Charities

The "Jackson Family Honors" NBC-TV show was brutally panned by critics when it aired Feb. 22, but the mishaps on camera were nothing compared to the financial imbroglio unfolding behind the scenes. Five weeks after the show was taped at the MGM Grand hotel in Las Vegas, the producer says the cast and crew of the 200-member production are still owed about $2 million--with little evidence of money to pay them. In addition, only $100,000 of the estimated $4.5 million raised from the musical benefit will ever reach charities.

Deborah Pauly, the outspoken Villa Park councilwoman who drew community ire when she protested outside an Islamic charity event, was removed this week from a leadership position with the Orange County Republican Party's central committee. Party officials said Pauly, who is running for county supervisor, has been a divisive figure. Her removal comes a month after Orange businessman Bob Walters mailed out letters supporting Pauly's candidacy on a "George Wallace for President" letterhead.

The first thing you hear is quiet. The commercials, by design, are an oasis in the middle of a Sunday afternoon resonating with noisy stadiums and somebody screaming at you to buy a truck. "People getting up to get a beer notice that the TV has suddenly gone soft," said producer-director Mario Pellegrini. "They stop and say, 'What is that?' " The next thing you hear is the tinkling of a piano, or the moan of a violin, or, if the objective is big-time tears, music from the song, "Memories."

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Memorial Day — Memorial Day has become an opportunity for criminals to target veterans as well as active-duty military personnel and their families, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. Older veterans are often targeted by scams this time of year, the BBB said. "The unique lifestyle of our service members makes them prime targets for scammers," said Brenda Linnington, director of the BBB's military division.

A La Verne couple accused of pocketing proceeds from the sale of more than $10 million in goods donated to blind athletes has pleaded guilty to fraud and obstruction of justice. Orange County Superior Court Judge John J. Ryan in Santa Ana, where the case was moved from San Bernardino County, unsealed pleas Friday that Steven and Denise Oleesky made on June 22. Steven Oleesky, a businessman with offices in Ontario, pleaded guilty to 59 felony counts of fraud and obstruction of justice.

They seemed so young. That's what Peter Hero remembers most about the day, nine years ago, when Pierre Omidyar and Jeff Skoll walked into his office at Community Foundation Silicon Valley with an odd idea to give away a fortune. Omidyar wore jeans and a T-shirt; his thick black hair was tied back in a ponytail. Skoll had on what looked to Hero like a varsity jacket. He couldn't still be in high school, could he?

Share Our Selves will be allowed to keep its dental clinic at the Rea Community Center at least until next January while the rest of the organization relocates, according to an agreement reached with the City Council this week. "That was a crucial point with us," said Jean Forbath, founder and executive director of SOS, which provides emergency food, clothing and financial assistance to about 5,000 Orange County families.

California has sued 17 telemarketers and 12 other organizations, state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown said Friday, as part of a national crackdown on charity fundraisers accused of passing little or no money on to legitimate charities. Brown said the 53 individuals named in the state's suits "shamelessly exploited the goodwill of decent citizens trying to help police, firefighters and veterans." Local groups named in the suits are: * Rambret Inc.

The federal government's crackdown on suspected terrorism financing since the Sept. 11 attacks has violated the rights of American Muslim charities and deterred Muslims from charitable giving, the American Civil Liberties Union said in a report Tuesday. An expansion of laws and policies since 2001 has given the U.S.

Among the many proposals to raise taxes and cut and reallocate government spending to regain our country's economic health, one of the most sensitive is decreasing the tax deductibility of charitable contributions. The independent Congressional Budget Office recently reviewed 11 options for revising the income tax treatment of charitable giving, and it grouped them into four categories. All establish a floor below which contributions would not be deductible. One proposal retained tax deductibility only for donations exceeding $1,000 per couple or, alternatively, 2% of a person's adjusted gross income.

OCEANSIDE, Calif. - Junior Seau spent Monday morning surfing in San Clemente and that afternoon playing in a charity golf tournament in Dana Point. He joked with his playing partners, was the first to offer fist bumps after clutch putts, sought out course workers to pose for pictures with him and seemed like a retired NFL superstar without a care. Less than two days later, in a bedroom of his beachfront home in Oceanside, while his girlfriend was at the gym, Seau, among the greatest linebackers in football history, put a handgun to his chest and pulled the trigger.

