Latest news with #Grasso
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Roberson Museum announces $12 million transformative project
BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (WIVT/WBGH) – Roberson Museum and Science Center is embarking on its first capital campaign in decades, focused on the wellness and sustainability of the institution. Roberson is announcing a $12 million transformative project focused largely on infrastructure, site redevelopment, and making the museum more accessible and easier to navigate. Starting with the 1906 mansion, the museum added a major expansion in 1965, followed by additions in the 80s and 90s. Executive Director Michael Grasso says each section currently has separate heating and cooling, and electrical systems that will be upgraded to make them more cohesive. Insulation and windows that protect the artwork from harmful UV rays will also be added. There will be a new, expanded entrance and gift shop as the model train room is relocated. And work on the grounds, parking lot, and courtyard will help with stormwater runoff and allow the museum to display more of its outdoor sculptures. Grasso says the work will help Roberson save money on its energy bills and make more rental income from private events. 'The campaign will include a holistic approach to how the building functions, making it more accessible for people but also making us more sustainable. Sustainable environmentally, but also sustainable financially. These are really important aspects for the museum's continued health,' said Grasso. The project includes restoration of the mansion, which is already underway with repairs to the windows and front porch and a refurbishment of the wrought iron fence out front. Roberson will be rolling out the capital campaign to the public on Saturday during an open house from noon to 5. There will be free admission. This follows a quiet start in which $9 million has already been raised from foundations, government sources, and private donors. Stenger's final graduation weekend at Binghamton University Truth Pharm aims to 'build a more just future' with new mural Westover YMCA opens Discovery Den to unite families and members Roberson Museum announces $12 million transformative project Binghamton Move Out Project collects unwanted items for 8th year Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Domenico Grasso installed as University of Michigan's interim president
Domenico Grasso was formally installed as interim president of the University of Michigan on May 15, replacing former President Santa Ono, who resigned earlier this month with plans to lead the University of Florida. The University of Michigan Board of Regents unanimously approved Grasso's appointment at a meeting held on the school's Dearborn campus, where Grasso has served as chancellor since 2018. "We are so grateful for your willingness to serve and for your commitment to this university," said Board Chair Katherine White. "We thank you for all that you have done at the University of Michigan-Dearborn and we look forward to your leadership in the days ahead." Grasso thanked White and the other regents for their trust in him. "I'm cognizant that leadership transitions like this can sometimes be unsettling," he said. "As president, I pledge to unite with our faculty, students and staff, and with the regents to continue broadening Michigan's impact." Grasso said that he and his wife, Susan, plan to move into the president's house on the school's Ann Arbor campus. More: Drinks and money flow into college sports in first full year of alcohol sales at games More: Troy, Ann Arbor among best cities to live in the US. Why Livability ranked them in top 100 "We love Ann Arbor and its vitality and look forward to engaging more deeply with the campus and the local community," Grasso said. Grasso said he first joined the Michigan family as a doctoral student in 1983 and met his wife while there. "To be sitting here more than 40 years later is a tremendous privilege," Grasso said. Grasso noted the service of some previous presidents, whose tenure was measured in decades. Grasso said that interim presidents are usually remembered with an asterisk but that what matters most is how they use their time. "I have devoted my career to higher education because it is the lifeblood of an educated citizen," he said. "This is especially true of public universities and there is no greater public university than the University of Michigan." Grasso takes over at a tumultuous time, as U-M begins a search for a permanent replacement for Ono. Grasso has said he won't be seeking the job. The regents have not yet said how the search process will be handled. The university faces pressure from the Trump administration over its efforts to combat antisemitism, its reimbursement rates on health grants and its use of diversity, equity and inclusion. U-M also faces a series of lawsuits from students, former staffers and others, over its handling of Gaza war protests on campus. About two dozen Gaza war protesters staged a demonstration in the hallway outside the meeting, but they didn't disrupt the proceedings. They wore keffiyehs, carried Palestinian flags and hung a sign saying "No universities left in Gaza, Divest now." Contact John Wisely: jwisely@ On X: jwisely@ This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Domenico Grasso installed as U-M's interim president
Yahoo
12-05-2025
- Yahoo
Keeping Pace: A Lesson In Crime And Punishment
