The Department of Veterans Affairs has announced it has lowered the interest rate for VA Native American Direct Loans to make housing more affordable for Native American veterans. The VA, which provides direct loans to Native American veterans, dropped its interest rate from 6% to 2.5%, effective March 13. The new rate will be available for the next two years. “Native American veterans are now able to more affordably buy, build and improve homes on trust land,” said executive director of VA Loan Guaranty Service John Bell III. The lower interest loans do not require down payments, have limited closing costs and no monthly mortgage insurance costs.
Indigenous people gathered to protest a birthday party for genocidal U.S. President Andrew Jackson. The group and their supporters gathered in Nashville to protest a celebration for the 256th birthday of the deservedly-maligned seventh president of the United States, Andrew Jackson. The infamous leader’s birthday party was held at the Hermitage, Jackson’s historic home in Nashville. The event included children’s activities, gallery talks, an annual presidential wreath-laying ceremony at Jackson’s tomb, and a keynote address from Nashville Mayor John Cooper. The main speaker for the protest was Melba Checote-Eads, a citizen of the Muscogee Creek Nation of Oklahoma who has long resided in Tennessee.
Those are your headlines at this hour. I’m Colette Keith in the KIPI News center.