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Karl Grossman
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Karl Grossman has specialized in doing investigative reporting in a variety of media for more than 40 years. He teaches as well as practices journalism. He is a professor of journalism at the State University of New York/College at Old Westbury. He is chief investigative reporter for WVVH-TV and host of the nationally-aired TV program Enviro Close-Up. He is the author of six books including Cover Up: What You Are Not Supposed to Know About Nuclear Power; Power Crazy; and The Wrong Stuff: The Space Program's Nuclear Threat to Our Planet. Honors he has received for journalism including the George Polk, James Aronson and John Peter Zenger Awards.

Blog Entries by Karl Grossman

Will New York Be First State to Require Labeling of GMO Food?

(5) Comments | Posted April 30, 2013 | 2:33 PM

Will New York State be the first state in the nation to require the labeling of food containing what has become known as GMO -- genetically modified organisms?

More than 60 countries have enacted laws banning the use of GMO in producing food or requiring the

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Nuclear Power/Nuclear Weapons -- and a Precarious Future

(13) Comments | Posted March 11, 2013 | 4:06 PM

With the second anniversary of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster this week, with North Korea having just threatened a "pre-emptive nuclear attack" against the United States and a U.S. senator saying this would result in "suicide" for North Korea, with Iran suspected of moving to build nuclear weapons, with the...

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Moniz: A Pro-Nuclear, Pro-Fracking U.S. Energy Secretary

(35) Comments | Posted March 6, 2013 | 10:44 AM

With the nomination of Ernest Moniz to be the next U.S. secretary of energy, President Barack Obama has selected a man who is not only a booster of nuclear power but a big proponent of fracking, too. What happened to Obama's call for "clean" energy in his 2013 State of...

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Will Good Science and Good Sense Come Together When It Comes to the Shoreline?

(6) Comments | Posted February 25, 2013 | 1:33 PM

Soon after Sandy struck, an op-ed piece titled "We Need to Retreat from the Beach" by Dr. Orrin Pilkey, a pioneer in what's now become the science of shoreline dynamics, appeared in the New York Times.

Dr. Pilkey wrote, "As ocean waters warm, the Northeast is likely to...

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On Energy Secretary Chu's Resignation

(3) Comments | Posted February 6, 2013 | 4:12 PM

Secretary of Energy Steven Chu announced his resignation last week after four years of pushing nuclear power, although he promoted energy efficiency and safe, renewable energy technologies such as solar and wind, too.

But nuclear power remained a major focus of Dr. Chu, a physicist out of...

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Will the Internet Remain Free?

(4) Comments | Posted January 29, 2013 | 3:13 PM

From seemingly out of nowhere, the Internet has become the greatest global platform for free expression the world has ever seen.

But will this last?

Last month, an international conference was held that pitted nations seeking greater governmental control over the Internet -- led by Russia and China --...

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A Good Start at Banning BPA-Coated Receipts

(4) Comments | Posted December 26, 2012 | 2:30 PM

It's what the county legislature in Suffolk County, New York is noted fo r-- passing first-in-the-nation laws. It's done that with laws banning han-held use of cell phones while driving, the sale of drop-side cribs and the supplement ephedra, and many statutes prohibiting smoking in public places. The measures have...

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The Republican Fight Against Higher Taxes for the Rich

(7) Comments | Posted December 6, 2012 | 12:00 PM

President Barack Obama's demand that taxes of the rich be raised has become a key issue in the battle which, if not settled, could send the United States over a "fiscal cliff" at year's end.

A series of extreme government spending cuts -- including in defense and...

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Fracking and Radium, the Silvery-White Monster

(17) Comments | Posted November 15, 2012 | 10:36 AM

Fracking for gas not only uses toxic chemicals that can contaminate drinking water and groundwater -- it also releases substantial quantities of radioactive poison from the ground that will remain hot and deadly for thousands of years.

Issuing a report recently, exposing major radioactive impacts of hydraulic fracturing...