Here's a question for the folks at the New Jersey Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners: What exactly does a racehorse vet have to do to earn a lifetime suspension? I ask the question because we learned last week that the New Jersey Board suspended Louis Grasso's vet license for 10 years, retroactive to last October, in advance of Grasso's scheduled release from federal prison later this year. He is serving a 50-month sentence following a guilty plea he entered in 2022 that was part of the sprawling pre-COVID horse doping and abuse scandal that rocked both Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing in the late winter of not the first time Grasso has been in trouble with regulators. In 1992, he was suspended for five years after he pleaded guilty to illegally possessing and distributing anabolic steroids. And in 2005, Grasso somehow escaped major regulatory (or criminal) punishment after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest. What happened? Reportedly caught with prohibited drugs in his car, he reportedly took police on a high-speed chase. So, again, I ask the Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners: What does a vet have to do, or not do, to earn a lifetime suspension? How bad does the conduct, or its consistency, have to be? Here's how federal prosecutors described Grasso's role in the scheme in May 2022 when they announced that Grasso and Standardbred trainer Richard Banca had pleaded guilty: 'Grasso and Banca represent the corruption and greed of those in the racehorse industry looking to win at any cost. In peddling illegal drugs and selling prescriptions to corrupt trainers, Louis Grasso abdicated his responsibilities as a medical professional to ensure the safety and health of the racehorses he 'treated.' By injecting horses with unnecessary and, at times, unknown drugs, Grasso risked the lives and welfare of the animals under his care, all in service of helping corrupt racehorse trainers like Banca line their pockets through fraud.'And here's how federal prosecutors described Grasso's crimes as they pressed for prison time later that year. 'By evading PED prohibitions and deceiving regulators and horse racing officials, participants in these schemes sought to improve race performance and obtain prize money from racetracks throughout the United States, all to the detriment and risk of the health and well-being of the racehorses. Grasso, a veterinarian, not only accepted payment in exchange for prescriptions for powerful and medically unnecessary PEDs, but he also created, distributed, and administered custom-made PEDs that were all misbranded and adulterated substances designed solely to improve racehorse performance.' The timing of Grasso's suspension, the fact that we are talking again for a brief moment about that particular doping scandal, is good news for Katie Bo Lillis, the author of a new book, 'Death of a Racehorse.' The book offers context and perspective on a doping scandal that reached from overnight harness races to the very pinnacle of Thoroughbred racing, the Kentucky Derby. What it does not tell us is how Grasso is supposed to pay the $47 million in restitution he owes to the victims of what the government calls 'ill-gotten purse winnings.' That's okay. No one expects Grasso to pay back the horse people he and others allegedly cheated. But is it too much to ask that the state ensure that he is never again licensed to be near a racehorse?While we are on the topic of maddening moments in New Jersey racing, please make sure you read this piece by Stephen Edelson posted last week at the Asbury Park Press. The story is generally about a conflict between horsemen and horsewomen who want more racing dates at Monmouth Park, or at least to keep the 50 days they already have, and legislators and racing executives who are pushing for the concept of reducing Monmouth's racing dates to 25 as part of an interstate deal with Delaware and Maryland. The idea (and it's a good one) is to create a sort of Mid-Atlantic super circuit covering more than 100 racing dates in a year.'Unfortunately,' Edelson writes in deadpan, 'the plan would require cooperation between state racing organizations, something that's been seriously lacking over the years, with meets and big races run on top of each other, creating a challenging situation at a time when the number of horses is decreasing.' This is precisely the sort of scenario that critics of racing have in mind when they talk about how state racing fiefdoms undermine the industry and jeopardize the livelihood of horse people. That's especially true in New Jersey, where pols for years have helped subsidize racing as penance for not allowing a full casino at The Meadowlands. Whipping and the Kentucky DerbyIt took the mainstream media a few days to catch up to reports that Junior Alvarado, the jockey on Kentucky Derby-winning Sovereignty, has been suspended for two days and fined $62,000 for using his riding crop two times too many on the horse. It was Alvarado's second such violation within 180 days, which helps account for both the length of the suspension and the amount of the fine. The jockey was unrepentant. 'I didn't abuse the horse,' he said. 'Nobody can tell me, even if they can prove that I hit the horse two extra times, it was in an abusing way, it's just ridiculous. The punishment doesn't fit the crime and I don't think there was any crime.'There is clearly no consensus within the industry about Alvarado's punishment, a sad fact that helps explain why reforms come so slowly to a sport desperately in need of systemic change. There are some who believe that the real scandal here is not what Alvarado did but what the new federal whipping rules say he could not do. There are some who believe that it is embarrassing for Thoroughbred racing for a jockey to have been caught doing this in the sport's most famous race. There are those who are clearly more upset with the regulation than they are with the person punished for violating that regulation. (article continues below) There is no need to complicate things here. Stewards say Alvarado broke a rule and punished him for it. Alvarado has the right to appeal. It shouldn't matter that this all unfolded in the sport's biggest race. Racing stewards and judges must enforce the law equally in all races. What exactly did you want them to do once they determined, rightly or wrongly, that Alvarado violated the rule? Look the other way because it was the Derby? Look the other way because he's Alvarado? Ignore the violation until someone, weeks from now, counted those hits on that horse and then wrote a story about how stewards tried to hide a whipping case because they didn't want to bring embarrassment to the Kentucky Derby? Now, that would have