The businessman and philanthropist Jeffry M. Picower and his wife, Barbara, have filed a 68-page response in court denying allegations that they bear some responsibility for the investment scandal involving Bernard Madoff, The Wall Street Journal reports.

William Zabel, a lawyer for the Picowers, said in a statement Friday that his clients “are honorable people who were deceived” by Mr. Madoff, the paper reports. He said the lawsuit against them was “riddled with significant factual errors,” and that his clients were to close their foundation as a result of their financial losses.

For more on the lawsuit and efforts by the trustee in the Madoff case to seek the return of lost investment money, read The Chronicle’s coverage.

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Teach for America’s success in attracting recent college graduates to inner-city classrooms is generating a backlash among teachers’ organizations, according to USA Today.

Critics contend the nonprofit effort encourages urban school districts to replace experienced educators with neophytes who usually move on to other work after doing their two-year Teach for America stint. “I don’t think you’ll find a city that isn’t laying off people to accommodate” the organization, said Richard Stutman, president of the Boston Teachers Union.

Teach for America spokeswoman Kerci Marcello Stroud says the program is “just one source” for urban teachers and that its recruits must interview for jobs just like traditional applicants. The organization will place 7,300 teachers this year, up from 6,200 in 2008, and is expanding its reach from 29 to 35 metropolitan areas.

Research that shows wealthy people are maintaining their giving during the recession and younger donors are becoming more active does not necessarily bode well for religious nonprofit groups, Reuters reports on its FaithWorld blog.

The recent Barclays Wealth report on giving by high earners states that arts and religious organizations face an uncertain future, with big donors telling the wealth-management house that “these causes had become less important to them over the past 10 years.” The report predicts a 16-percent drop in contributions for religious charities, while giving for health care, the environment, and children is expected to rise markedly.

Baltimore Symphony Orchestra musicians have agreed to extend pay cuts and furloughs they voluntarily took three months ago, further reducing the cuts in their wages for the 2009-10 season from 5.7 percent to 12.5 percent, The Washington Post reports.

The orchestra has reduced spending by 13 percent this year after being hit with a 21 percent decline in the value of its endowment and a similar drop in revenue from single-ticket sales.

In other arts news, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will end its four-decades-old weekend cinema series in October, according to the Los Angeles Times. Museum officials said the program has lost $1-million in the past decade and they want to rethink the institution’s approach to film.

Also, the Times says that the San Diego Museum has acquired a major collection of works from Africa, Oceania, and the Americas from the Sana Art Foundation.

And

Muhammad Yunus, whose nonprofit Grameen Bank pioneered the practice of micro-lending to benefit small businesses in the developing world, and Nancy Brinker, who founded the Susan G. Komen for the Cure charity for breast-cancer research, are two recipients of President Obama’s first Presidential Medal of Freedom awards, says the White House in a news release.

Also among the 16 people who will receive the nation’s highest civilian honor is Pedro José Greer, Jr., a Miami physician who is founder of two organizations that provide medical care for disadvantaged people and a former winner of a MacArthur “genius grant.” The awards will be given on August 12.

The death this month of Steve McNair, the former NFL quarterback, could put an end to the work of his charity, which has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for hurricane relief, football camps for at-risk teenagers, and other causes, reports the Associated Press.

Don Weatherall, who helped Mr. McNair run the organization, said it is too soon to tell whether the group can continue. Police said Mr. McNair was fatally shot July 4 in Nashville by his mistress, who then killed herself.

A Wall Street Journal column contends the Obama administration wants to effectively “nationalize” rural giving by guiding nonprofit groups into select areas.

David J. Sanders, a columnist for Stephens Media, in Little Rock, Ark., said White House efforts dominated the agenda at the recent Council of Foundations conference on rural philanthropy in the Arkansas capital. Sessions included instruction on how to tap federal stimulus funds to promote sustainable energy, broadband Internet access, and other priorities for the administration.

“The government’s rural strategy seems to be based on the idea that rural America can be bought or, at least, bribed,” Mr. Sanders writes.

The Corporation for National and Community Service would receive about $1.15-billion, approximately the amount that President Obama requested for the agency in his proposed budget for 2010, in a bill that the Senate Appropriations Committee passed on Thursday, reports The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Government and Politics Watch blog.

Among the noteworthy items today in the Chronicle’s digest of nonprofit blogs:

• Eight signs that an arts organization isn’t ready to start a blog.

• The difference between a “high-performing” and a “high-impact” nonprofit group.

• Why don’t more charities ultimately aim to put themselves out of business?

• Resources for nonprofit groups that want to put technology to use for their cause.

• Why Planned Parenthood has been successful in using social media to advance its mission.

Wealth-screening services can leave fund raisers with a welcome but still challenging task of how to prioritize a list of too many potential donors, speakers told participants in Boston at APRA’s annual conference for prospect researchers, notes Prospecting, the Chronicle’s online column.

Plus:

• How to seek potential donors in a wide range of industries.

• Crafting winning appeals: Making a postcard pitch work.