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Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
How presidential descendants uphold their families' legacies
The idea of Carter, Truman, Eisenhower, McKinley, Roosevelt and Grant taking a vacation together in Florida might sound like a fantasy, but the Society of Presidential Descendants makes it happen every year. It's a club that you literally have to be born into. Each Presidents Day, first families meet up at a historic spot called the Little White House in scenic Key West. "The first time we did anything like this was in 2010 with Margaret Hoover, President Hoover's great granddaughter, and her husband," Clifton Truman, the oldest grandson of 33rd President Harry Truman, told ABC News. "And the next year, we added Susan Ford and Luci Baines Johnson." Since 2018, the group has met annually and amassed 75 direct descendants from 26 presidents. They know their families are wrapped up in the nation's history. "Susan Ford said, I wasn't sure, that the job was sort of twofold. One, to keep up with the legacy -- your ancestor's legacy -- to preserve that, promote it, defend it," Clifton said. "But the second part of the job is to do something with it on your own, make it your own in some way." Part of the preservation is sharing stories with eager audiences at Harry and Bess Truman's second home. The Little White House is a museum now, but Clifton used to come here with his grandparents in the '60s. MORE: Trump 2nd term live updates Their names carry a lot of weight, and a great deal of responsibility. Tweed Roosevelt, the great grandson of President Theodore Roosevelt, the nation's 26th commander in chief, recounted being held to a higher standard in school. "'Mr. Roosevelt, it's all right for the other boys to do that. But it's not all right for you to do it,'" he told ABC News. "That was the most valuable lesson I learned in all my four years of college." Ulysses Grant Dietz, the youngest great-great grandchild of President Ulysses S. Grant and his wife, Julia. Out of 41 great-great grandchildren, he's the only one to share a name with the 18th president. "I became the torch-bearer," he told ABC News. "And so people will say 'Oh, well they're historians, but we want you to talk because your name is Ulysses.' So you have to back that up with some self-education." While this is the yearly formal gathering, this specially connected group of friends gather elsewhere from time to time on other special occasions. Before former President Jimmy Carter died in December, almost a dozen descendants -- including his grandson James Earl Carter IV -- gathered to celebrate the 39th president's 100th birthday last October. They're descended from Democrats and Republicans, but party affiliation and policy discussion have never stood in the way of the group's mission to stick together. "One of the things that all of our ancestors had in common was a great love for the country, a great respect for the institution of the presidency, regardless of politics, and that's something that we all share as well," James said. MORE: Former President Jimmy Carter, celebrated champion of human rights, dies at 100 It also acts as a support system in more challenging times. "I had a heart attack back in July, and all of these friends contacted me and were there for me, so they're family," Massee McKinley, who is the great-great nephew of 25th President William McKinley and the great, great grandson of 22nd and 24th President Grover Cleveland, told ABC News. Mary Jean Eisenhower, youngest grandchild of 34th President Dwight Eisenhower, noted that they don't carry on any conflicts their forebears may have had. "I think it's fairly common knowledge that Truman and my grandfather had a rift, you know, later on in their lives," she told ABC News. "And we've talked it out, and not only have we discovered that they made up, but we decided that we straightened our grandparents out." This group is determined to use their famous family names to push the legacy forward. "Presidents Day is an opportunity to begin to remind people of what their civic duties are. Everybody seems to know their rights, but they seem to have forgotten that those rights come with duties," Tweed Roosevelt said. "One of the things we're trying to do is help Americans understand what their role is, so that democracy will survive." How presidential descendants uphold their families' legacies originally appeared on
Yahoo
05-02-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Charities protest proposed $50K cap on gambling profits
Feb. 4—Leaders representing scores of nonprofits, from groups that run homeless shelters and brain-injury treatment centers, to those training service dogs, said setting a cap of $50,000 in revenue from charity gambling would threaten their very survival. Susan Ford is executive director of My Friend's Place, a homeless shelter in Dover that serves 30 people every day with an annual budget of $500,000. The shelter received $135,000 last year from gambling that included bingo and charity casino dates. "This bill would cripple our agency," Ford said. "People will die if we are not there. I can't express how much this bill would crucify us." Rep. Richard Ames, D-Jaffrey, the sponsor of HB 531, said it's not fair that 800 charities were picked to benefit from as many as 10 gambling dates a year while nearly 9,000 other nonprofits receive no gambling revenue. The IRS listed 9,688 active tax-exempt organizations in New Hampshire. "Those charities not on the list across the state do not benefit from this revenue stream at all," Ames told the House Ways and Means Committee during a hearing on his bill Tuesday. "Putting a limit in would buy time for figuring out a long-term solution that would work." Legalizing betting on "historic horse racing" machines four years ago has led to an explosion in profits for the 10 charity casinos that have them. The Legislature allowed 18 locations to have the slot-machine-like machines and kept in place a monopoly for them as exclusive operators for another six years. Charities get 35% of revenue from games of chance such as high-stakes poker games and 8.75% of profit from HHR gambling; the state gets 10% and 16%, respectively. Last year the 800 charities with legalized gambling dates received $31.2 million. Under Ames's bill, all money over $50,000 in profit for each charity would go to the Education Trust Fund to support state aid to public schools. All profit from traditional lottery games such as scratch tickets and Powerball jackpots currently goes to public school aid. 240 got more than $50k The Lottery Commission said of 64 of the 698 charities that get HHR money received more than $50,000 last year. Among the 815 charities that benefit from games of chance, 176 received more than $50,000 last year. If passed, Ames's bill over the next state budget year would move $18.6 million to school aid — more than half of what charities got in 2023. "We consider this to be a tax on nonprofits," said Mike Apfelberg, president of the United Way of Greater Nashua. "We are not opposed to the cap per se; we are opposed to taking the money away from the (nonprofit) sector." The Krempels Brain Injury Center in Portsmouth got in on the ground floor in 2011 as one of the first benefactors of gambling at a former dog track in Seabrook. In 2019, new owners and casino gambling developers opened The Brook charity casino on that site and built it into one of the state's most profitable charitable gaming facilities. Last year, the Krempels Center received $160,000. "We have been able to maintain that relationship," said Terry Hyland Jr., Krempels' director of community relations and development officer. "It's never been a given. It is an annual question mark if the funding will continue." Ames served on a commission studying charitable gambling that put a spotlight on the issue. But that commission's chairman, former state Rep. Patrick Abrami of Stratham, opposed Ames's bill. "Does a Little League team need $150,000? No," Abrami said. "There is no question we need to do something about this." Abrami said the issue needs more study. "Good luck trying to dismantle it; it's helping too many organizations," Abrami said, adding there are some charities that do "really need $100,000, $150,000" to thrive. Last week, the same House committee voted 16-0 to recommend passing a bill (HB 328) to recreate a new charity gaming commission and give it 10 years to do its work. There were 445 who signed up online against the bill while only 8 favored it. "While I don't agree that excess funds should be handed to the Lottery Commission, I think the idea of a cap is smart as long as more nonprofits can take advantage of this program which is currently very imbalanced and benefits fewer organizations than it should," wrote Mary Jenkins of Goffstown. klandrigan@
