Free Republic

LOS ANGELES – Charitable funds given to the J. Paul Getty Trust were improperly used to pay the travel expenses of the foundation's former chief executive and buy artwork for retiring board members, the California attorney general said in a report Monday. The investigation found some improper spending at the $9 billion trust, the nation's third-largest private foundation, but no fraud. However, an attorney who has served in key law enforcement posts was appointed to serve as an independent monitor of the trust – the first time in state history that someone will oversee the dealings of a charitable trust....

Barry Munitz , chief executive of the J. Paul Getty Trust, had a private lunch with his friend Attorney General Bill Lockyer as the state probed Munitz for allegedly mismanaging trust money, the Los Angeles Times reported. Lockyer, California's top law enforcement official, acknowledged that the January lunch at a downtown pizzeria might look bad, but said the two did not discuss the investigation. He said, however, Munitz did disclose plans to resign from his $1.5 million-a-year post because of the controversy surrounding his lavish spending. Munitz quit a month later and agreed to forgo more than $2 million guaranteed...

LOS ANGELES In his bid for more power over public schools, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is set to appoint a veteran educator to a post designed to ease tensions between City Hall and public school officials opposed to the plan, the Los Angeles Times reported. Ramon C. Cortines, who served six months as interim superintendent of the L.A. Unified school district in 2000, is scheduled to be named deputy mayor for education, youth and families Tuesday. Cortines did not say whether he supports state legislation that would grant Villaraigosa say in district management a proposal that has drawn fire from the...