Veterans Get New Hope: Congress Set to Pass $41.3B Bill

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Veterans Get New Hope: Congress Set to Pass $41.3B Bill

Veteran-support organizations are pleased about a $41.3-billion appropriations bill that Congress is set to pass next month for the Department of Veterans Affairs. The money for veterans' programs and facilities is almost 20 percent higher than Republican leaders allocated a year ago, reports syndicated columnist Tom Philpott. Last December, Congress adjourned without passing a VA appropriations bill. The $6.9-billion increase in the pipeline this year will allow agencies to hire more claim processors, beef up medical staffs and modernize long-neglected hospitals and clinics.

(See also: Help Veterans With Disabilities)

Why Did Trent Lott Leave the Senate?

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., will resign his seat in the U.S. Senate before the end of the year, say congressional and Bush administration officials. The senator has "other opportunities" he plans to pursue, an official close to the situation told The Associated Press. Lott was in political hot water in 2002 after going too far in his praise of GOP Sen. Strom Thurmond at the South Carolinian's 100th birthday party, during which Lott said Mississippi voters were proud to have supported Thurmond when he ran for president on a segregationist platform in 1948. He added, "If the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years either."

Islamic Banking: Cultural Competency Equals Success

Islamic banks are all the rage these days as rising oil wealth is fueling the burgeoning financial market. Big banks, including Citigroup, HSBC and Deutsche Bank, as well as financial capitals like London, Tokyo and Hong Kong, are all going into the Islamic banking business. (Citigroup and HSBC are Nos. 22 and 36, respectively, in The 2007 DiversityInc Top 50 Companies for Diversity^®.) Muslim investors can't earn interest on their investments, so banks seeking to capitalize on this emerging market must invest in cultural-competency skills. An estimated 300 Islamic financial institutions hold at least $500 billion in assets, an amount that is increasing more than 10 percent a year, reports The New York Times.

Racial Profiling in Chicago? Politician Cries Foul

Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., is accusing the Chicago Police Department of racial profiling after he was pulled over last week. Earlier this month, a legal team at the University of Chicago reported that Chicago police officers were the subject of more brutality complaints per officer than the national average and that the department was less likely than the national norm to pursue abuse cases seriously, reports The New York Times. Chicago Police Department officials say they will continue to investigate the matter, but according to the report, the officers followed protocol. Davis says he will fight the $75 ticket on principle.

Pioneer Black Publisher Dies

Francis Murphy, publisher of the Afro-American, died late last week of cancer-related illness. Murphy, like other indispensable black publishers, fought to balance the perception of blacks in the media, including the 1992 Democratic Convention, which featured speeches by former U.S. representative Barbara Jordan, D-Texas, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Murphy said that her reporters were much more astute in their coverage of the two speeches than their mainstream counterparts, reports The Washington Post. Murphy was the 1995 principal organizer of the Million Man March and taught journalism at Howard University.

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