NSA crash attempt failed TWO people tried to ram the main entrance gate of the National Security Agency (NSA) headquarters at Fort Meade, Md., on Monday, March 30. An NSA police officer shot one of the intruders dead, and seriously injured the second, according to officials. An anonymous law enforcement official said a firefight ensued…
OFFICIALS announced Thursday, March 26 that the California government would stop enforcing a key provision of a voter-approved law prohibiting all registered sex offenders from living close to schools. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said it would no longer impose the blanket restrictions outlined in Jessica’s Law, which forbids all sex offenders…
The City of Fullerton was sued Wednesday, March 18, over an at-large election system that Asian-American advocates say harms a certain community’s voting rights. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles (Advancing Justice – LA), the Law Office of Robert Rubin, and Sidley Austin,…
The City of Fullerton was sued Wednesday, March 18, over an at-large election system that Asian-American advocates say harms a certain community’s voting rights. The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California (ACLU SoCal), Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles (Advancing Justice – LA), the Law Office of Robert Rubin, and Sidley Austin,…
Though epidemiologists have not yet identified the original source of the Disneyland measles outbreak in December, which has since spread internationally, researchers now say that parents who refuse to vaccinate their kids are probably to blame. With simple math, researchers were able to show that the vaccination rate among people who were exposed to the…
House Republicans on Tuesday, March 17 unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget plan for next year which effectively breaks tight budget limits on military spending, but promises bigger cuts to social programs, such as food stamps and Medicaid. The spending plan by Budget Committee Chairman Tom Rice (R-GA) pads both the Pentagon and State Department accounts…
A FILIPINO couple from Las Vegas was sentenced last week on one felony count of a pattern of mortgage lending fraud, Nevada Attorney General Adam Paul Laxalt announced Monday, March 16. Alex Soria, 69, and Sonia Rodis, 55, were each sentenced in a mortgage assistance scam that misrepresented to homeowners a fraudulent mortgage elimination program…
A UNION-backed group is seeking to hold McDonald’s Corporation accountable under federal rules for worker-safety violations at its franchised restaurants, expanding a continuing labor effort to reduce historical protections for companies operating under franchise arrangements. The group, Fast Food Forward, backed by the Service Employees International Union, announced Monday a series of complaints it has…
THE death toll from West Africa’s Ebola outbreak has passed 10,000, according to an updated tally released by the World Health Organization on Thursday, March 12. Since reports first emerged in March 2014, the deadly hemorrhagic fever has spread throughout the region, killing thousands including doctors and volunteers from different countries, including the US, who…
TWO years after the anniversary of super-Typhoon Haiyan, the city of Tacloban in the Leyte islands is slowly rebuilding. Despite a fading news coverage, the people have seen an outpouring of support from other nations, non-profits, volunteer-based organizations, and government leaders, who continue to raise funds through benefit events for the city’s restoration. “It is…
PRESIDENT Barack Obama will not accept action by Congress that “locks in” spending caps enacted in 2011, said White House budget director Shaun Donovan on Thursday, March 12, as Republicans were preparing to release their budget plans. Lawmakers for both parties have said they want to ease the “sequester” spending constraints, but Republican budget proposals…
HUNDREDS of teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) will receive layoff notices this month, under a new budget plan approved by the Board of Education on Tuesday, March 10. The vote does not necessarily mean the teachers will lose their jobs, but it allows LA Unified the option of “releasing” them if…
HUNDREDS of teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) will receive layoff notices this month, under a new budget plan approved by the Board of Education on Tuesday, March 10. The vote does not necessarily mean the teachers will lose their jobs, but it allows LA Unified the option of “releasing” them if…
TWO years after the anniversary of super-Typhoon Haiyan, the city of Tacloban in the Leyte islands is slowly rebuilding. Despite a fading news coverage, the people have seen an outpouring of support from other nations, non-profits, volunteer-based organizations, and government leaders, who continue to raise funds through benefit events for the city’s restoration. “It is…
In a new report, an ongoing investigation by the Department of Justice concluded that the Ferguson, Mo. police department and the city’s municipal court engaged in a “pattern and practice” of discrimination against African-Americans throughout the city, targeting them disproportionately for traffic stops, use of force, and jail sentences. The probe is the result of…
APPLE hosted a media event in San Francisco on Monday, March 9, announcing its newest look and latest in software technology and advanced products. The company unveiled its newest MacBook laptop, a 24 percent thinner, lighter design that weighs just two pounds. The laptop, which (at 13.1 millimeters thickness) is lighter than the 11-inch MacBook…
THE Supreme Court began meeting last week to consider the ongoing case of King v. Burwell, which deals with problems surrounding the current Affordable Care Act (ACA) also known as Obamacare. The case puts at risk President Obama’s low- and middle-income subsidies for millions of Americans who live in states without their own private health insurance exchanges….
