RealClearInvestigations Articles

Topline: In 2012, researchers at Purdue University used optical illusions to show that making a golf hole appear larger helps golfers improve their performance. The $350,000 hole in the federal budget was sadly no magic trick. The National Science Foundation funded the project with a grant that would be worth $510,000 today, even after the National Institutes of Health funded a similar Purdue study in 2008. That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds...

Topline: President Donald Trump made it a priority to downsize the federal workforce last year, but the top-paid employees are making more money than previously. There were 1,540 federal workers who outearned the president’s salary of $400,000 last year, breaking the previous record of 956 workers. The employees collectively earned $632.3 million. An additional 189 employees made exactly $400,000. Key facts: The eight highest-paid federal employees all work for the National Institutes of Health. Gary Gibbons, director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, made $547,285. It...

Topline: Aretha Ferrell-Benavides — the disgraced former city manager of Martinsville, Va. — spent $96,613 on her city credit card without proper approval, according to an independent audit released this April. Several purchases ignored city spending limits on meals and hotels. The City Manager’s Office also took money from another department to fund Ferrell-Benades' travel and a pay raise without approval from the city council, according to the audit. Key facts: Ferrell-Benavides made 307 purchases on her credit card from February 2024 to June 2025. Sixty-eight of them were...

In March 2020, a couple of months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in the United States, editors at the journal Nature Medicine appended a note to a coronavirus study it had published five years prior. “We are aware that this article is being used as the basis for unverified theories that the novel coronavirus causing COVID-19 was engineered,” the journal editors wrote. “There is no evidence that this is true; scientists believe that an animal is the most likely source of the coronavirus.” The...

Topline: Secretary of War Pete Hegseth was not kidding when he complained that there are too many “fat troops” in the military. The military has spent nearly $726 million buying Ozempic and other GLP-1 weight loss drugs since 2021, including $274.6 million in fiscal year 2025, according to spending records obtained by Open the Books.  Key facts: The spending includes 102,597 separate purchases, all from the Defense Logistics Agency for “troop support.” Almost all of the money went to the wholesale drug company Cencora. More than a dozen brands of GLP-1 drugs were...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the WeekApril 19 to April 25   RCI Podcasts & Videos On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak RealClearPolitics reporter Susan Crabtree and her new book (co-authored with Jed McFatter) “Fool’s Gold: The Radicals, Con Artists, and Traitors Who Killed the California Dream and Now Threaten Us All.”     On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller speaks with Ben Weingarten about his recent RCI article on how the U.S....

Topline: The firing of then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem came after she funded a $220 million ad campaign without a competitive bidding process, but she is far from the only federal official awarding no-bid contracts. Washington spent a record $262.6 billion on no-bid contracts in fiscal year 2025, or 33% of all contract spending for the year. Key facts: The competitive bidding process helps ensure that taxpayers get the best value for their money when the government buys a product or service. Several companies submit offers for the job, and the government chooses the cheapest one...

Topline: PepsiCo’s odd attempt at being associated with health foods ended in failure in 2015, when its Greek yogurt factory closed due to poor sales. The government tried its best to help PepsiCo succeed, at taxpayer expense. The Departments of Agriculture and Commerce spent $1.3 million to pave the road to the factory and upgrade its water supply. The money would be worth $1.9 million today.  The factory was also promised a combined $26.3 million in tax credits from New York State and Genesee County.  That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published...

Working at a 24/7 bodega in the heart of Brooklyn, Tajuken Deli employees are prepared for almost anything – except having guns pointed at their heads by cops. That’s what seemed to be happening one early April morning last year, when four armed men dressed in police uniforms flashed their badges, yelling “NYPD” as they stormed the neighborhood shop. Surveillance video shows one worker being quickly knocked to the ground and zip-tied into submission before being dragged to the back of the store. Another worker and customer were also subdued as the masked...

Topline: Texas taxpayers spent an estimated $42.3 million to $111.5 million to help local governments lobby the state legislature in 2025, even though 83% of voters oppose the practice. A new report from the Texas Public Policy Foundation found that 570 lobbyists in Texas have at least one taxpayer-funded entity as a client, such as a city, school district or community college. Key facts: Taxpayer-funded lobbyists have registered with the state to influence legislation involving emissions regulations, gun control, school vouchers, transgender students competing in college sports, legalized...

