LOS ANGELES – In high school, Jaime Ballesteros didn’t think he would be able to attend college because of his undocumented status. Originally from Bacolod City, Philippines, Ballesteros was 11 years old when his family moved to Jersey City, New Jersey after his father obtained a temporary work visa for an accounting job. However, when…
LOS ANGELES – A Filipino-American judge was sworn into the LA County Superior Court on Thursday, Aug. 27 at a ceremony held at the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in downtown. Julian C. Recana of Long Beach became the newest Fil-Am judge, following his appointment by Governor Jerry Brown in July. Recana, who has served as a…
Jericho Vibar Rosales, known in the Philippine entertainment industry as Echo, heads the list of prominent personalities celebrating their birthdays this September. Echo will be 36 on Tuesday, September 22, with his wife, model Kim Jones. Other people celebrating their birthday are: September 1 – Singer/actor Ariel Rivera, who is now with ABS-CBN 2, Senior…
DEAR Atty. Gurfinkel: Before I was 16 years old, I was adopted and petitioned by my aunt, and got my green card through her petition. I am now a US citizen, and would like to petition my biological mother. Is that possible? Very truly yours, B.N. Dear B.N.: When a child is adopted before their…
The power to give, take away, and deport. The United States does not welcome you with open arms. It allows non-citizens entry into the United States, under certain conditions. When these conditions are broken, you can expect nothing but the full force of the United States government through the Department of Homeland Security to bear…
This column regularly receives medical questions from our readers and from time to time we select some interesting ones for discussion here for general public health education. Here are some of them: Do cell phone radiation shields work? No, the so-called “radiation shields” for cell phones do not work, and therefore are not effective in…
WHEN I shared through this column what undocumented Filipinos in America may expect from a Trump presidency — and that Trump should recalibrate his message against undocumented immigrants so he will not be misconstrued as condoning violence against them — I got different reactions from kababayans from different walks of life. Here are some of…
CTALK By Cito Beltran Are you angry enough about our state of affairs in the Republic of the Philippines? The thought has begun to surface as millions of Filipinos come to terms with the fact that the Self-Righteous Brotherhood occupying Malacañang are a bunch of incompetent and insensitive dolts who punctuate their failures with off…
Under 8 CFR 205.1(a)(3)(i)(C), an approved Form I-130 petition for an alien relative is automatically revoked upon the death of the petitioner if the beneficiary has not obtained lawful permanent residence prior to the petitioner’s death. In Matter of Varela, 13 I&N Dec. 453 (BIA 1970), the Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) held that an…
I’m not impervious to bad news. In my years of crime reporting, I ate tragic, earthy and shocking news for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I had access to people’s emotional pains and tragedies. With a tourniquet in my heart, I watched careers derailed and homes fractured, but I wrote it with complete understanding of wounded souls, void of literary…
AMERICAN investors were seriously woken up when the Dow Jones industrial average tumbled 1,000 points minutes after the market opened on Monday, Aug. 24 in a worldwide wave of selling following a historic plunge in Chinese stocks. The industrial average closed with a loss of about 588 points, down about 3.6 percent. Though the declines…
Gov. Brown expected to sign The state Senate on Monday, Aug. 24, approved a measure that would allow about 5,000 California high school students that fulfilled graduation requirements this year but did not pass the exit exam to obtain their diplomas. In a 37-0 vote, the California Senate advanced SB725, following the Assembly’s 77-1 approval…
A recent study from the Pew Research Center suggests that subconscious preferences for different racial groups persist, even among multiracial adults. Researchers at Pew say that “most humans display a bias against out-groups—people who are different from them.” They wanted to find out whether biracial adults were less likely to have implicit racial biases because…
The US marine charged with the murder of Philippine transgender Jennifer Laude admitted in court to choking Laude in self-defense but denied killing her. Defense lawyer Rowena Flores said her client, Lance Corporal Joseph Scott Pemberton, told the court in Olongapo City on Monday, Aug. 24 that Laude was unconscious but still breathing when he…
A California Senate committee has approved a measure that would increase the state’s gas tax by 12 cents per gallon as a means of addressing California’s transportation crisis. The new fuel levy, passed on Wednesday, Aug. 19, would be California’s first tax hike since 1994, the San Jose Mercury News reported. It would be collected in addition…
