Local radio host Barbara Stanton is in hot water after some on-air remarks.  See the story at the Daily Press site. [link: http://www.vvdailypress.com/onset?id=867&template=article.html]

Hearing the audio of that comment, it looks like she may be gone for good.

She was attempting to raise opposition to the purchase of local good-guy bank Desert Community Bank [link: http://www.dcbk.org/] by East-West Bank [link: http://www.eastwestbank.com/English/index.asp] of Pasadena, CA, but made some remarks that sounded racist.  Not knowing the woman personally, I can not speak to whether she in fact does harbor ill feelings toward those of Asian ancestry.  Her remarks certainly sounded that way.

There are a few things that she mentions:

1 Ron Wilson, DCB president, was recently on her program and said something to the effect that he intended to be running the bank for another five years.  Given the timing of the announcement, he had to know already that this was in the works. As a corporate officer, Mr. Wilson has certain restrictions on what he can say and when he can say it.  If he was to say, for example, "we're hoping to negotiate a sale of the bank soon," this could affect both the investors and the willingness of account-holders to continue to do business with DCB. 

2 The ethnic backgrounds of the members of the acquiring company are not at issue.  It isn't what country your ancestors lived in that decides whether your business will maintain its ethics and moral principles.  It is a personal choice that every individual has to make for himself of herself.  Thus, the racist remarks were uncalled for.

3 As commenters on the article mentioned, it is okay for you to pull your own money out of a bank, or even to pull out funds that you are responsible for.  Intentionally causing a run on a bank could get someone in very hot water.  Fortunately for Ms. Stanton, this did not happen.  Imagine if such an event could be traced to one person's urging--that person could be in serious problems.  

Go to the site, listen to the audio (Quicktime format). Decide for yourself.