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On a commercial break from Monday Night Football, there was a commercial for NFL's Play 60, where they promote kids to play outdoors for 60 minutes.In the commercial, Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints is set to throw a pass on the White House lawn with children running in slow motion, with the White House in the background.At first thought, I was waiting for Drew to pass to one of the kids. Then I thought he might sling that sucker through the White House window hopefully getting Obama in back of the head.Then Obama pops up in the scene...

Did anyone just see that disgusting slo-motion love fest Obama commercial for his serve.gov site? BAAAAAAAAAARF

A three-story downtown warehouse, initially planned as a condo conversion project, is being sold to a local nonprofit agency for its new headquarters. An investors group organized by Dave Jorgensen, a partner in VJS Construction Services, is selling the 45,000-square-foot building at 728 N. James Lovell St. to Community Advocates Inc. for $1.8 million, said Joe Volk, the agency's executive director. Community Advocates, which helps the poor deal with tenant-landlord disputes, problems with obtaining health care, and other basic needs, plans to renovate the building for its headquarters, Volk said Tuesday. The project will consolidate the group's main office, now...

Hi folks, I’m sure some of you can help me out with this problem: My jerk boss has appointed me to help collect donations for the United Way, and there’s really not a way out of it. I was hoping to collect information related to the wonderful things they do, like misuse of charitable funds, black listing the Boy Scouts because they wouldn’t allow homosexual men to take boys on overnight camping trips, etc. Does anyone have more info that might be helpful in me driving my unit’s pledge total to $0 this year?

Please join me in asking United Way to stop all affiliation with ACORN until a full investigation of ACORN has been conducted. Twin Cities United Way (PDF see page 10)United Way of North Central Florida lists ACORN as a Partner Agency I am sure there other examples out there! C'mon FREEPers, let's do what we do best! Find the other examples, link them here, and call United Way and ask them to stop all work with this organization known as ACORN until they are fully cleared.

(CNN) -- Authorities are at the scene of a building in Binghamton, New York, where there are "multiple" shooting victims and hostages are being held, a county spokesman said. Broome County Director of Emergency Services Brett Chellis said there is an "active" shooting situation at the American Civic Association, and that several law enforcement agencies are at the scene. Chellis did not provide numbers of victims or hostages, and had no further details. According to the United Way of Broome County Web site, the civic association assists immigrants and refugees with immigration and personal counseling, resettlement, citizenship, family reunification.

United Way of Dane County is moving forward on its mission to effect change in the community by announcing expanded programs and initiatives in its Agenda for Change for 2009. The United Way collected more than $17 million in contributions in its 2008 campaign, paving the way to continue investing in programs and initiatives aligned to respond to issues the community identified to have the greatest impact in crucial areas, including schools, early childhood development and safety. "The community responded in a very challenging economic climate, and we are excited to share details of how their investments will solve the...

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- More than $2 million -- that's what the United Way of the Central Carolinas has agreed to pay into the retirement plan of its chief executive officer. The payments are spelled out in tax returns known as the IRS form 990, filed annually by non-profit agencies like the United Way and available to the public. The returns show the local United Way agency has already paid more than $1 million into the employee benefit plan of CEO Gloria Pace King. Board members tell WCNC they've committed to pay more than $1 million more over the next three...

For months, the United Way of Central Carolinas board said Gloria Pace King was worth every penny of her controversial $1.2 million pay package. Tuesday, 37 of those board members unanimously called on their longtime CEO to resign or be fired.

A Peoria, Illinois, pastor is challenging United Way's funding of Planned Parenthood. Pastor James McDonald of Providence Church says Planned Parenthood operates large abortion mills in Chicago and in Champaign, Illinois. "...[A]nd that troubled us greatly in the Christian community, and we wanted to encourage United Way to do what was right -- which is to stop funding completely," he explains. But abortion is not the only issue troubling McDonald. He objects to the supposed "comprehensive" sex education strategy Planned Parenthood promotes. "I am...very concerned about what [Planned Parenthood is] doing -- not only to the American family, but to...

