Maniolas

LOS ANGELES — Various groups are launching a big drive to turn out Asian American millennials in coming November elections. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing minority group in the U.S. and will command buying power in excess of $1 trillion by 2018. Yet, drive organizers say, half of all Asian Americans do not vote, including just 37 percent of Asian Americans aged 18 to 34, representing one of the lowest voter participation rates of any racial or ethnic demographic. To help close this gap in a critical election year, #IAmAsianAmerican (www.iamasianamerican.com) — a new organization formed in conjunction with APIAVote (www.apiavote.org), Kollaboration (www.kollaboration.org) and 18 Million Rising (18MR.org) — is launching a national campaign to engage Asian American millennials to become active participants in the electoral process. On Oct.16, #IAAA aims to register at least 15,000 new voters with a first-ever national concert event taking place in four cities with major Asian American populations: New York; Washington, DC; Chicago; Los Angeles. The free events will combine food, live music and speakers and on-the-ground engagement in each city — including a flagship red-carpet celebrity event at Los Angeles’s historic Wiltern Theater, expected to draw 2,000 attendees, which will also be live-streamed to the three other participating cities and locations across the country. The Los Angeles event will be emceed by comedians Jenny Yang (Comedy Comedy Festival; Buzzfeed Video) and Parvesh Cheena (Crazy Ex-Girlfriend), and will feature as headliners a cappella sensations The Filharmonic (Pitch Perfect 2) and America’s Best Dance Crew Read More …

Russian Kirdyushkin Yuri (center) and Hong Kong nationals Chan Kawai and Pau Homanevan, were arrested at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, on Oct. 5, 2016, after P135 million worth of cocaine and shabu were found inside their luggge. (PHOTO BY JEANETTE ANDRADE, INQUIRER) MANILA — Operatives of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC) intercepted at the country’s premier airport on Wednesday afternoon three foreigners allegedly trying to smuggle into the country some P135-million worth of suspected narcotics in their baggage. Ninoy Aquino International Airport district customs collector Ed Macabeo identified the suspected drug traffickers as Hong Kong nationals Chan Kawai and Pau Homanevan, and Russian national Kirdyushkin Yuri. Macabeo said the three who originally came from Brazil tried to slip through with a total of nearly 19 kilograms of suspected cocaine and methamphetamine hydrochloride or shabu allegedly hidden in their luggage. Before the suspects were intercepted, the anti-illegal drugs task force at the NAIA was tipped off about the possible arrival of a sizeable amount of narcotics through foreign drug couriers. The foreigners, who arrived at around 4:30 p.m. at the NAIA terminal 3 on a flight from Dubai, had just claimed their baggage from the carousel when they were asked over to the Customs office for inspection of their bags. Upon inspection, Macabeo said, the foreigners’ baggage yielded 9.9 kilograms of suspected cocaine in powder and liquid form, as well as nine kilograms of suspected shabu. PDEA operatives are conducting tests on the Read More …

JUNK EDCA / JANUARY 14, 2016Militant activist protests the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (EDCA) infront of the Supreme Court in Manila on Thursday, January 14, 2016, after the Supreme Court declated valid a bilateral defense agreement between Washington and Manila.INQUIRER PHOTO / GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE THE presidential legal team is reviewing the Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement (Edca) days after President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to cancel the accord, a Palace official said on Wednesday. On Sunday, Duterte said the Edca was just an executive agreement not even signed by former president Benigno Aquino III, but only by former defense secretary Voltaire Gazmin. “Regarding the EDCA needing a President’s signature, I just like to say that the President’s legal team is currently addressing the matter,” Presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said in a press briefing. During his official visit to Vietnam in September, President Duterte said this year’s war games between the Philippines and the United States military troops would be the last. “You are scheduled to hold war games, which China does not want. I will serve notice to you now that this will be the last military exercise,” he said. The President has publicly said that he wanted to forge new alliance with China and Russia. On Tuesday, the Philippines and US held its last war games for the this year amid uncertainties following Duterte’s pronouncements. Latest BOC imports lack clearance to play in V-League Why Duterte likes to insult Duterte sure it’s De Lima in video – Palace New FBI head in Read More …

Some military officers have expressed concern over President Rodrigo Duterte’s threats to cut ties with the United States but it was “nowhere near enough to launch a coup,” Senator Antonio Trillanes IV said on Wednesday. While no one has approached him “physically,” Trillanes said he has been getting word about the “sentiments” of some military officers and men. “But let just say that by and large, the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is very supportive of the President and they are loyal to the chain of command so there are no factions within the armed forces,” he said in an interview over ABS CBN News Channel. Asked what those sentiments were, the senator said: “It can’t be generalized. I believe some are concerned about the direction the President is going particularly ending ties with the US armed forces because these ties go way back and it’s not easy to do that.” Asked again if the sentiments were coming from the soldiers, Trillanes said: “No. Some officers randomly expressing concerns, but it’s nowhere near enough to launch a coup. “From what I’m getting is nowhere near that but again by and large, soldiers, the rank and file, enlisted personnel, junior officers are happy with the apparent concern of the President when he visited their camps and he promised them to double their salaries so who would not agree with that? So by and large the morale is very high,” said the senator, who led a failed mutiny against then President Read More …

Katherine Magbanua. BROWARD SHERIFF’S OFFICE TALLAHASSEE, Florida — Police have made a third arrest in the 2014 killing of a Florida State University law professor, a woman who they say has ties both to the family of the victim’s ex-wife and one of the alleged shooters. The Tallahassee police said Sunday that Katherine Magbanua, 31, was arrested near Fort Lauderdale on Saturday and charged her with murder in the July 2014 slaying of Daniel Markel, who was gunned down in his garage. She was being held Sunday at the Broward County jail without bond pending her transfer to Tallahassee. In documents released by the police Sunday and previously obtained by the Tallahassee Democrat, detectives alleged that Magbanua had a romantic relationship with the brother of Wendi Adelson, Markel’s ex-wife, and lived with Sigfredo Garcia, one of the alleged gunmen, and had two children with him. Investigators say in the weeks leading up to the killing and immediately thereafter, there were hundreds of calls between Charles Adelson, Wendi Adelson’s brother, and Magbanua and between Magbanua and Garcia, often moments apart. Magbanua’s attorney, Tara Kawass, did not immediately return a phone call or email late Sunday. David O. Markus, Charles Adelson’s attorney, pointed out that Tallahassee State Attorney Willie Meggs recently rejected a police request to authorize the arrest of Charles Adelson, saying there was insufficient evidence. The victim, Daniel Markel. WIKIPEDIA “It’s sad that the police have arrested Katie when just last week the prosecution said there was no basis to Read More …