Jefferson County leaders find bond market `very forgiving’ five years after bankruptcy
For localities worried about facing big bond-market penalties if they go bankrupt, consider Jefferson County. The county of 659,000 people – once the largest municipality to ever seek bankruptcy protection – has sold debt several times since emerging from court protection in 2013. Carrying an investment-grade rating of AA- in May, the county completed a refinancing of its general-obligation debt by paying yields of 2.86 percent on bonds due in 2026, just about half a percentage point above top-rated debt. “We were told our children would be destined to poverty, you were going to be the hole in the donut, you will never recuperate,” County Commissioner David Carrington said. He said the county’s bond deals have even seen strong demand from investors. “The markets are very forgiving if you have results.” Municipal-bond market analysts – and even investor Warren Buffett – have long worried that the fading stigma of bankruptcy could embolden more local governments to petition the court to cut their debts. But despite a few municipal bankruptcies in the wake of the last recession, there’s been little sign that more will follow suit. No city or town has filed for bankruptcy protection since Hillview, Kentucky, did in 2015 as a result of an adverse ruling in a contract dispute that it couldn’t afford to pay. Rather than let its capital go bankrupt, debt-strapped Connecticut agreed to pay off some of Hartford’s debts instead. While Jefferson County has gotten market access and its investment-grade rating back, the process was far from painless. Contending at the same time with revenue lost when a court struck down a key tax, it fired 1,300 employees, put off roadwork and shuttered inpatient services at its hospital that cared for the poor. To exit bankruptcy, officials agreed to raise sewer rates 8 percent annually through October 2018, followed by yearly jumps of 3.5 percent until 2053. Creditors, including JPMorgan Chase & Co., forgave $1.4 billion of debt. “You have to get to that point where there is no other alternative,” Carrington said. He said he’s been contacted by elected officials who are considering bankruptcy and has told them there is a “huge” financial burden. He said it cost the county about $1 million per month during the two years it took to get through the bankruptcy process. “Do you have the political will as a governing body to make the decisions you’re going to have to make?” he asked. Detroit, which followed Jefferson County with a bankruptcy filing in 2013, exited state financial oversight this year but still hasn’t returned to the bond market on its own. Mammoth Lakes, California, which sought bankruptcy protection in 2012 after a fight with a real estate developer, sold $24 million in investment-grade bonds in October 2017 that priced at a top yield of 4.47 percent in 2035, more than 1.8 percentage points above top-rated debt. In the years since the bankruptcy, the town has cut expenses and grown its revenues, S&P Global Ratings said. Local bankruptcies have been deterred because of the barriers to filing and the improving economy, said Henry Kevane, managing partner at law firm Pachulski Stang Ziehl & Jones LLP that specializes in such cases. Some states, including Illinois, don’t allow municipalities to file for Chapter 9, and others require permission from the governor. Still, municipalities face financial pressure points, he said. State and local governments’ unfunded pension liabilities stand at around $1.8 trillion, according to Federal Reserve data, which will require them to boost their payments into retirement funds. “Municipalities still have colossal post-employment obligations that aren’t going anywhere,” Kevane said. “I still see that becoming a real problem.” Republished with the permission of the Alabama Newscenter.
