Mary Hayashi was elected to the California State Assembly

California State Assembly

The California State Assembly is the lower house of the California State Legislature. There are 80 members in the Assembly, representing an approximately equal number of constituents, with each district having a population of at least 420,000...

 in 2006. She was re-elected in 2008 and 2010. She is a Democrat. She represents the 18th Assembly District which includes San Leandro

San Leandro, California

San Leandro is a city in Alameda County, California, United States. It is considered a suburb of Oakland and San Francisco. The population was 84,950 as of 2010 census. The climate of the city is mild throughout the year.-Geography and water resources:...

, Hayward

Hayward, California

Hayward is a city located in the East Bay in Alameda County, California. With a population of 144,186, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area and the third largest in Alameda County. Hayward was ranked as the 37th most populous municipality in California. It is included in...

, Dublin

Dublin, California

Dublin is a suburban city of the East Bay region of Alameda County, California, United States. Located along the north side of Interstate 580 at the intersection with Interstate 680, roughly east of Hayward, west of Livermore and north of San Jose, it was named after the city of Dublin in...

 and the unincorporated areas of Ashland

Ashland, California

Ashland is a census-designated place in Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 21,925 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...

, Cherryland

Cherryland, California

Cherryland is a census-designated place in Alameda County, California, United States.The unincorporated community is located between the cities of San Leandro to the north and Hayward to the south...

, and San Lorenzo

San Lorenzo, California

San Lorenzo , also known as San Lorenzo Village is a census-designated place in Alameda County, California, United States. The population was 23,452 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...

. She also represents most of Castro Valley

Castro Valley, California

Castro Valley is a census-designated place in Alameda County, California, United States. As of the 2000 census, it is the fifth most populous unincorporated area in California, and the twenty-third in the United States...

, Pleasanton

Pleasanton, California

Pleasanton is a city in Alameda County, California, incorporated in 1894. It is a suburb in the San Francisco Bay Area located about east of Oakland, and west of Livermore. The population was 70,285 at the 2010 census. In 2005 and 2007, Pleasanton was ranked the wealthiest middle-sized city in...

 and a portion of Oakland

Oakland, California

Oakland is a major West Coast port city on San Francisco Bay in the U.S. state of California. It is the eighth-largest city in the state with a 2010 population of 390,724...

.

Hayashi, who was born in Kwangju, South Korea

South Korea

The Republic of Korea , , is a sovereign state in East Asia, located on the southern portion of the Korean Peninsula. It is neighbored by the People's Republic of China to the west, Japan to the east, North Korea to the north, and the East China Sea and Republic of China to the south...

, is the first Korean-American woman elected to the California state legislature.

Her primary legislative interest is health care, and she has been named Legislator of the Year by the California Medical Association

California Medical Association

The California Medical Association is a professional organization representing more than 35,000 physicians in the state of California. The organization was founded in 1856 and is a member of the American Medical Association.-Audio-Digest Foundation:...

. She serves as Chair of the Assembly Committee on Business, Professions and Consumer Protection.

She is the author of a book, Far from Home: Shattering the Myth of the Model Minority.

In late October 2011, she was charged with felony

Felony

A felony is a serious crime in the common law countries. The term originates from English common law where felonies were originally crimes which involved the confiscation of a convicted person's land and goods; other crimes were called misdemeanors...

 grand theft

Grand theft

Grand theft or grand larceny is a category used to rank the severity of crime associated with theft.Generally, in the United States it is defined as intentional taking property of others in an amount exceeding the state statutory amount....

 after being caught on video surveillance allegedly shoplifting $2,445 worth of merchandise from San Francisco's Neiman Marcus

Neiman Marcus

Neiman Marcus, formerly Neiman-Marcus, is a luxury specialty retail department store operated by the Neiman Marcus Group in the United States. The company is headquartered in the One Marcus Square building in Downtown Dallas, Texas, and competes with other department stores such as Saks Fifth...

 store.Her attorney and spokesman have stated that she had intended to pay for the items but became distracted by a cellphone call and a snack at the cafe and inadvertently left the store without paying. "According to sources close to the case, a week before the Neiman bust, a store saleswoman noticed that a dress was missing after a woman matching Hayashi's description tried it on. The saleswoman did not know who Hayashi was, but when the Castro Valley Democrat showed up Oct. 25, the clerk alerted store security and they began tracking her with surveillance cameras."

She is due back in court December 7, 2011, when a date for a preliminary hearing is to be set.

External links

• http://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a18/
• http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/makebio.asp?district=18
• http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/11/27/BA9T1M3IAH.DTL