Topline: Employees at the Internal Revenue Service are busy processing tax returns, but they’re equipped with supplies that go far beyond laptops and calculators. The IRS spent $2.6 million last year on military-style equipment like ammunition and rifle plates. Federal agencies besides the Department of War spent more than $448 million on military equipment in fiscal year 2025. The dollar total encompasses 40 purchasing categories listed on USAspending.gov, such as grenades and chemical weapons. Key facts: Some of the weaponry was purchased by law enforcement agencies like the...

Topline: Economic development corporation JobsOhio controls the sale of liquor in Ohio and uses most of the profits — $359 million last year — for job creation programs. But as a private corporation that is not subject to open records or open meetings laws, much of its operations are shrouded in secrecy. The corporation is now under fire for sponsoring a $60,000 podcast that produced just one episode. Key facts: Former Gov. John Kasich created the corporation in 2011 and put many of his campaign donors on its board. Ohio Attorney General David Yost tried to audit JobsOhio in 2013,...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week April 12 to April 18   RCI Podcasts & Videos On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Roger Pielke Jr. about his Substack article detailing how Al Gore’s seminal 2006 book and film on climate change, “An Inconvenient Truth,” helped politicize science.     On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller interviews James Varney about his recent RCI article on Alaska’s effort to build a new, 800-mile...

Topline: A new Oklahoma state audit alleges that a former public school employee wrote fraudulent checks to herself and hid money meant for the school’s activity fund. Key facts: Stacey Benard resigned from her secretary job at Varnum Public Schools in 2021 over allegations of embezzlement, with auditors finding eight checks totaling $9,621 that she wrote to herself. Benard logged the checks in the school’s accounting software as payments to companies like Lowe’s and the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company, but she allegedly printed them with herself listed as the payee....

Topline: America’s dogs and cats were awash in dollar bills when Nebraska used a $505,000 federal grant to manufacture pet shampoo and toothpaste. The money went to Sergeant’s Pet Care Products in 2012, which was seemingly not in need of a handout. The company had been around since 1868 and was bringing in more than $140 million in annual revenue. That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a white-hot spotlight on federal frauds and taxpayer abuses.  Coburn, the legendary...

In the wee hours of Sunday, March 1, a Senegalese immigrant clad in a sweatshirt bearing the words “Property of Allah” opened fire outside an Austin, Texas beer garden, killing three and leaving 14 others wounded. On March 12, at Old Dominion University, a former Virginia National Guard member from Sierra Leone – released early from an 11-year prison sentence for attempting to provide material support to the ISIL – yelled “Allahu Akbar” before shooting and killing a beloved college professor and wounding two other people. The immigrant brother of a...

Topline: The City of Pittsburgh’s staffing shortage continued to drain the city’s budget in 2025. Payroll records obtained by Open the Books show the city spent $70.8 million on overtime last year. Key facts: Overtime made up 21.6% of Pittsburgh’s $327.8 million payroll, a crisis-level rate that exceeds most major cities in America. Nearby Philadelphia spent less than 5% of its payroll on overtime. Even Los Angeles — which has one of the nation’s worst staffing shortages — typically has an overtime rate below 15%. Pittsburgh has overspent its overtime...

Topline: The seven governors of the Federal Reserve are supported by a staff of more than 3,000 economists who analyze current fiscal conditions. But, according to an inspector general report from March 30, they can’t keep track of their own belongings.  The Federal Reserve Board bought 677 laptops for $1.4 million in June 2025 and left them unopened in a closet for eight months. They were finally taken out of their boxes once federal auditors questioned the purchase, but they won’t be in use until the end of this year. Key facts: When the Federal Reserve buys laptops,...

Topline: The song “This Land Is Your Land” celebrates America’s golden valleys and diamond deserts — which, notably, are natural and free of charge. But taxpayers in Oklahoma were billed $110,000 for a new “musical road” that rumbles a melody resembling the classic Woody Guthrie tune. The state contributed $90,000, and local taxes from the City of Tulsa funded another $20,000, according to the Tulsa Flyer. Key facts: Oklahoma installed almost 3,000 tiny speed bumps along a section of Route 66 to achieve the musical effect. When a car travels east at exactly...