Twinkies are riding American millennials’ healthy-eating trend; no, really
Healthy eating has become an obsession. Soft-drink sales are slumping, salt is getting tossed from food, and kale is on the menu at McDonald’s. And yet the Twinkie, that icon of indulgence, is on a tear. For many otherwise healthy-eating American millennials, Twinkies have become food nostalgia. Nine months of forced disappearance from store shelves sharpened appetites for the golden sponge cake filled with fluffy cream, and after two bankruptcies, the 2013 acquisition of the Hostess Brands Inc. snack-cake business by a pair of private equity firms put the company back on the road to solvency. ‘‘For as much as millennials bring us challenges, they also have a belief that you only live once and you should enjoy yourself,” Bill Toler, chief executive officer of the Kansas City, Missouri-based Hostess, said in an interview. “They believe in a license to indulge.” In opinion surveys, Americans rank stealthy eating right up there with healthy. While 75 percent told NPR last year they were eating wholesome food, another report, from the Boston Consulting Group and IRI, found that indulgence was a top food trend, alongside nutrition. Hostess was ranked second among growth leaders for midsize companies, behind Greek yogurt company Chobani. Sweet and salty “Unhealthy products remain popular,” said Krishnakumar Davey, president of strategic analytics at IRI. “The popularity of nutritious snacks is surging, but so are sales of ice cream or salty snacks.” A big beneficiary is Twinkies, Hostess’ golden child. One cake is 130 calories and 14.5 grams of sugar, compared with a Coke that has 140 calories and 39 grams of sugar. Apollo Global Management LLC and C. Dean Metropoulos & Co. bought Hostess for $410 million and hopped on the wave of Twinkie love at just the right moment. Being without Twinkies and other Hostess products like Ho Hos and Ding Dongs in 2012 and 2013 unleashed a wave of sentimentality, driving fans a little bit mad. “My wife ran out and bought eight boxes of Twinkies,” said John Stanton, a professor of food marketing at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia. “Hostess got a shot in the arm by not being there.” The cream-filled sponge cake is such a cultural icon that Yoan Moncada, a Cuban-born baseball prospect for the Chicago White Sox, gobbled as many as 85 of them in a week, according to ESPN The Magazine. Popularity cost Twinkies’ new popularity came at a cost. The Hostess bankruptcy enabled the private equity buyers to start over with a fraction of a workforce that once numbered about 8,000 at several bakeries across the country. Their reconstituted company has 1,350 employees and three baking facilities. Now, one automated production line staffed by 10 employees in Emporia, Kansas, can produce 95 percent of the iconic cakes. Apollo declined to comment. The changes have helped produce some of the best profit margins in the food industry, just shy of what the ruthless cost-cutters of 3G Capital Inc. have posted since taking over Kraft Heinz Foods Co. with the help of Warren Buffett in 2015. Apollo and Metropoulos took Hostess public in November, and shares have jumped 23 percent so far in 2017. Sales surged 13 percent last year. The company has carved out 12 percent of the market for packaged cakes, cutting into the sales of industry leader McKee Foods Corp., the maker of Little Debbie products, according to Euromonitor data. Tweaked recipe Metropoulos, the firm that revitalized Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, tweaked the recipe for Twinkies, doubling the product’s shelf life to about 60 days, according to Toler. The change helped Hostess switch its distribution system to a lower-cost model, and allowed it to ship more products to smaller, more remote stores. About 70 percent of the company’s sales come at a combination of Wal-Mart locations, dollar-store chains and convenience stores — not the typical domain of coastal millennials driving healthy-food trends. “Those customers aren’t as sensitive,” Toler said. Hostess isn’t completely ignoring wellness concerns. Its new whole-grain muffins qualify as “smart snacks” for the federal school food program, and it’s removing trans fats from its products. But a glance at the new products the company rolled out in 2016 makes it plain Hostess is betting on frozen Deep Fried Twinkies and Twinkies ice cream. Dean Metropoulos, founder of the investment firm, recently said Hostess was “absolutely committed to participating as other companies do with the trends of wellness.” That pledge came with a caveat. “But we don’t see that as depriving Americans from having a great ice cream and a great Twinkie,” he said. Contact the reporter at cgiammona@bloomberg.net. Republished with permission of Alabama NewsCenter.
