GIVE ME YOUR CORPORATE BIG BUCKS...

Recently, a nearly forgotten entity known as the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation emerged blinking into the sunlight of journalistic attention. News stories reported that the Senate Finance Committee is looking into the foundation's operations and the fat salaries drawn by its executives. The National Park Service had abdicated to a private foundation the task of upgrading the security of the Statue of Liberty, closed since 9/11. Rather than draw on its endowment of $31 million to pay for the work, the foundation launched a fundraising campaign, raking in $5.9 million from corporate donors so far. Anyone who recalls the definitive Nation series, "The Selling of Miss Liberty" (starting November 9, 1985), by Roberta Brandes Gratz and Eric Fettmann, will not be surprised by the latest revelations. Gratz and Fettmann revealed the facts about the foundation's shadowy creation and its takeover of the job of renovating Lady Liberty and Ellis Island with accompanying lucrative contracts and franchises.

CASE NOT CLOSED ON 9/11

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