Billionaire Gives a Big Gift but Still Gets to Invest It - New York Times

Billionaire Gives a Big Gift but Still Gets to Invest It - New York Times: "By STEPHANIE STROM
Published: February 24, 2006

Boone Pickens, the often controversial and always colorful Texas oilman turned investor, took advantage of a temporary tax break to make a gift that propelled him into the ranks of the nation's top philanthropists last year.
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Steve Sisney/Oklahoman, via Associated Press

Boone Pickens at a January news conference about his gift.
Multimedia
Graphic Top Philanthropists in 2005
Top Philanthropists in 2005

But what Mr. Pickens gave away with one hand he continues to control with the other.

At the end of the year, he gave $165 million to a tiny charity set up to benefit the golf program at Oklahoma State University, reaping Mr. Pickens a tax deduction. Records show that the money spent less than an hour on Dec. 30 in the account of the university's charity, O.S.U. Cowboy Golf Inc., before it was invested in a hedge fund controlled by Mr. Pickens, BP Capital Management.

'It's all his money, and he's on the investment committee' of Cowboy Golf, said Mike Holder, the university's athletic director and former golf coach, who is on the board. 'If a person's making a gift of that size, he can stipulate what he wants it invested in.'

Asked whether investing in BP Capital had been a condition of Mr. Pickens's gift, Mr. Holder said no. 'That was my decision,' he said.

Lawyers said that even though Mr. Pickens still had investment power over the gift, the transaction appeared to be legal under federal law.

'Sadly, it's another case of a rich man manipulating charity for his own benefit,' said Marcus Owens, a lawyer who formerly headed the division of the I.R.S. that oversees tax-exempt groups.

To some, the question is whether a wealthy person should get a tax break now for money that has essentially not yet been put to charitable use. By giving the money before 2005 expired, Mr. Pickens was able to take advantage of a provision in Hurricane Katrina relief legislation that allowed him a deduction for a charitable gift equal to 100 percent of his adjusted gross income, double the normal limit of 50 percent. If he does not have that much income in 2005, he can carry the deduction into future years."

How to make Terrorists

BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Nigeria's shadowy oil rebels: "Nigeria's shadowy oil rebels
Villagers in the Niger Delta
Delta residents want to share in the region's oil wealth
The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which has threatened 'total war' in Nigeria's main oil-producing region and is behind the recent kidnapping of oil workers is a shadowy group, about which little is known.

The BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar managed to meet one of the group's leaders, who used the alias Major-General Godswill Tamuno.

But he refused to be interviewed on tape or for his location to be disclosed.

Our correspondent says the 'general' was not visibly armed and you could easily walk past him in the streets without noticing him.

Mend's leaders like to be faceless, our reporter says, and they usually send statements to the media via e-mail.

Yet their threats and attacks on oil installations in the region have caused a 15% cut in Nigeria's oil output and a surge in world oil prices.

Support

Mr Tamuno told our reporter that Mend was fighting for 'total control' of the Niger Delta's oil wealth, saying local people had not gained from the riches under the ground and the region's creeks and swamps.

He said the Delta had been exploited for the benefit of other parts of Nigeria and foreign companies and ordered all oil companies and Nigerians whose roots lie elsewhere to leave the region.

Nigeria's oil hope and despair

This argument has been made by several other militant groups who have staged attacks in the Niger Delta in recent years.

Nigeria is one of the world's biggest oil exporters and yet most Delta residents live in poverty.

(there's more, but blogger.com's "blogthis" can't handle it, follow the link to read the rest)

Remember the Ijaw - we're creating the next Al Quaeda

BBC NEWS | Africa | Shell told to pay Nigeria $1.5bn: "A Nigerian court has ordered oil multinational Shell to pay $1.5bn to the Ijaw people of the Delta region.

The Ijaw have been fighting since 2000 for compensation for environmental degradation in the oil-rich region.

They took the case to court after Shell refused to make the payment ordered by Nigeria's parliament.

Ijaw militants have staged a spate of attacks against Shell facilities recently and are holding seven foreign oil workers hostage.

Shell intends to appeal against the judgement.

Shell's lawyers argued in the federal court in Port Harcourt that the joint committee of the National Assembly that made the order in 2000 did not have the power to compel the oil company to make the payment.

But Judge Okechukwu Okeke ruled that since both sides had agreed to go before the National Assembly, the order was binding on both sides.

Nigeria is one of the world's biggest oil exporters but despite its oil wealth, many Nigerians live in abject poverty. "

BBC NEWS | Americas | White House admits Katrina flaws

BBC NEWS | Americas | White House admits Katrina flaws: "Inexperience and a lack of planning, discipline and leadership undermined the US response to Hurricane Katrina, a White House report has concluded.

