Other stuff

Major ruling on religious freedom from Supreme Court

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The Supreme Court issued a major ruling in favor of religious freedom, finding that a religious preschool may not be prohibited from a program helping private schools merely because it is a religious based school.

I would like to give you a flash introduction to the ruling. If you are interested in this case, you must spend time in further research.

The case, referred to as Trinity Lutheran, is focused on a state program that paid for private schools to resurface their playgrounds with rubber from recycled tires.  The state held that merely being run by a religious entity disqualified the preschool from participation in the program. (If you need a more precise cite, look up Trinity Lutheran Church vs. Comer)

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Jim Ulvog

Announcing “Ancient Finances”, my newest blog

Silver Roman denarius. Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Ancient Finances will explore finances and money during the Viking age and Roman Empire. Lots of posts on other blogs addressing those topics have been cross-posted to the new blog. This includes lots of discussion of the loot Alexander the Great lifted during his rampaging world tour.

I’ve been having loads of fun reading about the Viking age and am intrigued by finances and money during the Roman Empire.

Why a new blog?

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Jim Ulvog

Do some research on the Executive Order addressing religious freedom

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock

I don’t do politics on my blogs.

I do pay attention to issues affecting non-profits.

So when the president issues an Executive Order addressing religious freedom, it is worth discussing even though it is a politically loaded EO.

On May 4, the president issued an EO which reportedly pulls back on the ban against churches getting involved in political campaigns.

In a one sentence overstatement, under current law 501(c)(3) exempt organizations may not involve themselves in political campaigns and may only get involved in very limited ways in legislative efforts. Ok, I’ll add a second sentence – That means churches and other exempt organizations may not endorse or favor a political candidate but may exert some effort addressing matters before a legislative body.

Based only on initial reports, the EO appears to contain several major items. First, telling the IRS to use maximum discretion in applying the rules on the political ban. Second, telling the Attorney General to develop guidelines for federal agencies on how they apply their rules in terms of religious freedom. Third, asking federal agencies to make certain changes in health care requirements regarding contraceptive coverage.

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Jim Ulvog

Justice grinds slow, but it does grind: Guilty plea for shooting of Walter Scott in North Charleston.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

In April 2015, an officer with the North Charleston, S.C. police department shot a man in the back as the citizen slowly ran away from the officer after an altercation.

In December 2016 the officer achieved a hung verdict in his murder trial after claiming he feared for his life after a struggle for his taser. He was facing a retrial at state level.

On May 3, 2017, the officer plead guilty to the federal crime of violating the man’s civil rights. He will be sentenced later.

Justice takes time, sometimes.

After you watch the video below and read my description of the incident, you will appreciate two questions that come to mind. For background, consider I am a middle-class, middle-age, white male, who runs my own business.

Here are the two distressing questions I’ve been pondering for the past two years:

  • How often did this type of incident take place in the past, when nobody had a video recorder in their pocket?
  • How often does this type of incident take place today?

A Wall Street Journal article provides background on the plea and the case:  Former S.C. Policeman Pleads Guilty in Shooting of Walter Scott. The officer was fired immediately after the incident. The city apologized and reached a $6.5M settlement with the family.

If you have the stomach for it, feel free to watch the following video:

Please know in advance it is upsetting.

 

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKQqgVlk0NQ]

 

My observations:

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Jim Ulvog

He is risen!

Death on a cross Friday isn’t the end of the story. The tomb is empty on Sunday, because HE IS RISEN! Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

 

Here’s a selection of videos to help your Easter celebration:

 

Jesus Christ is risen today!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dT7dGcsrPkQ]

 

The following is a repost of my comment four years ago on Easter morning. (Update: A few additions for more of the traditional hymns describing the blessings to us of the resurrection.)

 

He is risen! He is risen indeed!

This morning my wife and I attended a sunrise service. Haven’t done that for many years. A wonderful way to celebrate this day. On our way to celebrate with our church family momentarily.

 

 

 

I know that my Redeemer lives:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oR0E7gEeqBk]

 

Up from the grave He arose.

