Conundrum

Rules Project
"None of us is wealthy" is the sentence that I read in the "Annie's Mailbox" column of the June 25th  2013 issue of the Schenectady Daily  Gazette  page D2.  "None of us are wealthy" is what  I would have  preferred to read.  Contrary to popular belief, none may precede a singular or a plural verb.  The following are  two websites   that provide an explanation regarding  the singular and plural of none.

According to     http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Which_is_correct_none_of_us_is_or_none_of_us_are
if none refers to a "singular entity"   it should  be followed by a singular verb.   An example would be "None of the air is polluted.."   According to   http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/none-is-or-none-are.aspx
sometimes the context is plural.  An example would be "None of them are coming home."
 Furthermore Merriam Webster's Dictionary of English Usage supports using a singular or a plural verb after none depending on the corresponding noun.  The explanation from the website
 http://data.grammarbook.com/blog/singular-vs-plural/none-were-vs-none-was/
 is that the noun  or the object of the preposition determines whether the verb is singular of plural.
Examples from the aforementioned  grammar book website are "None of the pie was eaten." and  "None of the children were hungry." So it is a  conundrum that SAT testing service considers none to be strictly  a singular word..