Contributions

It's not everybody's favorite spot on the USC campus, but to Verna B. Dauterive the basement of Doheny Memorial Library remains a beloved landmark where her life changed. There, in 1947, she was doing homework for her master's degree in education when another student struck up a conversation. He was Peter W. Dauterive, a former soldier who was getting his business degree on a GI Bill and one of the few fellow African American students at USC in those days.

Alarmed that two-thirds of $330 million in contributions to California ballot measures in 2006 were in amounts of $1 million or more, a political watchdog group proposed Friday to limit contributions to $100,000, to level the playing field. The limit on contributions is one of several changes proposed by the Center for Governmental Studies, a Los Angeles-based nonpartisan group. Other proposed changes include extending the period for circulating petitions to qualify initiatives from 150 days to 365. -- Patrick McGreevy

Saudi Arabia has made a $500-million contribution to the U.N. World Food Program, meaning the agency won't have to cut rations to the world's needy, the United Nations said. The contribution by the world's biggest oil producer was by far the largest response to the agency's appeal for $755 million to cover increased costs that threatened crucial aid to millions of people. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has warned rapidly rising food prices could wipe out seven years of progress in the fight against global poverty.

What's the opposite of a giant sucking sound? The Museum of Nature & Science in Dallas has an answer: $50 million whooshing into its coffers, courtesy of the five children of former presidential candidate H. Ross Perot Sr. The museum announced that its new 150,000-square-foot exhibition, education and research building will be called the Perot Museum of Nature & Science, in honor of Perot and his wife, Margot. Santa Monica architect Thom Mayne is designing the building. -- Mike Boehm

An influential U.S. senator sent a series of letters Friday seeking additional details about four liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center involving patients who were suspected members or associates of Japanese organized crime groups. "While surgeons do not seek to pass moral judgment on the patients they treat, Americans hope at the very least that foreign criminal figures wait in line along with the rest of us," Sen. Charles E.

The Los Angeles City Ethics Commission voted today to impose $5,650 in fines on two elected officials -- Councilmen Herb Wesson and Richard Alarcon -- for violating rules that regulate the size and type of campaign contributions given during last year's election. Wesson, who represents parts of Koreatown and South Los Angeles, received $3,000 in fines after he accepted six contributions that exceed the city's $500 maximum during his reelection campaign. Alarcon, who represents part of the San Fernando Valley, was hit with $2,650 in fines for failing to turn in the script from an automated telephone call, taking a contribution from a lobbyist and violating two counts of receiving contributions of more than $500 from certain donors.

Professional boxer Oscar De La Hoya has agreed to donate $3.5 million to help fund a school named after him, as well as several other campuses, Green Dot Public Schools announced Wednesday. Green Dot is building the Oscar De La Hoya Animo Charter High School near downtown. It is scheduled to be completed next year. The gift is the fifth-largest that the organization has received. -- Jason Song

An anonymous donor has given the Colburn School in downtown Los Angeles $9 million to support its Dance Institute. The donation is the largest single gift to the school after Richard Colburn's founding endowment of $20 million and will be added to the Dance Institute's $1-million endowment, bringing the total to $10 million.

Joe AND Etsuko Price are back. Twenty-five years ago, they joined with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to fulfill a dream. The Prices donated $5 million to help construct the Pavilion for Japanese Art and promised a spectacular collection of Japanese paintings to the museum. Five years later, the building was completed: an eye-popping, lotus-like structure on the east end of the museum campus.

The UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television is getting a $6-million gift from David C. Copley, publisher of the San Diego Union-Tribune. It will be used to endow a costume design chair at the school. "The artistry of costume designers has long been a vital part of storytelling in the cinematic and performing arts and deserves significant scholarly attention," Copley said in a statement.