Jeff Bezos Gives Van Jones $100 Million (VIDEO)

He gifted celebrity chef José Andrés as well, so the two could support the charities of their choice.

I guess Jones was shocked:

Artistic Jack-o'-lanterns

At the O.C. Register, "Incredibly artistic Halloween pumpkins by OCSA students on auction to benefit nonprofits."

Incredibly artistic Halloween pumpkins by OCSA students on auction to benefit nonprofits https://t.co/UUUno5MsxH pic.twitter.com/AOvBvQ9k8y

— O.C. Register (@ocregister) October 25, 2017

'Few families, of course, are as wealthy as the Rockefellers...'

Well, that's for sure.

An interesting piece, at NYT, "Giving Like a Rockefeller, Even if You're Not Super-Rich."

What we can learn about the power of philanthropy from the Rockefeller family https://t.co/eKUjEKUSor

— NYT Business (@nytimesbusiness) March 31, 2017

The story talks about David Rockefeller's grandson, Michael Quattrone (pictured), who manages the David Rockefeller Fund. The senior Rockeffer is said to have given away at least $2 billion to charity in his lifetime, and philanthropy's become the raison d'être of the entire family. The younger members of the family convinced some of the family's biggest charitable funds (they are numerous, apparently) to divest from fossil fuels, the irony of which just kills me.

In any cast, it's a good read.

The Graying of America's Homeless

It's not an easy problem to solve. Lots of homeless people have psychiatric issues and refuse services.

It's sad.

And that's downtown Los Angeles at the background photo at the link.

See, the New York Times, "Old and on the Street: The Graying of America's Homeless" (at Memeorandum):

LOS ANGELES — They lean unsteadily on canes and walkers, or roll along the sidewalks of Skid Row here in beat-up wheelchairs, past soiled sleeping bags, swaying tents and piles of garbage. They wander the streets in tattered winter coats, even in the warmth of spring. They worry about the illnesses of age and how they will approach death without the help of children who long ago drifted from their lives.

“It’s hard when you get older,” said Ken Sylvas, 65, who has struggled with alcoholism and has not worked since he was fired in 2001 from a meatpacking job. “I’m in this wheelchair. I had a seizure and was in a convalescent home for two months. I just ride the bus back and forth all night.”

The homeless in America are getting old.

There were 306,000 people over 50 living on the streets in 2014, the most recent data available, a 20 percent jump since 2007, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. They now make up 31 percent of the nation’s homeless population.

The demographic shift is mirrored by a noticeable but not as sharp increase among homeless people ages 18 to 30, many who entered the job market during the Great Recession. They make up 24 percent of the homeless population. Like the baby boomers, these young people came of age during an economic downturn, confronting a tight housing and job market. Many of them are former foster children or runaways, or were victims of abuse at home.

But it is the emergence of an older homeless population that is creating daunting challenges for social service agencies and governments already struggling with this crisis of poverty. “Baby boomers have health and vulnerability issues that are hard to tend to while living in the streets,” said Alice Callaghan, an Episcopal priest who has spent 35 years working with the homeless in Los Angeles.

Many older homeless people have been on the streets for almost a generation, analysts say, a legacy of the recessions of the late 1970s and early 1980s, federal housing cutbacks and an epidemic of crack cocaine. They bring with them a complicated history that may include a journey from prison to mental health clinic to rehabilitation center and back to the sidewalks.

Some are more recent arrivals and have been forced — at a time of life when some people their age are debating whether to retire to Arizona or to Florida — to learn the ways of homelessness after losing jobs in the latest economic downturn. And there are some on a fixed income who cannot afford the rent in places like Los Angeles, which has a vacancy rate of less than 3 percent.

Horace Allong, 60, said he could not afford a one-room apartment and lives in a tent on Crocker Street. Mr. Allong, who divorced his wife and left New Orleans for Los Angeles two years ago, said he lost his wallet and all of his identification two weeks after he arrived and has not been able to find a job.

“It’s the first time I’ve been on the streets, so I’m learning,” he said. “There’s nothing like Skid Row. Skid Row is another world.”

The problems with homelessness are hardly uniform across the country. The national homeless population declined by 2 percent between 2014 and 2015, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Some communities — including Phoenix and Las Vegas — have declared outright victory in eliminating homelessness among veterans, a top goal of the White House.