Federal disaster response plans had 'significant flaws', it says.

Among 125 recommendations in the report is a call for more control to be handed to the Pentagon in similar disasters.

The report is the latest in a string of critical judgements on the response to the hurricane which hit last August, killing about 1,300 people.


No matter how prepared we think we are, we must work every day to improve
Frances Townsend
White House adviser

Gulf Coast road trip: Part 3

Compiled by White House homeland security adviser Frances Townsend, the report highlights 11 key areas in need of improvement in case of future disasters.

Most of the recommendations focus on the need for communication between government departments, federal agencies and relief organisations.

Among the suggestions, the report says:

* A Pentagon contact should be embedded within emergency teams handling potential disasters, but the department should lead the disaster effort only in 'extraordinary circumstances'

* The federal government should not be the first authority to respond to a disaster, but should help state and local authorities

* The departments of homeland security and defence should jointly plan the military's support in disasters

* There should be closer ties between the National Guard and homeland security forces."

Reid Aided Abramoff Clients, Records Show - Yahoo! News

Reid Aided Abramoff Clients, Records Show - Yahoo! News: "By JOHN SOLOMON and SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press Writers Thu Feb 9, 5:39 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid wrote at least four letters helpful to Indian tribes represented by Jack Abramoff, and the senator's staff regularly had contact with the disgraced lobbyist's team about legislation affecting other clients.

The activities — detailed in billing records and correspondence obtained by The Associated Press — are far more extensive than previously disclosed. They occurred over three years as Reid collected nearly $68,000 in donations from Abramoff's firm, lobbying partners and clients.

Reid's office acknowledged Thursday having 'routine contacts' with Abramoff's lobbying partners and intervening on some government matters — such as blocking some tribal casinos — in ways Abramoff's clients might have deemed helpful. But it said none of his actions were affected by donations or done for Abramoff.

'All the actions that Senator Reid took were consistent with his long-held beliefs, such as not letting tribal casinos expand beyond reservations, and were taken to defend the interests of Nevada constituents,' spokesman Jim Manley said.

Reid, D-Nev., has led the Democratic Party's attacks portraying Abramoff's lobbying and fundraising as a Republican scandal.

But Abramoff's records show his lobbying partners billed for nearly two dozen phone contacts or meetings with Reid's office in 2001 alone."

Agreement Reached on Patriot Act Changes - Yahoo! News

Agreement Reached on Patriot Act Changes - Yahoo! News: "By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent Thu Feb 9, 6:57 PM ET

WASHINGTON - A band of Senate Republican holdouts reached agreement Thursday with the White House on changes in the Patriot Act designed to clear the way for passage of anti-terror legislation stalled in a dispute over civil liberties.

Sen. John Sununu (news, bio, voting record), R-N.H. said the changes, quickly endorsed by at least one leading Democrat, would better 'protect civil liberties even as we give law enforcement important tools to conduct terrorism investigation.'

The White House embraced the deal even before Sununu and several other senators outlined it.

Presidential spokesman Scott McClellan said the agreement would 'continue to build upon the civil liberties protections that are in place but do so in a way that doesn't compromise our national security priorities.'

'We're pleased that this important legislation is moving forward,' he said.

The compromise focused on three areas:

_giving recipients of subpoenas for information in terrorist investigations the right to challenge a requirement that they refrain from telling anyone.

_eliminating a requirement that an individual provide the
FBI with the name of a lawyer consulted about a National Security Letter, which is a secret request for records.

_clarifying that most libraries are not subject to demands in those letters for information about suspected terrorists.

While there was no immediate reaction from House Republicans, Sen. Larry Craig (news, bio, voting record), R-Idaho, one of the Senate negotiators, said he had been in close touch with the chairman of the
House Judiciary Committee. Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis.

Reaction from the Democrats was divided.

Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, second-ranking in the Democratic leadership, appeared at the GOP news conference. He said the compromise included 'significant progress' toward protecting basic liberties and that he planned to support the compromise.

The party's leader, Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) of Nevada, said in a statement that the agreement among Republicans 'appears to be a step in the right direction.'

But Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., threatened a filibuster.

The senior Democrat on the Senate Judiciary committee, Patrick Leahy of Vermont, criticized the White House. At the same time, his office left open the possibility he would support the measure."

