“It is with great pride that we see Secretary Mineta’s remarkable story of leadership and service honored in the Portrait Gallery,” said Konrad Ng, director of the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program, in a press release. “He represents the key roles that Asian Pacific Americans have played in US culture, history and politics.”

He served in Congress from 1975-1995, co-founded the Congressional Asian Pacific Caucus and helped push through the Civil Liberties Act of 1988, which called for an official apology and redress for Japanese Americans interned during World War II. Mineta, along with his family, were interned during the war.

Mineta was also the first Asian American to hold a presidential cabinet post. He was named commerce secretary by Bill Clinton in 2000 and served as transportation secretary under George W. Bush until resigning in 2006.

It’s almost commonplace in many areas of the country to have Asian Americans in government, and it was Mineta and others of his generation who opened the doors. For that we owe them thanks.

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

The NBA draft only has two rounds, and most prognosticators don’t believe Lin will be chosen. He played against inferior competition in the Ivy League, and some scouts say that while he’s a great passer for a point guard, his offensive skills may not be ready for the NBA.

In this video, he discusses his workout with the Warriors, and here are some highlights of his college career.

If he hooks up with a team, Lin would be a rare Asian American pro athlete, which is why he has a lot of fans in the Asian American community. Lin wasn’t offered a scholarship from a big-time college program when he graduated from high school, and stereotypes about Asian Americans not being good athletes may have played a role, which he also discusses in this video. But he’s proven the detractors wrong with a nice career at Harvard and could make it to the pros.

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Sim and Tanveer Bhullar are 7-foot Indian brothers who are emerging as two of the top high school basketball players in the country.

There are few Asians or Asian Americans playing major college sports and even fewer South Asians at such a high level. And unlike Jeremy Lin, the brothers have recruiters at big-time college basketball programs salivating at the prospect of having one or both siblings on their teams. While Lin certainly has the skills, the Bhullars’ size sets them apart and makes them tantalizing NBA prospects.

Sim, 17, is 7-4 and 285 pounds. Tanveer, 15, is 7-2 and 265 pounds. Both grew up in Canada and now attend The Kiski School in Saltsburg, PA, near Pittsburgh. Their parents immigrated to Toronto from India and sent their sons to school in the United States to help them enhance their ball skills.

Wouldn’t it be cool if someday the Bhullar brothers and Lin were in the NBA together?

Daniel Dae Kim moves from "Lost" to a role in the new "Hawaii Five-0."

The new “Hawaii Five-0,” with Daniel Dae Kim and Grace Park, will feature two of the most high-profile roles for Asian Americans on TV this fall.

Kim moves from “Lost” but stays on the islands for the new ”Five-0,” playing Chin Ho Kelly. “Battlestar Galactica” alum Park plays Kona “Kono” Kalakaua. Alex O’Laughlin plays the lead as Steve McGarrett, son of the character played by Jack Lord in the original series. Scott Caan plays Danny “book’em Danno” Williams.

The show is not a remake of the original but a reboot set in present day. Here’s a preview of the show.

One thing that hasn’t changed is the cool theme song.

Who can’t get into that?

Recent shows set in Hawaii have been busts. With “Flash Forward” canceled and Lost ending its run, Kim and Park, along with Sandra Oh on “Grey’s Anatomy” are pretty much it for Asian American characters with big roles on TV. Maybe some of that “Lost” island magic will keep Kim and Park on the air longer than “Flash Forward.”

How’s “Five-0″ look to you? Will you watch?

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Liu is an associate dean and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, law school.

If the Senate approves him as an appeals court judge, Liu would be in line for a Supreme Court nomination and potentially the first Asian American on the high court.

That’s one reason many in the Asian American community are closely watching his nomination to the appeals court.

Liu’s legal and academic credentials seem flawless, but he is opposed by Republicans and will likely opposition for his liberal views on affirmative action and abortion.

This post is also on the Hyphen magazine blog.

Jake Shimabukuro's career took off after a YouTube video of him went viral.

Shimabukuro been called the Hendrix of Ukulele (or for you 80s heavy metal fans, the  Yngwie of Ukulele, as former Hyphen Music Editor Todd Inoue described him). I sawShimabukuro play at Yoshi’s San Francisco on Monday night, and along with his mad ukulele skills, he had an engaging stage presence when telling the little back-stories to each song before performing it.

