The Associated Press reports that the redesigned U.S. citizenship test, which quizzes applicants on American civics, is beginning an eight city trial run as the U.S. prepares to implement the exam nationwide in 2008.  The 140 draft questions on the pilot test cover U.S. history and government, but many are designed to be concept-oriented, as opposed to questions on the current exam, which merely require memorization of historical facts.  

"You don’t have to put a lot of thought process into something you could just memorize," said Myrna Garza, a district adjudications officer for USCIS in San Antonio , a sample city for the test.  "This will help you understand what’s really happening, the reason for it."  

One question, for example, asks: "What does the judicial branch do?"  There are three answers accepted as correct: "reviews and explains laws," "resolves disputes between parties," and "decides if a law goes against the constitution."  

The other cities that will start administering the pilot are El Paso, TX; Albany, NY; Boston; Charleston, SC; Denver; Kansas City; Miami; Tucson, AZ; and Yakima, WA.  USCIS anticipates spending approximately $6.5 million to revise the test.  

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According to the Wall Street Journal, Bank of America Corp. has begun offering credit cards to customers without Social Security numbers in the Los Angeles area, typically illegal immigrants. More recently banks across the country have offered checking accounts and mortgages to undocumented immigrants. But these immigrants, mostly Hispanic, haven’t been able to get major credit cards, making it hard for them to obtain a credit history.  

The credit cards involved aren’t cheap. To obtain a Bank of America Visa card with a $500 line of credit, an upfront cost of $99 would have to be put down. If the $500 limit is not exceeded and the balance is paid in a timely fashion, the $99 security deposit is returned and the credit limit might be increased. The annual percentage rate charged on this card would be 21.24%, higher than the average interest rate of 18.1%.  

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said "banking products aimed at illegal immigrants reinforce the need for a temporary worker program that the Bush administration has been promoting. That program would screen, tax and otherwise regulate immigrant workers and, the administration contends, would squeeze out illegal workers who now use forged or stolen documents to get jobs, driver’s licenses and occasionally credit."  

At this time Bank of America hasn’t launched an ad campaign for the new cards. They are relying on word of mouth to pass the message along, starting with their employees at each banking center.  

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The Chicago Tribune reports that researchers at the University of Michigan are conducting a study comparing immigrant populations in this country with people in their places of origin in order to isolate environmental factors that contribute to cancer.  

While a particularly deadly form of inflammatory breast cancer makes up 10 percent of breast cancer cases in North Africa, it constitutes only about 1 percent in the United States . The University of Michigan School of Public Health is hoping that by comparing immigrants to people in their native lands they might be able to find out whether this anomaly is because of genetics, lifestyle or environmental differences.

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