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Diane M. Grassi is an investigative journalist and reporter providing topical and in-depth articles and analysis on U.S. public policy and governmental affairs, including key federal and state legislation as well as court decisions relative to the public interests of average Americans. Ms. Grassi sticks to the facts on myriad issues, often given short shrift by the mainstream press and broadcast media. With a passion for holding U.S. lawmakers and government officials accountable for their legislative and policy decisions, Ms. Grassi has an undying resolve to awaken others to these facts in order to promote an educated electorate.
SHARE Friday, February 19, 2010 Baseball, Rawlings Bring New Meaning to Free Trade: Postscript
much like the way corporate takeovers can surface rapidly and on a global scale, with what appears as little hands-on management, corporations' goods are then subject to manufacture in far-off lands with little oversight, too.
(1 comments) SHARE Wednesday, April 15, 2009 MLB Ramps Up Casino Sponsorships
How does Major League Baseball oversee sponsorships between it and its teams with casino operations that allow legal sports betting on their premises?
(3 comments) SHARE Wednesday, June 27, 2007 MLB Bats Whittled Down to Uneven Playing Field
Scrutiny paid over the past two years upon drug use among MLB players, while having given MLB a black eye, is also convenient as Commission Bud Selig need not address myriad other issues which also play their part in preserving the integrity of the game.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, February 18, 2007 Major League Baseball Profits from New Change in Immigration Law
MLB has far more in common with American-based multi-national conglomerates than it does with the idea of inclusiveness, where bottom line profits dictate company policy.
(1 comments) SHARE Sunday, March 14, 2010 States Rush to Legalize Sports Betting & Expand Gambling for Revenue
How taxpayers can be expected to trust their state governments to invest in struggling enterprises, already in the red, in order to prop up their cash-strapped states, many nearing junk-bond status due to irresponsible governing, remains the $64,000.00 question.
(10 comments) SHARE Monday, June 22, 2009 The Fourth Estate is Dying
It is crucial that the press remains the watchdog of the people, in order to help dicipher fact from fiction and for it to report the facts.
(3 comments) SHARE Tuesday, July 3, 2007 Saudi Takeover of GE Plastics Flies Under Radar
The announcement on May 21, 2007 that the largest public company in the Middle East would be acquiring the world's second largest corporation, and based in the U.S., could not have been less publicized.
SHARE Sunday, January 3, 2010 Rogue Commissioner: The NBA's David Stern
The prevailing precedent Stern created was his steadfast endorsement of the prohibition of legalized sports betting. And he has now seemingly opened Pandora's Box, if but a crack.
SHARE Sunday, January 20, 2013 NFL's Newest Lawsuit Need Not Dim Light on Its Former Disabled
In spite of new emphasis on safety for the health of players in the NFL, many disabled and retired players of past generations, or pre-1993, feel like they are still on the outside looking in, with neither the NFL nor the NFLPA doing their bidding for better pensions and health care benefits for them, and essentially left with no representation at all.
SHARE Wednesday, October 18, 2006 Clinton Soda Deal Ignores School Funding Problems
Clinton's enthusiasm for his new leaf on healthy eating since his double bypass surgery in 2004 falls far short of the mark in analyzing the underlying bevy of problems that contribute to childhood and adolescent obesity.
SHARE Wednesday, June 25, 2008 Fallout from Energy Policy Act 2005 Pt. 3 - The Nuclear Option
The global economy has but given the U.S. government and in particular in this case, the U.S. Department of Energy, (DOE) an excuse to take the proverbial lid off of sound national security policy which has necessarily dictated U.S. energy policy for decades, until now, for the safety of the American people and the integrity of its critical infrastructure.
SHARE Tuesday, January 23, 2007 New Mining Laws Year After Sago Non-Implemented
Idly standing by waiting for the federal government to fund the necessary changes in the new mining law or waiting for mine operators to police themselves in the meantime are both unrealistic and foolish premises.
SHARE Wednesday, July 26, 2006 Baseball & Rawlings Bring New Meaning to Free Trade
It is not too late for MLB and its superstars to take a stand on workers' rights, regardless of lax U.S. laws in the world of free trade and its agreements' legal loopholes.
SHARE Friday, June 16, 2006 Case of Eminent Domain Resonates Year After Supreme Decision
Although the takings of private land belonging to homeowners and small businesses under the guise of eminent domain have been argued repeatedly and primarily over the past half century, the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2005 decision came closest to heightening the blurring of legitimate use of such takings for public use.
SHARE Saturday, March 31, 2007 Native American Prospects Hold Key Between Past & Present
Although Native Americans entered the world of professional baseball 50 years prior to African Americans, who competed in the Negro Leagues, followed by Jackie Robinson's acceptance into the minor leagues in 1945, there have been less than 50 Native Americans of full Indian ancestry to compete in Major League Baseball since 1897.
SHARE Wednesday, May 31, 2006 Why America's Pastime Is Losing Its Identity
Major League Baseball must be held accountable, regardless of myriad cultural reasons attributed to children’s lack of interest in baseball, predominantly in the inner-city neighborhoods, for its lack of investment in them.
SHARE Saturday, April 5, 2008 Fallout from the Energy Policy Act of 2005 Pt. 2
This Part 2 continuing report further explores this complex and important body of law and exposes the ad hoc and unilateral takeover of not only U.S. energy policy by the federal government but the very delivery system upon which all Americans rely.
(1 comments) SHARE Friday, September 8, 2006 Post-Katrina Role of Property Insurers Threaten Consumers Nationwide
Over the next year, 43% of the U.S. population which covers 18 states can expect their policies to either be dropped by their insurance carriers or have their premiums escalate between 20% and 100%.