been a scandal. There should never be any embarrassment within horse racing about enforcing a rule intended to protect horses from abuse. There should never be a call to apologize for being zealous in enforcing whipping rules. We should never endorse a system where horses in big races have less protection from whipping than do horses in cheaper races. Sure, some media outlets are spinning the Alvarado story as yet 'another Derby scandal' but that's just lazy reporting. I think it's a great thing that the world has another reminder that Thoroughbred racing is willing and able to punish one of its best jockeys for allegedly violating a rule in its biggest race. Due process starts at homeSend Paulick Report editor Natalie Voss to an equine law conference in Lexington and what do you get? You get a really informative article summarizing some of the main topics at the University of Kentucky's 39th annual National Conference on Equine Law. Take the time to read Voss' piece last week at Paulick Report. I want to briefly focus here on what Voss reported about the way in which federal regulators, and especially the folks in the Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit, use private arbitration to resolve the cases that arise when 'covered persons' get in trouble under the new federal racing integrity reports that a defense attorney told conference attendees there is no formal discovery process in private arbitration. 'Defense attorneys can ask HIWU to produce certain evidence, but the arbitrator decides whether that evidence is relevant and whether HIWU has to turn it over. If a third party has evidence, such as surveillance footage taken by a track that belongs neither to the trainer nor to HIWU, the arbitrator could order the third party to turn that evidence over on the day of the hearing, but doesn't give the attorneys time to review the evidence. Case law is mixed on whether an arbitrator could issue a subpoena to a third-party witness, but the general consensus is that they don't have that legal power.' I asked the folks at HISA and HIWU to respond. They did. They told me: 'Arbitrators under the ADMC Program (members of the Internal Adjudication Panel and Arbitral Body) can issue subpoenas for both documents and testimony from Covered Persons. Since the implementation of the ADMC Program, document subpoenas have been issued upon motion, i.e., before the hearing, in both Controlled Medication and Anti-Doping cases. Additionally, HIWU routinely voluntarily produces relevant evidence to Responsible Persons in advance of hearings. Both parties are also required to produce the evidence that they seek to rely upon at a hearing on a date before the hearing that is set by either the arbitrator or the rules themselves.' You will not be surprised to hear from me that the more 'due process' that 'covered persons' receive under the new federal racing rules the more support and respect federal regulators will earn from the industry they are trying to regulate. Not every case can turn into a mini-trial, of course, but there is never an excuse for not giving attorneys enough time to review the evidence that is being used against them (or evidence that might help them). One of the quickest ways for HISA and HIWU to increase industry buy-in is to establish, in every hearing, that the federal process is quicker and fairer than was the state adjudication system it replaced. NOTESHelp wanted. The Association of Racing Commissioners International met in Louisville last week. Byron King at BloodHorse reports that state regulators 'expressed continued challenges related to staffing positions for veterinarians and stewards… Jamie Eads, president/CEO of the Kentucky Horse Racing and Gaming Corporation, said the work/life balance of these professions has created a difficult hiring environment, noting the need for travel within the state, and work on weekends, holidays, and sometimes at night. 'It's just a hard sell,' she told the audience during the panel, an executive director roundtable.'The rest of the piece offered interesting examples of how regulators are trying to make that sell. New Mexico has gone so far as to waive background checks in its effort to hire stewards. The Texas Racing Commission is in favor of forgiving student loans for aspiring veterinarians to consider careers in the regulatory world. Indeed, it's hard to imagine a more stable job in racing than as an honest, earnest vet or vet tech working for a state racing commission. And I know more than a few honest, earnest horsemen and horsewomen who would be outstanding stewards and judges. I wish there were a national database-type job listing for these positions. The Allen Bonnell story. The veterinarian at the center of the medication scandal at Penn National Race Course has been kicked out of horse racing in HISA jurisdictions across the U.S. Hopefully, Canadian regulators will soon follow suit. There is no room in racing for trainers or other 'covered persons' who think that their own beliefs or judgments or experiences with horses supersedes their obligation to follow the rules. This is especially true of veterinarians like Bonnell, who serve as an essential link in the industry between owners and trainers and the horses in their care. Vets are supposed to be the ones who tell trainers, 'No,' when asked to circumvent medication standards or other drug-related Angst's BloodHorse write-up about the lifetime suspension offers important context about the Bonnell case. A detailed regulatory report, Angst wrote, 'suggests Bonnell knew the rules but ignored them as trainers looking to circumvent [HiSA standards] called upon his services. That report says that in an Oct. 24, 2024, interview with PSHRC investigators, Bonnell said trainers would request his services for intra-articular injections because they knew he would not report the injections as required, allowing the trainers to run their horses during the time the horses should have been placed on the veterinarians' list.' It's not supposed to work that way in America. People generally don't get to decide which laws you'll obey and which you will flout.
