By Lyra Small & mom, Joanna Brody My mom and I have decided to modify Mrs. Obama’s moniker from First Lady to First MOM. Not because she has two daughters, Sasha and Malia. But because she is quintessentially, reliably, empathetically Michelle On a Mission – always on a mission for social good. When we got wind of the opportunity to cover holiday decorations at the White House for KSMKidScoop Media, we thought, “Well, this will be fun but it’s a bit of a soft news s...

By Joshua Parina Glenn Sylvester and Juslyn Manalo took their oaths as new Councilmembers of the Daly City Council last December 12, making history as the first United States City Council with a Pinoy supermajority. Filipino Councilmembers Raymond Buenaventura and Michael Guingona welcomed the two newly elected members into their ranks during the Daly City Council Reorganization. These four individuals comprise the supermajority and have been called the Pinoy “Super 4”...

By Harvey I. Barkin SAN CARLOS – Early this month, Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) gathered members of the multi-ethnic press for its fifth-year media roundtable for ways to save on Winter energy bills. The tone on diversity was set by highest-ranking Asian and Senior VP, Energy Policy and Procurement Fong Wan. Manager, Residential Rate Options Lori Leiva proceeded to the heart of the matter on Winter energy savings. And winter gas safety was tackled by Su...

By Daniel Llanto | FilAm Star Correspondent Solicitor General Jose Calida declared Sen. Leila de Lima “public enemy number one and the patron saint of narco-politics” as the Office of the Solicitor General joined the legal battle to pin down De Lima, the President’s arch critic, as having abetted and profited from the prison drug trade in her tenure as secretary of justice. Calida thinks the Senator, who was in the U.S. to receive an award from human rights groups and a...

By Corina Oliquino | FilAm Star Correspondent MANILA -- The finance department announced on December 20 that on September 2017, a bank partly owned by overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) will be set up with an authorized capital of Php3 billion by the Land Bank of the Philippines. Department of Finance Secretary Carlo Dominguez III said through a statement that the OFW Bank will be established through Land Bank’s acquisition of the Philippine Postal Savings Bank Inc. (Post...

By Macon Araneta | FilAm Star Correspondent United Nations (UN) Special Rapporteur on Extra-judicial, Summary or Arbitrary Killings Agnes Callamard called on President Duterte for imposing conditions on her visit to investigate the growing number of deaths in his bloody war on drugs. She asked the Philippine government to reconsider its decision to impose conditions on her investigation on the alleged summary executions. “I have written to the government of the Phili...

By William Casis | FilAm Star Correspondent Malacanang insisted as mere “warning” President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to revoke the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) following the suspension of a $433-million funding grant from the United States-led Millennium Challenge Corp. (MCC) over concerns about his deadly war on crime. “We will wait (what’s the next step)... It was a warning. It wasn’t something the President said he will revoke,” said Presidential Communications Of...

By Macon Araneta | FilAm Star Correspondent President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to seize the assets of Jack Lam when he fired three immigration officials in a multimillion-peso bribe scandal involving the Chinese casino operator. “I’ll be sequestering all of his properties. All. Why? Because he cheated on us,” said Duterte. Duterte noted that Lam was parlaying a permit given to him by the late President Corazon Aquino and he was paying just one percent. While all...

By Daniel Llanto | FilAm Star Correspondent Seeing no worthwhile use for the disputed South China Sea territories, President Duterte said he is now open to a joint oil exploration with China which will practically give away part of the area notwithstanding the international arbitral court ruling that the China-occupied maritime territories are Philippine-owned. Speaking before government workers who received awards for exemplary performance at Malacanang Monday, Duterte...