Thursday, July 16, 2009

Off-Topic: Read Before You Donate on Rte 175

Tale of Two Cities blog has an example of the local reporting that the Sun and the WPost can no longer do in Howard County -- if they ever could get this granular.

There are people soliciting donations at Dobbin Road and Rte 175. Wordbones figured out with some basic research that they're affiliated with a Tampa church that the Tampa Tribune investigated. Read Tale of Two Cities before you donate because this is a quote from the Tribune:

Yet while their followers live in poverty and beg for donations from those who would “help feed needy women and children,” the Jeffersons live in a 10,000-square-foot home in Brandon. Bishop Jefferson drives a Bentley Arnage, worth as much as $150,000. The couple wear tailor-made clothing and travel in a private jet.
Moreover, records show the bishop has bought a substantial amount of land for the church, spending $2 million on properties in Hillsborough County since 1992. Yet the church has a history of leaving debts unpaid."

3 comments:

Christine said...

I've also seen these people on the corner of Broken Land and Snowden.

Sara said...

Thanks for sharing; I actually refuse to give to anyone who asks for money at an intersection. I refuse to support such an incredibly dangerous situation. I shop at MOM's and frequently pass through that intersection. A few weeks ago a girls' basketball team was out soliciting donations and a young teenage girl darted across a few lanes of traffic. Not that getting hit by a car would be such a small thing, but I shudder to think about all the big rigs passing through that intersection, often in a hurry.

Sara said...

oops, I am talking about the intersection of rt. 1 and 175 where I believe the group in the article has also solicited.