Before Barack Obama selected Sen. Joe Biden as his running mate, a national monthly Korean magazine printed in English urged Obama to pick former Hawaii lawmaker Jackie Young as his running mate. Here's some of what KoreAm, headquartered in LA, said about Jackie in its July issue: “;Jackie Young could be just what Barack Obama needs to clinch the presidential office: a strong woman with a background in civil rights activism, feminism and political service. ... The former Hawaii lawmaker is also a cancer survivor and served as vice president of the powerful National Women's Political Caucus.”; Jackie took the magazine to Obama's Kahala fundraiser when he vacationed here and got the Democrat to autograph the story. She sent a photo of the autographed article to the magazine. The editors were so stoked about the Obama autograph in their magazine that they said they would publish the picture ...

Jackie Young

DANCING ON: “;Dancing with the Stars”; isn't just a spectator event for a pair of Honolulu teenagers. Brian Fung, a Maryknoll High sophomore, and Julia Sharipova, a Punahou junior, came away with a first-place medal in an international ballroom dancing competition. The Grand Ball 2008 was held in Vancouver, Canada, Nov. 7 to 9. About 500 people from the U.S., Canada and other countries competed in categories that are specific for age and the competency level of the competitors. Brian and Julia won for international Latin dancing in the “;pre-championship”; category for people under 21. They are students of dancing coach Carlos Chang, who was a former Latin dance champion in the Canadian competition. They won gold medals in the Hawaii Star Ball 2007 last year and will be seen again in the annual competition next month. Brian's mother, Kathy Fung, used to teach ballroom dancing at Waldorf School, and he would wait for a ride home in her classroom, picking up dance moves from watching the class ...

Dexter Kekua

Heide & Cook CFO Dexter Kekua and wife Elyn attended a Van Gogh exhibition at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art and had a “;chicken skin”; moment when they met artist and book author John Loring, Tiffany's design director. The islanders learned that Loring had recovered portraits of King Liholiho Kamehameha II and Queen Victoria Kamamalu by chance from a farmhouse in Ireland and had returned the paintings to Iolani Palace. Kekua's genealogy goes back to Queen Kamamalu, and his last name can be traced back to Big Island warrior chief Kekua-o-Kalani, Queen Kamamalu's brother ...

The Koa'e Kea women, the early Hawaiian Airlines hostesses (with some going back to the 1940s), will hold their annual dinner party tonight at the Ala Moana Hotel. Cathy Foy will entertain in the “;Broadway at Ala Moana”; show. The former hostesses always sing and dance hula at these fun-filled parties for their families and friends ...