MANNY Pacquiao may have retired from boxing, but he’s entering a new fight — this time for president of the Philippines. Pacquiao formally filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) for president in the 2022 national elections on Friday, October 1. Accompanied by his wife Jinkee, Pacquiao was the first presidential aspirant to file his COC around…
Demographic surveys released over the last year continue to unanimously reveal a new reality: California is more diverse than ever, and that diversity continues to expand. This is particularly evident in the transformative voting patterns among the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI), Black and Latino voters, all of whom saw population increases in their…
The mandate applies to all children attending school who are eligible for the vaccine, pending FDA approval Schoolchildren in California who are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine will now be required to get their shots in order to attend in-person schools, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday, Oct. 1. Newsom’s announcement makes California the…
IT’S a jubilee year in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. It’s because we are celebrating the 250th anniversary of the founding of the first California mission, Mission San Gabriel. Archbishop Jose H. Gomez has called for a yearlong celebration of this jubilee and has marked it as an invitation “to make a new start” to…
Biden tax plan series WHAT is required minimum distribution (RMD)? A required minimum distribution (RMD) is the amount of money that you must withdraw from your traditional IRA, employer-sponsored retirement plan, SEP, or SIMPLE individual retirement account (IRA) when you reach retirement age. You must begin withdrawing from a retirement account by April 1 following the year you…
PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte is now considering a trip to the United States to thank its government for donating vaccines against COVID-19. He floated the idea on Thursday, September 30, after vaccine czar Carlito Galvez Jr and Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told him that the U.S. donated five million more vaccine doses. “Kasasabi lang…
NO one ever likes to talk about bankruptcy. However, it’s simply a fact of life. Things happen. Whether it’s losing your job, going through a divorce, having huge medical bills that you can’t pay — or sometimes simply making poor financial decisions — any of these can lead to bankruptcy. It’s a scary thing to…
WILL I have to pay spousal support if I file for divorce?The purpose of spousal support is not defined by the legislature in that its purpose varies according to the facts and circumstances of each case. The facts and circumstances of a particular case may be such which call for no spousal support, or for…
THE client is 66. He says he is now old all of a sudden. He migrated here in 2004 so that’s 15 years ago. When he deplaned at LAX, he was just 51 and single. He says he’s been working hard since he arrived, but hasn’t really been able to amass any wealth. He worked…
BACK in 2020, Proposition 22 was voted into law. App-based companies like Uber, Lyft, and Doordash spent upwards of $200 million in funding to get Californians to vote on this measure. Prop 22 styled its existence as a workers’ rights issue and touted the purported “flexibility” of workers being able to set their own work…
EPIPHANY Café [franchise group] was born from a love of coffee and donuts. Through passion, and much dedication, Epiphany Café quickly became the gourmet donut café in Hamilton, before expanding across New Zealand through its Regional Master Franchisees, serving an eclectic selection of artisanal donuts, coffee, and more. Epiphany has now expanded its wholesale business…
PHILIPPINE Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. has ordered the filing of three new diplomatic protests against China’s continued presence and other activities in the West Philippine Sea. In a series of tweets on Thursday, September 30, Locsin told the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to protest China’s radio challenges issued against Philippine maritime patrols,…
Washington D.C. - Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr., accompanied by Philippine Ambassador to the United States Jose Manuel G. Romualdez, met with United States Senators who affirmed the centrality of Philippines-US relations for the stability of the Indo-Pacific region, thanked the Philippine Government for bringing the Visiting Forces Agreement back on track, and recognized the…
The Southern Nevada Health District has begun offering Pfizer COVID-19 booster doses to people who are eligible at its clinics. This effort comes after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended booster doses of the Pfizer vaccine for people who are at higher risk for COVID-19. At this time, booster doses are only…
Smokefree Innotec, Inc. (SFIO), a New Zealand-based Filipino company, is starting its educational road tour in the United States. The company’s chairman, Jeths De Jesus Lacson, announced that SFIO has successfully acquired Agrokings, Inc. and its subsidiaries in August 2021. This roadshow is focused on digital entrepreneurial education, giving people a first-hand education in adapting…
The family consulted with several attorneys. One filed for political asylum for Vince, and when the expanded provisional waiver regulations came out in 2016, another attorney obtained an approved provisional waiver, enabling Vince to return to Manila for his immigrant visa interview, without being subject to the 10-year bar. Unfortunately, when Vince went to the…
THE October priority dates are typically the start of the new “fiscal year” for visas, where a new annual supply of visas is made available. Usually, with a new supply of visas, the priority dates move forward in the various family categories. However, for October 2021, the priority dates did not move at all. They…
SIX was supposed to premiere on March 12, 2020, the same day that Broadway went dark due to the looming global pandemic. More than a year and a half later and the musical based on Henry VIII’s six wives and their stories will finally open at the Brooks Atkinson Theatre on Sunday, Oct. 3, adding to…
THE Philippines is the worst place to be during the pandemic, according to a study that measures economies’ resilience to COVID-19. In Bloomberg’s COVID Resilience Ranking released Tuesday, September 28, the Philippines placed last among 53 countries with a dismal score of 40.2. It is one rank lower than its 52nd position in the previous…
WITH the politicization of the COVID-19 pandemic, CDC preventive guidelines, vaccines, and booster shot, people are so confused and scared, and are making the wrong choices, unwise decisions, and endangering their lives, those of their loved ones and people around them. Allow me to review some proven scientific facts and various scenarios we now know…
FORMER Smokey Mountain lead singer Geneva Cruz has released a single entitled “Sinungaling,” which marks her comeback to the Philippine music scene after having been away for six years. Having returned to the country in 2020, Geneva made her presence felt when she performed virtually with Smokey Mountain members at Bayanihan Musikahan, did a rendition…
MANNY Pacquiao is officially hanging up his boxing gloves. The Filipino boxing legend made the announcement Wednesday, September 29 (Manila time), through a video posted on his social media accounts. “It is difficult for me to accept that my time as a boxer is over. Today, I am announcing my retirement,” said Pacquiao. “I never…
TONY Award winner Lea Salonga has been cast as a series regular in HBO Max’s upcoming reboot of hit TV series “Pretty Little Liars.” According to Deadline, “Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin” is a present-day iteration of the original series with a brand-new set of Little Liars who “find themselves tormented by an unknown Assailant…
EVEN though the current Hollywood landscape still leans white and male, the calls for diversity and more sophisticated representations and renderings of communities of color ring loud and clear. As the hunger for more diverse storytelling continues to pressure major entertainment brands to expand the threshold of opportunity, figures like Oprah Winfrey (who heads the…
SACRAMENTO – The California COVID-19 Rent Relief Program marked another significant milestone with $650 million paid out to 55,000 households as the state prepares to transition to new eviction protections that take effect from October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2022. “The COVID-19 pandemic left many families without the income needed to cover their rent and stay in…
