Allyson Escobar

When U.S. Marine Sergeant Michael Sulsona, a disabled Vietnam War veteran, rolled into his new smart home in Staten Island for the first time, he felt plenty of emotions.
“You always appreciate what you have, you know? But this is like a bonus,” Sulsona said.
On July 2, Sulsona was presented a mortgage-free smart home by the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation.

ASTORIA, New York - Family, friends and hundreds of service members in uniform remembered the heroism and self-sacrifice of Luis Alvarez during an emotional funeral Mass for him at Immaculate Conception Church in Astoria in New York City borough of Queens. Alvarez, 53, was one of many New York police detectives and first responders on the scene after the terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center on 9/11.

Two female contestants on “The Bachelor: Vietnam” shocked audiences around the world when they ditched the male bachelor — for each other. The plot twist was revealed in a trailer for the newest episode of the Vietnamese version of “The Bachelor” franchise, which has expanded to 20 countries globally since its 2002 U.S. debut.

Meghan Duggan, captain of Team USA’s Olympic gold-winning women’s hockey team, married her longtime rival, Gillian Apps, a three-time Olympic champion and former forward for Team Canada. The women were wed this weekend on a farm in Pownal, Maine, with fellow hockey Olympians Kacey Bellamy, Brianna Decker and Erica Lawler serving as bridesmaids, according to TeamUSA.org.

A popular program for immigrants enters its twelfth year at St. Jerome’s Church
As immigrant students trickled into a classroom in the basement of St. Jerome Catholic Church on E. 138th Street, they sang “God Bless America,” ending with a resounding, “My home sweet home.” It was a weekly Thursday night citizenship class, one of several offered as part of a new, in-demand immigration program at St. Jerome H.A.N.D.S. Community Center.

On the 10th floor of Bronx Legal Services at 349 East 149th St., Segun Oguns was handed a 1-trip MetroCard and a red card, with three English/Spanish phrases he has the legal right to say in case Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or police officers were to show up at his door.

It’s more than sweetened milk tea and an assortment of colorful, chewy tapioca pearls for attendees at the inaugural NYC Bubble Tea Festival in Times Square. The drink, originating in Taiwan during the 1980s, is a cultural phenomenon.

"We need to have spaces that are safe for women — especially immigrants — to engage, where they're not being oppressed or judged. It's time for us to have either our own mosque, or to have a different configuration than the ones that exist," said Rabi'a Keeble, founder of the Qal'bu Maryam Women's Mosque in Berkeley, CA.

Living carefree and car-free is what the Orange County Transportation Authority’s latest Measure M-funded project — called OC Streetcar — hopes to do for county residents, commuters and tourists.

Filipino food is not only trendy in Los Angeles — it's tradition. L.A. has the country's largest population of people with roots in the Philippines, and our city's Filipino history traces back to the early 1900s, when a portion of downtown was even called Little Manila. Today, the Historic Filipinotown area near Westlake commemorates L.A.'s connection to immigrants from the Philippines, whose cultural impact can be experienced in the many Filipino restaurants throughout the city.

Growing up half black and half Filipino, Asia Jackson was not always comfortable in her own skin.

Hold the wine, please — an experimental whiskey appreciation club for women is growing in Los Angeles. Launched in March, Women Who Whiskey’s newest L.A. chapter has more than 1,500 registered members and boasts the club's largest branch in the world.

Since President Barack Obama announced his executive action on immigration last November, hundreds of departments and organizations have been gearing up to implement the plans that are estimated to affect millions of undocumented residents living in the United States.

Dr. Vincent Hau remembers the first time he ran a timed marathon. He had been training for months and had completed shorter races in Tuscon, Big Sur, New York, and Chicago before attempting the 2014 Boston Marathon. Nearing the finish line of that race, Hau saw something he said he would never forget: a blind runner, weaving through other participants, being led by a guide.