by Samuel González

Activistas contra la tortura gubernamental protestan frente a la Corte de Apelacines del 9o Circuito de SF, contra el Juez Jay Bybee, quien ayudó a diseñar maneras legales para elicitar la tortura contra la gente en Irak. (photo by Marvin J. Ramirez)

Hispanic and black consumers, thousands of whom were victims of predatory lending that locked homebuyers into unfairly high interest rates, would gain safeguards under a new White House proposal.

The creation of a Consumer Financial Protection Agency, submitted by the administration to Congress June 15, would protect consumers from unfair lending practices and promote transparency and accountability by lenders.

If approved, it would eliminate some practices that contributed to the financial downturn, the administration says.

According to a Pew Hispanic Center study, Hispanics who borrowed in the subprime market paid annual rates 2.6 percent points higher on 30-year fixed-rate conventional mortgages. For blacks the average rate was 3.0 percent higher. on President Lack of credit education and predatory lending by financial institutions left low-income families unable to make their mortgage payments and facing foreclosure.

Center for Responsible Lending spokeswoman Kathleen Day told Weekly Report that nearly one in two Hispanics who applied for a loan at the height of the 1lending boom was given a subprime loan.

A survey by the National Council of LaRaza found, in addition to unsustainable mortgage payments, many Hispanics have become overly dependent upon credit cards and pay excessive rates 13 percent have cards Nawith interest rates above 20 percent, keeping them in cycles of debt, according to the NCLR report.

In other news:

By 2025 whites may become minorities on college campuses

Before the year 2025, students of color will outnumber whites on U.S. college campuses for the first time, a new report projects.

By 2021, white students will make up barely 52 percent of the nation’s college student population and two or three years later, they’ll be in the minority, Chronicle Research Services calculates. Its study, designed to help higher education institutions plan ahead, measures the ethnic and racial makeup of current high-school graduating classes plus factors such as likely population growth, refined recruitment, pedagogical changes and overall accessibility.

In 2021, annual Hispanic student enrollment is projected to increase over 2009 enrollment by 276,000 and for Asian/Pacific Islanders by 79,000, while dropping by 237,000 for white students and 44,000 for black students.

CRS’s 59-page report is the first of a three-part series on what higher education institutions will look like in the years ahead. It is based on reviews of research and data on trends in higher education and interviews with experts who are shaping tomorrow’s colleges.

A “2008 Measuring Up” report by Chronicle researchers found that overall 59 percent of white students complete a bachelor’s degree within six years of enrolling but only 47 percent of Hispanics, 41 percent of African Americans and 39°/0 of American Indian students accomplish the same thing.

The new report can be found at http://research.chronicle.com/reports.html. By Arlinda Arriaga. Reach her via e-mail at arriaga86@yahoo.com.

Blacks, Hispanics save less

LOS ANGELES — Blacks and Latinos accumulate less in their 401(k) plans than whites of similar income levels, and tend to invest conservatively, a study by Ariel Investments and Hewitt Associates shows.

Among people earning less than $30,000 a year, whites averaged $8,000 in their401 (k) accounts. Blacks and :Hispanics averaged about half that amount.

For those earning more than $120,000, whites averaged savings of $223,000, blacks $150,000 and Latinos $154,000.

The differences result from behaviors such as waiting too long to start investing, borrowing too much from 401(k) plans and avoiding stocks, it said.

Cuts hurt college chances

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Hundreds of thousands of students are likely to be denied admission from low-cost community colleges across the country over the next year because of funding cuts at the same time that record numbers of students are turning to the open-admission schools, according to Ll.S. education ­officials.

The Obama Administration promises to aid the nation’s alonost 1,200 community colleges, which educate 12 million students, or 44°/0 of all undergraduates, including the majority of blacks and Hispanics. Hispanic Link.

by the University of Michigan

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Telling people with a family history of Alzheimer’s that they carry a genetic variant that further increases their risk of developing the disease doesn’t cause lasting depression or anxiety, a new study found.