The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific gathered at the California State Polytechnic University, Pomona campus on Friday, Aug. 21, for a field hearing about property rights, development, and land ownership in Southeast Asia. For years, the United States has sought to help promote security and economic growth in dependent countries like…
Investigators unsure of cause, but say incident unrelated to an earlier fire A FILIPINO family in Northern California woke up to find their house threatened by flames during the predawn hours of Saturday, August 13, less than a day after firefighters had put out an earlier blaze in the same area. Fire crews extinguished a…
“Uncle, how do I give everything to God? How do I offer my life to Him so he can take over? I just don’t know exactly how to do that.” My sixteen year-old niece surprised me with these questions a few weeks ago. I looked at her tenderly and answered, “Prayer, keep praying, Ann Jillian.”…
I agree with Ateneo’s Dean Tony la Viña, a legal luminary, that the disqualification case filed with the Senate Electoral Tribunal by losing senatorial candidate Rizalito David against Sen. Grace Poe should be thrown out. Not being a legal expert, I can only react with disapproval over the purported ground for disqualification: her being a…
Picture this: A homeless man was sleeping near a train station, then wakes up to two men urinating on him. Not satisfied, these men beat the homeless man with a metal pole repeatedly and walked away laughing. When apprehended, these men told police they attacked the victim because he was “homeless,” “Hispanic,” and an “illegal…
” As you can see, by terminating the loveless marriage legally, it could result in your priority date already being current in the F-1 category, instead of waiting for years for the F-3 category to be current.” DEAR Atty Gurfinkel: Years ago, my US citizen parent petitioned me as a married child (Category F –…
Client seeks Chapter 11 reorganization to save business; senior seeks Chapter 13 reorganization instead of reverse mortgage after two loan modification denials CLIENT NO. 1 is 58. Divorced and remarried. He has spent the last 20 years building up his business in Los Angeles. He started with importation of construction materials direct from manufacturers in Asia,…
FOR most people, being served with divorce papers by your spouse is probably one of the biggest surprises in your life. The spouse in the receiving end of the divorce sometimes are not offered any explanation for the divorce petition by their spouse. You may start getting upset about how this can happen to you…
Privacy suit filed against doctor and hospital Norma Lozano was a patient at UCLA Medical Center. According to the Daily Journal, she had been fighting with Dedreck Harris, her ex-boyfriend. Harris’ current girlfriend, Alexis Price, worked as a medical assistant for Dr. John Edwards, a private doctor who had access to UCLA’s health records. Even…
In the past couple of weeks, I have discussed two types of restraining orders i.e. a stay-away order and a restraint on personal conduct. Both of these restraining orders are judicial orders (granted by a judge or commissioner) preventing a person from doing certain things to a “protected person.” Usually, this means that the person…
The bankruptcy court issues a pamphlet containing explanation of bankruptcy basics like the reaffirmation agreements. All debtors are required to read the pamphlet and the trust during the 341 hearing will inquire whether the debtor has read the same. This is to ensure that debtor understand the consequence of bankruptcy filing and executing reaffirmation agreements….
The IRS issued new guidance requiring individuals with an interest in a “specified foreign financial asset” to attach a disclosure statement to your income tax return for any year in which the aggregate value of all such assets exceeds $50,000. Use new form Form 8938 (Statement of Specified Foreign Financial Assets) starting in 2011. Q….
Life is all about making choices. The choices we make today determine our future. What will my life be like 3, 5 or 10 years for now? Will I be financially secure? Will I remain in the same dead-end job or perhaps move somewhere else that makes my time more worthwhile? Will I be able…
HI Dr. Vicki! I have been a fan of your TV show ever since I saw it 3 years ago! I was even more thrilled when I saw that you have a column so I took the courage to send you an email. Doc, I was born with brown skin as most Filipinos are. However,…
THOSE that can, do; those that can’t teach…well, that is so insulting. Teaching is the most exalted position — that prestige will always be there. Teachers bring some kind of coherence into a relationship with disciplinary modes, so students can think and explore ideas as they evolve and take shape and consider what might have…