SHARE Thursday, May 18, 2006 False Documents of Undocumented Remains Problematic
The issue of false identity remains an intrinsic problem of immigration and necessitates it being a part of any discussion concerning immigration reform.
SHARE Friday, December 29, 2006 NCAA Gives New Meaning to Gender-Bias
In a world where political correctness has run amok in every facet of U.S. society, why should the NCAA be any different?
SHARE Wednesday, May 12, 2010 MLB Gaming Sale of Texas Rangers
MLB has invoked its "not in the best interests of baseball" rule, by virtue of the commissioner's charter, as reason to interfere with the proposed sale of the Texas Rangers. And in that effort, it is willing to accept the least lucrative bid made for the club's purchase.
SHARE Wednesday, August 23, 2006 Unrestrained Globalization Will Defeat the American Athlete
The sports industry including the U.S.Olympic Committee wishes to change its image from that of competitor to that of being inclusive and politically correct even at the expense of American athletes.
SHARE Wednesday, April 19, 2006 China Sole Manufacturer of Material for U.S. Missiles
During this week’s U.S. visit of China President, Hu Jintao, and his meetings with President Bush, it would be apropos to revisit a deal finalized in 2004, which leaves the U.S. totally dependent upon China for key rare earth metals and their production necessary in the manufacture of the most crucial of U.S. military warfare.
SHARE Friday, June 9, 2006 Breach of Trust Undermines Active & Retired Military
The long history of security flaws within the VA does not come as news to many within the Government Accountability Office or within the VA’s Office of the Inspector General. And for that reason, it makes it even more difficult for lawmakers to fathom.
SHARE Friday, May 4, 2007 NAFTA Superhighway Has Giuliani As Key Player
Interesting to this story is not only Rudolph Giuliani's involvement with the NAFTA Superhighway, not ever having been publicly addressed, but how a foreign compnay is awarded the building of a mass highway system, versus maintaining it for the first time in U.S. history and negotiated by the law firm of the top Republican candidate running for President of the United States.
SHARE Sunday, February 24, 2008 Fallout from Energy Policy Act of 2005
As the direct result of the Energy Policy Act of 2005, no individual state or federal agency will have the jurisdictional teeth to effectively regulate the finances of U.S. public utility assets totaling more than one trillion U.S. dollars.
SHARE Tuesday, April 15, 2008 Loss of Jamiel Shaw's Life Transcends Sports
Had the system worked properly, Pedro Espinoza would not have been let back into the community from which he was supposed to have been deported, and within 24 hours of his release he would not have been able to acquire another handgun, only to murder Jamiel Shaw, Jr.
SHARE Wednesday, August 9, 2006 U.S. Power Grid Unreliability Enabled By Legislation
While it seems that most everyone believes that the power grid woes culminated with the rolling blackouts of 2000-2001 in California, the initial concerns with major outages go back to November 1965 when power went out throughout most of the Northeast.
SHARE Thursday, November 16, 2006 Offshoring U.S. Patients No Cure For Ailing Healthcare System
With more and more corporations adding select foreign hospitals as Preferred Providers to their employees' health insurance plans, it remains difficult for patients to get the necessary information needed to make a reasoned decision on whether to have surgery performed, let alone halfway around the world.
SHARE Wednesday, December 13, 2006 Troops Pay Hidden Cost Of Multiple Deployments
Far too often American soldiers have been stung by the treatment they have received with respect to their healthcare upon returning stateside.
SHARE Wednesday, July 19, 2006 New Orleans Remains Problematic for Army Corps of Engineers
So far over $20 billion has been allocated by the federal government to assist in New Orleans and Gulf Coast restorations. Yet, such appropriations do not solve the most desperate problem New Orleans faces which is the restoration and reformation of its levee system.
SHARE Wednesday, May 10, 2006 EU Renews Pressure Over U.S. Airline Ownership
Should the latest proposal be adopted, with exception of few areas, all airline operations, including prices, scheduling markets, fleet structure, marketing and alliances have the option of being controlled by foreign investors.
SHARE Wednesday, May 24, 2006 Scathing Report on Air Marshals Reviewed by House Judiciary
The report’s acting title: "Plane Clothes: Lack of Anonymity at the Federal Air Marshal Service Compromises Aviation and National Security,” while self-explanatory does not tell the entire story.
SHARE Thursday, May 4, 2006 Congressional Recoil From Latest Dubai Takeover
The national security implications of a foreign entity operating key factories that are Department of Defense suppliers might well have demanded the same call for scrutiny from the Congress as the Dubai ports deal.
SHARE Wednesday, April 5, 2006 IRS Proposal Allows Income Tax Info To Be Sold
According to IRS Commissioner, Mark Everson, the proposed changes actually improve the safeguards of taxpayer information and are “not significant.” But upon closer examination, they increase the chances of identity theft and fraud not only throughout the U.S. but across the globe.
SHARE Wednesday, July 5, 2006 Free Trade Agreement With Oman Disregards Best Interests of U.S.
Since the United States became a party to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, U.S. construct of the Foreign Trade Agreement (FTA) has changed considerably. Such agreements now have a much more profound impact on state and local economies across the country.
SHARE Wednesday, July 12, 2006 U.S. Military Suffers Equipment & Base Shortfalls
For the Marine Corps, yearly costs in Iraq are about $5 billion. But the Marines will get little help in the $11.7 billion in "reset" costs to restore all of the equipment which has become worn out or lost over the past four years.
SHARE Wednesday, June 28, 2006 Foreign Control of U.S. Interstates Encouraged by Feds
Eisenhower was prompted to persuade the nation's people to build the interstate highway system, as a matter of national security. Yet, as funding from federal gas taxes and state user fees have fallen behind the inflated costs associated with road construction and maintenance, more and more state governors and lawmakers no longer see the operation of roads solely as a public responsibility.