These findings help address a longstanding debate about whether disclosing such information causes lasting psychological harm, at least among those with a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, says Scott Roberts, a U-M researcher at the School of Public Health and co-author of the study findings, which appear today in the New England Journal of Medicine. People with a family history are already at higher risk, which is further increased if they also carry a certain version of the genecalled Apolipoprotein E (APOE).

Roberts and colleagues at Boston University, Case Western Reserve University, and Cornell Medical College tested 162 people with a parent with Alzheimer’s, which means their risk for developing the disease by age 85 is about 30-35 percent, compared to the general population risk of about 10-15 percent.

After an educational session about Alzheimer’s and genetic testing, researchers tested subjects for their APOE genotype to learn if they carried the genetic variant. The presence of the gene increases the risk for those with a family history of Alzheimer’s to more than 50 percent. For subjects who did agree to the test, specially trained genetic counselors then disclosed results and researchers followed

participants over one year to determine the impact of risk information.

The researchers measured anxiety, depression and test-related distress after six weeks, six months, and one year. Test-related distress did increase slightly ciudadesat six weeks for people with the risk-increasing form of the gene, but not at 6 months or one year, Roberts said. Anxiety and depression levels remained stable.

“Some people might say, ‘I’m thinking about this a lot,’ but it didn’t translate into long term depression or anxiety,” Roberts says.“The findings show if you do (disclose this genetic information) genetic counseling may be an important component to ensure that most people do not respond with significant distress.

“Genetic counselors help put the test results in context so that people understand the meaning and limits of the results,” Roberts says. For example, for participants with a 55 percent lifetime risk, counselors explained that there was a 45 percent chance that they would never develop the disease.

The APOE link to Alzheimer’s was identified in the 1990s, and traditionally, the medical community doesn’t favor disclosure of theAPOE genotype – orother genetic markers –unless telling patientsdirectly impacts clinical treatment, Roberts says.

­However, now that private companies offer genetic testing for a variety of conditions, the debate over clinical utility versus personal utility is growing.

Some argue it’s paternalistic to tell people what information they can or cannot know about their own genome, he says. It’s important to note that after the initial educational session, 20 percent of the subjects opted out of the actual test, which means the majority wanted to know.

“I think most adult children of Alzheimer’s patients would favor the right to at least have the choice,” he says.

Roberts conducted this research while at Boston University. He came to the U-M in 2006.

Roberts is second author on the paper, called “Disclosure of APOE Genotype for Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease,” and co-principal investigator on theRisk Evaluation and Education for Alzheimer’s Disease (REVEAL), a series of randomized clinical trials examining the impact of a genetic susceptibility testing program for adult children of people with Alzheimer’s.

by the El Reportero’s news services

The scale of the defeat of Mexico’s ruling Partido Acción Nacional (PAN) in the elections on July 5 was worse than even the most pessimistic opinion polls had forecast.

The defeat has already forced the PAN’s president to resign and triggered an unprecedented clash between panistas in Guadalajara in the PAN-controlled state of Jalisco. Not only was the PAN crushed in the congressional elections but it was also pushed back in the six gubernatorial and numerous state congress and municipal elections that were held simultaneously.

Overall, the PAN is now much weaker than it was at the comparable point in President Vicente Fox’s term (2000 to 2006). The only encouragement it can glean from that memory is that it did recover from the mid-term drubbing in 2003 to retain the presidency in 2006.

The verdict was crushing for President Felipe Calderón and his ruling Partido Acción Nacional (PAN). Fewer than 45 percent of the electorate bothered to vote, despite a major effort by the government to stress the importance of the elections. Of those that did vote, most voted for the opposition Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) but over 5 percent cast void ballots.

Apra back on top after Peru reshuffle

Javier Velásquez Quesquén, the former president of Congress, was sworn in as the new prime minister on July 11.

