Alabama school superintendent makes headlines asking for donations in exchange for early release
Eddie Tyler Superintendent of Baldwin County Public Schools has made headlines for a series of emails he sent last year to teachers and staff soliciting charity donations, and incentivizing contributions with early release from school. A series of Nov. 2017 emails were obtained by the Independent Press Journal (IPJ) from a source within Baldwin County Public Schools who wishes to remain anonymous. The emails were sent from Baldwin County Board of Education (BCBE) to all teachers and staff within their school district. According to IPJ, the emails begin with Executive Director of the United Way of Baldwin County, Inc. (UWBC) Marina Simpson pressing Tyler for more donations. On Nov. 27, Simpson said: “Unfortunately, the campaign dropped this year to 78,448.92… this number includes a combination payroll deduction, one-time donations made by BCBE employees, and any student campaigns that were held (we only have a few schools that do student campaigns).” Two days later, Tyler emailed all teachers and staff within the Baldwin County school district requesting donations to the UWBC, all the while incentivizing donations with early release from school: “we value our continuing partnership with Marina Simpson …. If our contributions meet or exceed $90K, the system will release students at 11:30 and ALL teachers at 1:00 the Friday before Christmas holidays 12/15/2017. If we as a system reach or exceed $100K, we will have a second early release day the Friday before Mardi Gras.” Tyler requested donations again on Dec. 6. “Time is running out. To make a decision about the early release, giving will be tallied at the end of the school day this coming Friday.” Tyler’s quid pro quo requests are nothing new While news of Tyler’s requests have just surfaced, he’s apparently made a practice of collecting funds on behalf of the UWBC and “rewarding” schools with early release for years. A youtube video from Nov. 2016 shows Tyler introducing Simpson who announced the school system has reached their goal of $75,000 donations, and thus have been “awarded” early release. Ethical issues According to IPJ, many Baldwin County teachers feel pressured to give, or else risk their reputation. A teacher told IPJ that BCBE officials place pledge cards and donation information in their mailboxes, and if staff don’t fill it out, then they are treated differently. “We’re pressured until we finally just do it to get them off our backs,” said a teacher. Sources also report that when teachers have not donated or filled-out their pledge cards for UWBC in the past, school officials have allowed a UWBC representative named Lana Mummah to come into the school and talk those teachers into donating. Lana Mummah is married to Ken Mummah, who is a former BCBE official. The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) has yet to respond to Alabama Today’s request for comment.
Roy Moore’s charity management calls his “fiscal responsibility” into question
Roy Moore is pitching himself as the fiscally conservative candidate in the special senate election, but the public facts and figures of his charity paints a different picture. Moore, the former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice, has been associated with the Foundation for Moral Law (FML) for years, and anyone who has taken a gander at the charity’s ledger would be justified in questioning him when he touts his “fiscal responsibility.” FML has run a deficit for six of the past seven years, which peaked at over $400,000 in 2011, one of the many years Moore served as its president. While charities aren’t supposed to be in the business of making money, Alabama voters have reason to pause over the the fact Moore ran FML into the red while simultaneously pulling out a million bucks in donated money to pay his and his wife’s salaries for working only 20 hours a week. Surely Moore could have taken a pay cut to keep the charity’s finances in order, but his exorbitant pay on the backs of hardworking people who thought they were funding a Christian organization is just one of many examples of his money foibles. Take the charity’s office building in downtown Montgomery, for instance. That cost FML $445,130, not to mention the hundreds of thousands in renovations. Seriously, these renovation receipts are about as un-Alabama as it can get. Among the questionable expenditures that are raising eyebrows $16,000 for drapes, $1,812 on credenzas, and a clock for two grand. These are while the charity was running a deficit. The voters will have a say in a few weeks and they need to make it with hard and fast facts not slogans. Roy Moore may be saying he’s a real fiscal conservative but his drapes and debt says otherwise.