“Me & Shirley T” is inspired by his favorite drink as a kid, a Shirley Temple. “Five Dollars Unleaded” was written for his father, whose gas tank seemed to always be on empty. So when father and son got into a car, their first stop was a gas station, and his dad always asked for $5 unleaded when filling up, which, “back then would be a full tank.”

Maybe the best story Shimabukuro told was his own. It’s about how a little video on YouTube of him playing the Beatles’ “ While My Guitar Gently Weeps” in Central Park went viral and changed his life. He thanked all the people who e-mailed the video. Without YouTube, “none of this would be possible.” He paid tribute by wearing a YouTube sweatshirt after the show when he was signing autographs.

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

In the last three years, Shimabukuro has peformed a duet of the Beatles’ “ In My Life” with Bette Midler for the Queen of England, toured the world and played with the likes of Ziggy Marley, Jimmy Buffet, Yo-Yo Ma and Bella and the Flecktones.

It’s got to be a whirlwind for him, but he seems humble and appreciative, signing autographs for everyone who lined up at Yoshi’s even though it probably made him late for his second show of the night. Maybe it’s the laid back Hawaiian style. After all, he ended his show by saying, “If everyone played the ukelele, the world would be a happier place.” I believe him.

Flash Forward star John Cho says that a script for the third Harold and Kumar has been written and that it will be a holiday-themed movie that takes place a few years after the last film. The new Star Trek script is being written, Cho says, but he doesn’t know what the story is about. I can’t wait to see both of them.

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Deborah Gibson and Vic Chao make out in 'Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.'

“Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus“: the title alone should have kept me away, but flipping through the channels to SyFy, my curiosity was piqued when I saw that it starred 80s teen sensation Debbie Gibson (who’s all grown up and goes by Deborah now). I started watching and lo and behold, before I knew it, her character and a fellow scientist played by Vic Chao were making eyes for each other and heading to the closet for some, shall we say, intense research.

The scene is the only notable thing in an otherwise forgettable, low-budget, sci-fi flick released in May 2009 with bad acting, really bad special effects and co-starring another 80s retread, Lorenzo Lamas.

I don’t know how I missed Mega Shark when it released, but not only does it have an Asian guy in it, he gets the girl, a rarity for the movies.

Sean Lawlor, left, Vic Chao and Deborah Gibson from Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus.

There was some buzz when John Cho’s character in “Flash Forward” was paired romantically with Gabriel Union; seems people notice because seeing an Asian man in a sexual context in the movies or television is so unusual still.

For years, I was really angry over how Asian American males were portrayed and perceived. But things are changing slowly. I’m still angry, and I still take notice when an Asian face pops on my TV screen. It’s been happening more often. Hopefully, someday it will be so common, I won’t notice at all.

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Nguyen was nominated last week and Chen and Gee’s nominations were announced this morning.

“This marks the first time in history that two Asian Pacific American judicial nominations have been made on the same day,” Andrew T. Hahn, Sr. president of the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, said in a statement. “These historic nominations come on the heels of the nomination of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jacqueline Nguyen for United States District Court for the Central District of California just one week ago and demonstrate President Obama’s commitment to improving the long-needed diversity of the federal judiciary.”

With Sonia Sotomayor confirmed for Supreme Court, let’s hope this the beginning of even more judges of color throughout the judiciary.

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.

Yang is one of the most high-profile Asian American chief executives in the country, and one of the great stories of the Internet boom. Yahoo started as a set of links to Yang and company co-founder David Filo’s favorite sites on the Internet. Yahoo grew to be one of the juggernauts of the Internet, but recently has fallen on hard times. Yang had the misfortune of being in charge during an awful time for the company, as the Merc story says.

There aren’t that many big corporations with Asian American CEOs, and it’s unfortunate that Yang’s tenure will be considered a failure by many. If there’s a glass ceiling, I hope Yang’s time at Yahoo doesn’t discourage other companies from considering Asian Americans for executive positions.

This post is also on Hyphen magazine’s blog.