RealClearInvestigations Articles

Topline: In 2006, Congress’ guidelines for Homeland Security’s grant program for firefighters mostly ignored the most obvious function of a fire department: putting out fires. Only 5% of the funding was set aside for “fire prevention and injury prevention programs.” The remaining 95% was used to fund fire-related purchases like puppet shows, clown shows, gym equipment and more, according to the Washington Times. Nearly 5,000 fire-related organizations received a total of $485 million in funding in 2006. The Washington Times’ reporting focused only on the first...

Opponents of affirmative action hoped that the Supreme Court had delivered a death blow to the controversial policy in 2023 when Chief Justice John Roberts declared for the court’s majority that “Eliminating racial discrimination means eliminating all of it.” But as sweeping as that pronouncement was, it came in a ruling in the landmark SFFA v. Harvard case, solely barring the use of racial preferences in college admissions. The practices that the court deemed illegal on campus have persisted elsewhere, including in programs across the federal government. SBA...

Topline: Americans have already turned the calendar to 2026, but it will take years to pay back the debt incurred by the federal initiatives listed in Sen. Rand Paul’s 11th annual “Festivus” report. The report spotlighted $1.6 trillion of what the Kentucky Republican views as wasteful government spending from 2025, such as money for drunk ferrets and Los Angeles’ “bear/cub subculture.” The dollar total includes $1.2 trillion spent on interest on the national debt and 27 questionable programs that cost $420 billion.  Key facts: The National Science...

Topline: The nonprofit New Opportunities, Inc. used $2.8 million in taxpayer funds meant for low-income families’ heating bills on its own operating expenses, according to the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management. In a Dec. 22 letter obtained by CT Insider, CT Mirror and more, OPM Secretary Joshua Wojcik claims New Opportunities admitted to “impermissibly” using grant funds "to provide fiscal support for other organizational operations." Key facts: New Opportunities was founded in 1964 and now helps administer Connecticut’s federally funded Energy Assistance...

Topline: There is no “reasonable assurance” that Department of Energy loans are being approved impartially and without conflicts of interest, according to a Dec. 18 audit from the agency’s inspector general. Key facts: The Loan Programs Office lends money to companies working on innovative clean energy and transportation technologies that are too risky to get a loan from a bank. As of September 2024, it had 219 federal workers and over 300 contractors managing more than $385 billion appropriated during President Joe Biden’s administration, according to the audit. The...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week December 28 to January 3   Featured Investigation: The Trump Administration’s Fight To Fund Scientists While the Trump administration’s efforts to sharply reduce the overhead costs paid to universities for research has been cast as an attack on science, Paul D. Thacker reports for RealClearInvestigations that the billions of taxpayer dollars paid each year has long been a contentious issue pitting scientists against college administrators. Described by critics as a “slush fund” “shrouded in mystery,” the...

Topline: A California state employee recently took one of the longest paid vacations in history.  The unnamed worker stayed on paid leave for over two years after announcing his plan to retire and earned $171,446 in illegitimate salary before his supervisors finally noticed the mistake, according to a state audit released Dec. 12. Key facts: The unnamed employee of the California Air Resources Board — the state agency tasked with fighting air pollution and climate change — planned to retire in July 2022 but wanted to use up his vacation time first. The agency allows its...

Topline: Millions of Americans watched the ball drop in Times Square on TV last night, including federal government employees out of the office to celebrate the New Year. Back in 2010, that left the government vulnerable to massive fraud. U.S. Investigations Services — a company hired to vet federal workers — was accused of “dumping” cases, or approving security clearance for employees without actually completing their background check. One worker even emailed his colleagues to make a joke out of the alleged crime: “Scalping tickets for ‘Dick Clark’s...

Topline: Maryland gave paychecks to some employees no longer working for the state, and health insurance to employees who had not paid their premiums for up to five years, according to a Dec. 9 report from the Office of Legislative Audits.  Key facts: Maryland’s Office of Personnel Services and Benefits is in charge of the state’s payroll, but the office does “not have effective procedures to ensure the propriety of employee benefits,” according to the audit. The office collects health insurance premiums directly from employees and sends the money to insurance...

The panic and outrage were palpable last February when President Trump announced plans to trim reimbursement rates for government-funded scientific research. “This is going to decimate U.S. scientific biomedical research,” Northwestern University biologist Carole Labonne told Bloomberg. “The lights will go out, people will be let go, and these [medical] advances will not occur,” David Skorton, CEO of the Association of American Medical Colleges, told PBS. “The goal,” University of Washington biologist Carl Bergstrom warned...