Who are the 8 richest people? All men, mostly Americans
The eight individuals who own as much as half of the rest of the planet are all men, and have largely made their fortunes in technology. Most are American, with one European and one Mexican in the mix. Several have pledged to give it all to charity. The eight tycoons’ net worth, as calculated by Forbes magazine, was cited Monday by anti-poverty activists Oxfam in a report highlighting income inequality. Although most of them will not be joining the annual meeting of business and political elites in the Swiss town of Davos this week, the extraordinary individual wealth they typify will be part of the gathering’s discussions on inequality. Here’s a look at who they are. ___ Bill Gates: $75 billion The man whose name is a byword for billionaire. Gates co-founded Microsoft in the mid-70s, growing it into the world’s biggest software company and helping to make computers a household item. He quit as CEO in 2000 and pledged to devote his fortune to his philanthropic activities in the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. He has gradually reduced his ownership in Microsoft to less than 3 percent, with the bulk of his wealth in a private firm. He’s the only one on the list who’s a regular at Davos. ___ Amancio Ortega: $67 billion The richest person in Europe, Ortega opened the first Zara fashion shop in 1975. Now, the chain, part of Ortega’s Inditex group, has 7,000 shops globally. Its boom in popularity is largely due to a low cost model that competes with the likes of H&M. As Zara and Inditex grew in size, Ortega, a Spaniard, held on to a majority stake of 59 percent in the company, which has a market value of over 97 billion euros ($102 billion). ___ Warren Buffett: $60.8 billion The Oracle of Omaha, as he’s known for the way his every investment decision is followed by thousands. Buffett began investing as a teenager in the 1940s and gradually grew his firm, Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett, 86, is notoriously frugal and favors investing in companies with proven business models over new industries, such as in technology. He’s said he will give away the bulk of his wealth to philanthropy. Since 2006, he’s been donating blocks of Berkshire stock to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ___ Carlos Slim Helu: $50 billion The Mexican tycoon owes his fortune to a major ownership in America Movil, a telecommunications multinational worth $42 billion. He personally owns about 7 percent in the company while his broader family retains a 37 percent stake. He was ranked as the richest person three years ago, but saw his net worth hit by a downturn in Latin American economies. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump‘s threats to scrap free trade deals and build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border have also hurt shares in his business interests. Forbes estimates his net worth dropped $5 billion in the four days after Trump’s election. ___ Jeff Bezos: $45.2 billion The founder and CEO of Amazon.com helped revolutionize the retail industry by popularizing online shopping. What was initially an online book shop now sells pretty much anything. Bezos has reached beyond Amazon, in which he holds a 17 percent stake, to try his hand in other industries. He’s bought the Washington Post and set up an aerospace company, Blue Origin, that aims to make space accessible to tourists and paying customers. ___ Mark Zuckerberg: $44.6 billion He founded Facebook in 2004 while a college student to connect other Harvard students. The company went on to become popular globally and listed its shares publicly in 2012, making Zuckerberg, now 32, a multibillionaire. He’s managed to make Facebook profitable where rivals like Twitter have lagged, and expanded it with targeted acquisitions. He and his wife have pledged to sell 99 percent of their holdings in Facebook — over 400 million shares, worth about $50 billion — to support philanthropic causes. ___ Larry Ellison: $43.6 billion As a young programmer in the ’70s, Ellison’s first big client was the CIA. The name of the project was “Oracle.” In 1977, Ellison and associates used that name for their company, which creates software that helps manage databases and has since become an industry standard. Ellison has recently focused more on cloud computing, in which data is stored and managed across a network of computers. His fortune comes from the 27 percent stake he still owns in Oracle, a company worth $160 billion. ___ Michael Bloomberg: $40 billion Created the eponymous financial information provider in 1981 after getting laid off from an investment bank. Bloomberg made it a lucrative business in particular by selling data terminals to financial services firms. The multi-screen terminals became essential tools in the industry, incorporating real-time market information with a news service. Bloomberg, who reportedly retains an 88 percent stake in the privately held company, turned to politics in 2001, becoming mayor of New York City for three terms. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
