Families Politics

There sat Republican nominee for state controller Matthew (Kip) Fong in a banquet room full of GOP campaign check-writers, listening to his mother being denounced as "negligent." Fong is the only candidate for high state office in California--perhaps in the nation--whose mother is drawing political fire of her own. In this case, the mother, March Fong Eu, the veteran secretary of state, is seeking reelection to a fifth term.

Dreams of Significant Girls A Novel Cristina García Simon & Schuster: 238 pp., $16.99, ages 14 and up Friendships are often forged in uncomfortable environs, when individuals who wouldn't ordinarily meet are forced to interact. Such is the case in "Dreams of Significant Girls," a young-adult novel that unfolds in a Swiss boarding school and makes roommates of three girls from radically different backgrounds. Without the advantage of money, it's unlikely that Shirin (the daughter of an Iranian prince)

Democrat Kathleen Brown, reviving a California political dynasty, won the election for state treasurer, defeating the appointed incumbent, Republican Thomas W. Hayes, unofficial returns showed Wednesday. By winning, the treasurer-elect continued a family saga in public life that began in the 1950s when her father, Edmund G. (Pat) Brown, was elected first as state attorney general and later as governor. Her brother, Edmund G. Brown Jr.

Mark Farrales figured his time in America could be up when he answered the door at his Reseda home to find two men standing there in black bulletproof vests emblazoned with three large white letters. "It read ICE," he said. "My heart just sank. " The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were there to arrest him for being in the country illegally. Brought here by his parents as a child, the now-31-year-old Farrales faces imminent deportation back to the Philippines.

Things may be getting a little dicey in the household of Secretary of State March Fong Eu. Democrat Eu is not speaking to her son, Republican controller candidate Matt Fong. In fact, Eu has been advised by her campaign staff "to avoid any contact" with Fong, said Leo McElroy, the Sacramento consultant running Eu's reelection campaign.

Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's family was doubly humiliated in Serbia's weekend election, with support for the neo-Communist party of his wife, Mirjana Markovic, crashing even more than for his own Socialists. Based on returns from more than half the polling stations, Markovic's Yugoslav Left, or JUL, won the support of just 0.37% of voters, far below the 5% it had needed to stay in the Serbian parliament, the electoral commission said Sunday.

If Warren Beatty ever stops toying with us and really runs for president, his 9-year-old daughter, Kathlyn, could become a key political adviser. Beatty said she helped him organize the speech he gave Sunday at a conference sponsored by Southern California Americans for Democratic Action. Afterward, as he ducked into an elevator, Beatty invited us along. Ensconced in his suite at the Wilshire Grand Hotel, he bent our ear talking politics.

An American family with three small children has applied for political asylum in Finland, immigration officials said. The five came from Germany on Tuesday, said Minna Serradj of the Directorate of Immigration. "It's very unusual for a U.S. citizen to apply for asylum," Serradj said, declining to give details, in line with a policy to protect asylum-seekers. Serradj declined to comment on local media speculation that the parents possibly were seeking to escape serving in the U.S.

Will America close the books on the Bush dynasty when George W. leaves office in January? Or is it still possible that his younger brother, Jeb, will rise from the ashes of the second Bush presidency -- perhaps even as part of the Bush clan's ongoing duel with the House of Clinton? While one should never say never in politics, such a rematch in 2012 or 2016 is beginning to seem extremely unlikely. Even Jeb himself apparently regards prospects for a Bush resurrection as largely hopeless.

It's been nearly five years since the six-hour Italian triumph "The Best of Youth" debuted at Cannes and then came to America. Those who saw it soon understood that nothing in the current cinematic world is as rare as this kind of serious, adult storytelling, and few thought that they would see anything like it again. But now they can.

If it weren't for family politics, would the Pritzkers be taking Hyatt Hotels Corp. public? Preliminary offering documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission suggest there is little other reason to sell shares in the Chicago family's crown jewel during the worst economy since the Great Depression. The documents pull back the curtain for the first time on a global hotel behemoth with a sterling balance sheet and no apparent business need to raise cash right now. From 2004 through 2008, Hyatt revenue grew from $2.7 billion to $3.8 billion.

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin was an untraditional choice for the Republican ticket, but her acceptance speech Wednesday suggested that she will play a very traditional role as a vice presidential nominee: leading her party's attack against the other side. "You know what they say's the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull? Lipstick," she said, flashing a mauve smile. Palin delivered the most important speech of her career with poise and pugnacity, extolling Republican presidential candidate John McCain as "an upright and honorable man" while throwing repeated jabs at Democratic nominee Barack Obama.

It's been nearly five years since the six-hour Italian triumph "The Best of Youth" debuted at Cannes and then came to America. Those who saw it soon understood that nothing in the current cinematic world is as rare as this kind of serious, adult storytelling, and few thought that they would see anything like it again. But now they can.

Will America close the books on the Bush dynasty when George W. leaves office in January? Or is it still possible that his younger brother, Jeb, will rise from the ashes of the second Bush presidency -- perhaps even as part of the Bush clan's ongoing duel with the House of Clinton? While one should never say never in politics, such a rematch in 2012 or 2016 is beginning to seem extremely unlikely. Even Jeb himself apparently regards prospects for a Bush resurrection as largely hopeless.

An American family with three small children has applied for political asylum in Finland, immigration officials said. The five came from Germany on Tuesday, said Minna Serradj of the Directorate of Immigration. "It's very unusual for a U.S. citizen to apply for asylum," Serradj said, declining to give details, in line with a policy to protect asylum-seekers. Serradj declined to comment on local media speculation that the parents possibly were seeking to escape serving in the U.S.

Julie Gavras, the only daughter of acclaimed filmmaker Costa-Gavras ("Z," "Missing"), was content working as a documentarian. "I guess I did documentaries because it was something nobody in my family did," she says over the phone from her home in Paris. "Not only is my father a director, but my mother is a producer. I have brothers who are in the business too." Then she read "Tutta Colpa di Fidel," by her Italian friend, Domitilla Calamai.

The freckle-faced young man with his shirttail sticking out of his khaki slacks was ringing doorbells, seeking votes for himself for today's Rhode Island primary election. "I didn't sleep last night," he confided. "Tossing and turning--I've got butterflies." It's no wonder, for Patrick Kennedy is trying to write a new chapter in his famous family's political chronicle. The son of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.

IN "Red and Blue," airing tonight on the Discovery Channel, a family from so-called red state America, the Cambres, tomato farmers from Clinton, La., trade places with a so-called blue state family, the Catteralls, educators who live in Topanga Canyon. It's an idea redolent of the recent "30 Days," Morgan Spurlock's FX network series in which the "Super Size Me" filmmaker tried out other lives for 30 days, including life as a person of Muslim faith.

A monster movie for the 21st century, "The Host" takes familiar genre elements and then crushes them in much the same way the title creature runs amok along the Seoul riverbank it calls home. Written and directed by South Korean filmmaker Bong Joon-ho, it's a film that will catch you leaning in one direction and abruptly pull you in another, all the while building to a surprisingly emotional climax. On a U.S.

With questions lingering about the cause of his death, the family of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and his supporters waged a highly political battle Monday to force the Serbian government to allow them to return his body to his homeland for burial. However, it remained unresolved whether the funeral and interment would be in Belgrade, the capital of the former Yugoslavia.