Ex-FEMA Chief Shifts Katrina Blame to DHS - Yahoo! News

Ex-FEMA Chief Shifts Katrina Blame to DHS - Yahoo! News: "By LARA JAKES JORDAN, Associated Press Writer Fri Feb 10, 6:34 PM ET

WASHINGTON - Former federal disaster chief Michael Brown, the face of the government's listless response to Hurricane Katrina, said Friday he told top Bush officials the day the storm howled ashore of massive flooding in New Orleans and warned 'we were realizing our worst nightmare.'

More defiant than defensive, Brown told senators he dealt directly with White House officials the day of the Aug. 29 storm, including chief of staff Andrew Card and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin.

He also said officials from the Department of
Homeland Security were getting regular briefings that day. Administration officials have said they did not realize the severe damage Katrina had caused until after the storm had passed.

Under oath, Brown told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that he could not explain why his appeals failed to produce a faster response.

'I expected them to cut every piece of red tape, do everything they could ... that I didn't want to hear anybody say that we couldn't do everything they humanly could to respond to this,' Brown said about a video conference with administration officials — in which
President Bush briefly participated — the day before Katrina hit. 'Because I knew in my gut this was the bad one.'"

Abramoff says he met Bush "almost a dozen" times - Yahoo! News

Abramoff says he met Bush "almost a dozen" times - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Jack Abramoff said in correspondence made public on Thursday that
President Bush met him 'almost a dozen' times, disputing White House claims Bush did not know the former lobbyist at the center of a corruption scandal.

'The guy saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids. Perhaps he has forgotten everything, who knows,' Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to Kim Eisler, national editor for the Washingtonian magazine.

Abramoff added that Bush also once invited him to his Texas ranch."

Cheney authorized aide to leak in CIA case: report - Yahoo! News

Cheney authorized aide to leak in CIA case: report - Yahoo! News: "WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Vice President
Dick Cheney directed his aide Lewis 'Scooter' Libby to use classified material to discredit a critic of the Bush administration's
Iraq war effort, the National Journal reported on Thursday.

Court papers released last week show that Libby was authorized to disclose classified information to news reporters by 'his superiors,' in an effort to counteract diplomat Joe Wilson's charge that the Bush administration twisted intelligence on Iraq's nuclear weapons to justify the 2003 invasion.

The National Journal, a U.S. weekly magazine, citing attorneys familiar with the matter, reported that Cheney was among those superiors referred to in a letter from prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to Libby's lawyers.

A lawyer for Cheney had no immediate comment."

White House Knew of Levee's Failure on Night of Storm - New York Times

White House Knew of Levee's Failure on Night of Storm - New York Times

BBC NEWS | Europe | Armenia heirs win $17m Axa payout

BBC NEWS | Europe | Armenia heirs win $17m Axa payout: "Armenia heirs win $17m Axa payout
Armenian girls holding torches during 'genocide' commemoration
Armenia wants Turkey to admit the killings were 'genocide'
The descendants of Armenians who died in mass killings by Ottoman Turks have agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit against French insurance giant Axa.

The case, filed in California, accused Axa of failing to pay death benefits on policies bought by Armenians who died.

Under the deal, the firm will pay $17m (�9.7m) to Armenian charitable groups.

Armenians say 1.5m of their people were killed or deported under Ottoman Turkish rule in 1915. Turkey denies there was a systematic massacre.

Under the terms of the settlement, announced in Los Angeles, Axa will donate at least $3m to selected French-based Armenian charities.

Another $11m has been earmarked for the heirs of policyholders with subsidiaries of Axa that operated in the Ottoman Turkish Empire before 1915.

'Ultimate goal'

In the chaos that followed the killings, many were unable to obtain their insurance proceeds, lawyers for the claimants said.

The Axa settlement is expected to be approved by California's District Court in November. The US state is home to the world's largest population of Armenians outside their own country.

Axa has not yet commented on the deal, which will be administered in France.

The Axa case was the second of its kind to be brought in US courts. Earlier, New York Life Insurance Company agreed to pay $20m (�11.4m) to descendants of Armenian policyholders who died in 1915.

Lawyer Mark Geragos said the settlements were 'important building blocks... [towards]our ultimate goal, which is for Turkey and the US to officially acknowledge the genocide'.

Turkey says up to 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks died during civil strife in eastern Turkey during World War I, but angrily rejects the allegation of a planned 'genocide' of Armenians. "

The Parthenon Marbles (or Elgin Marbles) Restoration to Athens, Greece - Elgin Marbles Dispute Takes New Twist

The Parthenon Marbles (or Elgin Marbles) Restoration to Athens, Greece - Elgin Marbles Dispute Takes New Twist: "ELGIN MARBLES DISPUTE TAKES NEW TWIST
One of the oldest international cultural disputes, the battle over the Elgin Marbles, has taken another turn as a distinguished Cambridge scholar says the sculptures would have been just fine if Lord Elgin had left them in Athens.