Anonymous Alabama man donates $6,000 in change to Summer Fund & Food Drive
Summer Fund and Food Drive to benefit the Montgomery Area Food Bank received a surprising $6,000 donation from an anonymous Alabama man on Friday. According to WSFA 12 News the man drove up during the Friday event and “dropped off four boxes and two buckets, got back into his truck and drove away.” When event officials began sorting the boxes they realized they were not filled with food, but rather coins including gold dollars, totaling a whopping $6,022.15. While the event’s sponsors are unsure of who the man was, they told WFSA 12 they would love to thank him for his generosity. The annual event is a partnership between WSFA 12 News and the Montgomery Area Food Bank benefitting the food bank, which according to its website is a ” non-profit, doing everything possible to combat hunger and food insecurity in 35 of Alabama’s 67 counties through a framework of philanthropic, logistic and educational programs.”
Trump family drops access offered for charity donations
Donald Trump‘s children may see his move to the White House as a way to raise money for their favorite causes. Two recent fundraising pitches featuring the incoming first family were meant to benefit charities, but they also raised questions among ethics experts that the Trumps might be inappropriately selling access. Last week, Eric Trump tried auctioning a coffee date with his sister Ivanka to raise money for a children’s hospital. Now, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. are part of a venture that initially offered a private reception with their father during inauguration weekend in exchange for $1 million donations that would go to conservation charities. Some of those contributors could later go hunting or fishing with one or both of the sons, the invitation promised. These events are dissolving as quickly as they become public, suggesting the family is learning on the fly what’s acceptable. Trump aides say the Trump family has been focused on resolving the perception of conflicts when it comes to Trump’s business; how to handle their charitable endeavors has been a secondary concern. But in light of recent events, the Trump team is looking more quickly for solutions, said a Trump transition official, speaking on condition of anonymity to share internal discussions. Eric Trump canceled the coffee with Ivanka after The New York Times reported that some of the bidders were doing so to gain insight about the Trump administration. Hope Hicks, a Trump spokeswoman, said the hunting and fishing events reflected “initial concepts that have not been approved or pursued by the Trump family.” She added that the sons “are not involved in any capacity. Additionally, the president-elect is not aware of the event or the details pertaining to it.” The two previous presidents, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, expressly forbade immediate family members from such fundraising activities to avoid the appearance of selling access. “We kept it simple. We did not allow the first family to be auctioned off, which is what is happening here,” said Norman Eisen, who served as White House chief ethics counselor as Obama took office in 2009. Richard Painter, who filled a similar role for Bush, said the White House “strongly discouraged” the president, his family and top aides from fundraising for charities, and avoided altogether charity fundraising that came with any access to those people. Both said that while there’s nothing explicitly illegal about the charity fundraising, it diverges from the best practices of previous White House administrations. In an invitation that began circulating last week when the entertainment site TMZ posted it, Eric and Donald Trump Jr. were listed as honorary co-chairmen for a group seeking up to $1 million donations for a Jan. 21 inauguration event dubbed “Opening Day.” Top donors could enjoy other perks such as a “private reception and photo opportunity for 16 guests with President Donald J. Trump” and “a multi-day hunting and/or fishing excursion for 4 guests with Donald Trump Jr. and/or Eric Trump and team,” according to the invitation. A few days before the invitation went out, a new nonprofit called Opening Day Foundation was registered in Texas. Paperwork filed with the state lists the two adult Trump sons and their Texas-based friends Gentry Beach and Tom Hicks Jr. as the nonprofit’s directors. The documents were first reported by the Center for Public Integrity. But Eric and Donald Trump Jr. had no idea they were named in the new nonprofit and have asked the Texas secretary of state to amend the filing to delete them, according to the Trump transition official. Mark Brinkerhoff, a spokesman for the event planners, also said Tuesday that the Trump sons should not have been listed as directors of the nonprofit. On Tuesday, the inauguration venture put out a new invitation, which stripped out all references of access to the incoming president and his immediate family, although Eric and Donald Trump Jr. remain listed as honorary co-chairmen. The $1 million donors can attend a private reception “with VIPs and celebrities associated with the event,” the invitation now says. And in place of the Eric and Donald Trump Jr. hunting and fishing trip, there’s more generic mention of a “multi-day excursion for four guests.” The