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:
Related suggestion:
Alec Baldwin furiously smacks antiMaya Rudolph chimes in on the 'nepo baby' conversation revealing her famous parentsPGA Tour has a team event in New Orleans. LIV Golf returns Down UnderAboriginal spears taken by Captain Cook in 1770 are returned to Australia's Indigenous peopleAbortion returns to the spotlight in Italy 46 years after it was legalizedMississippi lawmakers move toward restoring voting rights to 32 felonsRichmond Mayor Stoney drops Virginia governor bid, he will run for lieutenant governor insteadUnai Emery agrees Aston Villa contract extension until 2027NATO newcomer Finland is now a 'frontUnited Methodists open first top
2.1936s , 6497.8671875 kb
Copyright © 2024 Powered by Immigrant's $1.3B Powerball win spotlights the Iu Mien community ,Stellar Station news portal