United Way of the Bay Area is legally responsible for a nonprofit it spun off to process hundreds of millions of dollars in charitable contributions and must pay $4.78 million to a company left holding the bag when the nonprofit collapsed in 2003, a San Francisco judge has declared in a tentative ruling. Superior Court Judge Robert Dondero did not find fraud by United Way and denied punitive damages sought by Network for Good, an Internet charity clearinghouse in Maryland that sued United Way. But Dondero said United Way had engaged in a variety of misconduct, including manipulating financial records...

Anonymous census focuses on gays Results may help better describe diverse population Friday, January 26, 2007 Rita Price THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH At some point this weekend, Scott Britton and Jim King will sit down at the home computer and type in their profiles. The Worthington residents expect to click on boxes that identify them as educated, suburban and middle class. They’re also white, gay and the parents of an adopted black infant. Typical? Probably not quite. But organizers of central Ohio’s first gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender census say it’s time to find out more about the people who make...

Former Clinton political hitman James Carville, who recently touted New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for a 2008 presidential run, is reportedly behind an advertising campaign attacking President Bush for his 1990 sale of Harken Energy stock as well as his ties to the oil industry in general. American Family Voices, a group described by the New York Times as "secretive," has paid to run a 30-second commercial on cable news programs in Washington, D.C., and in New York through Thursday. The ad blasts President Bush as "sly like a fox" for talking down his dealings with Harken Energy, which Democrats...

Some parents upset over sex booklet in schools Thursday, November 10, 2005By R. DAVID HEILEMANThe Sun Star STRONGSVILLE _ An informational booklet that describes the symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases and contains phone numbers for Planned Parenthood and confidential reproductive health services has raised protests after it was placed in students' lockers throughout the district. City resident Theresa Fleming said her 11-year-old son, a sixth-grader at Kinsner Elementary School, was among those who received a copy of the booklet, Youth Pages, A Guide for Cuyahoga County Teens published by United Way's 211 First Call For Help. She said the...

The staff at Deaf Inc., a social service agency based in Allston-Brighton, got a letter recently, an appeal to participate in the annual fund-raising campaign of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay. It was an ironic moment. Deaf Inc. enjoyed a good relationship with the United Way until recently. But that was before Deaf Inc. was cut off from United Way funding, after a management decision by United Way that its work no longer fit into the charity's priorities. This is what Deaf Inc. does: It helps people who can't hear manage their lives and live independently and with dignity,...

I have tried to google for something of substance that would explain why corporate entities spend so much time and energy coming up with ways to 'persuade' employees to donate. At my place of employment, it's common knowledge that the exec sitting in the corner office is going over the list of those who donate and those who do not making 'mental notes'. Personally, I have never donated, and never will. The more they pressure me to do so, the more opposed to it I become. I really want to know _why_ they try so hard. It has to be...

The neglect of the nation's poor that has become so evident in New Orleans is happening in other major cities as well, the head of the United Way said Wednesday. "This is a wake-up call for America," said Brian Gallagher, president and chief executive officer of United Way of America, which has taken a lead role in resettling tens of thousands of Hurricane Katrina survivors. Gallagher and other leaders of charitable groups met with President Bush on Tuesday to plead for a long-term solution. Gallagher said he told Bush a commitment to spend billions of dollars on flood walls, hotels...

