The non-profit SF Public Press, whose founder, Michael Stoll, applied to the Internal Revenue 
Service for a tax exemption in January 2010, is among a slew of non-profits caught up in IRS foot-dragging for approval of their non-profit status. Twenty-one months later, Stoll and his newspaper are still waiting, says the Chronicle of Philanthropy. An excerpt:
[Stoll] says he had studied IRS rules, and his group seemed to fit all of the federal requirements of a charity: It publishes only public-interest journalism, does not endorse political candidates, operates mostly with volunteers on a shoestring budget, and does not accept advertising or resemble a commercial operation in any other way.
“We’ve played it by the book,” he says.