Hillary Clinton sets out most efficient path to get to 270
Hillary Clinton doesn’t appear all that interested in making scenic stops on her state-to-state quest to become president. The Democratic nominee is instead programming her GPS to take her on the quickest route to collect the 270 Electoral College votes she needs to win the White House. With three months until Election Day, Clinton’s campaign is focused on capturing the battleground states that have decided the most recent presidential elections, not so much on expanding the map. Clinton’s team doesn’t rule out an effort at Arizona, a state with a booming population of Latino voters that polls find are loath to support Trump. And Georgia, a bastion of the Deep South, echoes recent population trends in other Southeastern states where Clinton is competing aggressively. But neither is among the 11 battleground states that Clinton’s television advertising plans and her travel schedule point to as her focus. Those states are the perennial top-tier targets Florida and Ohio, plus Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin. President Barack Obama carried them all in 2008, and missed out on only North Carolina during his 2012 re-election campaign. “The last two elections have given Democrats an electoral path for victory,” said Clinton campaign adviser John Anzalone. “And our strategy is to efficiently use our resources to lock down the support we need to reach 270 electoral votes.” After a bump in support for Clinton in national polls that followed the Democratic convention and tracked Trump’s recent gaffes, the number of states where Clinton will invest her time and money may get smaller than 11. When the Clinton campaign booked more than $23 million in new television ad time late this past week to start on Monday, it spent most of the money in just three states: Florida, Pennsylvania and Ohio. Feeling good about Colorado and Virginia, the campaign passed on giving those states a fresh injection of ad dollars, though they remain heavily staffed with organizers. Likewise, officials with the pro-Clinton group Priorities USA say they have put its advertising plans there on hold. Meanwhile, Trump’s travel following the Republican convention suggests he’s given up on plans to force Clinton to defend traditional Democratic bastions California and New York. Beyond that, it’s not clear how he plans to chart his course to 270. “I have states that no other Republican would do well in that I think I’m going to win,” Trump told The Washington Post this past week. “But I don’t want to name those states.” Trump’s campaign has yet to run a single television ad and has made curious decisions about where to send its candidate. This past week, for example, Trump spent a day in Portland, Maine, chasing after the single electoral vote at stake along the state’s largely Democratic southern coast. There have been no such distractions for Clinton since the end of her convention, aside from a quick stop in Nebraska, a visit that was probably as much about spending time on stage with billionaire investor Warren Buffett than picking up the one electoral vote in the Omaha area. (Maine and Nebraska are the two states that award electoral votes by congressional district instead of a statewide winner-take-all vote.) This coming week, Clinton will be in Florida. So will Trump. That’s no surprise, as a win there plus victories in every state (and the District of Columbia) that have voted Democratic since 1992 would give Clinton a winning total of 271 electoral votes. Florida Republican consultant Brett Doster said simply of his state: “If we don’t win here, I just don’t see how we win.” Despite the 2016 campaign’s unscripted form, Democrat and Republican pollsters alike said in the past week that Florida is competitive and is expected to stay that way into the fall. The largest share of single-state spending in Clinton’s most recent ad buy came in Florida, at more than $4.2 million, and that, plus an aggressive pursuit of Latino voters, may give her a narrow edge. In Florida’s Orange County, which includes Orlando, the Democratic edge among registered voters has grown by 15 percent since 2008. Since late last year, roughly 1,000 Puerto Rican families a month have relocated to Florida due to the U.S. territory’s fiscal crisis, many of them concentrating in and around Orlando’s heavy service-sector job scene. Bilingual teams of Clinton employees are registering first-time Puerto Rican voters at grocery stores, malls and community centers. Republican pollster Whit Ayres said Trump’s problems in Florida go deeper than his lack of advertising and overwhelmingly unpopular standing among Latinos. He said Trump’s recent criticism of the Muslim family of a fallen U.S. soldier is not likely to sit well in a state with 22 military installations and more than 1.5 million veterans. “The attack on the Gold Star