Any Los Angeles County resident exhibiting symptoms of the novel coronavirus can now be tested for free, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Monday, April 7. The previous guidelines limited testing to residents over 65 years old, individuals who are immunocompromised, or those who were subjected to a 14-day quarantine because of exposure to a confirmed…
SEMANA SANTA. For the first time in my lifetime, my family will not be able to go to church for the mass of the palaspas, stations of the cross, washing of the feet, seven last words, retreats and recollections, salubong, confession, Visita Iglesia, Easter Sunday mass — traditions that we all share as Filipinos and…
THE Walker family never thought having an age range of 3 to 96 under the same roof would be risky. That was before the coronavirus pandemic. Wilma Walker’s now nonagenarian mom moved into her daughter and son-in-law’s home about 15 years ago. Their party of three turned into a household of six when the Walkers’…
by Carmen Heredia Rodriguez WHEN David Vega fell ill with the novel coronavirus in mid-March, fever, chills and nausea left the 27-year-old Indiana medical student curled up in bed for days. After a test confirmed he had COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, his doctor advised Vega to isolate himself at home for an…
Several years ago, I produced a special TV report on the topic, “What would happen if Filipino health care professionals in the U.S. do not report for work?” The point I wanted to make was the vital role that Filipino doctors and nurses, and other health-care professionals, play in America’s health-care system. In the face…
THE COVID-19 Pandemic has changed our lives almost overnight. Not only has it changed our lives in terms of our daily routine, jobs, lifestyle, but also our relationship with our family members under the Stay at Home orders in place in major cities such as Los Angeles, Divorce caused by financial and emotional stress China…
“… And now faith, hope and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is LOVE.” THIS Holy Week when the churches are empty because of mandatory shelter-in-place isolation and forced social distancing caused by the Wuhan China coronavirus pandemic that has affected more than 150 countries, it is a good idea to tune…
AFTER battling the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), ABS-CBN actress Iza Calzado candidly shared her experience. During an interview on “Magandang Buhay” on Monday, April 6, she said the symptoms she had were fever, cough and loss of appetite. After she was confined in the hospital, the doctors found that she had also contracted a bacteria called…
Filipina-Australian chess champion Arianne Caoili died on Monday, March 30, two weeks after sustaining injuries from a car accident in Yerevan, Armenia. She was 33 years old. Her husband, Armenian grandmaster Levon Aronian, announced her passing on Twitter. “I have no words to express my grief over my wife Arianne’s death,” he wrote. “She was…
Written by Jessica H., an acute care registered nurse in Orange County I found the usual path too hectic. The walk from the parking structure to the main hospital building was brief, but I preferred to take the back route. It was quieter, with less frenzy from the hurried feet scurrying by. The walk was…
For several Filipino American designers, the spring season usually brings in orders for wedding dresses, debutante gowns, and outfits for other special occasions. But amid the coronavirus pandemic, cities like Los Angeles have ordered the closure of nonessential businesses and put large gatherings on hold. Instead of sitting idly by, designers are re-shifting their focus…
FIVE Filipinos made it onto Forbes’s “30 Under 30 Asia” list for “challenging conventional wisdom and rewriting the rules for the next generation.” The 2020 roster, released on Thursday, April 2, includes skateboarder Margielyn Didal, The Cacao Project founder Louise Mabulo, PayMongo founder Francis Plaza, gymnast Carlos Yulo, and multimedia artist Breech Asher Harani. “This year’s…
The total number of recorded novel coronavirus (COVID-19) cases worldwide has surpassed one million on Thursday, April 2, three months after the first case was reported in Wuhan, China. Over 1,095,000 people around the world have contracted the disease, with 58,787 fatalities and 225,796 recoveries, as of Friday, April 3, according to the latest figures…
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte came under fire after ordering the police and military to shoot quarantine violators dead during Luzon’s enhanced community quarantine due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). “I will not hesitate. My orders are to the police and military, also the barangay, that if there is trouble or the situation arises that people…
