In what was a surprise for some, Blong Xiong beat out Scott Miller for the District 1 city council seat. Fresno's city council in 2007 will do a pretty decent job of representing the city's diversity, with council members from the Hispanic, African American, and Hmong communities. And those four white guys.

Still there's just one lonely female on the council, Cynthia Sterling, who represents District 3 (stretching from downtown to the west side and beyond). Ladies, what's the aversion to running for city council?

Bonus: Bee executive editor Betsy Lumbye explains the decision to run a warm and fuzzy story on Blong days before the election.

Nyob zoo means "hello" in Hmong.