IT isn’t always about looking like a movie star or supermodel. It’s about feeling confident and comfortable with your healthy smile! Smiling’s amazing benefits You may not typically think about it this way, but your smile is powerful: • Smiles can make you healthier. Smiling immediately lowers your blood pressure, slows your heart, and boosts your immunity. Endorphins…
DEAR Attorney Gurfinkel: I am a green card holder, and petitioned my wife and children. I know it will take a few years until the priority date on their petition becomes “current,” enabling them to be processed for their immigrant visas. Would there be a problem if I move back to the Philippines to live,…
The country’s economy may be rebounding but a lot of people are still feeling the effects of the last economic downturn. Many who have not been able to recover from the last recession are having difficulty paying their debts. Creditors have referred these defaulting debtors to collection agencies. Some of these collection agencies have become…
What is a heart attack? Heart Attack, medically termed Acute Myocardial Infarction (AMI), is a condition where the heart suffers from lack of blood supply as a result of blockage in one or more coronary arteries (arteries that bring blood to the muscles of the heart) due to cholesterol build-up in the walls of these…
CERRITOS’ first Filipino-American mayor, Mark Pulido, was re-elected to serve the Southern California city for an additional term on the city council. “Thank you, Cerritos, for re-electing me to the City Council for a second 4-year term,” Pulido wrote on a Facebook post. “I am humbled and honored for this opportunity to continue serving you…
IT is difficult to be a woman. You could get raped in a dark street. You have to make use of a pretty face to be accepted at first glance, and a shapely body to hide your intelligence. You hear nasty remarks if you sleep with someone you like. Oh, but if I were a…
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…
Federal officials on Tuesday, March 3, searched through dozens of Southern California locations, raiding through “maternity hotels,” where foreign women allegedly give birth for the sole purpose of having a US citizen baby, authorities said. Searches took place in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. No arrests were made, but authorities say the investigations…
President Barack Obama signed a law on Wednesday, March 4 that will guarantee the funding of the Department of Homeland Security through the end of the fiscal year. His signature puts to rest an impasse that went on for several weeks revolving largely around Republican efforts to block his executive orders on immigration. “I want to…
When it comes to the word “aloha,” most people think of hula skirts, sunshine and tropical breezes, not food. For Lanai Tabura, food is part of the aloha culture and spirit—“serving aloha one plate a time,” he says. “Aloha is the Hawaii way of bringing people together, especially through food. Food is the common denominator.”…
THERE are more than seven billion people in the world, but only 1,826 are included in this year’s Forbes magazine list. Of the top billionaires, 11 of them are Filipinos. “Despite plunging oil prices and a weakened euro, the ranks of the world’s wealthiest defied global economic turmoil and expanded yet again,” Forbes staff Kerry…
THE deal has been done, the vote is over, and the bill is now delivered to President Barack Obama’s desk for his signature. The Department of Homeland Security will not run out of money anymore. With a vote of 257-167, the House cleared legislation last Tuesday, March 3 that will keep the agency operating through…
MANY people I have spoken to about the missteps that have bedeviled Noynoy Aquino and his government have offered various ways by which he could have avoided or prevented them or gotten the situation under control. But the scenarios all proceed on the premise that certain conditions are controllable or the damage they cause can…
Federal officials on Tuesday, March 3, searched through dozens of Southern California locations, raiding through “maternity hotels,” where foreign women allegedly give birth for the sole purpose of having a US citizen baby, authorities said. Searches took place in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties. No arrests were made, but authorities say the investigations…
THERE seems to be a misconception in the general public that you can only obtain a divorce in California if your spouse will sign the divorce papers. I get this question a lot from our family law clients. The fact is that California is a no fault state and you do not need your spouse’s…
POLICE shot and killed a homeless man on Skid Row Sunday afternoon, March 1 during a struggle where he “forcibly grabbed” a rookie officer’s gun, Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said. Los Angeles Police Department officers were responding to a robbery call on the 500 block of South San Pedro Street near the Union Rescue Mission…
CALIFORNIA voters will get to weigh in on the state’s plastic bag ban, after opponents of the law collected and submitted enough signatures necessary to qualify a November 2016 referendum on the measure. Until then, implementation of the ban is suspended, state election officials announced Tuesday, Feb. 24. The ban, approved by California Gov. Jerry…
THE US House of Representatives on Tuesday, March 3, passed a $40-billion spending bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security through the end of the fiscal year, averting a partial shutdown of the agency. The legislation, approved in a 257-167 vote, is free of immigration provisions, which Republicans have repeatedly attempted to include to…
AS California enters what is likely its fourth straight year of drought, hundreds of farmers in the Central Valley were told on Friday, Feb. 27, they will receive zero water deliveries from the Central Valley Project, the state’s largest water delivery system. The announcement was made by the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency that operates…
POLICE shot and killed a homeless man on Skid Row Sunday afternoon, March 1 during a struggle where he “forcibly grabbed” a rookie officer’s gun, Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said. Los Angeles Police Department officers were responding to a robbery call on the 500 block of South San Pedro Street near the Union Rescue Mission…
IT is hard to find words to describe photographers. They work long and hard on their photos, which tell a story and accompany their dreams of becoming good press photographers, of doing good with their lines, of changing the world up to the least small corners of it. As they imagine that, perhaps a hundred years from…
Every Thursday evening the priests and parishioners of Sacred Heart Church in Rancho Cucamonga, California gather in their church to spend Holy Hour before the Blessed Sacrament. At least three hundred people of all ages and from different cultural and ministerial groups participate regularly in this event. It’s amazing to witness this hour of worship….
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…
FORMER NBA player Daniel Orton should have known this a long time ago: Pambansang Kamao Manny Pacquiao should not be openly and publicly criticized if you do not want to suffer the consequences of “insulting” the Philippine icon from the hands of his legions of fans in the name of Pinoy pride. Forget about free…
Obama fights back to lift injunction on amnesty Senior will discharge $85K credit cards CLIENT has been working as a registered nurse for 30 years, and is now 65 years old. Her pay scale is good. She grosses $10K a month, and nets after taxes and 401K deductions about $7,500. Ten years ago, her 25-year…
WHAT crimes involve moral turpitude is not an easy question to answer. Some attempts to answer this question have resulted in conflicting interpretations. In Hernandez-Gonzalez v. Holder, No. 11-70359, slip op. (9th Cir. February 13, 2015), the issue before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals was whether it was a crime involving moral turpitude (CIMT)…
1. YOU are required to file a California tax return if your gross income exceeds: a. Single – $16,047. b. Head of household – $27,147. c. Married filing jointly – $32,097. Taxpayers with dependents or who are aged 65 or over have higher filing thresholds. 2. Taxpayers who do not itemize deductions for mortgage interest,…
When meal waivers don’t apply SOME employees work 12-hour shifts, such as nurses, therapists, technicians, or even caregivers and domestic employees. Because of the realities of their job, especially for those who work in hospitals or skilled nursing facilities, they may find themselves working continuously without being provided their mandated breaks. Hourly employees are entitled…
LAST week, a Texas federal district court Judge Andrew S. Hanen caused much uproar in the world of immigration by issuing an injunction halting the implementation of President Obama’s executive initiatives on prosecutorial discretion. The two notable initiatives affected by the injunction were the expanded Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for…
IN this week’s article, I would like to address a bad habit that we all tend to have at times. In dealing with debt, it can mean the difference between failure and success. What am I referring to? I am referring to this nasty habit called “procrastination”. “Procrastination” is defined by the dictionary as “putting…
