News Briefs for February 27, 2014

University and National Gallery of Art to Take Over Corcoran Art Museum

The financially troubled Corcoran Gallery of Art announced a plan in which it would shift its operations to the George Washington University and the National Gallery of Art. The university would take over the museum’s building and run the Corcoran College of Art and Design, while the art gallery would assume responsibility for the Corcoran collection and display a selection of its works.

Moore Foundation Head Resigns Abruptly

Steven McCormick, president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, one of America’s 10 largest grant makers, resigned last week from the position, effective immediately, to “pursue high-impact projects,” a spokeswoman said. Mr. McCormick had been president since 2008.

Republicans Push Bills to Delay IRS Rules Restricting Nonprofit Political Activity

Republicans in the House and Senate have introduced legislation to delay by one year proposed Internal Revenue Service rules designed to clarify which political activities “social welfare” groups can undertake without jeopardizing their tax-exempt status. Critics say the IRS proposal goes too far in restricting “candidate-related activities” and would chill free speech by nonprofits. The legislation would also require the IRS to return to standards it used before it began providing extra scrutiny to applications from groups with terms like “tea party” or “progressive” in their names.

Conflict-of-interest Concern Prompts WNET to Return Arnold Foundation Grant

Public-television station WNET in New York said it would return $3.5-million from the Laura and John Arnold Foundation for reporting on financially troubled public-pension plans. The decision followed charges on the website PandoDaily that the undisclosed gift posed a conflict of interest because the Arnold fund is trying to get governments to reshape their pension policies. A WNET executive, Stephen Segaller, said in a statement that the foundation never tried to prescribe the reporting, but the station would return the money to eliminate any perception that the fund had influenced editorial integrity.

Obama Nominates Kauffman Center Leader to Head National Endowment for the Arts

President Obama nominated Jane Chu, president of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, in Kansas City, Mo., to be chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts. The position has been vacant since Rocco Landesman, a former Broadway producer, resigned at the end of 2012.

Wash. Court Says Fired Worker Can Sue Catholic Hospital for Nonreligious Bias

The Washington State Supreme Court ruled that religious charities can be sued for job discrimination by employees whose responsibilities are not related to faith. Religious organizations are exempt from the state’s anti-discrimination law, but a divided court ruled that the African-American plaintiff, who was fired as a security guard by a Catholic hospital in Tacoma, should be able to sue on grounds that he faced discrimination based on race and disability.

Calif. Ethics Panel Proposes to Bar Judges from Affiliation with Boy Scouts

A California Supreme Court advisory committee on judicial ethics has recommended that state judges be barred from affiliation with the Boy Scouts of America because the youth group prohibits gays and lesbians from serving as troop leaders. The Boy Scouts ended its prohibition on gay youth members in January, a decision that angered some of its participants. But it maintained a ban on gay adult leaders. The group said its membership was down 6 percent at the end of 2013 compared with a year earlier. Spokesman Deron Smith said it was “impossible to point to any single factor” that prompted the decline.

Georgetown University Creates New Social-innovation Center

Georgetown University has established a center to promote collaboration between students, faculty members, and businesses on innovative ways to solve social problems. The university said it is using a $10-million gift from the businessman Alberto Beeck and his wife, Olga María Beeck, a Georgetown alumnus, to set up the Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation. Sonal Shah, former director of the White House Office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation, was named its founding executive director.