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Seamus Finn, OMI and Faith Consistent Investing Profiled in the Huffington Post May 27th, 2010
Fr. Seamus Finn, Director of the Oblate JPIC Office, along with three other ICCR members, will soon appear on The Daily Show, highlighting their work on banking and financial sector reform. Read this fine profile on Fr. Seamus in the Huffington Post written by Katherine Marshall, Senior Fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University: Mission Improbable: Priests on Wall Street.
Senate Financial Reform Bill Passes the Senate May 26th, 2010
Despite huge opposition from the big Wall Street banks, the financial reform bill passed in the Senate on May 20th. This is an important step in reining in the casino economy and in creating a banking system that serves Main Street, not just Wall Street.
Here’s what the Senate bill will do if made law:
- Create a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The CFPB will be a watchdog for consumers to protect them from questionable mortgages and credit card deals.
- End the casino economy bring the $600 trillion derivatives market into the light of day with the advent of exchange trading (transparency) and capital requirements (insuring accountability).
Read more about the bill on the website of Americans for Financial Reform.
The next step in the legislative process is the House and Senate conference committee which will hammer out the differences between the two bills. (Read about the House version here.) Once the committee agrees on a bill, it must be passed by a majority in the House and by 60 votes in the Senate.
Stop Trafficking! May 26th, 2010
The May issue of the newsletter Stop Trafficking is available.
The Stop Trafficking newsletter, hosted by the STOP ENSLAVEMENT web domain, serves as a forum for exchange among religious congregations and their collaborating organizations:
- to promote awareness re: human trafficking;
- to exchange best practices in advocacy for and empowerment of survivors of human trafficking;
- to recommend actions to counter human trafficking.
More information on human trafficking is available on the Sisters of the Divine Savior website…
Also, for a full list of resources, visit our web page on Human Trafficking
Transparency on Congo Conflict Minerals Folded into the Financial Regulatory Reform Bill May 25th, 2010
With the passage of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act (S. 3217) in the United States Senate, the Congo Conflict Minerals and the Energy Security through Transparency (ESTT) amendments have made it into legislation. However, as neither amendment was in the House version of the financial reform legislation, both amendments will be taken up by the House/Senate Conference committee which will work to reconcile the differences between the two bills. Both amendments were agreed to during the passage of the Restoring American Financial Stability Act in the Senate.
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Human Rights Groups Urge Investigation of Sri Lanka War Crimes May 21st, 2010
Human Rights groups, from Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International to the International Crisis Group, are calling for an independent investigation into war crimes by both sides during the traumatic end of the war between the LTTE and government forces one year ago.
In a report released on May 17th, a year after the war’s end, the International Crisis Group cited “reasonable grounds to believe the Sri Lankan security forces committed war crimes” by intentionally shelling civilians, hospitals and humanitarian operations in a final push to destroy the separatist Tigers. In turn, the Tigers reportedly shot civilians who tried to flee rebel areas and held others captive in a bid to raise international pressure for a ceasefire.
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