walk-back follows a turnabout on the Ivanka Trump coffee after the Times report last week. “Today, the only people who lost are the children of St. Jude,” Eric Trump said after canceling the fundraiser for the children’s hospital. Painter and Eisen – the former White House counselors, who have been critical of Trump’s business entanglements and failure to publicly address them so far – said part of the problem with these charity fundraisers is that the president-elect has yet to explain which of his family members will be involved in the government and which will stay at the helm of his international business empire. They praised the Trumps for making quick adjustments after seeing bad press about the fundraising but said that doesn’t eliminate the need for Trump to develop and follow hard-and-fast rules as previous presidents did. “How many times are they going to have to stub their toe?” Eisen said. “If you continually have to reverse course and improvise, what is the point at which it becomes a sign of recklessness instead of willingness to do good will?” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Donald Trump’s charity admits violating IRS’ self-dealing ban
President-elect Donald Trump‘s charity has admitted that it violated IRS regulations barring it from using its money or assets to benefit Trump, his family, his companies or substantial contributors to the foundation. According to a 2015 tax return posted on the nonprofit monitoring website GuideStar, the Donald J. Trump Foundation acknowledged that it used money or assets in violation of the regulations not only during 2015, but in prior years. The tax filing, first reported Tuesday by The Washington Post, doesn’t provide details on the violations. The filing’s release comes as the New York attorney general’s office investigates whether Trump personally benefited from the foundation’s spending, including several purchases detailed in reports by The Post. Questions sent via email to Trump’s transition team weren’t immediately answered Tuesday. The foundation’s admission in the tax filing isn’t the first time it has run afoul of laws and regulations governing charitable organizations. In October, the office of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a Democrat, ordered the foundation to stop soliciting donations after it was discovered that the charity had been accepting outside contributions without the proper New York state registration. The foundation also gave an improper $25,000 check to a political committee supporting Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi in 2013. Charities are barred from engaging in political activities, and the president-elect’s staff says the check he signed was mistakenly issued following a series of inexplicable clerical errors. Earlier this year, the Trump Foundation paid a $2,500 fine to the IRS over the check. Trump had intended to use personal funds to support Bondi’s re-election, his campaign said. At the time, Bondi’s office was fielding media questions about whether she would follow the lead of Schneiderman, who had filed a lawsuit against Trump University and Trump Institute. Scores of former students say they were scammed by Trump’s namesake get-rich-quick seminars in real estate. Bondi, who the AP reported in June personally solicited the $25,000 check from Trump, took no action against Trump University. Trump last week settled three lawsuits over Trump University days before the scheduled start of a fraud trial in California, agreeing to pay out $25 million with no admission of wrongdoing. Bondi, meanwhile, met with Trump in Manhattan last week and appears to be under consideration for an appointment in the Trump administration. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Bill Clinton defends his foundation amid intense scrutiny
Bill Clinton delivered an emotional defense of his family’s charitable foundation Wednesday, applauding contributors for having “validated hope and possibilities.” The former president spoke at the close of the final meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative, an arm of the broader Clinton Foundation. The annual CGI gathering in New York has brought together an unusual blend of political leaders, philanthropists and celebrities, with participants expected to make specific commitments for projects around the world. This week’s event was held under a cloud of election year questions fueled by Donald Trump, who is locked in a close race against Hillary Clinton. The Republican has accused the Clintons of using their charity to enrich themselves and to give foundation donors greater access to Hillary Clinton as secretary of state. Bill Clinton did not directly address those accusations Wednesday, but aides said he viewed his hour-long address touting CGI’s work as an implicit rebuke to critics. He said the initiative had marked a “profound advance” in global philanthropic efforts and had helped 435 million people in 180 countries. Clinton spent much of his address recalling specific people who have been helped by CGI commitments, including making life-saving drugs more widely available and expanding access to clean drinking water. Clinton has pledged to step down from the foundation’s board if his wife is elected president, a decision he says is as painful as a root canal. He’s ending CGI regardless of the outcome of the