family makes it unlikely for him to expand in Florida beyond where he is right now,” said Ayres, an adviser to Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida. While Trump may not have a path without Florida, Clinton can lose the state and still find another way through the battlegrounds to reach 270. That’s no doubt why from June 8 through Monday, Clinton and Democratic groups supporting her will have outspent Republican groups by 15 to 1 in those states, according to data from Kantar Media’s CMAG political advertising tracker. The Clinton campaign and deep-pocketed Democratic groups such as Priorities USA have poured a combined $66 million into television and radio advertising in those 11 states. Trump’s campaign hasn’t spent a dollar on television advertising, while Republican groups have only spent about $4.3 million. Put simply, Anzalone said, Clinton has options. “But this is a dynamic race and we will continue to look at all pathways as this race develops,” he said. Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
From Homeland to hair: Hillary Clinton emails peek into the personal
The latest release of Hillary Clinton‘s private emails show her, as secretary of state, dealing with the complicated politics of the Arab Spring, fending off questions about her role in the deadly 2012 Benghazi attacks and attempting to navigate an intensifying conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. But they also give a glimpse into the private side of one of the world’s most public people. Clinton’s notes show her searching for videos on how to do a “fishtail bun” hairstyle and struggling to locate Showtime on her television. (She wanted to watch the CIA-centered drama “Homeland.”) She schedules – and reschedules – flights, meals and hairstyling appointments. And as she flies around the globe – logging 956,733 miles over her tenure – she tries to keep track of the time zone. The roughly 7,800 pages of emails released Monday were part of a court-ordered disclosure of correspondence sent from the private server Clinton used while she was secretary of state. Clinton, now the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, has faced questions about whether her unusual email setup was sufficient to ensure the security of government information and retention of records. Included in the most recent batch was an email that Intelligence Community Inspector General I. Charles McCullough III and State Department Inspector General Steve Linick deemed classified in July. At least two Senate committees are still investigating Clinton’s email arrangement and seeking the release of correspondence from her top aides. The FBI is also investigating the security of Clinton’s private email setup. Two-thirds of Clinton’s 30,000 work-related emails are now at least partially in the public eye – minus numerous redactions by the State Department. Here’s a closer look at some of the messages that churned through Clinton’s very busy in-box in the batch released Monday: — HEALTH POLITICS Get-well-soon notes poured in from across the globe after a stomach virus that Clinton picked up in 2012 became a serious condition that kept her out of the office – and off the congressional witness stand. After a dehydrated Clinton fainted and sustained a concussion – a condition she frequently called her “cracked head” in messages – she was forced to postpone her testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee about the deadly Benghazi attacks. Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein emailed her aide, Capricia Marshall, offering to send Clinton copies of any movies she wanted to watch while recuperating. Dorothea Hurley, the wife of rock star Jon Bon Jovi, checked in with Clinton’s daughter, Chelsea, to say that they were “sending you all a big hug.” Chelsea forwarded the message to her mother. Her health quickly became a political issue, with Republicans questioning her fitness should she ever run for president. Her staff moved quickly to tamp down the speculation. Top aide Philippe Reines told Clinton he’d reached out to former Tennessee Sen. Bill Frist, a heart transplant surgeon, and the NFL commissioner to enlist their support pushing back on right-wing commentators. “Just not letting these comments stand, no matter who says them,” Reines said. Frist was happy to help, according to the documents. “I love her and respect her and I can help. Not sure how exactly but I know I can help. I will Keep all Confidential,” he wrote. — 2012 ELECTIONS Although Clinton wasn’t on the ticket in 2012, she and her supporters followed the race closely – and had plenty to say. In a January 2012 note, during the heat of the Florida GOP primary, Clinton refers to Mitt Romney as “Mittens” and Newt Gingrich as “Grinch.” “If Mittens can’t beat Grinch in Florida, there will be pressure on state Republican parties to reopen or liberalize ballot access,” she writes to confidant Sid Blumenthal. — BENGHAZI At least a few of the messages have come back to haunt