On Our Radar

Yahoo! Finance, April 9, 2024, West Virginia Bars Citi, HSBC From Banking Contracts Over Oil Citigroup Inc., TD Bank, Northern Trust Corp., and HSBC Holdings have been added to a list of companies that State Treasurer Riley Moore’s office determined engage in such a boycott based on a review of each institution’s environmental, social and […]

Fast Company, April 8, 2024, Housing Market Affordability Is So Strained That Home Depot Is Selling Tiny Homes For $63,000. In response to the escalating strain on housing affordability, Home Depot, a leading home improvement retailer ranked No. 20 on the Fortune 500 list, has continued to launch a range of tiny homes and Accessory Dwelling

Penn LDI, April 8, 2024, Despite Broad Efforts, U.S. Health Equity Gap Continues To Grow Despite broad efforts since 2009 to increase the availability of health insurance and access to health care for underserved populations, low-income people are remaining sicker than higher-income people and that health inequity gap continues to grow. That’s according to José Escarce,

The New York Times, April 5, 2024, New Report Reveals N.Y.C Areas Most Hurt By Environmental Inequities Nearly half of the city’s population lives in what the report describes as an “environmental justice area.” (It determined these areas, which typically have histories of societal neglect resulting in elevated levels of pollution and health issues, using

Grist, April 5, 2024, In Chicago, One Neighborhood Is Fighting Gentrification And Climate Change At The Same Time The building is an example of what urban planners call Transit-Oriented Development, or TOD. The idea is that developing near transit stations leads to interconnected communities and fewer cars emitting carbon dioxide. Developers get incentives and neighbors get

AL.com, April 7, 2024, Historic Redlining Still Affects Cancer Care Today, UAB Researchers Find The study, by lead author Dr. Qasim Hussaini, an oncologist and researcher at UAB, looked at a range of outcomes in almost 200 cities where the government rated neighborhoods for mortgage lending in ways that discriminated against minorities. The practice that

Yahoo! Finance, April 7, 2024, Banks Are Building More Branches For The First Time In A Decade Last year banks added 94 net new branches across the US, according to new data released this week by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. That was the first annual period since 2012 they opened more than they closed.

Daily News, April 7, 2024, Sen. Schumer Expresses Concern Over Capital One Merger With Discover  Senator Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is voicing concern that Capital One’s planned acquisition of Discover could cause inflated costs for credit card users in New York City and beyond. Schumer’s press releases included a copy of a Sunday letter he

The Washington Post, April 5, 2024, Court Clears Path For Reopening Antitrust Probe Of Realtors Group In a 21-page opinion, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit reversed a lower-court decision that the Justice Department was barred from reopening its investigation because of complications arising out of a

90.5 WESA, April 2, 2024, Book On Slavery’s Wealth Touches Prominent Pittsburgh Philanthropists “The Stolen Wealth of Slavery: A Case for Reparations,” by journalist David Montero, tells the story of several modern-day corporations founded on profits from slavery. The companies include Citibank, Bank of America and investment bank Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. In 2022,

Greater Greater Washington, March 28, 2024, How Federal Stimulus Accidentally Bottlenecked Affordable Housing In DC Low-Income Housing Tax Credits are divided into two categories: 9% LIHTC and 4% LIHTC. 9% LIHTC provide an annual tax credit worth 9% of eligible costs for 10 years (so a total tax credit worth 90% of eligible costs). 4%

The New York Times, March 29, 2024, Why It’s So Expensive To Live In Phoenix Arizona exemplifies the stress over housing. Over the past decade, the allure of suburban life under cloudless skies has swelled the population of greater Phoenix to five million from 4.2 million, according to census data. The influx pushed housing prices

The Washington Post, March 30, 2024, Half Of Senior Staffers In Congress Are So Fed Up That They May Quit Only about one in five senior aides on Capitol Hill believe that Congress is “functioning as a democratic legislature should,” and about the same margin believe that it is “an effective forum for debate” on

ABA Banking Journal, March 30, 2024, Federal Court Pauses CRA Rule Implementation Following ABA Lawsuit A federal judge in Texas on Friday issued a preliminary injunction against enforcing new rules implementing the Community Reinvestment Act in a lawsuit brought by the American Bankers Association and other business groups. “While we strongly support the goals of

Vox, April 1, 2024, Multigenerational Housing Is Coming Back In A Big Way The research arm of the apartment listing and resident services company RentCafe went granular on Gen Z and found that 68 percent over the age of 18 still live with a parent or parents. As for millennials, 20 percent are back with mom