October 25, 2024 | Vol. 53, Issue 20

The only bilingual Chinese-English Newspaper in New England

Top News

Sampan Analysis: What Abortion Ruling Means, What’s Ahead

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 24 upheld a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, eliminating the constitutional right to abortion. This ruling comes 49 years after Roe v. Wade, the landmark case that struck down a Texas law banning all abortions except those necessary to save the mother’s life. The Court had ruled in 1973 that criminal statutes that outlaw abortions at all stages of pregnancy violate the Due […]

Do I Feel Safe Without Guns? Living in countries with strict gun controls

This is the first in a series of articles in which I am speaking with people from several countries where gun laws are more restrictive. I wanted to explore how they felt living in their countries. This story is about China. With a population of approximately 1.4 billion, China has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the world. As a result, it has (at 49.7 million) the third lowest number of guns in the world. I interviewed Yang, […]

ON DACA’S 10th ANNIVERSARY, DREAMERS STILL FACE UNCERTAINTY

June 15, 2022 marked the ten-year anniversary of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, known as DACA. An executive branch memorandum announced by President Barack Obama, DACA allows some individuals who were brought to the country as children and who maintain an unlawful presence in the United States to receive a renewable two-year period of deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a work permit. DACA does not provide a pathway to citizenship for its recipients, leaving somewhere […]

Student Loan Debt Crisis: a problem in need of a solution

The student loan debt crisis was one of the most important issues in the 2020 election, as well as one of current President Biden’s key promises during his campaign. And for good reason-the student debt crisis so far has led 43 million borrowers to collectively owe around $1.6 trillion. Since 1970, average in-state tuition has risen over 2,000% at both public and private schools, while average student loan debt has jumped 317% on average.  In the last decade alone, tuition […]

Baby Formula Crisis Hits Minority, Immigrant Women

Since the shutdown of the Sturgis Michigan Abbot Laboratories plant in February 2022, mothers have been scrambling to find baby formula. That story is widely known. But what is less discussed is how acute the loss of formula has been felt by minority and immigrant women who depend so much on baby formula to go back to work. “My client, Mrs. Wong, began to worry (early on) when the cashier at Stop & Shop told her that she could only […]

Baby Formula Shortage and Minorities

“It’s so sad. It shouldn’t be like this. We need formula for our kid, and where is this formula going to come from?” This is a lingering question from mother of two, Capri Isidoro, struggling to breast feed her one-month-old daughter. After giving birth, the hospital gave her baby formula without consulting her on any wish to breastfeed first, a common occurrence among minority moms. The baby formula shortage puts Hispanic and Black women at risk the most. The CDC […]

Great Replacement Theory: How racist ideology is fueling hate and fear and mass shootings 

On May 14, 2022, an 18 year old male traveled four hours to a supermarket in a predominantly African neighborhood and killed ten people. We all want to know the reason, the motive. . No matter how repellent, if a suspected killer leaves 180 pages in the wake of his killings, they must be read to find the answers. Will we find the reasons for the other mass shootings? However much we might want to move beyond these mass shootings […]

Pride Month 2022 is powered by hard work and commitment

Asian communities around the world are celebrating Pride Month and opening new space for every expression.  Pride Month has grown considerably since the early days after the 1969 Stonewall Riots. The Riots gave rise to the Gay Rights Movement.  NAAAP Boston has scheduled many events for Pride Month.. Beginning with different perspectives, NAAAP Boston released a collection of first-person narratives coined the “Coming Out Collection”. Honoring Coming Out Day (October 11), each narrative  shares a different story about the journey […]

As Court Decision Looms, Remembering Boston’s Abortion Rights Legacy

The relationship between medicine and law is complex and contentious. Rulings that have a finality in the public imagination are often put to the test in the real world, their consequences and exceptions worked out in a fashion far from ideal. The closing words of Supreme Court opinions – It is so ordered – suggest a solidity these rulings rarely have. Roe vs. Wade is no different. Just months after the Court released its opinion on the case, it was […]

The Shanghai COVID Shutdown: searching for hope in the midst of extreme measures

[Editor’s note: On June 2, 2022, Shanghai neighborhoods returned to lockdown status only a day after restrictions were eased. This article is an account of the struggles experienced during the course of the initial lockdown. It is an ongoing story that Sampan will continue to cover.] After a two-month lockdown of Shanghai, it appears as if things may return to normal in the near future. New infections have been falling for days. Public transportation routes and essential businesses–such as convenience […]

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