CLEVELAND (AP) -- The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio said today it will no longer accept funding from the United Way so as not to complete a required counterterrorism compliance form. Christine Link is ACLU of Ohio executive director. She says the decision won’t make much of a difference to the Cleveland-based nonprofit legal organization’s finances. It is not a United Way agency, but it can receive United Way funding if designated by donors. Link estimated ACLU of Ohio receives about $10,000 a year from United Way. ACLU of Ohio’s annual budget is approximately 700-thousand dollars, mostly from individual...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) -- A conservative legal group said Thursday that the United Way should take back a $171,000 donation to an organization that is representing several detainees in connection with the Sept. 11 attacks.</p> <p>Officials from the Legal Aid Society and the United Way's Sept. 11 Fund said none of the restricted grant is paying for work on the detainees cases, and is going entirely to help victims of the World Trade Center attacks.</p>

The United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta will withhold $1.3 million in funding to the Boy Scouts pending an investigation into alleged minority membership inflation. Without much discussion Wednesday, the agency's Board of Directors unanimously agreed to pledge that amount to the Boy Scouts of America-Atlanta Area Council for 2005-06, but hold it in escrow starting July 1, the beginning of the council's budget year. Board members won't decide how much to turn over to the Scouts until they see the membership report and learn how the council will handle any negative findings. The tentative decision to maintain current funding is...

New York, May. 03, 2005 (CNA) - Planed Parenthood has launched a campaign to motivate all of its members and supporters, nominal Catholics and non-Catholics, to send letters to the editor, requesting that Pope Benedict XVI reconsider his “backward views” and change his opinion on sexual morality. Pope Benedict XVI must be encouraged to “reconsider his dangerously outdated stances on birth control, abortion and sexuality in order to help move the Catholic Church into the 21st century,” reads a memo issued by campaign manager Eve Fox. “The new Pope's positions on these crucial issues pose a terrible danger to the...

Sept. 11 Charity Gave Money to Group Defending Terror Suspects -- 11/08/2001 Sept. 11 Charity Gave Money to Group Defending Terror Suspects By Marc Morano CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer November 08, 2001 1st Add: Includes September 11 Fund news release statement.(CNSNews.com) - A charity fund established to help victims of the Sept. 11th attacks made a grant of $171,000 to a group defending eight individuals being held in connection with the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C. The grant from the September 11th Fund, which is affiliated with the United Way, was given to the Legal Aid ...

A charity fund established to help victims of the Sept. 11th attacks made a grant of $171,000 to a group defending eight men held in the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. A grant of $171,000 from September 11th Fund, which is affiliated with United Way, was given to Legal Aid Society, a group aiding in the legal defense of eight suspects detained in Brooklyn, N.Y., as a result of the government's investigation into the terrorist attacks "Instead of helping out the victims, they're actually helping out potentially suspected terrorists," said Dan Rene of the legal watchdog group National ...

Driven by concern about discimination by the Boy Scouts, Hamilton College faculty members are encouraging the college to stop giving institutional support to the United Way of Greater Utica. The faculty passed the motion unanimously at its Oct. 1 meeting. United Way funds the local Boy Scouts chapter, as well as about 70 other nonprofit organizations. "A lot of us have been concerned and very upset about the Boy Scouts' explicit discrimination against gay boys and men," said government professor Stephen Orvis, who presented the motion. No attendance was taken at the meeting, but Orvis said more than 100 faculty...

FBI investigates allegations of false Boy Scout numbers Thursday, December 30, 2004 The FBI is investigating the Greater Alabama Council of the Boy Scouts of America to see if membership numbers have been inflated, board members said Wednesday.Exaggerating membership numbers could lead to greater financial support, board members said.The council is said to serve 50,000 youngsters in 22 counties in central and northern Alabama. This includes 30,000 enrolled in traditional scout units and 20,000 elementary school students receiving in-class character education using resources provided by the Boy Scouts, said Randy Haines, vice chairman of the council, which is led...

After radio celebrity plugs Chesterfield troop's booth, popcorn orders top $28,000 A friendly jab at the American Civil Liberties Union has turned into a financial bonanza for a tiny nine-member Boy Scout troop from Chesterfield County. Troop 828, with an unexpected boost on Wednesday from nationally syndicated talk show host Glenn Beck, watched its struggling popcorn sales explode. Scouts at a downtown booth had to call for fresh supplies. A Web site was flooded with orders from buyers in 39 states. At last count, sales had topped $28,000. That set a record for the Boy Scouts' Heart of Virginia Council.