But homelessness is rising in big cities where gentrification is on the march and housing costs are rising, like Los Angeles, New York, Honolulu and San Francisco. Los Angeles reported a 5.7 percent increase in its homeless population last year, the second year in a row it had recorded a jump. More than 20 percent of the nation’s homeless lived in California last year, according to the housing agency.

Across Southern California, the homeless live in tent encampments clustered on corners from Venice to the San Fernando Valley, and in communities sprouting under highway overpasses or in the dry bed of the Los Angeles River. Their sleeping bags and piles of belongings line sidewalks on Santa Monica Boulevard.

Along with these visible signs of homelessness come complaints about aggressive panhandling, public urination and disorderly conduct, as well as a rise in drug dealing and petty crimes...

Keep reading.

Previous homelessness blogging here.

It's sad.

Highland Park Church Gets City Funding to Shelter Homeless During Cold Stretch (VIDEO)

Jeez, you'd have to be heartless to abandon the church just as it's getting the homeless out from the cold.

At the Los Angeles Times, "Homeless shelter in Highland Park gets city funding to stay open during El Niño."

City regulators said that church pews weren't up to code for sleeping accommodations. Can you believe that? Official reversed course, knowing that they'd be getting hammered by public outrage.

Watch, at CBS News Los Angeles:

Family of Milagros Perez Gets $10,000 Donation to Replace 4-Year-Old Girl’s Specialized Wheelchair (VIDEO)

It's almost impossible to believe that someone would actually steal this little girl's custom wheelchair. It cost the family $1,500 and would have been difficult for them to replace.

But now they're received a charitable gift, just in time for the holidays. That's the spirit.

At the O.C. Register, "$10,000 donation made to replace stolen specialized wheelchair for girl, 4, born without legs":

A Beverly Hills philanthropist has given $10,000 to the family of Milagros Perez to replace the 4-year-old girl’s specialized wheelchair, which was stolen from her Santa Ana home over the weekend, police said.

Cpl. Anthony Bertagna of the Santa Ana Police Department said Thursday that Joyce Brandman gave the family a check, delivered through NBC4, which aired a story about Perez and the missing wheelchair.

Brandman is the president of the Saul and Joyce Brandman Foundation, which gives funding to medical, educational and Jewish causes and organizations, including Chapman University, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Perez was born without legs among several other medical issues. She wasn’t expected to survive. Her mother gave her a name which means “miracles” in Spanish.

After the story of Milagros’ missing wheelchair appeared on news outlets, donations began pouring in...

Arizona State Sorority Sisters Mocked for Taking Selfies at Baseball Game (VIDEO)

The MLB video's here, "9/30/15: Fans are having some fun with their smartphones, taking some selfies as the D-backs host the Rockies at Chase Field."

Also, an Inside Edition video, "Sportscasters Mock Sorority Girls Taking Selfies at Baseball Game."

See London's Daily Mail, "'Here's the first bite of my churro; here's the second!' MLB announcers mock sorority sisters taking selfies during Arizona baseball game in scathing rant live on air."

And they were given some free tickets, which they donated to charity. Pretty classy, at Hollywood Reporter, "Sorority 'Selfie' Girls Decline Free Baseball Tickets, Ask to Donate to Domestic Violence Charity," and ABC News 7 San Francisco, "SELFIE-TAKING SORORITY GIRLS USE INTERNET FAME FOR GOOD."

3-Year-Old Xander Poore Donates $20.00 to Charity Fund for Fire Relief Effort (VIDEO)

It's was his birthday money.

At KCRA News 3 Sacramento, "3-year-old donates $20 to fire fund, melts everyone's heart."

12-Year-Old Boy Asked Mailman for More 'Junk Mail' to Read, Gets Over 500 Book Donations

An awesome feel-good story.



Also, at ABC News, "Utah Boy Who Asked for 'Junk Mail' to Read Gets Over 500 Book Donations."

Rachel Farrokh, 40-Pound Woman Dying from Anorexia, Makes Desperate Plea for Medical Help

It's hard to watch.

WPIX-TV New York, "Woman weighing just 40 pounds pleading for help funding anorexia treatment."

The video's here: "Rachel's Road to Recovery."

