I HAVE never attended a Jewish service in my entire life until two weeks ago, when my friend Armando invited me to a Shabbat while spending a week of vacation in San Francisco and in the Bay Area. “Sure, I’ll go,” I responded quickly to Armando’s invitation. “I’ve always wanted to experience a Jewish service…
FOR now, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario admits that resolving the case with China over the disputed South China Sea (West Philippines Sea) is far from reality. China’s refusal to at least recognize the problems, makes it also difficult for other members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN)—who are also entangled with…
MANY of our kababayans have loved Robin Williams for his genius as an actor, but there are more who just found out that this great legend was married for 19 years to a woman of Filipino descent, Marcia Garces. In a report by Balitang America Correspondent Rommel Conclara, I found out that Williams invented the…
ON August 2, 2014, Wilner & O’Reilly, APLC celebrate its 11th anniversary. Eleven years ago, it started with a vision from Richard Wilner & Kelly O’Reilly to start a boutique firm that specializes in immigration and nationality law. From a small executive suite in Cerritos to four offices in California and Utah, our growth is…
HOW old are you now? When you were 10, you wanted to become a teenager. When you were a teenager, you wanted to be 21. Thereafter, it’s a fast train towards middle age. At middle age, they say that you’re at your “prime”. Shortly after that, you become a senior citizen starting at 62 and…
THE chief of the Franchise Tax Board (FTB) shares highlights of California’s audit program. The State examines about 300,000 income tax returns per year. Audits are conducted by desk, field, or correspondence. Field audits are conducted at your place of business (better at your representative’s office). The audit program has about 900 auditors located in…
(Ten-year meal & rest breaks case is a win for employees) IN 2004, five employees of the restaurant, Chili’s, filed a claim against their employer claiming that they were illegally denied meal and rest breaks. The employees claimed that the restaurant regularly told its employees to take early lunches, often right after starting work, and…
ALIENS who are visiting the US temporarily for pleasure may be issued B-2 visas. Under 22 CFR 41.31(b)(2), the term “pleasure” refers to legitimate activities of a recreational character, such as tourism, amusement, visits with friends or relatives, rest, medical treatment, and activities of a fraternal, social, or service nature. A common purpose of B-2 visitors is…
I WAS counseling someone the other day in my office. He looked shocked and confused as we sorted through all the credit card statements on my desk and added up how much he owed. $65,000! That’s how much the statements said he owed! How could this be? He said he remembered paying a lot of…
THE processing times for some applications pending at the US Citizenship & Immigration Services (“USCIS”) are longer than ever before. The USCIS holds a monopoly over all immigrants applying for green cards, citizenship and other applications, since the USCIS is the only agency authorized to adjudicate requests for immigration benefits. The USCIS cannot, however, force…
BEVERLY HILLS – Everyone will agree that if you exercise and eat right and don’t smoke or drink or annoy a cop, you’ll never die. I have been told that by my internist, my beloved cardiologist, my psychiatrist, and all their nurses receptionists and building custodians. On a recent weekend, I was invited to have…
From the Windy City of the American Midwest hailed one of the world’s greatest actor-comedians, Robin McLaurin Williams, cinematically christened simply Robin Williams. Born in one of the most populous cities, Chicago, Illinois, on July 21, 1951, the prolific actor-producer-screenwriter ended his colorful life on Monday, August 11, 2014, by hanging at his home in…
THREE years after discovering video footage of two Filipino male nurses performing sexual acts with each other near a 98-year-old patient, a San Diego Court ordered the two men to stand for trial. Russell Torralba and Alfredo Ruiz, both 42, were ordered on Friday, August 9 to proceed to trial on one count of inflicting…
CALIFORNIA law on the nature of spouses’ rights and obligations with respect to management and control of community property has evolved over the last thirty years from less stringent “good faith” standards to heightened “confidential duty” and “fiduciary duty’ standards. Under current law, the duties owed between spouses in transactions between themselves are the same…
WHO doesn’t love a little sunshine? Not only does it feel fantastic, but it also has numerous health benefits. Sunshine improves our mood, our immune functions, and catalyzes vitamin D production in our bodies. Vitamin D is important to our healthy smiles. Vitamin D supports oral health in two ways: – It helps our bodies absorb and utilize calcium One of…