Although only six of the 16 new members are card-carrying members of President Alan García’s Partido Aprista Peruano (Apra), the new cabinet is more narrowly based than the outgoing one. Its senior fi gures now all take President García’s line that all the social unrest in the country is being fomented by radical leftists loyal to Presidents Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

Uruguay offers Bolivia sea access

The Uruguayan and Bolivian presidents will meet in this capital, especially to tackle, among other issues, the former’s offer to Bolivia access to the Atlantic Ocean In its first visit to Uruguay as head of State, Evo Morales will tackle with his host Tabare Vazquez important issues on the bilateral and regional agenda, but this subject has hit the local and international media headlines.

The issue has auspicious antecedents, because Vazquez stated at the beginning of the past week that “we talked about it with Evo several times and we want to make progress in that direction.”

“It is a gesture of solidarity by our government and our country towards a brother government and people,” the president said.The Uruguayan proposal includes readying a port in Montevideo for Bolivian trade that could start operating in 2010, with similar administration ­to that of the Chilean Arica port.

Urge solución en Honduras para estabilidad de la región

Para la estabilidad política, comercial y social de Centroamérica es necesario solucionar la situación de Honduras, afirmó hoy el ministro de Hacienda de Costa Rica, Guillermo Zúñiga.

En su opinión, las actuales condiciones en Honduras, tras el golpe de Estado que destituyó al presidente constitucional, Manuel Zelaya, pueden afectar mucho a su país y al resto de la región.

Zúñiga precisó que Centroamérica es un mercado de 80 millones de habitantes, por lo que si uno

by Maricela Cruz

Impoverished Hondura — with 7.4 million natives still at home and 600,000 or more residing in the United States is digging in for what may be a protracted wait as the Central American nation struggles to untie the political knot that has kept it off balance since June 28.

On that date, Honduran military leaders and political opponents of leftist President Manuel Zelaya staged a coup, arrested and deported their increasingly isolated leader and placed Roberto Micheletti, a former colleague of the president, in power. Zelaya lost favor with many countrymen for allegedly trying to alter the country’s Constitution to allowhim to remain in power after his term expires.

Initial international reaction to the coup was that the democratically elected government should quickly be restored to power and Zelaya allowed to serve until his term ends next year. But after his failed try to fly home July 5 and spreading concern about his leadership strength and friendship with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez, some analysts are moderating their assessments.

Peter Hakim, president of the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Inter-American Dialogue, offered this overview of the current situation to Weekly Report: “The incoming government has a certain advantage precisely because it holds the reigns of power. The longer it can keep Zelaya from returning to Honduras, the less likely he’s ever to do so.”

Understandly, Hondurans scattering throughout the United States express more concern about the welfare of their family members than the political turmoil in its capital Tegucigalpa.

They are fairly divided politically, added Manuel Orozco, director of remittances and developmental Inter-American Dialogue. He listed Miami, New York, Houston and New Orleans as among communities with greater concentrations, pegging the U.S. Honduran diaspora at about 600,000, with half that number arriving following Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

Among developments following the coup:

• ­The Organization of American States has expressed support for Zelaya as the country’s democratically elected leader. So has the United Nations, which voted June 29 to pursue the restoration of power to Zelaya.
• The U.S. cut some aid and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, favoring the return of Zelaya, called on former president Oscar Árias of Costa Rica to assist in bringing the political division to a peaceful resolution. (His first meeting brought no results.)
• The Congressional Hispanic Caucus, consisting of nearly ell of the body’s two dozen-plus Democratic members, released a statement July 7 calling on ‘’Roberto Micheletti and those responsible for the removal of President Zelaya to respect the rule of law and restore the constitutional order… The Constitution of Honduras must not be disregarded.

“We fully support the efforts made by the Organization of American States, and we encourage our government to take the necessary diplomatic steps to ensure a peaceful restoration of the democratically elected government in Honduras.”

The smaller, all-Republican Congressional Hispanic Conference took a different view. “Rather than engaging in efforts to restore Zelaya to power, the U.S. should focus on demonstrating respect for the Constitution of Honduras, its democratic institutions, and the rule of law as the Honduran people work to resolve the current situation in their country.” Hispanic Link.