Fund Raising

They're being forced to live on crumbs, so nuns at a Hollywood convent famous for its pumpkin bread are warning that they may have to slice up the place for development. The threat of a shutdown of the 75-year-old Monastery of the Angels below the Hollywood sign has prompted neighbors and supporters to mount a campaign to save the four-acre religious retreat.

Last month, after his wife was nominated as secretary of State, former President Clinton attempted to put an end to speculation about his secretive overseas fundraising by disclosing the names of some 208,000 donors to his foundation, which has collected more than $500 million to pay for a presidential library and to combat AIDS, malaria and other scourges. But nowhere on that list was the name Sakura Capital Management Co. Ltd.

The nonprofit foundation that runs Wikipedia, the popular online encyclopedia of user-contributed articles, said Friday that it had met its $6-million fundraising goal for fiscal 2009. With about six months left in this year's campaign, Wikimedia Foundation Inc. said it had raised $6.2 million. A flood of donations came in after the site's founder, Jimmy Wales, posted an appeal for support in late December.

The campaign for a new solar energy ballot measure in Los Angeles has raised more than $267,000, nearly two-thirds of it from groups affiliated with the union that represents Department of Water and Power employees, according to a report released Wednesday. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 18 provided $50,000 for the campaign supporting Measure B, a proposal on the March 3 ballot to add 400 megawatts of solar panels throughout Los Angeles by 2014.

She was sinking in a soured economy until co-workers gave her a hand up by sending her Down Under. Employees at a Pasadena auto dealership chipped in to pay the way to Australia for car saleswoman Sue Ellis after she learned that her elderly mother was facing a cancer operation there and had a roughly 20% chance of surviving.

The International Monetary Fund will sell bonds to raise funds to lend to struggling nations, the head of the organization said Saturday, in a victory for developing countries. Emerging economies such as China, Brazil and India pushed for the move as an alternative to providing longer-term loans to the IMF. Those countries want a greater voice in the institution before providing additional resources.

Members of a group that for the last few years has sought donations from travelers at Los Angeles International Airport on behalf of what they said was an Iraqi-based charity pleaded guilty Wednesday to federal charges of providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization.

Other than championship banners hung from the rafters, not much has changed around Pauley Pavilion since the arena opened in 1965. A building steeped in college basketball tradition has become more outdated with each passing year. This afternoon, university officials will give the public a glimpse of a $185-million project that, over the next 2 1/2 years, aims to enlarge the multipurpose facility by nearly 30% and drag it into modern times.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa came back Tuesday from a one-week vacation in Iceland, just as a private fundraiser for his signature antigang initiative took place at L.A. Live, the entertainment complex owned by Anschutz Entertainment Group. The event was held at L.A. Live's Grammy Museum, and AEG was credited as one of the sponsors of the bash, which raised money for the mayor's Summer Night Lights, a program to provide activities for youths.

Every morning for 19 days, Dave Jurasevich awoke on Mt. Wilson to sunrises darkened by smoke and ash. Every night, the superintendent of the Mt. Wilson Observatory slept at the site he hoped to protect. He was too worried to catch more than three or four hours of rest a night. When he did sleep, he bedded down on a mattress on the floor of a small office. He was usually hungry. Firefighters slept in the next room. Overhead, the night sky glowed hot as the Station fire raged closer.