The Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) is back in the news. On June 6, 2014, a USCIS policy memorandum was released, expanding the definition for how a CSPA beneficiary could have “sought to acquire” immigration status. Potentially, the policy memorandum will benefit adult children who were at one time available for protection under CSPA, but…
ARTESIA – The City of Artesia is set to host its first ever “International Diversity Festival” on October 4, Saturday, on the city’s main thoroughfare, Pioneer Boulevard, between 183rd and 188th. According to Artesia City Mayor Tony Lima, the big event will be music, food and entertainment extravaganza. Along the stretch of Pioneer Blvd. that…
After promising more “executive action” by the end of September 2014, President Obama caved in to political pressure, and said he would delay taking any further “executive action” until after the November 2014 midterm elections. Latino and other immigrant groups are furious. They feel betrayed that their votes and support are being taken for granted….
About 98,000 families must verify lawful presence in US before Sept. 30 LOS ANGELES – About 98,000 families are being asked by Covered California to verify their lawful presence here in the United States, either as citizens, nationals, or individuals with eligible immigration status, in order for them to continue receiving health coverage under the…
SEXY actress Ara Mina is looking forward to being a mother and has set aside being a bride—for now. Pregnant with her first baby by Bulacan Mayor Patrick Meneses and is due to give birth before Christmas. During a press conference and viewing of the pilot episode of her new musical program Trenderas on TV5,…
Since medical marijuana was legalized in California in 1996 (the latest one, Maryland, in 2014), more deaths have been reported from the use of this substance. Early this month, a college student visiting Denver jumped to his death from a hotel balcony after ingesting marijuana infused cookies. In February this year, a report from Germany…
LOS ANGELES – More than 8 million immigrants living in the United States have green cards and are eligible for citizenship, yet only 8 percent of these become naturalized citizens. This is an issue that the New Americans Campaign, a nationwide collaborative working on innovative ways to help green card holders become citizens, aims to…
A RARE illness that starts off as the common cold and has already affected more than one thousand children in multiple states is becoming far more serious, doctors say. The not-yet identified disease could very likely become a nationwide threat to kids. Health officials suspect a rare respiratory virus, known as enterovirus 68, that is…
TODAY, there is a seemingly string of criminal incidents where policemen are involved as perpetrators instead of the ones solving them—a scenario you think you would only see in movies. It is an unpleasant picture to see officers you expect to uphold the law and apprehend criminals, as the same people the citizenry should be…
ELEVEN million undocumented immigrants, including many Filipinos, feel disheartened when the Obama Administration announced that the president would postpone using his executive power to stop deportation until after the 2014 midterm elections. The President explained that he did not want an issue as important and as consequential as immigration reform to be used by politicians…
Often times, we are too lazy to start with the first step; so we tend to give up on something we have been planning, dreaming even, to accomplish. However, as technology becomes more advanced, this laziness becomes, well, totally unjustified.Technology puts power on our fingertips. With just one click, we can begin to enjoy almost…
SAN FRANCISCO—Members of the Filipino-American community in the South of Market District in San Francisco have banded together to raise money to repatriate the remains of an undocumented Filipino immigrant who died of a heart attack in mid-August. Pio Candelaria was 54 years old at the time of his passing, and was described in a…
IN the legends I have read thIn the legends I have read that males wrote to explain life, it was said that the first human creature was a man called Adam. Eve arrived later, to give him pleasure and of course, trouble. But it wasn’t sin that was born when that careless woman Eve picked…
LOS ANGELES – A 65-year-old ex-USC professor pleaded guilty on Friday, September 5 to traveling to the Philippines and sexually assaulting several underage boys between ages 9 and 17. According to the prosecution, Walter Lee Williams had engaged in multiple webcam sex sessions with two Filipino boys, ages 13 and 14, in 2010. The next year…
LOS ANGELES – The Asian Pacific Islander Small Business Program (API SBP) kicked off its first event in preparation for the 15th Annual Asian Small Business Expo happening on Saturday, Sept. 20. The reception was held at Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), one of the organizations involved in community partnership with API SBP. Small…
LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles City Councilmembers Mike Bonin (CD 11) Mitch O’Farrell (CD 13) introduced a resolution on Tuesday, Sept. 9, which calls on the Federal government to halt the ban on gay men giving blood at donation drives. The American Red Cross (ARC) and the Los Angeles LGBT Center expressed support for the…
LOS ANGELES – The Asian Pacific Islander Small Business Program (API SBP) kicked off its first event in preparation for the 15th Annual Asian Small Business Expo happening on Saturday, Sept. 20. The reception was held at Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA), one of the organizations involved in community partnership with API SBP. Small…
LOS ANGELES – A 65-year-old ex-USC professor pleaded guilty on Friday, September 5 to traveling to the Philippines and sexually assaulting several underage boys between ages 9 and 17. According to the prosecution, Walter Lee Williams had engaged in multiple webcam sex sessions with two Filipino boys, ages 13 and 14, in 2010. The next year…
Pop singer Simone Battle, 25, was found dead in her West Hollywood home on Friday, September 5th. The death was ruled a suicide by hanging, according to a Los Angeles County coroner. Cause of death was determined two days after Battle’s body was discovered by her boyfriend in the closet of their shared apartment. He…
Because of the disturbing ascent in the crime rate, over 80 community members, mostly Filipinos, assembled a peace march to suppress the violence in the South of Market neighborhood in San Francisco. Together with the city officials and the police, community members picket with placards calling for peace at the busiest streets in San Francisco…
A large wildfire burning in Yosemite National Park for weeks has prompted the evacuation of more than 100 visitors over the weekend. The so-called “Meadow Fire” has burned at least 700 acres, over four square miles in the back country of the park grounds, and has yet to be fully contained. “We just got unbelievable…
TWENTY seminarians from St. John’s Seminary have started their parish internship this week. They are excited and happy about this new experience. After four years of academic work, the seminary is giving them a one-year break to experience parish life, to gain pastoral skills, and to continue their discernment on their vocation to the priesthood….
NOT a single cent from the proposed Philippine national budget for 2015 was allocated for plebiscites on Charter change (Cha-cha) and the Bangsamoro political entity, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) confirmed on Thursday, Sept. 4. Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr. revealed that the commission had initially requested P36 billion from the Department of Budget and…
“I DON’T mind them. What’s important to me is my relationship with my family and the Lord,” Manny Pacquiao told Balitang America Las Vegas Correspondent Bev Llorente, when asked about his reaction to issues raised against him by his critics. One issue is not having enough time for boxing since joining the Philippine Basketball Association…
“DARING to take the MRT Challenge,” with Sen. Grace Poe, DOTC Secretary Joseph Abaya and Malacañang Deputy Spokesperson Abigail Valte taking the notoriously inefficient public transport system, may have translated into good photo ops and some brownie points for the officials, but I still can’t see what good it did for the suffering public. At…
Employees’ right to reimbursement COLIN Cochran sued his employer, Schwan’s Home Service, Inc., in a class action on behalf of about 1,500 customer service managers who were not reimbursed for expenses pertaining to the work-related use of their personal cell phones. Under California law, employees are entitled to reimbursements for expenses incurred in direct consequence…
OF course not. Why should I pay taxes based on the highest tax rates? The lowest rates belong to joint filers and widows, followed by heads of household, and single taxpayers. Certainly, it does not make sense to file married filing separate and pay those sky-high rates. Or does it? Let’s discuss the advantages and…
DO you wish you had less credit card debt than you currently owe? Have you charged more than you can afford to pay? Are you frustrated with the fact that your balances never seem to go down after having paid religiously for years? Do you feel hopelessly trapped in credit card debt? Credit cards are…
ONE of the few positive developments Immigration legislation over the past twenty years has been relief for spouses and children of abusive petitioners provided by the Violence Against Women’s Act (VAWA). For many years, the spouse in an abusive relationship with a lawful permanent resident or citizen of the United States was left helpless in…
CENTURY CITY – The small sensation of power that a press pass can give (it gets you past the first guards) ebbs quickly once you’re in corridors of an international boxing promotion tour press conference, cocooned inside a bullpen as big as the Los Angeles Room at the Hyatt Century Plaza Hotel in this city….