USA Today
12-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
Former champion Alexa Grasso reacts to UFC 315 loss: 'I'm never giving up'
Former champion Alexa Grasso reacts to UFC 315 loss: 'I'm never giving up' Alexa Grasso won't be deterred after suffering her second-straight loss at UFC 315. Former UFC flyweight champion Grasso (16-5-1 MMA, 8-5-1 UFC) was shut out by rising contender Natalia Silva (19-5-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) in a unanimous decision loss on Saturday's main card at Bell Centre in Montreal. Grasso took to Instagram to reflect on the loss. "Sometimes you put a ch¡ng@ on someone and sometimes they put it on you 👻 I got a very good opponent!I love this sport because that's how life is, right?You lose a battle but not the war ⚔️I'm good, I'll heal my wounds, I'll return to training and keep giving it my all because I'm NEVER giving up 🔥🦾Thank you for your messages and for all the love you send me, believe me it fills me with energy ⚡I love them with my whole heart 🫶🏻" Prior to this setback, Grasso lost her flyweight title to Valentina Shevchenko in their trilogy bout at UFC 306 in September. She dethroned Shevchenko at UFC 285 by submission, then retained her title in a split draw at the first Noche UFC in 2023.
USA Today
11-05-2025
- Sport
- USA Today
UFC 315 results: Natalia Silva outclasses former champion Alexa Grasso in clear decision
UFC 315 results: Natalia Silva outclasses former champion Alexa Grasso in clear decision Natalia Silva may have punched her ticket to a title shot after clearly outworking former champ Alexa Grasso at UFC 315. Natalia Silva styled on former champion Alexa Grasso, and her own title shot may be right around the corner. On the main card of UFC 315 at Bell Centre in Montreal, Silva (19-5-1 MMA, 7-0 UFC) took on Grasso (16-5-1 MMA, 8-5-1 UFC) in an important matchup between top 5 women's flyweight contenders. After 15 minutes, Silva got her hand raised after judges turned in unanimous 30-27 scores in her favor. Silva came out light on her feet, striking early and often. Quick punches and kicks found their target at Grasso appeared to study Silva's movements. Grasso was unable to get Silva to the ground in a scramble, and then was kicked square in the face later in the opening round. The first five minutes belonged to Silva, as she got the better of virtually every exchange. In Round 2, Silva's footwork and quick-twitch movements continued to be a problem for the former champion. Grasso chased Silva all over the octagon while offering a double jab, but couldn't corral her opponent to cause significant damage. Aside from a late heated exchange in Round 2, Silva largely stuck to her stick-and-move approach. With just five minutes remaining, Grasso needed something big to win the fight. The former champ turned up the forward pressure, but Silva was still too slick as she bounced around the octagon, sniping Grasso with quick shots. From beginning to end, it was all Silva. With the win, Brazil's Silva improves to 7-0 in the UFC and is now on the verge of a shot at the title, which will be on the line in the co-main event. Since entering the promotion in 2022, Silva has continued to shine as her level of competition has steadily increased. Grasso walks away with her second consecutive loss, as she entered this fight after losing the flyweight title to Valentina Shevchenko in a trilogy bout at UFC 306 in September. Prior to the three fights against Shevchenko, Mexico's Grasso won four consecutive fights to earn a shot at the title, which she won at UFC 285 and retained in a split draw at the first Noche UFC in 2023. Up-to-the-minute UFC 315 results
