Immigrant's $1.3B Powerball win spotlights the Iu Mien community
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Cheng “Charlie” Saephan wore a broad smile and a bright blue sash emblazoned with the words “Iu-Mien USA” as he hoisted an oversized check for $1.3 billion above his head.
The 46-year-old immigrant’s luck in winning an enormous Powerball jackpot in Oregon earlier this month — a lump sum payment of $422 million after taxes, which he and his wife will split with a friend — has changed his life. It also raised awareness about Iu Mien people, a southeast Asian ethnic group with origins in China, many of whose members fled from Laos to Thailand and then settled in the U.S. following the Vietnam War.
“I am born in Laos, but I am not Laotian,” Saephan told a news conference Monday at Oregon Lottery headquarters, where his identity as one of the jackpot’s winners was revealed. “I am Iu Mien.”
During the Vietnam War, the CIA and U.S. military recruited Iu Mien in neighboring Laos, many of them subsistence farmers, to engage in guerrilla warfare and to provide intelligence and surveillance to disrupt the Ho Chi Minh Trail that the North Vietnamese used to send troops and weapons through Laos and Cambodia into South Vietnam.
Related articles
Trump or Biden? Either way, US seems poised to preserve heavy tariffs on imports
WASHINGTON (AP) — As president, Donald Trump imposed a 25% tariff on foreign steel, which hurt Clips2024-05-22Georgia court to review ruling allowing Fani Willis to stay on Trump case
ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia appeals court on Wednesday agreed to review a lower court ruling allowing F2024-05-22Osaka plays solidly in her opening match at the Italian Open. Darderi eliminates Shapovalov
ROME (AP) — Naomi Osaka looked comfortable in her opening match at the Italian Open, beating 45th-ra2024-05-22A cargo plane make an emergency landing at Istanbul Airport after front landing gear fails
ISTANBUL (AP) — A cargo aircraft made an emergency landing at Istanbul Airport on Wednesday after it2024-05-22Mystery artist who erected signs comparing pothole
A defiant resident infuriated by the potholes in their road has taken revenge on the council by erec2024-05-22WBC strips Jermall Charlo of middleweight title following DUI arrest. Carlos Adames is new champion
PEARLAND, Texas (AP) — The World Boxing Council has stripped unbeaten Jermall Charlo of his middlewe2024-05-22
atest comment