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The Aftermath of Hurricane Sandy

(0) Comments | Posted November 15, 2012 | 10:33 AM

What an ordeal the people of a good part of the United States have been through because of Hurricane Sandy -- and many are still going through! As I write this on Sunday, November 11, electricity is still out to a huge number of homes and businesses on Long Island,...

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George McGovern -- Prescient About America

(1) Comments | Posted October 22, 2012 | 12:36 PM

George McGovern, who died Sunday, was prescient about America. When he ran for president 40 years ago, he well-understood what the federal government of the United States had become, among other national dysfunctions.

It's a shame he wasn't given an opportunity to, as president, change things.

In June 1972,...

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Review: Silence Deafening, Fukushima Fallout... A Mother's Response

(333) Comments | Posted September 6, 2012 | 5:45 PM

Amid the cover-up of the Fukushima nuclear power disaster, the title of Kimberly Roberson's book rings so unfortunately true: Silence Deafening, Fukushima Fallout... A Mother's Response.

It's relatively brief at 69 pages but gets to the heart of the catastrophe: the meltdowns at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant complex...

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The 'Under 1 Percent' and Their Noisy Choppers to and From The Hamptons

(13) Comments | Posted August 20, 2012 | 1:53 PM

It is the "under 1 percent" who come to the vaunted Hamptons by helicopter from Manhattan -- and in the process blanket Long Islanders below with raucous noise.

The racket of helicopters heading to and returning from what has become the main aerial gateway of the Hamptons and Long Island's...

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The Push for More Spaceborne Nuclear Russian Roulette

(93) Comments | Posted July 31, 2012 | 3:55 PM

World Nuclear News, the information arm of the World Nuclear Association that seeks to boost the use of atomic energy, last week heralded a NASA Mars rover slated to land on Mars on Monday, the first Mars rover fueled with plutonium.

"A new era of space exploration is dawning through...

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Poverty and the 1 Percent on Long Island

(10) Comments | Posted July 25, 2012 | 3:25 PM

Poverty and extreme wealth on Long Island, where I live, have been in the national spotlight in recent days. HBO this month broadcast a powerful documentary "Hard Times: Lost on Long Island." Filmmaker Marc Levin followed four Long Island families who suddenly became poor.
They're not rarities. A commission...

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Nuclear "Regulatory Capture" -- A Global Pattern

(89) Comments | Posted July 13, 2012 | 2:28 PM

The conclusion of a report of a Japanese parliamentary panel issued last week that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster was rooted in government-industry "collusion" and thus was "man-made" is mirrored throughout the world. The "regulatory capture" cited by the panel is the pattern among nuclear agencies right up...

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Cattle or People?

(1) Comments | Posted July 5, 2012 | 3:39 PM

The National Research Council has issued a report identifying "a number of deficiencies" in an "updated risk assessment" done by the federal government for the National Bio and Agro Defense Facility (NBAF) it wants to build in Kansas to replace the Plum Island Animal Disease Center just off...

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Embracing Nuclear Power Like a Religion

(596) Comments | Posted June 20, 2012 | 1:02 PM

Nuclear scientists and engineers embrace nuclear power like a religion. The term "nuclear priesthood" was coined by Dr. Alvin Weinberg, long director of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the laboratory's website proudly notes this. It's not unusual for scientists at Oak Ridge and other U.S. national nuclear laboratories...

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Inviting Atomic Catastrophe

(100) Comments | Posted June 5, 2012 | 4:57 PM

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission will be holding a meeting this week to consider having nuclear power plants run 80 years -- although they were never seen as running for more than 40 years because of radioactivity embrittling metal parts and otherwise causing safety problems.

"The idea of keeping these...

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Nuclear Rubberstamp Commission

(57) Comments | Posted May 30, 2012 | 5:07 PM

The resignation last week of the chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission is another demonstration of the bankrupt basis of the NRC. Gregory Jaczko repeatedly called for the NRC to apply "lessons learned" from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant disaster in Japan. And, for that, the nuclear industry --...

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