LOS ANGELES – Only weeks since the recent appointments of Joel Jacinto and George Villanueva to separate commissions in the local government of Los Angeles, another Filipino-American was named by Mayor Eric Garcetti as commissioner for a key governing body in LA. Cris B. Liban, deputy executive officer for the Environmental Compliance and Services Department…
Traditional and social media was recently inundated by news stories regarding Meagan Aguilar’s rant (the “anak” of music icon Freddie Aguilar) against her own father. Meagan has been spewing scathing remarks and despicable stories about Freddie and his 17-year-old wife, after she, along with her partner and two kids, were reportedly kicked out of Freddie’s…
THE advice of St. Peter to new converts to Christianity in the Second Reading this Sunday, 1 Peter 3:15-18, resonate with many us: “For it is better to suffer for doing good, if that that is the will of God, than doing evil.” Truly, many of us have experienced misunderstanding, persecution, and calumny for doing something…
It’s hard to imagine that we as individuals can do anything about the broken immigration system that is tearing many of our families apart. But we can. There is one step that, if taken together, could have the power to protect our families and move our communities forward. More than 8 million immigrants in the…
The Los Angeles County Arts Commission released the first report in a series exploring wages and benefits in arts nonprofits in the region. This report – Salaries in Nonprofit Arts Organizations in LA County – complements the annual Otis Report on the Creative Economy in LA County, providing greater detail about salaries in nonprofit…
In partnership with LA Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs, community groups offer free Pan-Asian citizenship workshop at LA Central Library LOS ANGELES – May marks the 22nd annual month-long observance of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. In celebration, Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Los Angeles, in collaboration with Mayor Eric Garcetti and the Office of…
Current social dictum motivates women to burst out of their shells and land a career of their own giving rise to the ever-growing number of mothers who augustly cope with the irresistible demand and forcible mandate aside, of course, from being conscientiously driven to augment existing family resources. Motherhood, for modern-day women, has been presumptuously…
Even birds of prey sometimes need help. In this instance, it was a young red-tailed hawk on Monday that was probably trying to fly for the first time but had fallen and couldn’t return to its nest about 60 feet up on a transmission tower near Fontana’s Southridge community. The Fontana Police Department, when notified by nearby residents…
When a person is placed in removal/deportation, they typically go in front of the immigration judge (IJ) to demonstrate why they should not be deported or removed, such as they are immediately eligible for a green card (through an approved petition by a citizen spouse, or other petition with a current priority date), they are…
Talking about a new start, I wrote about the recent wedding of actor Jericho “Echo” Gonzales to model Kim Jones. The two lovebirds tied the knot at a beach wedding in the beautiful island of Boracay over Labor Day weekend. Echo is now the lead star of ABS-CBN’s teleserye The Legal Wife, and is…
But our genes, no matter how good their sources are, will not protect us if we abuse ourselves and allow environmental factors to hurt our body and cause disease. It is a well known medical fact that environmental risks many times outweigh positive hereditary traits. What causes pain and tenderness in the testicles? One of the…
Capitol rally led by Black and Latino pastors and the NAAC On March 14, fifty homeowners in distress accompanied by the leading pastors for the Black and Latino churches held a Rally for Homeowners outside the Capitol. They urged Governor Brown to release $2 billion from two funds that could solve the problems for two…
IN an attempt to counter China’s continuous aggression in the contested waters of the South China Sea/West Philippine Sea, Filipino hackers took it upon themselves to defend the country’s sovereignty. A message was plastered on each hacked website: “China’s alleged claim on maritime territories and oppressive poaching can no longer be tolerated. Stand against oppression!…
THE “list” of more government officials (who are allegedly part of the multi-billion peso pork barrel scam) has created even more questions, confusion and doubt in the minds of the Filipino people seeking the truth and justice. This controversial list was exposed by former Senator Panfilo Lacson, the anointed Presidential Assistant for Rehabilitation and Recovery…