election. Trump’s campaign renewed its criticism ahead of the former president’s speech, saying the Clinton Foundation presents “an unprecedented conflict of interest that would badly compromise a Hillary Clinton White House.” The Associated Press found that more than half the people outside the government who met or spoke by telephone with Hillary Clinton while she was secretary of state had given money – either personally or through companies or groups – to the Clinton Foundation. The AP’s analysis focused on people with private interests and excluded her meetings or calls with U.S. federal employees or foreign government representatives. AP’s report was based on Clinton’s formal calendars and daily schedules, the latter of which covered only about half her tenure as secretary. The AP sued the State Department in federal court to obtain the detailed schedules, and the State Department so far has only released half of them. Trump’s own charitable foundation has also faced scrutiny. The Washington Post reported this week that Trump spent more than a quarter-million dollars from the foundation to settle lawsuits that involved his for-profit businesses. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Our deepest condolences to Fox News’ Mary Katharine Ham
The world said goodbye to one of the good guys Saturday. 34 year old White House staffer, Jake Brewer, died after suffering fatal injuries in a head-on collision after he rode his bike off of the track during the Ride to Conquer Cancer charity fundraiser bike race, where he was cycling to raise money for a friend who has cancer. His death was announced Sunday morning in a heart-breaking, heartfelt Instagram post by his wife, Montgomery native and frequent Fox News guest and conservative commentator, Mary Katharine Ham: We lost our Jake yesterday, and I lost part of my heart and the father of my sweet babies. I don’t have to tell most of you how wonderful he was. It was self-evident. His life was his testimony, and it was powerful and tender and fierce, with an ever-present twinkle in the eye. I will miss him forever, even more than I can know right now. No arms can be her father’s, but my daughter is surrounded by her very favorite people and all the hugs she could imagine. This will change us, but with prayer and love and the strength that is their companion, we can hope our heartache is not in vain– that it will change us and the world in beautiful ways, just as he did. If that sounds too optimistic at this time, it’s because it is. But there was no thought too optimistic for Jake, so take it and run with it. I will strive and pray not to feel I was cheated of many years with him, but cherish the gift of the years I had. In a life where nothing is guaranteed, Jake made the absolute, ever-lovin’ most of his time with all of us. This is a family picture we took a couple weeks ago. It was taken because Jake, as always, was ready with a camera and his immense talent. All four members of our little, growing family are in it. I can never be without him because these babies are half him. They are made of some of the strongest, kindest stuff God had to offer this world. Please pray that he can see us and we’ll all make him proud. God, I love him. Psalm 34:18, Philippians 1:3 Jacob – known as “Jake” – was a senior policy advisor to President Barack Obama in the Office of Science and Technology Policy and had previously worked as the director of external affairs at Change.org. On Sunday, President Obama offered his condolences in a statement, calling Brewer “one of the best”: I am heartbroken at the tragic loss of one of my advisors, Jake Brewer. We set out to recruit the best of the best to join their government and help us harness the power of technology and data to innovate new solutions for the 21st century. Simply put, Jake was one of the best. Armed with a brilliant mind, a big heart, and an insatiable desire to give back, Jake devoted his life to empowering people and making government work better for them. He worked to give citizens a louder voice in our society. He engaged our striving immigrants. He pushed for more transparency in our democracy. And he sought to expand opportunity for all. I’ve often said that today’s younger generation is smarter, more determined, and more capable of making a difference than I was as a young man. Jake was proof of that. Michelle and I are praying for all of Jake’s family and his many friends, most of all his wife, Mary Katharine Ham, their daughter, Georgia, and their growing family. They’ll always have a family here at the White House. “The pain and shock is devastating. Jake leaves behind an adoring wife, Mary Katharine, a beautiful toddler, Georgia, and another baby on the way,” read a GoFundMe fundraiser page set up by friends of Mary Katharine in order to help provide for their children as they grow up. She has also asked that people donate to The Travis Manion Foundation, which supports families of fallen U.S. servicemen. In approximately 26 hours, the page reached its $200,000 goal. According to Allahpundit at Hotair.com, at Mary Katharine’s insistence, funds in “excess above and beyond what’s needed for the care and education of the children will be donated to charity. That’s what kind of person she is. At a moment of supreme horror and panic, she thought of how she might do some good for others too.”