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oN77HjfAc8k]

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Jim Ulvog

In case you hadn’t hear, those telephone calls claiming to be from the IRS demanding you immediately pay back taxes are a scam.

Wouldn't it be nice if the phone id actually was that accurate for every call? Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the caller ID was actually that accurate for every call? Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The most frequent scam in 2016 was the phone calls saying “This is the IRS and if you don’t pay your past due taxes this instant we will send someone to your house to arrest you right now.”

There are many things wrong with those calls.

As a starter, your first contact with the IRS will never be by phone. You will instead get a letter explaining what the IRS thinks you messed up.

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Jim Ulvog

Postage rates changing 1/22/17

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Postal rates will change again effective January 22, 2017.

Chronicle of Philanthropy reports New Postal Rates Will Boost Costs for Charities. Article says increase for charities will range from 2.8% up to 4.3%.

A significant change is that mail which was previously marked as “standard” will now be categorized and marked as “marketing mail.” That is a concern for an industry representative who said that may reduce the likelihood of recipients actually opening such items, which would obviously reduce the effectiveness of a mailing.

You can find the new rates at the USPS site: January 2017 Price Change.

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Jim Ulvog

Podcast on turmoil involving Wounded Warrior Project

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

If you’ve been following the media turmoil surrounding Wounded Warrior Project, you will want to check out a podcast from The Contributing Factor (that is Bill O’Reilly’s website):  Podcast: Ousted Wounded Warrior Project Executives Speak Out.

There are interviews with the two departed senior executives.

That page also has written responses from the board denying the specifics in the Doug White report.

The board asserts that giving dropped as soon as the media reports surfaced. Mr. Nardizzi asserts that he was watching the giving until the day he was released and noticed the giving was only 1.7% below the projected income.

Check out the podcast. I’ll try to have more comments later.

Jim Ulvog

A completely different perspective on the crisis surrounding Wounded Warrior Project.

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

Here are a few articles which will give you a different way of looking at the recent publicity surrounding Wounded Warrior Project. I’ve been swamped by several major projects so haven’t had much time to write recently. Those projects are still not done so I won’t be able to spend as much time on this post as I would like, yet I want to get some comments online for those who have been following the story.

The biggest article is The First Casualty: A report addressing the allegations made against the Wounded Warrior Project in January 2016 by Doug White, published September 6, 2016.

There is a lot of information about the entire story which has received minuscule coverage. Here is my quick recap of his major points:

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Jim Ulvog

Minor updates on Wounded Warrior Project – 8/5

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

Not a lot of news about WWP lately, or at least that I’ve noticed. Expect lots more coverage in about two weeks.

Mark Hrywna (@mhrywna) posted a Twitter comment on July 28 that WWP will file their 990 on the deadline of August 15. I asked if he some indication when the 990 will be available on their website. He hasn’t heard, but noted they tend to post quickly after the return is filed. So perhaps this month we will see the 990. Hopefully see the audited financial statements about the same time.

In some older news:

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Jim Ulvog

Why I have known for most of my life that we have serious unresolved racial issues in our society

Maybe we ought to do this with our hands and ears a little more often. Maybe even our hearts. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Maybe we ought to acknowledge there is a gap between us. Maybe each of us should reach out with our ears. Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

The first time I realized we had racial problems in the U.S. was way back when I was in elementary school.

If I can share my thoughts here without getting tons of hate poured on my head, I will have more to say. If you think this is somehow related to what we have seen in the news this month, you are absolutely correct. Mine is such a tiny, insignificant voice, yet I must speak.

What little I can offer you is one recollection from childhood, brief news reports while in college, and one news report while on active duty.

Take the stories however seriously you wish. Discount them or ignore them or explain them away if you want.  If it is your choice to do so, impute terrible ignorance to me that these feeble stories are what little I have to share. Assume about me whatever you will and paste on me any label you prefer.

So you can put this article into context, please know I am white, male, born into a middle-class family, currently living a middle-class life, and run my own small business. You will shortly be able to estimate my age.

You might want to get a fresh cup of coffee – this will be a long read.

 

Sir, can you call a cab for me?