Clinton during her presidential bid. Shortly before 9 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2012, Clinton sent an email asking her daughter to call her at her office about the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. The email was addressed to an account under the name “Diane Reynolds,” an alias Chelsea Clinton used for personal messages. “Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an al-Qaida-like group: The Ambassador, whom I handpicked, and a young communications officer on temporary duty w(ith) a wife and two young children,” Hillary Clinton later wrote to her daughter. “Very hard day and I fear more of the same tomorrow.” In October, that email was trumpeted by Republicans on the House Benghazi committee as evidence that Clinton knew very quickly the attack on the consulate was the work of Islamic terrorists, not a spontaneous street protest triggered by the release of a video considered an insult to the Prophet Mohammed. In a later television interview, then-United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice suggested the video, which did spark anti-American protests that day in several Muslim countries, was the primary motivation for the attack. Republicans have suggested the Obama administration downplayed the terror threat to avoid stoking public safety concerns in the weeks leading up to the 2012 presidential election. Some of the messages show that Clinton worried about how her own remarks after the attacks would later be perceived. In a September 2012 message, aide Jake Sullivan compiled all her statements and assured Clinton that she was “careful” and “never said ‘spontaneous’ or characterized the motives.” “The way you treated the video in the Libya context was to say that some sought to (asterisk)justify(asterisk) the attack on that basis,” he wrote. — KEEPING THE TEAM TOGETHER Clinton maintained her ties with the Democratic Party donors who supported her past campaigns and could help her in the future. In November 2012, Samuel Kaplan, a Minneapolis lawyer and major Democratic donor who was appointed U.S. ambassador to Morocco, secured a private meeting with Clinton to discuss how he and his wife “might hope to be allied” with her in the future. Former Clinton aide Lauren Jiloty wrote to Clinton in 2012 to say she had
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
Rosa Parks family reflects on items at Library of Congress
The family of civil rights activist Rosa Parks viewed some of her personal memorabilia for the first time Wednesday, and expressed relief that her belongings finally have a safe home at the Library of Congress. Parks’ relatives viewed about 200 items from a collection on loan to the Library of Congress, which is the country’s oldest cultural institution and serves as the research arm for Congress. A protracted legal battle between Parks’ family and caregivers had kept the collection in an archive warehouse away from public view for years. It was purchased last year by a charitable foundation run by Howard Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett. The library has thousands of Parks’ personal items, but currently is displaying just a few through September in the “The Civil Rights Act of 1964” exhibit. Documents and items from the collection will be digitized to be made available online. The family pored over items including black-and-white photographs, letters, personal notes, a pocket Bible, a certificate for a Presidential Medal of Freedom and a copy of the novel Roots with an inscription from author Alex Haley. “I was pleased that it would go to a place where students and the public could view it, take from it and learn something from it, from her, from her humility,” said Parks’ niece, Sheila Keys of Northville, Mich. “The public will gain some knowledge, some insight into the wisdom of this woman.” Keys was most excited to see her aunt’s family Bible, which contains the McCauley family’s lineage. Rosa Parks’ maiden name was McCauley. Broderick Carnes, 28, of Lawrenceville, Ga., said the items give visitors a chance to “uncover some more of the history” about his great aunt. “Even though Rosa Parks was an icon, she was still a normal person,” Carnes said. “She worked hard just like everyone else. And anyone can achieve the things that she achieved, and make a change the way that she made a change.” After the private tour of the pieces, family members discussed their book Our Auntie Rosa. The book, released in January, reflects on the personal side of the civil rights icon, who died in 2005 at age 92. “When she passed, there were just these large, epic funerals and we — as a private family — never got to grieve her loss,” Keys said. “We decided to put our memories down, share our photos.” Parks is a beloved figure in American history for her civil disobedience on a Montgomery bus. That defining moment in 1955 triggered a yearlong bus boycott that helped dismantle formal segregation. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