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - A Purdue University student has been suspended from his job as a physics department assistant and may lose the job after objecting to Purdue's United Way campaign because the charity supports anti-gay groups such as the Boy Scouts. Mike Sloothaak was placed on administrative suspension without pay Nov. 19 after protesting United Way solicitations from the Northwest Indiana university's president and Andrew Hirsch, head of the school's physics department. Those solicitations included an email from the physics department in October that listed all physics graduate students and staff who hadn't returned their United Way pledge forms....

Boycott the United Way – Give the American Way If you read this month’s issue of the American Legion Magazine you will find a story detailing the continuing attacks again the Boy Scouts of America by the ACLU, the United Way, the anti-Christian movement and gay rights activists. Unfortunately, since the magazine isn’t on-line I can’t provide a URL but I am providing a URL to their press release (http://www.legion.org/?section=pub_relations&subsection=pr_listreleases&content=pr_press_release&id=249), titled Legion to Pentagon: Stand up for Scouting!. I don’t know where this assault on core values held by the majority of the American public is going to end but...

THE UNITED WAY/MY OPINION BY Steve Newton Well, after reading information on the Free Republic from some of my far more learned colleagues, I decided to look up information on the United Way myself. As everyone probably knows, I never express a political opinion outright. However, when I was young I worked at an establishment who REQUIRED you to sign up for the United Way BEFORE you were employed. So I have a vested interest in this discussion.

A pro-family organization has issued an alert to those who may be considering giving to one of the nation's largest charities this holiday season. The group's spokesman is warding donors away from United Way, and he also wants shoppers to know a thing or two about Target stores. Bob Knight, director of the Culture and Family Institute, says the United Way has been crossed off his gift list. That is because the well-known charity refuses to share its money with the Boy Scouts of America while it openly supports numerous pro-homosexual groups with its money. "I don't know why people...

The Honorable Alberto R. Gonzales Counsel to the President Judge Al Gonzales was commissioned as Counsel to President George W. Bush in January of 2001. Prior to serving in the White House, he served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas. Before his appointment to the Texas Supreme Court in 1999, he served as Texas' 100th Secretary of State from December 2, 1997 to January 10, 1999. Among his many duties as Secretary of State, Gonzales was a senior advisor to then Governor Bush, chief elections officer, and the Governor's lead liaison on Mexico and border issues....

A near collapse in public financial support has forced radical members of the Ventura County United Way board to quit their two-year crusade to force anti-family policies on the Boy Scouts. The organization announced it would once again consider requests for grants from pro-religious, pro-family groups like the Scouts after it fell almost $1 million short in its 2003-04 fund-raising drive and found it would have to cut its funding program 40 percent. The national United Way organization, whose image advertising depicts an all-American Mom-and-Apple-Pie wholesomeness, has found itself the past few years the subject of sensational news stories about...

United Way of Ventura County on Thursday revised its two-year-old policy on discrimination, allowing it to give money to such groups as the Boy Scouts of America. United Way had adopted a tough anti-discrimination stance in 2001, effectively cutting off contributions to the Ventura County Council, Boy Scouts of America. The Scouts will not accept homosexuals in leadership positions. United Way's board of directors voted unanimously to adopt the new policy, which allows funding of any organization that doesn't violate state or federal discrimination laws, a news release said. Twenty-four of United Way's 33 board members cast votes, President and...

AKRON, Ohio AP) - A Republican leader is calling for a boycott of the United Way of Summit County after a fund-raising scavenger hunt sent participants into a local Democratic Party office. County GOP Chairman Alex Arshinkoff says he also will try to get United Way's federal tax-exempt status revoked because of its partisan involvement. The employer-sponsored scavenger hunt sent participants to the Akron office of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry in search of a piece of campaign literature about a Democratic candidate for common pleas judge.