We lived in a suburb of Wichita, Kansas when I was in elementary school. Don’t recall when this particular event happened, but think it was back in 2nd or 3rd or 4th grade, which would have been the early or mid-’60s. Yes, I know that means you can now calculate my age within a few years. Reason to estimate the timing is so you can put the incident into some sort of context. Think the 1960s.

My family was leaving a grocery store when a woman approached my dad. I remember her as being older (at least to the eyes of a youngster), rotund, black, and with inflection in her voice so thick that any three consecutive words she spoke would have immediately identified her race.

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Jim Ulvog

To all those serving in the American military or who have served

Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.
Image courtesy of Adobe Stock.

I was on active duty in the U.S. Air Force a mere four years. I never got within 3,000 miles of hostile action against American forces. To top it off, my small contribution was decades ago.

As a result, I am squeamishly uncomfortable accepting the appreciation when someone tells me “Thanks for your service.”

It took me a few years to get to a place where I could accept those comments.

I now graciously and proudly accept those expressions of appreciation from my fellow Americans, not because of what I did so long ago, but on behalf of all those soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen who do not have someone looking them in the eye, shaking their hand, and saying “thanks.”

So for all those troops pulling alerts, standing watch, scheduling logistics, or taking fire, please know that vast numbers of Americans are grateful for your service.

I pass on to you their thanks.

You are there, not here, so many people have thanked me instead. It is you they are really thanking.

While today we remember with gratitude those who did not return, I hope those who are serving today hear the appreciation.

Jim Ulvog

GuideStar begins major effort to let charities report their outcomes

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

GuideStar Premium is a new feature allowing charities to describe their goals and what progress they’re making. This provides NPOs the opportunity to quantify their outcomes and impacts.

This is a big step. It is a wonderful experiment.

GuideStar Platinum: Measuring Nonprofit Performance at Scale provides an overview of the new platform. This page provides more detail on the service.

Charities are allowed to self define the measures used. Organizations self measure their progress.

This will create wide variety in the measurement tools. I believe that is a wonderful thing. Self defining outcomes will allow a measure that is very carefully tailored to a particular organization. Over time I am guessing there will be some sort of comparability between charities within a specific sector which will allow some vague level of comparison within sectors.

The important point is that the outcomes for a rescue mission are radically different from an at-risk youth mentoring program, which in turn are radically different from a civil rights group or public issue advocacy group. Each organization needs a metric that specifically addresses what that organization is trying to accomplish.

There are somewhere in the range of 250 charities listed at Platinum Early Adopters. Congrats to these organizations taking the first struggling steps to publicly declare their quantitative progress against their outcome goals.

I took a look at the results for about a dozen of those early adopters. Here’s what I learned from my nonrandom sample.

Traditional input measurement

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Jim Ulvog

First class mail rates to drop April 10, 2016

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

Price for first class mail will drop from $0.49 to $0.47 on 4/10/16. Price for each additional ounces will drop from $0.22 to $0.21.

If you are a large enough organization to have a shipping department or a staff person who keeps up on all the minutia of shipping, then you already knew about this change.

If you are a small organization like me, you may not have noticed. Since I just caught wind of it yesterday, I’m sure there are lots of other people who don’t know about it yet.

A surcharge was put in place two years ago, in January 2014, equal to the reductions mentioned above. The surcharge was designed to catch up for the revenue drop during the great recession. The regulator for postal prices (Postal Regulatory Commission) ordered the surcharge added in 2014 and ordered it to be dropped this month.

After a search, I could not find the new price list at the USPS website, so I’m left with a guess that the flat envelope rates will change by the same amounts.

Additional info:

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Jim Ulvog

Increase of minimum wage in California will have big impact on charities in the state

Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com
Image courtesy of DollarPhotoClub.com

The California legislature has approved and the governor is expected to sign a bill that will increase the minimum wage in California to $15 an hour over the next several years.

The minimum wage in the state will go from $10.00 now to $10.50 on 1/1/17. It will then increase to $11.00 on 1/1/18 and then another $1.00 a year until reaching $15.00 on 1/1/22. After that, the minimum wage will be tied to inflation.

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Jim Ulvog