Regret

Born two years before the end of the Vietnam War in Saigon, Dinh Canh Tran lived under dictatorial communist rule until about 1989 when his family relocated to the Philippines in route to live permanently in the United States.

You might guess that living in a country where citizens have no real rights would spur Tran to quickly obtain U.S. citizenship status.

But the Vietnamese immigrant didn't bother to secure his rights, failed to graduate from an American high school, obtained a machinist certificate and, after getting married, fell into regularly using illegal drugs and alcohol.

Nowadays, Tran, 39, wishes he'd taken the simple steps to become a citizen.

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American exceptionalism?

It's almost impossible to overestimate the number of superb books inspired by the relationship between Vietnam and the United States.

There are, for example, classics such as Graham Greene's "The Quiet American," Neil Sheehan's "A Bright Shining Lie," Michael Herr's "Dispatches," Robert Olen Butler's "A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain," Duong Thu Huong's "No Man's Land," and John Laurence's "The Cat From Hue."

More recently, reporter Nick Turse rocked the category with "Kill Anything That Moves," a controversial, groundbreaking investigative report alleging that the amount of murders, rapes, assaults and arson committed with impunity by U.S. soldiers during the war was monumentally greater that previously known.

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Gokhan Kucuk of Huntington Beach, John Giang Ly of Westminster and Garden Grove shoe shop owner Joon Heung Son are facing felony charges stemming from "Operation Fashion Faux Pas," an Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation of Orange County retailers suspected of dealing in counterfeit designer goods. Kucuk, 33, operates Hot Trends kiosks in Surf City, 24-year-old Ly sells purses out of his home, and Son is the 45-year-old owner of Shoe World stores in Garden Grove and LA.

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Hey, that's not your boy!

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Beckel: What was CBS thinking in pro-Vietnam communist tribute?

One of the token liberals on FOX News is blasting CBS for airing an Amazing Race broadcast this week that required contestants visiting Vietnam to watch a pro-communist musical show, recite a pro-communist poem, and then gather at an anti-American military site in Hanoi.More »

DEA bust nets arrests, Ecstasy pills

The Southern California Drug Task Force assigned to a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) designated "High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area" has busted a large scale drug distribution ring selling the party drug Ecstasy out of a Little Saigon apartment complex.More »

Tan Nguyen is found guilty

A federal judge in Orange County has granted summary judgment to Dish Network and imposed a massive fine on a Little Saigon man who operated a satellite piracy business.More »

An Orange County convicted felon is arguing that mere possession of AK-47 parts he purchased on the Internet but hadn't assembled cannot be a violation of state law.More »

Yet another gagged Asian man

A veteran Orange County lab assistant who claims that his boss banned him from speaking Vietnamese anytime on the job--even on breaks or at off-duty functions--has agreed to settle his employment discrimination lawsuit prior to a scheduled 2013 trial.
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Duc Truong

Little Saigon's Duc Hong Truong--the offspring of an unknown, irresponsible American soldier--isn't a lawyer but he's sitting in Calipatria State Prison and wondering why an important 1984 court opinion, People v. Dillon, doesn't apply to him.

Dillon was a 17-year-old high school student who committed a robbery and then brutally killed his victim. Police captured him, a jury convicted him and a superior court judge sentenced him to a term of 25 years to life in prison.

But the California Supreme Court ruled that the punishment was "grossly disproportional" and ordered the trial judge to reduce the severity.

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