Write-Offs:

Elizabeth Schwinn

• The Internal Revenue Service has named Lois Lerner acting director of the exempt-organizations office, which oversees charities. Ms. Lerner replaces Steven T. Miller, who was named commissioner of the tax-exempt and government entities division. Ms. Lerner was director of the exempt-organizations division’s section on rulings and agreements.
• The federal government is appealing a jury’s decision in a closely watched case involving a Texas nonprofit hospital group that entered into partnership with a for-profit company. The IRS had determined that the hospital group should lose its tax exemption because the partnership did not further the St. David’s Health Care System’s charitable purpose. But a U.S. District Court jury sided with the hospital in March (The Chronicle, April 1). The IRS has filed an appeal in the case, St. David’s Health Care System v. United States of America, No. 101CV-046, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.