CALIFORNIA Governor Jerry Brown has pledged $50 million to reward college campuses with creative, cost-effective approaches to getting more students to graduate with degrees faster, going on his promise to help public colleges and universities better adapt to the 21st century. A seven-member committee chaired by Brown’s finance director is scheduled to name the winners of…
Undocumented and Uninsured campaign strives to help immigrants receive health care A STATEWIDE study on health care access made by and for undocumented immigrant youth was recently released by the University of California, Los Angeles’ Dream Resource Center (DRC). Data and analysis in the report reflects the experiences, real-life barriers and challenges undocumented people in…
A young Filipino-American, Robert “Bobby” Murphy, 26, is on Forbes list of world billionaires for 2015. Co-founder of the popular social media app Snapchat with his fraternity brother Evan Spiegel, both Stanford students, Murphy has a net worth of $1.5 billion—making him the second youngest dollar billionaire in the club, Forbes reported. He has an…
CDC warns careful use of antibiotics LIFE-threatening infections caused by bacteria called Clostridium difficile, simply known as C. difficile, now sicken nearly half a million Americans in one year, said health officials on Wednesday, Feb. 25. The number of these infections—which can cause “deadly diarrhea” and damage to the colon—doubled between 2000 and 2010, according…
Internet now regulated as a public utility THE Federal Communications Commission voted on Thursday, Feb. 26 to regulate broadband Internet service as a public utility. FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said the agency was using “all the tools in our toolbox to protect innovators and consumers” and preserve the Internet’s role as “a core of free…
THE Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted this week, to help eligible immigrants apply for President Barack Obama’s contested executive deferred action program, even as the fate of the President’s signature immigration initiative remains unclear. In a 4-1 vote, Supervisors Hilda Solis, Shiela Kuehl, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Don Knabe voted on creating a task…
THE Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted this week, to help eligible immigrants apply for President Barack Obama’s contested executive deferred action program, even as the fate of the President’s signature immigration initiative remains unclear. In a 4-1 vote, Supervisors Hilda Solis, Shiela Kuehl, Mark Ridley-Thomas, and Don Knabe voted on creating a task…
In a report published Feb. 23 by the Center for American Progress, analysis estimates that deporting all 5 million beneficiaries of President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration would cost more than $50.3 billion, an average of $10,070 per person. Five million is the number of undocumented immigrants that the House of Representatives’ funding bill…
NEXT week, on March 4, the Supreme Court will begin hearing arguments on the controversial issue of health insurance tax credits detailed in King v. Burwell, a case dealing with problems surrounding the current Affordable Care Act (ACA). The long-term effects of the case would include raising the prices of health insurance for more than…
AN undocumented Filipino was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to the murder of three at an Ohio bar in March last year. Igmidio “Roger” Mista, 34, accepted a last-minute plea deal on Feb. 17, just as his case was set to go to a jury trial before Sandusky County Common Pleas Judge Barbara…
PART-Pinoy TV breakout star Darren Criss is Broadway’s next Hedwig. The 28-year-old “Glee” actor, originally from San Francisco, will return to his Broadway roots in “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” the Tony Award-winning Best Musical Revival, for a limited 12-week engagement starting April 29th on Broadway’s Belasco Theatre. This marks the fifth headliner to play the role since the…
INFECTED bacteria from contaminated medical instruments is suspected in a “superbug” outbreak at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center that has infected at least seven patients, two of whom died. More than 170 others may have also been exposed to the antibiotic-resistant germs. They were potentially infected with Carbapenem-Resistant Enterobacteriaceae, or CRE, during endoscopic procedures…
A little over an hour before the Paris attacks last month at the satirical French magazine Charlie Hebdo, one of the gunmen sent a text message to the man who later killed four people at a kosher supermarket, according to a French government official. Cherif Kouachi, one of the brothers involved in the Hebdo massacre, met with Amedy…
