ANDREA PLATE WRITES – Retired Lieutenant Colonel Amy McGrath served 20 years in the Marines, flew 89 combat missions and dropped bombs on Al Qaeda and the Taliban. Now, she’s aiming for a bigger target: the Senate seat of Republican Majority leader Mitch McConnell, the longest-serving US Senator from the…
Asia Media International’s Senior Advisory Andrea Plate celebrated a pre-launch party for her book “Madness: In the Trenches of America’s Troubled Department of Veterans Affairs,” which was produced by Asia Media International and published by Marshall Cavendish Asia, at the Del Rey Yacht Club in Marina Del Rey. The four…
Actors of color have fought long and hard for cinematic breakthroughs— Sidney Poitier, the first African American Oscar winner (“Lilies of the Field, ” 1963); Ben Kingsley, the first Asian—he is half-Indian—to win an Oscar (“Gandhi,” 1982); and Hallee Berry, the first African American woman to win an Oscar (“Monster’s…
ANDREA PLATE WRITES – For 15 years, I was a senior staff social worker at the United States federal government’s Department of Veterans Affairs—the country’s largest integrated healthcare system— in its largest branch, located in West Los Angeles, California. Each year, the system serves 9 million veterans nationwide. One summer…
ANDREA PLATE WRITES – “Although my research focuses on Mexico, its findings are relevant to understanding the broader phenomenon of people who grew up in the United States but have been deported to countries around the world,” says author Beth C. Caldwell in her compelling, comprehensive and properly chilling new…
ANDREA PLATE WRITES – Has anyone remained dry-eyed after seeing Sully the dog on TV— President George Herbert Walker Bush’s yellow Labrador service dog, looking woebegone beside his best friend’s coffin? After viewing that TV image, could anyone doubt that dog is not just man’s best friends, but a veteran’s…
ANDREA PLATE WRITES – The early reviews are in: Amazon Prime’s “Homecoming” series is a hit. The story-line, about a counselor helping veterans returning home transition to civilian life, is suspenseful. It’s gritty and “noir.” It’s a psychological thriller. And it features a cinematic superstar, Julia Roberts, who proves that, rather…
ANDREA PLATE WRITES: The fine-art fingerprints of Debra Granik, director of 2010’s “Winter’s Bone,” are all over her stunning new movie “Leave no Trace,” recently released on DVD. Both set the stage for breakout young actresses—“Trace’s” star, Thomasin Harcourt McKenzie is just eighteen — Jennifer Lawrence was around twenty when…
ANDREA PLATE WRITES—Otto Warmbier, an American student captured by North Koreans, died, comatose, just days after his release to the US. But even to survive an insane North Korean gulag may also portend tragedy. So suggests Korean-American author R. O. Kwon in her recently released novel, The Incendiaries. For a…
ANDREA PLATE WRITES – What’s the big deal about Dr Ronny L. Jackson, President Trump’s embattled nominee for Secretary of Veterans Affairs? It’s obvious, if the allegations are true. They include: creating a hostile work environment. Drinking excessively on the job. Prescribing and dispensing medications inappropriately, to his own staff,…
ASIA MEDIA INTERNATIONAL WRITES — A visit by the UN Secretary General is always a big event in Los Angeles. Arriving after world-wind visits to various international trouble spots, Mr and Mrs Ban Ki-moon made appearances at the home of TV legend Normal Lear (lunch Wednesday, 10 Aug.) and producer-director Brett…
