócalo Public Square; second place for environmental reporting went to Michelle Ma of Bloomberg News; third place for Commentary went to Calvin Naito of Beverly Press/Park Labrea News; and first place for the Tatiana Schlossberg Environmental Cash Award went to Lisa Fung of Blueprint Magazine; second place in the category went to Michelle Peng of the San Francisco Standard. To view a PDF of the event’s program, visit tinyurl.com/yuydnpu5.
Duly Noted: AAJA Elects New Officers
At the recent Asian American Journalists Assn. convention in Minneapolis, Jin Ding was elected the group’s national president with 320 votes to 199 for Frank Bi. In the races for vp of civic engagement and vp of finance, those offices were won, respectively, by Marian Chia-Ning Liu and Carl Lam; both ran unopposed. The Television Academy has announced that KABC TV news anchor David Ono is its recipient of the 2026 Los Angeles Area Emmy Governors Award, which is awarded to an individual, company or organization for making an outstanding, innovative and visionary achievement in the arts, sciences or management of television (see Nov. 4, 2022, Pacific Citizen, tinyurl.com/ykuwpkd8, and Feb. 20, 2026, Pacific Citizen, tinyurl.com/5n6dekz6). Los Angeles City City Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez and Eunisses Hernandez honored former executive director of Los Angeles Conservation Corps Bruce Saito by naming the intersection of Ann and North Spring Streets, near the Corps’ HQ, Bruce Saito Square. USA Today named Ikeda’s California Country Market, with locations in Auburn, Calif., and Davis, Calif., as its Best Pie Shop. The family owned business has been selling pies for more than five decades. The UCLA Asian American Studies Department announced that Dr. Jean-Paul (JP) Contreras deGuzman is the 2025-26 recipient of the C. Doris and Toshio Hoshide Distinguished Teaching Prize in Asian American Studies at UCLA for “high impact teaching practices and student engagement work that has inspired students to pursue degrees in Asian American Studies.” For more than a decade, he has been the instructor for Asian American Studies 10: History of Asian Americans. The department also announced that Professor May Sudhinaraset was awarded the 2025-26 Don T. Nakanishi Award for Outstanding Engaged Scholarship in Asian American Studies at UCLA. In other UCLA Asian American Studies Department news, graduate student Corina Penaia and undergraduate student Samantha Leong were named as the recipients of the 2025-26 Don T. Nakanishi Award for Outstanding Engaged Scholarship in Asian American and Pacific Islander Studies at UCLA. The Nakanishi Award includes a $2,500 cash prize award for each recipient.
— P.C. Staff