• May 19, 2013

May 16, 2013, 10:19 am

Cambodia Seeks Return of More Antiquities From U.S. Museums

Encouraged by their success in securing the return of two ancient statues from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cambodian officials are pressing other U.S. museums to return antiquities allegedly looted from a thousand-year-old temple, writes The New York Times.

The Southeast Asian country says the Denver Art Museum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, and the Norton Simon Museum in Southern California have statues connected to the Prasat Chen complex. All were acquired after 1970, when the United Nations adopted a convention on the illicit antiquities. The Met agreed to relinquish the two statues last month after obtaining convincing evidence that they had been stolen.

Experts say the Met’s decision could put pressure on the other three institutions to review the provenance of their statues.

May 16, 2013, 10:10 am

Obituary: Thomas M. Messer, Longtime Guggenheim Museum Head

Thomas M. Messer, who gave the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum cachet and an international presence during 27 years as director, died Wednesday at age 93 at his home in Manhattan, writes The New York Times.

A native of the former Czechoslovakia who emigrated to the United States in 1939, Mr. Messer took over leadership of the Guggenheim in 1961, two years after it moved into its spiraling, Frank Lloyd Wright-designed building. He was named head of the Guggenheim Foundation in 1980 and served in both positions until his retirement in 1988.

During Mr. Messer’s tenure the museum acquired two mostly modernist collections that have become cornerstones of its holdings and made its first international expansion, to Venice. It has since opened outposts in Bilbao and Berlin and is building another in Abu Dhabi.

May 15, 2013, 11:08 am

FBI Opens Criminal Probe of IRS Screening Procedures

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that he has ordered the FBI to investigate whether the Internal Revenue Service’s heightened scrutiny of conservative organizations applying for nonprofit status broke any laws, Reuters and The Washington Post report.

Also on Tuesday, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration issued a report castigating the tax agency’s office of exempt organizations for poor management, organizational disarray, and using “inappropriate criteria” in screening advocacy groups seeking 501(c)(4) designations. Auditors dismissed IRS officials’ explanation that agents turned to the use of keywords such as “Tea Party” and “patriot” in an effort to identify overtly political groups when facing a huge increase in requests for 501(c)(4) status.

Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller wrote in a column published Tuesday in USA Today that the agency…

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May 15, 2013, 11:07 am

Opinion: Politicization of Nonprofits the Real IRS Scandal

The “faux controversy” over Internal Revenue Service scrutiny of conservative groups masks the “genuine scandals” in the tax agency’s lax oversight of politically oriented social-welfare organizations, a Los Angeles Times columnist says.

“Political organizations are being allowed to masquerade as charities to avoid taxes and keep their donors secret, and the IRS has allowed them to do this for years,” Michael Hiltzik writes. He says the tax agency’s questioning of such groups’ activities and funding sources is appropriate and has been applied to non-conservative entities as well.

“The biggest laugh line uttered in this affair is that the IRS is somehow ‘harassing’ these public-spirited organizations by asking them to justify their status,” Hiltzik writes. “Here’s a good rule of thumb: You don’t want to get harassed by the IRS? Then don’t claim a tax exemption you may not deserve.”

May 15, 2013, 11:07 am

Tex. Lawmakers Pass Disclosure Bill for Political Nonprofits

The Texas House approved legislation Tuesday that would require politically active 501(c)(4) organizations to publicly identify major donors and disclose their spending on campaign activities, Texas Public Radio and the Associated Press report.

The 95-52 vote follows passage in the Senate, where the bill originated, and sends the measure to Gov. Rick Perry, who has not indicated whether he will sign it. It mandates that organizations that spend more than $25,000 on political activities disclose contributors of $1,000 or more.

The bill is sponsored by Republican House and Senate members, but conservative groups have mounted a social-media campaign urging a veto, saying it would violate donors’ free-speech rights and subject them to political intimidation.

May 15, 2013, 11:07 am

Rap Star, Music Mogul Team Up on $70-Million USC Gift

Hip-hop star Dr. Dre and music executive Jimmy Iovine are donating $70-million to the University of Southern California for a new center to prepare students to break into a rapidly changing entertainment industry, writes the Los Angeles Times.

USC’s Jimmy Iovine and Andre Young Academy for Arts, Technology, and the Business of Innovation will open in the fall of 2014 with an initial class of 25 students. (Dr. Dre is Andre Young’s stage name.) The donors are set to announce the gift Wednesday.

The money will pay for construction of facilities for the academy and development of a four-year program designed to foster entrepreneurship that incorporates skills in entertainment as well as business and technology.

May 15, 2013, 11:07 am

Alleged $15-Million S.F. Schools Scam Involves 3 Nonprofits

Six current and former staffers with the San Francisco school district, including a former associate superintendent, were charged Tuesday with using nonprofit organizations to siphon $15-million in grant money, the Associated Press reports.

The suspects face counts of embezzlement and grand theft in what prosecutors allege was a 10-year scheme to divert federal and state grants for the school district into hidden accounts via three nonprofit contractors. The six individuals were expected to turn themselves in Wednesday.

Nearly half the money went for educational purposes different from those intended in the grants, and about $750,000 was used by the employees for personal expenses and unauthorized salaries and bonuses, according to prosecutors and school officials. Two of the nonprofits involved have returned more than $4-million in connection with the case, San Francisco District …

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May 15, 2013, 11:06 am

Feinberg Becomes ‘Essential Man’ in Wave of Tragedies

A New York Times profile describes Kenneth Feinberg, the Washington attorney who has become the go-to arbiter for disbursing multimillion-dollar funds for victims of national tragedies, as the “essential man” when disaster strikes. Mr. Feinberg, who has been tapped to run compensation funds for victims and their families in connection with 9/11, the BP oil spill, and mass shootings at Virginia Tech and in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., presided Monday and Tuesday over public meetings with victims of the Boston Marathon bombings, where he explained his plans for distributing the $30-million One Fund Boston.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino’s office said the fund has been granted 501(c)(3) charity status, clearing the way for it to take charge of money donated by individuals and corporations, reports The Boston Globe. The money is expected to be distributed by June 30.

May 15, 2013, 11:06 am

$610,000 for Coffee with Apple CEO Ties Auction Site’s Record

An anonymous bidder won a coffee date with Apple chief executive Tim Cook by pledging $610,000 to charity, matching the biggest donation ever through online-auction site Charitybuzz, CNN and tech-news site CNET write.

The winning offer, which came in minutes before the action closed Tuesday, will benefit the Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights. Charitybuzz valued the 30- to 60-minute meeting with Mr. Cook at $50,000 when the bidding opened three weeks ago.

The fundraising site also secured $610,000 last month in an auction for a Lamborghini Aventador. Billionaire investor philanthropist Warren Buffett’s annual eBay auction of a steakhouse lunch to benefit charity raised $3.46-million last year.

May 14, 2013, 10:29 am

IRS Officials Knew of Scrutiny of Tea Party Groups, Documents Suggest

Internal Revenue Service staffers in Washington were involved in heightened scrutiny of conservative groups seeking nonprofit status, and the tax agency’s two top officials knew of the matter a year ago, The Washington Post reports.

The newspaper reports that it obtained documents showing that the examination of organizations with “Tea Party,” “patriot,” or other keywords in their names went beyond the Cincinnati IRS office that was initially blamed for the approach, which President Obama denounced Monday as “outrageous.”

Then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman and his deputy, Steven Miller—now the agency’s acting head—learned of the heightened scrutiny in May 2012, according to Republican congressional aides who had been briefed by the IRS and federal investigators.

Campaign-finance watchdog groups that have pressed the IRS to more closely regulate political activity by…

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