CLIENT files a chapter 7 bankruptcy to discharge $100,000 of income taxes. He files his bankruptcy on March 30, 2014. On schedule B of his bankruptcy petition, he claims his 2013 tax refund of $10,000 as exempt property. On April 15, 2014, he files his 2013 tax returns. Instead of giving the $10,000 tax refund…
RIDING the airplane for the first time is perhaps the greatest luxury to enjoy. It is the time when one is not yet well-acquainted with the moment; therefore, giving a sharp and fixed focus to everything. The beauty that the outside view has to offer, the unfamiliar advanced equipment in the plane, and all other…
“Few people know how to be old.” – Francois De La Rochedfoucald THEY say that youth is wasted on the young. This is untrue. Youth is wasted on the old, if all they do is pine away to become young again. There are many great things about growing old. If you can accept the aches and…
LOS ANGELES – On Thursday, May 22, six individuals from the City of Los Angeles will be honored by community group Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA) for their work in uplifting and empowering the Filipino-American community in LA. They will be honored at SIPA’s 42nd Anniversary Awards and Benefit Dinner, which will be held…
SAN FRANCISCO – In a protest being filed today with the California Public Utilities Commission, The Greenlining Institute urges the CPUC not to approve the proposed acquisition of Time Warner Cable by Comcast, arguing that the proposed merger would not be in the public interest. “This deal poses a real threat to low-income customers, whom Comcast has…
WHAT is it about most people (and many Filipinos), who feel a sense of pride and accomplishment in acquiring things for free, which usually need to be paid for? Is it limited finances/budget which compel them to avail of such things? This is so very true in the case of music, film, television shows and…
FROM May 21 to 23, Metro Manila will be host to heads of state and business and civil society leaders from over 30 countries at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on East Asia – a first for the Philippines. With top-caliber participants to the WEF, Finance Secretary Cesar Purisima said they “are people we would…
(Part 3 – Audit Scores) This is the last of three articles on how the IRS receives, validates, stores, and scores tax returns for audit. – How efiled and paper-filed tax returns are verified, validated, and reviewed for accuracy. – How tax returns are stored into master files. – How IRS scores tax returns for…
Q: I WORK for a company that pays us on a piece-rate basis for every task that we finish. A task may take several hours to complete. If we do not complete it by the end of the shift, we are not paid for that task, regardless of the time we already spent working to…
EMPLOYMENT-based immigration to the United States generally entails a three-step process: 1) Labor Certification (under the “PERM” program); 2) Immigrant Visa Petition approval; 3) Green Card issuance (or Consular Processing, if abroad). As many of our readers know, PERM labor ceartification consists of a serious of recruitment activities to test the job market. If no…
FACING serious debt problems can be depressing to a lot of people. It may seem like the end of the world. You may feel angry, depressed, guilty- or a combination of all three. You may even be blaming yourself for making the decisions that led you to your present situation. I’m here to tell you,…
You see them with a grateful heart as they walk on their hands and do somersaults with a patient’s extreme despair and suffering. They turn trauma into joy, and rage and despair. It is something that ordinary people like us experience only a few times in our entire lifetime. Witnessing and being involved in death,…
“LIFE can be messy,” I told my friend the other day as we were talking about the problems and challenges of people in families, parishes, and other communities. “It’s definitely not a perfect world, “ I added. “The reality is that no matter how we try our best to build a good church or school…
If there’s but a single Philippine festival touted as the ultimate in grandiosity, magnificent in its scope, profligate in its opulence, and glamorous in its style, easily, that would be the most-awaited annual celebration of the Flores de Mayo (Flowers of May), ostentatiously culminated with a luxurious pageantry of beauties and fineries aptly dubbed as…
The E-2 Treaty Investment Visa is the visa of choice for many business owners setting up shop in the US. The visa is highly desired as there is no limit to extensions of stay or visa renewals. Unlike the L-1, and H-1B nonimmigrant visas, which have cap of 5-7 years, the E-2 visa and status…
There is a natural tendency among divorcing parties to hide their assets from their spouse and understate income. This is a common problem that I have observed from practicing law for many years. A common question I hear from clients is “my spouse doesn’t know I have an account in this bank, do I have…