The September 2014 Visa Bulletin continues to provide great news for Filipinos petitioned as single children of US citizens (F-1), as the priority date moved forward from June 1, 2004 to August 1, 2004. Workers petitioned in the third preference (professional/skilled worker) and other (unskilled) worker categories, also had a tremendous leap, in that the…
IT’S the stuff fairy tales are made of. Although many have expected that power couple Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera are likely to get married, both have avoided any kind of confirmation about when. Then just last week, on national TV, Dingdong went down on his knee and asked the actress this most important…
The suicide death of comedian Robin Williams a few days ago was attributed to depression. This highlights the importance of understanding this mental illness and how to deal with it. What is depression? Depression is a state of emotion where the individual has some or all of the following senses, feelings or moods: downhearted, unhappy,…
DO not take Sen. Jinggoy Estrada out of the running just yet. As law would have it, he is innocent until proven guilty. Not only is he qualified to run for a higher position in the upcoming 2016 Philippine national elections, but according to a recent Pulse Asia Survey, Estrada is the 7th choice to…
PEOPLE from different parts of the world mourn the passing of the genius that was Robin Williams, who was found dead, reportedly because of suicide, in his own home in Tiburon Island, San Francisco last August 11. With a remarkable career in the entertainment industry that had spanned four decades, people could hardly make sense…
MY late boss, Tony de Joya, chairman of Advertising & Marketing Associates, was also, at one time, executive vice-president of Precision Electronics and led the negotiations for a joint venture with Panasonic Corporation (formerly Matsushita Electric). Among the many valuable things he learned from dealing with the Japanese, some lessons could be helpful to Noynoy…
I WAS counseling someone the other day in my office. He looked shocked and confused as we sorted through all the credit card statements on my desk and added up how much he owed. $65,000! That’s how much the statements said he owed! How could this be? He said he remembered paying a lot of…
Some people’s school grades are critically low; others have the “F” kind of low. Their room walls showcase posters of their favorite player or cartoon instead of accomplishments. These, however, do not define what they ought to become. Raphael Ongchiong surprised himself, perhaps a bunch of others too, when he turned out to be the…
Products to be sold Aug 19-22 at PH Center lobby in SF THE Department of Trade and Industry, led by Region 4A Regional Director Marilou Toledo, Region 4A Senior Trade & Industry Development Specialist Laura Japaraplasan and Trade Commissioner Jose Ma. Dinsay, assisted small- and medium-sized Philippine companies test the saleability of their products in…
IT was love at first sight. As soon as I set my eyes on him, no one else mattered inside the room. I stood there on one sweet Thursday, cradling my grandson—a newborn weighing seven pound, five ounces, only 26 hours and eight minutes old. Wrapped so tightly in my arms, nothing else in this…
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Four teenagers pleaded not guilty Tuesday to murder charges in the fatal beating of a Chinese graduate student at the University of Southern California. According to prosecutors, Jonathan Del Carmen, 19, and Andrew Garcia, 18, Alberto Ochoa, 17, and Alejandra Guerrero, 16, fatally attacked USC engineering student Xinran Ji at around…
I REMEMBER the years that I spent in the minor seminary, particularly those times when I would walk around the grounds of the seminary on a stormy morning, singing psalms of praise and writing poems to God. They were fresh periods of conversion, of feeling God’s personal love. Those days revealed to me a simple…
A YEAR and nine months before the upcoming presidential elections, politicians are already creating their own buzzes, as if to catch the attention of the public – there are those who are clear of their intentions of running for the top position, while others are still in the process of grooming their image through ‘charitable’…
After being under the Marcos Dictatorship for 20 years, many kababayans have developed some sort of paranoia that whoever was the incumbent president would be doing what Marcos did — manipulate the system in order to go beyond the constitutionally mandated tenure for President and hold on to power for as long as possible. This…
ON August 2, 2014, Wilner & O’Reilly, APLC celebrates its 11th anniversary. Eleven years ago, it started with a vision from Richard Wilner & Kelly O’Reilly to start a boutique firm that specializes in immigration and nationality law. From a small executive suite in Cerritos to four offices in California and Utah, our growth is…
