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.
UConn's Aaliyah Edwards is ready to achieve her pro dream with WNBA draft around the corner
Palestinian death toll rises to 22,438 in Gaza: ministry
Sports equipment exports from Yiwu to France surge 70 percent ahead of Paris Olympics
Red Lobster seeks bankruptcy protection after closing some restaurants
Interview: China responsible, proactive player in global climate governance, says Kuwaiti expert
Dubois, Roy end long goal droughts to propel Kings to 3
How to get rid of NYC rats without brutality? Birth control is one idea
Candice Swanepoel stuns in a form
China unveils new measures to streamline foreign exchange business processes
Britain's new bonkers EV: Callum Skye is an £80k electric buggy built in Warwickshire
Int'l ministerial meeting calls for peace in Gaza