The Hurricane
Generous Californians are looking for ways to help survivors of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast. But before you whip out that checkbook make sure you know to whom you’re donating to.
As the Better Business Bureau witnessed in the weeks following the tsunami of 2004, many scam artists, posing as charities, attempted to take advantage of the public’s generosity.
The BBB encourages the public to contribute to causes that will assist victims of any catastrophe. But before you donate:
Find out how the charity plans to use donations to address the needs of the victims
Ask the charity for written information about its finances and programs, specifically what percentage of money will go to assist victims. The BBB Wise Giving Alliance calls for at least 60% of donations to go toward program services and not more than 35% toward administrative costs.
Make certain that the charity is properly registered with appropriate state government agencies.
Do not give cash. Use a credit card or make a check or money order out to the name of the charitable organization, not to the individual collecting the donation.
Do not give your credit card number or other personal information to a telephone or e-mail solicitation.
Beware of appeals that are long on emotion, but short on specific relief measures.
Beware of charities that are inexperienced in carrying out relief activities.
Beware of charities that imitate the name and style of a well-known organization.
Before donating on-line, check the organization’s URL in the browser window. Exercise caution if the domain name is hidden, unfamiliar or different than the one stated in the text of the link.
Remember that only donations to U. S. based charities that have charitable tax-exempt status can be deductible as charitable gifts for tax purposes.
Check on a charity’s BBB report by calling (909) 835-6064 or by logging onto www.give.org.
Katie Mitzner
Director of Communications
BBB of the Southland
Long Beach
Re Rick Reiff’s “Fire and Water” Comment last week:
Poignant choice of lyrics in your editorial. Steve Goodman’s lines in Arlo Guthrie’s classic “City of New Orleans” were a fitting conclusion to your observations.
I may have included a couple of additional lines from the same song:
Rolling down to the sea
And all the towns and people seem
To fade into a bad dream
This isn’t just a bad dream and we can’t let the people affected just fade away.
Tim Cooley
Newport Beach
Rick, I didn’t know you listened to hippy liberals’ music. Proud of ya, dude.
Here are some words from Randy Newman’s “Louisiana 1927”:
Louisiana, Louisiana
They’re tryin’ to wash us away
They’re tryin’ to wash us away
Paul Lobato
Huntington Beach
Reparations, Cont’d
State Sen. Joe Dunn recently wrote a response to my comments about his SB 645, relative to forming a commission for Mexican repatriation reparations. Sen. Dunn suggested that my comments are inaccurate.
I beg to differ.
Sen. Dunn says that his bill will not use state funds. The bill upon which he and I voted and about which I wrote contained no prohibition on state funds being spent to get reparations for those deported to Mexico between 1929 and 1944.
After I wrote my article, and after both he and I voted on the bill, it was amended to have such a prohibition. So, my comments were accurate when written. Maybe that amendment was inserted because I and others shined the light of day on this expenditure of scarce state funds.
Furthermore, Sen. Dunn questions my assertion that descendents of those deported could seek reparations.
I cannot find anywhere in his bill where he limits the payment of reparations to those who were actually deported. It only talks about the newly created commission determining “eligibility” for reparations. Therefore, it appears that descendents could make claims for eligibility.
In any event, I stand by my comment that this bill merely will encourage a flood of litigation against state and federal governments for “reparations” that will enrich trial attorneys around the state at the expense of the rest of us.
By the way, in Sen. Dunn’s bill, a minimum of 25% of the members of the commission must be lawyers.
At the date of this writing the bill has passed both houses of the legislature and is on the governor’s desk. I hope the governor vetoes it.
John Campbell
State Senator
R-Irvine
Airport
After the Marines stopped flying at El Toro in 1999, the space above that airport became available for general aviation use, contrary to what the Nimbys thought, that only a reopened El Toro airport would bring the airplanes back.
After Measure W passed in 2002, the Federal Aviation Administration expanded the airport control zone around nearby John Wayne Airport to a five-mile radius encroaching into Irvine all the way to Turtle Rock and University of California, Irvine. Previously, control zones were shared with El Toro with overlapping circles.
Already pilots have learned to cut the corner on landings into John Wayne, and soon they will learn how to take off over Irvine, something anti-El Toro International Airport warriors didn’t think about when they supported a Great Park for El Toro.
The residential towers along Jamboree in Irvine are in the JWA control zone and they are restricted in height.
The beneficiaries of takeoffs over Irvine will be Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, both located miles away along the coast, where airlines and pilots do not want to go, and where the California Coastal Commission doesn’t want them, either.
Enjoy John Wayne Airport, Irvine.
Donald Nyre
Newport Beach