Topline: The Small Business Administration won’t try to recover most of the potentially improper grants it gave to restaurants during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to a Dec. 18 report from the agency’s inspector general. Key facts: Another audit from 2024 found that large chunks of the money were approved even though SBA employees didn’t check whether the restaurant was eligible for the grant. The government didn’t verify how much money each restaurant lost from the pandemic, instead relying on self-reported numbers. Officials also paid $552 million to 901...

Topline: A Massachusetts man who had already been evicted from 12 apartments for refusing to pay rent received $23,000 in taxpayer-funded rental assistance in 2024, according to reporting from NBC10 Boston.  The outcome was incredibly predictable: the man and his wife skipped out on rent once again and fended off an eviction by slow-walking the court proceedings. They finally left their apartment on Nov. 19 of this year, leaving a hole in the wall and dirty dishes all over the floor, NBC reported. Key facts: Bryan Coombes and his wife, Nicole Inserra, moved into their Burlington, Mass.,...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week December 21 to December 27   Featured Investigation: How Illegal Immigration and Government Failure Fuel Identity Theft James Varney reports for RealClearInvestigations that more than a million Americans may unknowingly be victims of identity theft, as illegal immigrants use their stolen Social Security numbers to secure employment. Although the federal E-Verify is available as a deterrent, federal and state governments have failed to mandate its use, leaving citizens vulnerable to financial and emotional harm from this widespread crime. More...

Topline: A then-employee at the City of Austin’s energy utility allegedly paid $980,000 in taxpayer funds to fictional companies with bank accounts belonging to his family members, according to a new report from the city auditor. Key facts: Mark Ybarra was given a city credit card from 2018 to 2023 to hire repair companies for city buildings. He used it to pay 30 different vendors, but the city auditor could only verify that eight of them were real companies, according to the report.  Ten of the companies reportedly had the same address, which the city auditor said is the home of...

Topline: There are few families that need an advertisement to remind them to purchase a Christmas tree in December but, in 2011, officials at the Department of Agriculture decided an expensive marketing campaign was somehow necessary. The USDA awarded $75,000 for Michigan State University, the Michigan Christmas Tree Association and two other agriculture groups to launch “Make it a Real Michigan Christmas,” encouraging local families to ditch their artificial tree for a real one. The money would be worth $107,000 today. That’s according to the “Wastebook”...

More than a million Americans may unwittingly hold second jobs – because that work is being performed by an illegal alien using their stolen social security number. News of the identity theft can come as a rude shock to citizens like the Minnesota factory worker who had crushing tax bills because of a thrice-deported illegal immigrant in Missouri who was working under his name for years. Or Iowa taxpayers who learned that the superintendent of the Des Moines school system was an illegal immigrant facing a deportation order. More likely, they may never know that their...

Topline: The General Services Administration had its third-most expensive month ever for outside purchases this September, with $4.5 billion spent on items like footrests, deodorant and much more.  Key facts: The GSA manages transportation and supplies for nearly 8,400 federal buildings around the country, which will be well-stocked after the latest spending spree.  The average GSA purchase in September cost just under $33,000, but the spending quickly added up once over 143,000 invoices were approved. The agency spent $849.3 million on Sept. 29 and 30 alone, the last two days of...

Topline: A Long Island school district must pay its superintendent over $907,500 after he resigned without a public explanation this September, according to records obtained by Newsday through a Freedom of Information Law request. Key facts: The Plainedge Union Free School District paid Edward Salina a $662,352 lump sum for 184 unused sick and personal days and 286.5 unused vacation days. The district will also pay the remaining $245,185 of Salina’s salary for the 2025-26 school year. The salary is paid in bi-weekly installments, which will end if Salina takes a job at another school,...

Topline: Almost everyone knows that government spending has been increasing for years, but it can’t all be blamed on inflation and population growth. Historical data reviewed in a new Open the Books report shows that outlays per person have increased nearly 100 times since 1916, when it was a mere $208.36 per person adjusted for inflation. Key facts: The federal government spent $7.035 trillion in fiscal year 2025. Divided by the more than 343.6 million people currently in the country, that’s $20,474 in spending per person. It was slightly lower in fiscal year 2024, with $20,449...