Current (https://current.org/2004/02/page/3/)
Billy Tauzin, the Louisiana congressman who oversees broadcasting and CPB as House Commerce chairman, announced his retirement from the committee effective Feb. 16 and from Congress after this term, the Washington Post reported. Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.) is expected to succeed Tauzin as chair, the Post said. In 2002 Barton named himself as “one of the skeptics about the need for public broadcasting today.” Tauzin is expected to take the top drug-industry lobbying job.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation gave the Public Radio Exchange a $350,000 grant.
GuideStar, the data source about nonprofits, lists numerous Internet mailing lists (listservs) and newsgroups about charities and fundraising.
The Bush administration proposes to crack down on taxpayers’ valuations of cars donated to charities and other non-cash gifts, but will also would decrease tax revenue by giving limited charitable deductions to the majority of taxpayers who don’t itemize deductions.
“An election this week will determine whether a generation of young people in this region will grow up hearing America’s most important musical heritage or a steady diet of political propaganda,” writes the Washington Post’s Marc Fisher about the upcoming board election for WPFW, the Washington Pacifica station. A Columbia Spectator article touches on the politics of elections at New York’s WBAI-FM, another Pacifica station.
In its FY05 budget, the Bush White House again chose not to propose an advance appropriation for CPB [PDF file], leaving the FY07 question for Congress to handle. Congress already has allotted $400 mil for FY06. The budget also tries again to terminate PTFP grants for facilities, but it proposes to plump the NEA budget by $18 mil and NEH by $37 mil for major initiatives on “American Masterpieces” and American history (“We the People”). The budget maintains Ready to Learn TV at its $23 mil level, but zeroes out Ready to Teach and Star Schools funding.
The g.m. of Antioch University’s WYSO in Yellow Springs, Ohio, Steve Spencer, resigned Friday, the Dayton Daily News reported. The bitter battle between Spencer and local activists [Keep WYSO Local] echoes the national campaign that deposed Pacifica Radio’s national leaders.