Donating to charity is a worthy action. But which charity? Would it surprise you to know that the criterion that is most often used to decide that question is also the most unreliable? Would it surprise you more to know that many charities are aware of how flawed the criterion is and play it like a violin? A few months ago a friend of mine who runs an international relief agency phoned me complaining about another charity. "Do you know what they're doing?" he fumed. "They're buying medicine in Canada for 10 cents a pill and booking the American retail cost of the medicine as an in-kind contribution.

Laurie Tragen-Boykoff rocks on her feet, holding on to a large sign, her hands trembling. The international arrivals ramp at LAX is empty, but that only fuels her anticipation. She's waited 25 years for this. On the sign is a blown-up black-and-white photograph of a somber-faced boy. His name is Nicky Mutoka. Below, in large black letters, the Agoura Hills social worker has written: "NICKY!!! I'M LAURIE. " She lifts the sign, her face disappearing behind it. But she is smiling. In 1987, she began what she saw as a most unlikely pen pal correspondence.

The road to hell is typically paved with good intentions. For Greg Mortenson, it was laid down with two New York Times bestsellers, hundreds of public appearances and the idea that Afghanistan and Pakistan could be saved if you built enough schools in them. Hidden beneath those efforts appear to have been “significant lapses in judgment” involving charity money. Those lapses have led the Montana state attorney general to toss Mortenson out of his own charity, the Central Asia Institute, and now to force him to pay back $1 million, according to the results of an investigation announced Thursday.   “The story of Central Asia Institute and Greg Mortenson evokes notions of the best of our aspirations to do good and the generosity of the American public,” Montana Atty.

Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier could have played Friday in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise, where a Dodgers split squad is scheduled to face the Kansas City Royals. Instead, they were in Tucson, which is more than two hours from the Dodgers' spring training complex. In fact, most of the Dodgers' starting lineup was at Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium for a charity game against the Chicago White Sox to raise money for the Christina-Taylor Green Memorial Foundation. The daughter of Dodgers scout John Green, Christina-Taylor was killed in the 2011 shooting in Tucson that wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Drop a quarter in a Las Vegas machine: lights blink, bells ring and odds are your money is headed to a casino bank account. But experiencing those same effects while your funds are funneled to charity? That's definitely outside the Sin City norm. This is what happens at a little known Vegas pleasure palace, the Pinball Hall of Fame, a five-minute drive east of the Strip. The 10,000-foot cinder-block building is thought to house the largest collection of historic pinball machines operating in America.

Here is a roundup of alleged cons, frauds and schemes to watch out for. Memorial Day — Memorial Day has become an opportunity for criminals to target veterans as well as active-duty military personnel and their families, the Better Business Bureau said in a recent bulletin. Older veterans are often targeted by scams this time of year, the BBB said. "The unique lifestyle of our service members makes them prime targets for scammers," said Brenda Linnington, director of the BBB's military division.

Gambling halls and arts education may make strange bedfellows. But over the last three years, five Los Angeles-area card clubs have showered more than $100,000 on a Bay Area school for the arts some 400 miles away. The gifts offered more than a chance to help inner-city kids. They were an opportunity to please the state official who asked for the money, directly oversees the clubs and is widely viewed as the front-runner to be California's next governor: state Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown.

The Motion Picture & Television Fund has launched a Hollywood fundraising campaign to generate $350 million in support for the charity and its nursing home that was once slated to close. On Thursday the fund announced that DreamWorks Animation Chief Executive Jeffrey Katzenberg had already helped secure more than $200 million in pledges and donations that include his own contribution and those of Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Steve Bing, Casey Wasserman and George Clooney. Katzenberg and Clooney are spearheading the campaign efforts.

A bad jam session Re "Caltrans in its own jam after I-10 debacle," Feb. 17 My husband and I were stuck on I-10 near Palm Springs on Feb. 12. It took more than two hours to go 25 miles. I guess we were lucky. The real losers in this debacle will be the businesses and property owners in the Coachella Valley. Just when it seemed that the area was beginning to see some life, the trauma of getting stuck on that road will keep many travelers from returning.