Gravity Payments CEO to Boost Entire Company's 'Minimum Wage' to $70,000 (VIDEO)

I'm trying to wrap my head around this. Most business owners don't take $930,000 pay cuts to help their employees.

There's something else going on with this dude. Strange.

At KIRO 7 Seattle, "Seattle CEO to cut his pay so every worker earns $70,000."



Better private sector charity like this than statist collectivist redistribution schemes by corrupt Democrat Party cadres, in any case.

London Pub's Offer to Feed the Homeless Christmas Dinner Goes Viral

So awesome.

This heartwarming gesture will restore your faith in London pubs http://t.co/ftSbRx1GW4 pic.twitter.com/GakbISapbB

— The Independent (@Independent) December 19, 2014

A pub in north London has been overwhelmed by support after their offer to feed the homeless a Christmas dinner went viral.

The William IV pub, on Shepherdess Walk, Islington, tweeted earlier this week: “This Sunday. We are open to the homless and hungry. Proper xmas dinner. Please spread the word and love”.

The tweet was instantly picked up by social media users, who celebrated the pub’s staff and owner’s actions. It has since been retweeted almost seven thousand times.

Chef and manager Adam Hardiman will offer homeless individuals a full roast, including a carvery of turkey, beef and salmon – with all the trimings from 12 to 3pm this Sunday.

So beautiful.

And of course, this is the kind of warm-hearted charity that big-government nanny-staters can't stand. For example, see, "Don't let the Left ruin our crusade... writes food bank pioneer ROBIN AITKEN."

Guaranteed. If the good people of the private sector do good works, leftists will try to ruin it. One way or another, leftists will destroy basic decency and holiday cheer.

Curmudgeonly Take on the Ice Bucket Challenge

From Bill Dwyre, at the Los Angeles Times, "Throwing some cold water on the Ice Bucket Challenge":

Apologies here if I get less than giddy over millions of extra dollars coming in because people dump water on their heads. I have two problems with it.

First, I lost one of my best friends to this evil thing. I saw the deterioration of the body, the continuing sharpness of the mind and the total dissolution of hope. His name was John Rountree, and he has been gone for almost three years now. He was 65. I see film clips of Pete Frates. He is 29.

One could be the other, right down to the hesitant steps, then the slurred speech and soon the motorized wheelchair with the computer serving as the voice. ALS plays no favorites with age. It plays no favorites, period.

If, at this time next year, or a few years down the line, there is an ALS breakthrough and it is traceable, even minutely, to the money raised through this Internet furor, I will write 17 columns praising the human spirit and its current technological driver.

But at the moment, pouring water on our heads, or each other's, seems a slightly distasteful disconnect to the reality of ALS.

Certainly and hopefully, it is not the intention of people such as LeBron James or Bill Gates or Steve Ballmer or Jimmy Fallon — or the thousands of other celebrity types who have done this and got huge Internet attention — to further their own brand.

Still, I wish more had said, when challenged, that pouring water on heads, with its accompanying attention-grabbing and frivolity, didn't quite mesh with the cause. ALS isn't the least bit funny.

A few did, including the president of the United States.

The good news is that the money will keep the researchers researching. The bad news is that $13 million probably doesn't buy as many test tubes as it used to...

RTWT.

Plus, some bonus video from CNN:

'Hidden Cash' Calls It Quits

They don't want to go all commercial. It would lose the beautiful feel of philanthropy and private charity.

Click through at the link:

IMPORTANT announcement. This is difficult... Read: http://t.co/YnUoZnF3sN

— Hidden Cash (@HiddenCash) August 12, 2014

'We like to pay it forward in my family...'

A great story, at the Mirror UK, "Eight-year-old son of dead Iraq veteran hands tear-jerking note of thanks to soldier with $20."

And NewsBusters, "Tearjerker: CBS Spotlights Gold Star Son's Heartfelt Note to National Guardsman."

Petra Nemcova Now Lives in Haiti

She was featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated swimsuit in 2003.

She's got a foundation going nowadays, Happy Hearts Fund, and she lives in Haiti, of all places.

Awesome Gary Sinise Interview with Martha McCallum on Fox News

I did a double take yesterday when I looked up at the TV and there he was.

A great interview. Sinise is the embodiment of the American spirit.