FRIDAY, 3 DECEMBER 2004
Author: Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News

One of the oldest international cultural disputes, the battle over the Elgin Marbles, has taken another turn as a distinguished Cambridge scholar says the sculptures would have been just fine if Lord Elgin had left them in Athens.

Following a sophisticated 11-year conservation program in Athens, the 14 slabs that Lord Elgin did not manage to remove are now showing surprisingly bright original details.

'They are in better shape than anything in London. We now know exactly what Lord Elgin 'saved' them from: one has only to go to Athens and see for oneself,' Anthony Snodgrass, professor emeritus of classical archaeology at Cambridge University, told Discovery News.

Indeed, the 17 figures and 56 panels chiseled off in 1801 by Lord Elgin from a giant frieze that once decorated ancient Athens' most sacred shrine, the Parthenon, bear dramatic signs of the British Museum's heavy-handed cleaning scandal in the 1930s.

The fearless horsemen, sprightly youths, lounging deities, belligerent centaurs and expressive horses were cruelly scraped and scrubbed with chisels and wire brushes in an attempt to make them whiter than white, an aesthetic admired by museumgoers.

Despite the 1930s cleaning, the British Museum has always maintained that the museum is the best possible place for the marbles to be on display.

'The British Museum is a truly universal museum of humanity, accessible to five million visitors from around the world every year entirely free of entry charge.

'The Parthenon Marbles have been central to the museum's collections, and to its purpose, for almost two hundred years. Only here can the worldwide significance of the sculptures be fully grasped,' Neil MacGregor, the museum's director, said in a statement.

He added that centuries of damage have meant that 'the Parthenon is a ruin' and that only 50 percent of the original sculptures survive today.

'They can now only be an incomplete collection of fragments,' MacGregor said.

Until now, no one had been able to have a close view of the slabs Lord Elgin did not remove as they were too high up on the Parthenon. When they were taken down in 1993, a thick layer of soot made it almost impossible to distinguish anything.

Now, after undergoing a double-laser cleaning program, the marble pieces show an abundance of details, such as chisel marks and veins on the horses bellies.

According to Snodgrass, who has chaired the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles since 2002, the difference between British museum's marbles and the Greek ones is clear to anyone who compares them.

'The Athens pieces have more detail preserved, and are more like what their makers intended,' Snodgrass said.

He noted that the much-debated natural-stained patina is still present in the newly restored Greek marbles, while it is totally gone in the British museum's pieces.

Carved by Phidias in the 5th century B.C., the Parthenon sculptures are scattered throughout several European museums, including the Louvre in Paris.

But the bulk of the marbles are kept in London's British Museum. Greece contends they were stolen in 1801 by Lord Elgin, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. Britain claims that Lord Elgin had permission from the ruling Turkish authorities to take them.

Greece has been demanding the return of the Elgin Marbles since the country's independence from Turkey in 1829.

It is now building an Acropolis Museum which is due to be completed by 2006. The museum will include a Parthenon Hall which will remain empty until the marbles have been returned."

US poverty: chronic ill, little hope for cure - Yahoo! News

US poverty: chronic ill, little hope for cure - Yahoo! News: "US poverty: chronic ill, little hope for cure

By Bernd Debusmann 2 hours, 34 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Four decades after a U.S. president declared war on poverty, more than 37 million people in the world's richest country are officially classified as poor and their number has been on the rise for years.
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Last year, according to government statistics, 1.1 million Americans fell below the poverty line. That equals the entire population of a major city like Dallas or Prague.

Since 2000, the ranks of the poor have increased year by year by almost 5.5 million in total. Even optimists see little prospect that the number will shrink soon despite a renewed debate on poverty prompted by searing television images which laid bare a fact of American life rarely exposed to global view.

The president who made the war declaration was Lyndon Johnson. 'Unfortunately, many Americans live on the outskirts of hope, some because of their poverty, and some because of their color, and all too many because of both. This administration declares unconditional war on poverty in America.'

That was in 1964. Then 19 percent of the U.S. population lived below the official poverty line. That rate declined over the next four years and in 1968, it stood at 12.8 percent.

Since then, it has fluctuated little. Last year, it was at 12.7 percent, proof that poverty is a chronic problem.

The state of poverty in the United States is measured once a year by the
Census Bureau, whose statistics-packed 70-plus page report usually provides fodder for academic studies but rarely sparks wide public debate, touches emotional buttons, or features on television. Not so in 2005."