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Bernie Sanders having ‘fun’ with meme status, urging supports to donate to charity
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was one of the most talked about people at President Biden’s inauguration with his bundled up appearance (mittens and winter coat made in Vermont, naturally). Sanders’s photo was turned into a meme that last on social media for several days. Sanders quickly started selling merchandise, including an already sold-out sweatshirt, based on the meme to raise money for Vermont Meals on Wheels and other charities. The senator spoke about the last few days during an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “Not only are we having fun but what we are doing here in Vermont i...
New York Daily News
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On Philanthropy: Predictions on charity and giving for 2021
2020 is a year most of us are happy to leave behind. Amid the many disheartening challenges we endured, there were also some positive developments in the philanthropy field that will impact giving in 2021 and beyond. Here’s some of what I’ll be looking for in this New Year: From charity to justice 2020’s racial justice movement that expanded awareness of racism and injustice across the U.S. and globally, combined with the economic disparity that burgeoned in the year of the pandemic, has caused many donors — large and small — to reexamine the focus of their giving. Expect to see more donors lo...
Tribune News Service
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Chipotle introduces Shawn Mendes bowl
In the latest pop star-inspired addition to its menu, Chipotle has rolled out the Shawn Mendes Salad Bowl, attaching donations to the singer’s foundation to each sale of the dish. The bowl of lettuce, black beans, chicken, salsa, guacamole and cauliflower rice is set for a two-week run in America and Mendes’ native Canada. It arrived Thursday, little more than a month after Chipotle added a Miley Cyrus wrap called the Guac Is Extra But So Is Miley Burrito. “I have my own bowl !!” Mendes tweeted on Thursday night. The Denver-based burrito chain said each online sale will carry a $1 donation to ...
New York Daily News
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Poverty grows despite economic recovery
Even as average personal incomes rose during the pandemic largely because of government aid, millions of people who didn’t receive such help have fallen into poverty, struggling to pay for food and other basic expenses. That group, trying to get by with the help of local charities, may have been excluded from the federal payments because of immigration status, lack of time in the labor force needed to claim unemployment benefits, or just red tape in states that have been slow to pay jobless claims. The situation in the Houston area is particularly desperate, with almost half of residents strug...
Stateline.org
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Roadkill moose fed Alaska families for years. Then came COVID-19
It always broke Laurie Speakman’s heart to hear that another moose was struck and killed on the rural highway near her home in Soldotna, Alaska, on the western end of the Kenai Peninsula. But it also warmed her to know that several local families were about to get fed. For the past eight years, Speakman, lovingly called “The Moose Lady” by her friends and neighbors, was one of the people state troopers called at all hours of the night as a volunteer driver for the nonprofit Alaska Moose Federation. Often in below-zero temperatures, she drove to the crash site in her truck, wrapped a cable arou...
Stateline.org
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New Jersey may be the first state to impose per-bed fees on nonprofit hospitals for municipal services
New Jersey lawmakers approved an unusual measure last week that requires many nonprofit hospitals to pay per-bed fees to their local governments, while preserving their increasingly contested property-tax exemptions. The legislation, which requires hospitals to pay a fee of $3 a day for each licensed bed, is in response to a landmark 2015 New Jersey Tax Court ruling involving Morristown Medical Center that "the operation and function of nonprofit hospitals do not meet the criteria for property tax exemption" under state law. A 300-bed hospital subject to the fee would pay $328,500 a year. The ...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Judge imposes sentence totaling 897 years on NorCal Rapist
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — After hearing emotional, searing statements from some of the women he victimized during his 15-year crime spree as the NorCal Rapist, Roy Charles Waller was sentenced in Sacramento Friday to nearly 900 years in prison — essentially 100 years for each of the women he raped. Superior Court Judge James Arguelles imposed consecutive terms: 459 years to run consecutive to a 438 years to life sentence. The judge said Waller would be ineligible for probation. He then added that even if he was he eligible, would not grant it because Waller is “a serious danger to society” and pres...
The Sacramento Bee
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Michael Jordan donates $2 million from 'The Last Dance' to food banks
Air Jordan to the rescue.Michael Jordan has donated $2 million of earnings from his critically acclaimed 10-part ESPN documentary series “The Last Dance” to local food banks in the Carolinas and Chicago, Variety reported.“In these challenging times and in a year of unimaginable difficulty due to COVID-19, it’s more important than ever to pause and give thanks,” Jordan said in a statement. “I am proud to be donating additional proceeds from ‘The Last Dance’ to Feeding America and its member food banks in the Carolinas and Chicago to help feed America’s hungry.”“An incredible gift to be thankful...
New York Daily News
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'Willy-nilly' spending: Critics slam plan to use taxpayer money to back Black Lives Matter and charities
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Broward County commissioners again are taking the controversial step of giving away taxpayer money to charities and social movements — with this year’s list of beneficiaries including Black Lives Matter and New Florida Majority, two groups that prodded voters to the polls in the presidential election.The commissioners’ spending — sometimes derisively called “slush fund” spending — has long drawn scrutiny. But the practice still has carried on during the past five years. This year’s spending, totaling more than $144,000, comes as some commissioners themselves have questi...
Sun Sentinel
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On Philanthropy: Erasing hunger in America requires more than charity
The holidays are around the corner and, for tens of millions of our neighbors across the U.S., this will be a time of scarcity, insecurity, worry and, in the richest nation on earth, hunger. Consider these facts:Prior to COVID-19, 37 million people in the U.S. struggled with hunger. Feeding America, the nation’s third largest charity, estimates that as a result of the pandemic, that number may rise to 54 million people — almost one in six Americans, including 18 million children. More than 29% of Coloradoans are food insecure — lacking reliable access to nutritious food — a rate that has tripl...
Tribune News Service
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