Loving Hispanic woman is a state agency's ideal Thursday, May 13, 2004 "It means so much to them to have a home, to have some stability," says Margaret Quintana, surrounded by four of her five foster children. Margaret Quintana's most prized possessions include the mementos of a typically proud mother: pictures of smiling children, and letters, cards, and poems from them that describe the difference that her love made in their lives.They are not her biological children. They are the dozens of foster children, most of them Hispanic, whom Quintana has taken into her home during the last 16 years.Quintana...

Three strikes and you're out! Breaking and developingChristian-news-in-maine.com staff report The Hannaford super market chain has finally convinced many Christians and pro-traditional family values families that they do not want their business. First the Hannaford grocery chain, while going out of their way to help celebrate and signify every other form of religion or culture, insisted that the best they could do for the most Holy Day of Christianity, Easter, was a funny little Easter bunny and a few eggs. Then Hannaford decided to side with the infamous United Way agasint the Boy Scouts of America. And now this:... It...

Heart of Florida United Way continues to hemorrhage money after three years of declining contributions, further shaking public confidence and prompting what critics call long-overdue changes after its largest loss in a decade. As the charity makes plans to increasingly target wealthy individuals and small businesses while also raising money for specific crusades, area nonprofit leaders are calling for an end to the United Way's monopoly on fall fund raising. Traditionally, member agencies of the Heart of Florida United Way, which serves Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties, do minimal campaigning during the charity's two-month drive, but they say that's no...

The United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania has decided to distribute funds held in escrow for the local Boy Scouts organization to two other greater Philadelphia organizations that benefit youth. The United Way took this action because the Cradle of Liberty Council has remained steadfast in support of the national Boy Scout policy regarding the appointment of homosexuals to leadership positions. Nonetheless, this latest action by the United Way disappointed local Scout leaders and has left them scrambling to make up the funding shortfall. Pat Coviello, executive vice president of the Cradle of Liberty Council, said he thought the United Way...

I have noticed a lot of articles on the many things that United Way have done, stealing, corrupt CEO's buying horses, million dollar payouts etc, does anybody know if there is a list of all of the misdoings of this very questionable organisation, I have had some recent experience in Australia with them selling donated goods to pay staff wages (Salaries of nearly $100,000), doctoring the figures to make the 70% admin look like 15% admin etc etc etc, and would love to show some of the doubters over here United Way's true colours.

AS PRESIDENT Bush announced on Tuesday that he would back a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriages, the issue of gay rights played out locally with an announcement by the United Way of Ulster County that it would end a 40-year partnership with the Rip Van Winkle Council of the Boy Scouts of America because the council declined to sign a non-discrimination statement that included the words "sexual orientation." The decision to pull the scout council's funding followed six months of discussions with the Rip Van Winkle Council's leadership in an attempt to draft non-discrimination policy acceptable to both groups, said...

The United Way of Central Ohio adopted a policy yesterday requiring the 80 organizations it funds to sign a nondiscrimination pledge. Any group that fails to do so by the end of the year could be cut off from United Way funding in 2005. The moved is aimed at the Boys Scouts council in Columbus because of the organization's national policy against hiring gays as scout leaders or accepting them as members. Local scout Director Lee Shaw says he hopes to satisfy the requirement without jeopardizing the Boy Scouts' values. The central Ohio council received about $498,000 this year from...

Winston Churchill, who famously recommended against giving in, admired the Boy Scouts for their rock-solid principled stances that preclude giving in. In his 1937 book Great Contemporaries, Churchill wrote, "[The Boy Scout Movement] speaks to every heart its message of duty and honour: 'Be Prepared' to stand up faithfully for Right and Truth, however the winds may blow." Executives of Philadelphia's Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council announced Monday that they are about to give in to the radical Left after years of pressure to include homosexuals as Scout leaders. The council will soon unveil a new anti-discrimination policy that...

