Thanksgiving Day usually means eating turkey. But for thousands of local Hmong, it means eating Hmong sausage, grilled pork and sticky rice while attending the Sacramento Hmong New Year celebration at Cal Expo. More than 40,000 people are expected to attend the four-day celebration which begins Thursday and ends Sunday, said John Thao, Hmong New Year Committee board member. The board formed six years ago and consists of one representative from each of the 18 Hmong clans which make up Sacramento's community of approximately 26,000 to 28,000 Hmong. Hmong come from the mountainous regions of China and other countries Southeast Asia. Nov. 14 and 15, Hmong already celebrated the new year at h

"What do we want? Case dismissed! When do we want it? Now!" Tria Vang, 25-year-old Hmong activist and part of the Hmong American Ad Hoc Committee, led a spirited crowd of nearly 1,000 through cheers as well as a march around the Matsui Courthouse building. Organized by the Ad Hoc Committee, Hmong Americans and their supporters protested an indictment against 12 Hmong men accused of conspiring to overthrow the Laos government. It mirrored a similar rally in May of this year for Hmong leader and former general, Vang Pao, 79, who was recently dismissed of the same charges on Sept. 18. Only one day earlier, Sept. 17, brothers Jerry Yang, 58, and Thomas Yang, 47, were added as conspirators w

A federal judge on Monday ordered prosecutors to turn over the remaining evidence against Hmong defendants charged with an alleged conspiracy to overthrow the communist Laotian government. Presiding over a packed courtroom in Sacramento, U.S. District Court Judge Frank Damrell Jr. of the Eastern District of California deferred ruling on the defendants' motion to dismiss the case until all evidence is in. "I much prefer to make my findings on a complete record, and that's what I intend to do," Damrell said. Prosecutors have provided the defense with about 70 percent of the evidence since the indictments were handed down in June 2007, said defense attorney Mark Reichel. As the court proc