Proof of Donald Trump’s charity giving elusive
Donald Trump, widely believed to the be the wealthiest American ever to run for president, is nowhere among the ranks of the country’s most generous citizens, according to an Associated Press review of his financial records and other government filings. Trump has said he donated $102 million worth of cash and land to philanthropic and conservation organizations over the past five years. But his campaign has provided little documentation for most of these contributions, and tax filings of the Donald J. Trump foundation show Trump has made no charitable contributions to his own namesake nonprofit since 2008. Without an endowment, the fund has continued to give grants only as a result of contributions from others. Even the $102 million would not impress the wealthy elite whom Trump counts as his peers. Billionaires like Michael Bloomberg, George Lucas and Warren Buffett have both given far more and pledged to donate most of their wealth to charity during their lifetimes. It is possible that Trump has been donating money anonymously through avenues other than his foundation, whose tax records the AP reviewed. But pressed by the AP on the details of his contributions, Trump campaign spokeswoman Hope Hicks provided a partial list of donations that appeared to correspond with the foundation’s gifts – indicating that Trump may be counting other people’s charitable giving as his own. “I give to hundreds of charities and people in need of help,” Trump said in an emailed response to questions from the AP about how he tallied his own philanthropy. “It is one of the things I most like doing and one of the great reasons to have made a lot of money.” The Trump campaign did not respond to a request that it identify donations that Trump himself gave. Trump has not released his own tax records even though some other presidential candidates have disclosed theirs. Such documents would likely provide a clearer picture of his giving. Actual cash donations account for only around a tenth of the $102 million Trump says he has given in the last five years. Most of the total comes from land-related transactions. One major land donation from Trump earlier this year may result in a significant tax deduction for Trump for continuing to operate a commercial golf driving range. Trump announced in January he was providing a land conservancy in Rancho Palos Verdes, California, with a legal promise never to develop 16 luxury homes on what is now the driving range of the Trump National Golf Course Los Angeles. But city planning documents indicate Trump had no plans to use the land for anything other but a driving range – which he will continue to do under the terms of the easement. A possible multimillion dollar beneficiary of Trump’s gift: Donald Trump. Easements – contractual limitations which formally devalue the land, even if they require no changes in its use or ownership – provide an avenue for federal tax write-offs. By committing to use his driving range as a driving range, Trump is likely entitled to a sizable tax deduction, said Dean Zerbe, a tax attorney for Alliant Group of Houston and who previously headed an investigation into easement write-offs for the Senate Finance Committee. “It’s shocking how much you see in the way of golf easements,” he said. “Are we comfortable that this is something we want to subsidize with tax policy? Trump’s foundation began in 1987 and exists to donate money to other charities. It has no staff, and its annual IRS filings have regularly listed Trump’s average time spent on it as “minimal” or zero hours a week. The foundation has given out $3.6 million between 2011 and 2013, the most recent year in which its finances are available. The overwhelming majority of its recent gifts have been made with other people’s money. NBC Universal, World Wrestling Entertainment and high-end, sporting and entertainment event ticket-reseller Richard Ebers are among the largest donors; Trump made his last significant donation, of $30,000, in 2008. Until late last year, Trump was described as an “ardent philanthropist” in a biography posted to the Trump Organization’s website. That language has since been removed. As with Trump’s politics, his donations do not fit neatly within traditional ideological lines: In 2012, he donated to the Gay Men’s Health Crisis – founded by gay rights activist Larry Kramer – and the Billy Graham Evangelical Association, which decries the influence of the “gay lobby” and offers support to people pushing loved ones to “seek freedom from homosexuality.” A sizable portion of Trump’s giving appears to be geared toward charities prominently affiliated with celebrities or politicians. Trump has given to the Ronald Reagan Foundation and the Clinton Foundation, and has made donations to charities associated with former major league baseball manager Joe Torre, television personality Larry King and professional golf legend Arnold Palmer. Some celebrity-backed charities have pitched controversial causes. In 2010, Trump’s foundation gave $10,000 to Generation Rescue, a nonprofit run by Jenny McCarthy to champion the widely discredited theory that vaccines cause autism. Trump also gave $1,000 to the New York Rescue Workers Detoxification Project, an organization confounded by Tom Cruise that offered free Scientology-based cleansing to rescue workers after the 2001 terror attacks. Trump’s tax returns would provide clearer information about any philanthropy he listed as deductible. In 2011, he indicated he might release his own tax returns when President Barack Obama released his birth certificate, something the president subsequently did. Trump took credit for pressuring Obama to release the document but did not release his tax records, promising he would do so at an appropriate time. Such returns could potentially shed light on the nature of some of Trump’s noncash gifts, such as his donation of the easement on his Rancho Palos Verdes golf course. Trump’s gift is to the local land conservancy, which maintains green space and undeveloped coastline owned by city of Rancho Palos Verdes. Trump’s relationship with the city itself has been rocky. After years of battling with
