The thin line between nonprofit organizations and local politicians was blurred once more again today. Elizabeth Benjamin of the Daily News reports that a ballot squabble between two city council candidates revealed that officials at the United Jewish Council of the East Side have been doing campaign work for Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and mayoral challenger City Comptroller Bill Thompson. Renee Abromowitz of UJC said under oath that she had gone out to gather signatures for candidates testifying, "I have done this many years...So I know when the sheets on my desk [sic], I just go out and I volunteer to do signatures." Abromowitz also admitted to handing signature sheets over to her boss, a UJC director. The News says that Silver has directed more than $2.3 million in member items to UJC since 2006. The UJC has also received $16,000 in slush funds from City Councilman Alan Gerson, the man at the center of the controversy when the issues was raised by his Democratic primary challenger, Pete Gleason. A lawyer for Gleason said, "This is a charitable organization, and it's being perverted for political purposes." more ›

With more patrons opting to go to museums on their free days or only paying the minimum suggested donation on others, local museums are being thrifty themselves by dipping into their own collections for upcoming shows. WCBS 2 points to the Brooklyn Museum's recent exhibition of Coptic and Pagan sculpture and the MOMA's fall presentation of Claude Monet's water lilies series as shows that draw largely or entirely from the museums' own respective holdings. The Brooklyn Museum recently just raised its rates after recent months have seen an increase in visitors on their free First Saturdays by almost 50% to over 10,000. A spokesman for the Met doesn't think cutbacks will get too dramatic saying, "There's no thought of changing hours, closing galleries, aborting the schedule.'' The president of the Association of Art Museum Directors added, ''Although all nonprofits and profits are struggling, we do have a curious place in this reality.'' more ›