(The Seattle Times) Long-distance runner and two-time Olympian Kara Goucher has left her longtime sponsor Nike to sign on with a small women’s running-apparel company in Seattle — leaving behind a big paycheck for a chance to make a bigger impact on women runners.

As Goucher trains for the next two years to run in the 2016 Olympics, she’ll be sporting gear from Seattle-based Oiselle.

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(South Coast Today) Keiko Orrall, Massachusetts state representative, is in Japan this week on the 2014 Japanese American Leadership Delegation (JALD) program, which brings 10 prominent Japanese Americans to Japan for a week-long trip dedicated to building people-to-people connections with Japanese leaders. In its 14th year, JALD provides opportunities for Japanese Americans to establish a meaningful role in strengthening U.S.-Japan relations across all sectors of society.

Rep. Orrall and the other delegates will visit Fukuoka in the Kyushu region, an economically and culturally dynamic prefecture where many Japanese Americans have their ancestral roots. They will also participate in a panel...

In this interview with the New York Times, USJC Board of Councilors Member George Takei talks about growing up in a Japanese American internment camp, visiting Japan, and his passion for the U.S.-Japan relationship. Mr. Takei also discusses “Allegiance,” his Broadway-bound musical about a family’s experiences at the Heart Mountain, Wyoming internment camp.

Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s latest approval ratings are in, and, let’s just say you’d have to go back 20 years to find a predecessor whose numbers are worse at the one-year mark.

Kerry’s approval rating is at a mediocre 55 percent, according to Gallup, which released a poll last week of 1,023 Americans, conducted Feb. 6-9 — right around his one-year anniversary as secretary, but well before his high-profile talks last week with Russia over the Ukraine crisis.

Read more here.