• Hackers obtained access to e-mail addresses and passwords of thousands of donors last month.   [New York Times]

• Red Cross ousts its president and chief executive after learning he had an affair with a female subordinate.  [New York Times]

• The son of philanthropist Brooke Astor pleads not guilty to charges of stealing millions from his mother's estate.  [Washington Post]

• A group of philanthropists will start ProPublica, a nonprofit news organization that will conduct investigative reporting and provide articles free to other news outlets. [Chronicle of Philanthropy]
• Newspaper, state investigate a Massachusetts nonprofit with history of giving jobs and contracts to family members and friends. [Patriot Ledger]
• Nonprofit assistance for Hurrican Katrina victims in the Gulf states is running dry. [The Advocate]

• Tax-exempt groups owed close to $1 billion in unpaid taxes as of last year, according to a new congressional study.  [Associated Press]

• Trial begins for the Holy Land Foundation, a charity the US government believes funded Hamas.  [Los Angeles Times]

• A confidential report claims that the Smithsonian's retail division is in "substantial turmoil."  [Washington Post]

• Bono to guest edit Vanity Fair's July issue. [New York Times]

• Bruce Gordon resigns as head of NAACP; cites differences with Board.  [Los Angeles Times]

• National Law Enforcement Museum kicks off $80 million campaign.  [Washington Post] 

Washington Post: Five conservative nonprofit organizations, including one run by prominent Republican Grover Norquist, "perpetrated a fraud" on taxpayers by selling their clout to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, Senate investigators said in a report issued today. The report includes previously unreleased e-mails between the now-disgraced lobbyist and officers of the nonprofit groups, showing that Abramoff routed money from his clients to the groups. In exchange the groups, among other things, produced ostensibly independent newspaper op-ed columns or press releases that favored the clients' positions.

Where Most Needed: Improprieties are found, but no crimes, and no further penalties or reimbursements are proposed either for the trust or for ex-CEO Barry Munitz. The California Attorney General's office has issued a report in its investigation of the J. Paul Getty Trust after the resignation of its CEO Barry Munitz earlier this year, who had agreed to forego $2 million on his employment contract and reimburse the museum $250,000 following a series of reports in the LA Times about questionable spending. 

Associated Press:  Nearly three years after hearing arguments in the case, a federal judge has ruled that an American Civil Liberties Union challenge to the constitutionality of the USA Patriot Act may proceed.

Detroit Free Press: Ajaz Khan doesn't consider himself a cynical person, but he finds it hard not to be -- especially when deciding where to give."Give in the name of Islam? No," Khan, 54, of Rochester Hills said, referring to a common pitch from Muslim-run nonprofits asking people to donate because they share a faith. "If I don't know about you, why should I give it to you?" With federal officials raiding Southfield-based Life for Relief and Development last week, the faithful are facing difficult questions during Ramadan, the holiday period that began this weekend and lasts for a month.

Where Most Needed: An Ohio judge rules that police and prosecutors are not entitled to the proceeds from the sale of a building owned by a charity that violated bingo rules.