A friend -- a tipster -- kicked over a letter sent out this past Aug. 13, roughly two weeks ago, by Steve Alexander, the Star Tribune's Sr. VP for Circulation. Addressed, I gather, to new subscribers, it "welcomes" them to the Star Tribune family, thanks them for subscribing, and then commences telling them "a little bit about our newspaper."

Two things caught my eye: One is where Alexander mentions "350 full-time journalists" working at the paper. At best, I can determine the Star Tribune currently has around 90-120 reporters and photographers -- the people actually gathering news and returning it to the building for processing, and I'm told that even by the most generous reckoning the 350 number has been significantly reduced ... this summer alone.

But we'll let that pass.

What really piqued my interest was when Alexander tells his new customers that, "For almost 140 years, the Star Tribune has been part of the Twin Cities community. Since 1945, we've been committed to ongoing philanthropy through the Star Tribune Foundation, which currently distributes $3 million annually."

Really? $3 million? Annually? Right here in Minneapolis-St.Paul, I assume you're saying?

If I sound surprised it's because I was under the distinct impression that when McClatchy sold the Strib to Avista Capital Partners it closed down the Star Tribune Foundation -- which made grants to local arts and civic organizations, good corporate neighbor kind of stuff, and matched employee contributions to alma maters and such things -- and took what was left in any Foundation accounts with them to California, which is a long ways from Minnesota.

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As is the case these days, no manager or executive at Minnesota's largest media organization deigned to respond to a question from this scurrilous mongrel blogger. (I'm sure Joel Kramer's new team will have no problem getting Strib execs to return their calls or e-mails.)

My call to Mr. Alexander was quickly passed over to Ben Taylor, Sr. VP for Marketing and Communications ... and Mr. Taylor did not respond to my voice-mail asking him to clear up the status of the Foundation.

One call led to another, and I soon found Ms. Sam Fleitman, formerly the Star Tribune Foundation's manager, now working for Andersen Windows' foundation. Ms. Fleitman's job at the Star Tribune disappeared with the Avista purchase, and so did the Foundation and everything in its accounts.

But, just to be clear, does the Star Tribune Foundation still exist, I asked Fleitman?

"Not in this town," she said. "McClatchy took the Foundation with them and I believe is using what resources were left through their other papers."

In other words, it would be hard to be "currently" distributing "$3 million annually" here in Minnesota ... through a defunct Foundation.

And what about outstanding, multi-year commitments, perhaps? You know, deals where the Foundation agreed to fund two or three years down the line?

"We paid all of them off through 2008," said Fleitman, who had been the Foundation's manager for nine years before Avista shut it down. "This would be money promised to the Walker and places like that, for example. And what was outstanding certainly wasn't $3 million. I should know."

Fleitman cautions that she obviously has no on-going contact with the Star Tribune. So it is possible -- possible -- that Avista has re-established the Foundation and is once again pouring money into local arts groups and do-gooding organizations. But if they are, the only person who seems to know anything about it is Mr. Alexander, and maybe Mr. Taylor, and they ain't talkin'.