Heritage Foundation analyst who questioned Hispanic intelligence and wrote for nationalist website resigns

Jason Richwine, a Heritage Foundation analyst and the co-author of a study that measured the cost of an immigration reform bill, resigned from the conservative public policy organization after news organizations reported he had authored a dissertation asserting that Hispanics had lower IQs than whites and wrote for a website founded by white nationalists.

"Jason Richwine let us know he’s decided to resign from his position. He’s no longer employed by Heritage," Heritage spokesman Mike Gonzales said. "It is our long-standing policy not to discuss internal personnel matters."

Richwine came under scrutiny this week after he co-authored a study with Heritage senior research fellow Robert Rector estimating that it would cost $6.3 trillion to legalize immigrants currently living in the country unlawfully. Heritage -- under its new president, former South Carolina Republican Sen. Jim DeMint -- has worked actively to oppose the bipartisan immigration reform legislation currently pending in the Senate.

On Wednesday, the Washington Post reported that Richwine's PhD dissertation at Harvard University, published in 2010, argued that Hispanic immigrants had generally lower IQs than white Americans. On Thursday, Yahoo News revealed that Richwine had written two articles for the website AlternativeRight.com, a publication founded and run by white nationalists.

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Foundation to Cover Sequester Cuts to Iraq, Afghanistan Scholarships

A Florida-based charity announced today that it will cover the funding cut from scholarships for children of military members who died fighting in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars because of sequestration.

ABC News reported Tuesday that scholarships were being cut by as much as $2,133.81 per recipient this year because of automatic budget cuts to the Department of Education included in the sequester legislation.

The Children of Fallen Patriots Foundation, a Jacksonville Beach organization that helps children of military members who perished while on active duty to finance their education, said it will use funding from private donations to cover the gap left by sequester cuts.

"We work with our children any way to find them all available funding and grants towards college," Executive Director John Coogan told ABC News today.

Coogan said the organization dedicates every dollar of donations to identifying children of the fallen, advising them on how best to find grants and scholarships for higher education, and covering whatever costs are left over.

The foundation is nonpartisan, but Coogan said the announcement about sequestration triggered an increased sense of responsibility to help out in this respect.

"I think, generally speaking, it's important for us to stay focused that the children of these fallen patriots aren't affected by policy disagreements," Coogan said.

The challenge for the organization is finding these children - be they infants or just reaching college age - so they can help. Coogan said the organization had already enrolled 1,800 children, but he estimated there were about 15,000 who had lost a parent in the line of duty.

"We're really looking to increase the number of children that we've identified so that we can be sure we're doing what we're supposed to be doing as an organization," Coogan said.

In speaking this afternoon, Coogan said the group had already begun the process of reaching out to families of those Marines killed in a training exercise in Nevada Tuesday.

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