News Briefs

American Express donates $500,000 to Civil Rights Museum

The National Institutes of Health awarded the New York University College of Dentistry a $100,000 grant to establish an intensive research training program for minority predoctoral dental students from NYU, Howard University, Tuskegee University and the University of Puerto Rico. The grant sponsors training for five students a year within the NYU College of Dentistry's Bluestone Center for Clinical Research and its basic science laboratories.

Down payment and closing cost loans for NYC home buyers

First-time New York City home buyers can receive loans of up to $15,000 to help with down payment and closing costs toward a mortgage under a Neighborhood Housing Services of New York City program known as CASH (Closing Assistance and Support for Homeowners). The loans are designed for people with a household income of up to 165 percent of the median income for New York City and its environs, or $103,620 for a family of four. They have an APR of 4.18 percent and can be repaid over eight years. More information can be obtained from NHSNYC at 212-519-2500.

Carver expands, targets younger consumers, small businesses

Carver Federal Savings Bank plans to open three full-service branches and three 24/7 ATM Centers in Harlem, Brooklyn and Queens over the next 24 months. The bank is targeting younger consumers and small businesses with its new Carver Credit Card and insurance, annuities and other investment products. Carver President and CEO Deborah C. Wright says the bank has to double its efforts, since the mainstream banks now realize there�s money in the African-American and Caribbean community. For its fiscal second quarter, which ended Sept. 30, 2003, Carver Bancorp, the bank�s parent, showed earnings per share of $0.55, up from $0.37 in the same quarter last year. Net income available to common stockholders rose 55.4 percent to $1.4 million, and the board declared a cash dividend on its common stock of $0.05 per share.

Walter Washington, first elected mayor under D.C. home rule, dies

Walter Edward Washington, the first elected mayor of the nation�s capital since the Civil War, has died. He was 88. Washington, who was the first Black official to head a major U.S. city, had been in failing health for months. President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed him mayor-commissioner of the District of Columbia in 1967 and President Richard M. Nixon reappointed him

- Compiled by Ines Bebea