PRESIDENT Trump signed the Families First Coronavirus Response Act on March 18 to bring much needed relief to employees and small to midsize businesses. Small and midsize employers can begin taking advantage of two new refundable payroll tax credits designed to immediately and fully reimburse them, dollar-for-dollar, for the cost of providing Coronavirus-related leave to…
Low-income households will be receiving between P5,000 to P8,000 in cash under the Philippine government’s coronavirus relief program, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) said on Thursday, April 2. The cash will be given along with the food packs it is distributing to beneficiaries, according to DSWD Secretary Rolando Bautista. “In cash na…
UC, CSU cite mass disruptions to K-12 schools in decisions to change requirements for 2021 and incoming fall 2020 students In response to the novel coronavirus outbreak that has upended the lives of students in California, the University of California (UC) and California State University (Cal State) systems announced they would be relaxing its admissions…
The new coronavirus, and the ways in which it has drastically capsized daily life for people across the world, has become the most pressing, quite literally life or death, issue of the new decade. Global pandemics affect everyone regardless of demographic markers, but in a world where justice and equity aren’t guaranteed, some communities are…
THESE are challenging times for California small businesses. Restaurants, retail stores, and other services sustained (and continue to sustain) coronavirus-related losses. Their damages resulted from severe business interruption, event cancellation, loss of supply chains, and loss of customers among other damages. However, business owners may seek to obtain payments for losses if their business insurance…
This Passion/Palm Sunday is the beginning of Holy Week. Sadly, we will not able to celebrate Holy Week in our churches because of the carnivorous pandemic. It’s a huge cross that we all need to carry. We can’t gather as communities of faith to get our palms blessed and celebrate the Triduum Masses (Holy Thursday,…
The fight against the C-19 pandemic is a war, a war of global proportions. It is World War III, although it does not follow our stereotypes of combat in wartime; think World War II, or even, the many regional conflicts since. World War III does not follow our familiar paradigms about war. We do not…
THE WAR against the coronavirus pandemic that has caught the world by surprise in January has made us all feel like the normal, free, and vibrant life we lived just three months ago feel like ages ago. No matter how much we resist it, no matter how uncomfortable and vulnerable it makes us feel, this…
A LOT of people in debt often already know what they need to do once they realize that bankruptcy is their only way out. But they usually delay the decision to file because they try their best to avoid it if at all possible and will only rush to act when they face an immediate…
THE U.S. Trustee has recently instructed bankruptcy trustees to conduct debtor hearings telephonically to comply with social distancing guidelines to fight the coronavirus. The Chapter 13 trustee in Riverside, California has just informed counsel about how that will be implemented in his jurisdiction. Appearances will be done telephonically and/or with video for hearings starting mid-April….
US Embassy Manila visa interviews temporarily ceased SIMULA Marso 18, 2020, ang USCIS ay nagsuspende ng mga routine in-person service sa mga USCIS field office, asylum office at Application Support Center para pabagalin ang pagkalat ng COVID-19. Ang pagsuspende ng operasyon hanggang Abril 1, 2020 ay extended hanggang Abril 6, 2020. Ayon sa USCIS, ang…
THE COVID-19 Pandemic has changed our lives almost overnight. Not only has it changed our lives in terms of our daily routine, jobs, lifestyle, but also our relationship with our family members under the Stay at Home orders in place in major cities such as Los Angeles, Divorce caused by financial and emotional stress China…
IN United States vs. Windsor, 570 U.S. (2013) (Docket No. 12-307), the Supreme Court held that Federal restrictions of the terms “marriage” and “spouse” to marriages between a man and a woman were unconstitutional. The Court invalidated Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which did not allow Federal Government recognition of same-sex…
The U.S. Department of State on Tuesday, March 31, said that it has provided approximately $18.3 million in emergency health and humanitarian assistance to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) member states, including the Philippines. The local government received nearly $4 million, or approximately P200 million, in health assistance to help the government prepare…