The stock market is up, but it's too little, too late for many charities. For the second year in a row, the United Way of the Texas Gulf Coast expects to take in less money than it had hoped. The organization raised just $68.25 million last year, $10 million below its goal. The current campaign is projected to raise $65 million, perhaps less, campaign co-chairman Terry Koonce said. The goal was $70 million. The predicted shortfall is bad news for agencies that depend upon the United Way, some of whom also have lost other sources of funding. Many have cut...

Anchorage, AK (LifeNews.com) -- Mayor Mark Begich of Anchorage has shown his true colors during his first term by donating $25,000 to Planned Parenthood of Alaska following an annual city fundraising event. Money raised by the 2003 Mayor's Charity Ball was divided among four charities. This year, those randomly selected were the Anchorage Concert Chorus, the Imaginarium, the Covenant House of Alaska, and Planned Parenthood of America, the nation's largest abortion business. Each received one quarter of the more than $100,000 raised. Karen Vosburgh, Executive Director of Alaska Right to Life, said it was "amazing" and "bogus" that the state's...

They say charity's 'inclusiveness policy' forces its views on other organizations Denny and Allyson Weinberg are a couple who say it is important for them to do things together. That includes being co-plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in September against United Way of Ventura County. Denny, 51, a top executive with WellPoint Health Networks Inc., and Allyson, 49, a former well-known chef who owned four restaurants, have a history of community volunteering. They say their concern for nonprofit agencies, including the Boy Scouts of America Ventura County Council, is the driving force behind their lawsuit. The Weinbergs charge that United...

The United Way in Chicago and the Chicago Boy Scouts council are parting ways after the charitable group slashed the scout's funding by more than 90 percent. Leaders of the Chicago Area Council of the Boy Scouts of America said in a press release that the split was "amicable." However, gay rights groups say the split was the culmination of boycotts against the United Way in Chicago and relentless pressure. "As the Scouts and other nonprofits struggle in a weak economy for limited dollars, so has the United Way," said Lewis B. Greenblatt, the local Boy Scouts board president. "The...

The Chicago Area Council, Boy Scouts of America, has been a partner agency with the United Way of Chicago for many years. Over the most recent years, this partnership has provided significant funding for Scouting programs. Unfortunately, it has become non-beneficial for the council to continue with this partnership. The council’s allocation was drastically reduced by 92% for the current United Way of Chicago’s fiscal year. Taking all this into perspective, the Executive Committee of the council board passed a motion to remove the council from the United Way of Chicago’s partner agency program. And although these efforts may not...

United Way Capital Area to stop funding Boy Scouts 76-year partnership ends over Scouts exclusion of gays By Andrea BallAMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFFThursday, November 13, 2003After a 76-year partnership, the United Way Capital Area and the Boy Scouts are parting ways because the Scouts organization excludes gays. "Our value is that we raise money from the entire community," said Clarke Heidrick, chairman of the United Way board. "We need to allocate the money to agencies that serve the entire community." Boy Scouts of America, Capital Area Council, will lose approximately $157,000 a year, a little more than 5 percent of its $2.9...

After a 76-year partnership, the United Way Capital Area and the Boy Scouts are parting ways because the Scouts organization excludes gays. "Our value is that we raise money from the entire community," said Clarke Heidrick, chairman of the United Way board. "We need to allocate the money to agencies that serve the entire community." Boy Scouts of America, Capital Area Council, will lose approximately $157,000 a year, a little more than 5 percent of its $2.9 million budget. The group will ask its supporters to make up that loss with additional contributions, said Bruce Walcutt, the organization's president. "Frankly,...

In the wake of a controversial $1.5 million pension payout to a former chief executive, the United Way of America is changing its rules to prevent such payments from happening again. The CEO, Betty Stanley Beene, had served in the post from late 1997 to 2001. The $1.5 million payment was disclosed in recent United Way tax filings, according to the Washington Post. United Way officials have defended the payment as appropriate, with current CEO Brian A. Gallagher telling the Post that its size was based on Beene's salary and years of service in the United Way system, including 12...