RealClearInvestigations Articles

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...

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...

In his new, bestselling book, “Killed to Order: China's Organ Harvesting Industry and the True Nature of America's Biggest Adversary,” Jan Jekielek, a senior editor at The Epoch Times, reports on China’s state-sanctioned harvesting of organs from prisoners of conscience while making a larger argument about the inhumane nature of its communist regime. In this excerpt from the book, Jekielek details how the party’s collectivist ethos – “the greatest good for the greatest number” – allows it to commit atrocities, including taking organs, from...

Topline: Smokey Bear is fond of reminding the public that “Only you can prevent forest fires.” But, in reality, federal funding for actual firefighters would probably be more effective. Yet since 2008, the Department of Agriculture has spent $482,000 for a giant hot air balloon shaped like Smokey’s head to appear at fairs and festivals around the country. The money is worth $657,000 adjusted for inflation. The expense was first highlighted in 2012 in the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For years, these reports shined a...

Topline: The City of Chicago has spent almost $160 million paying private lawyers to fight wrongful conviction lawsuits since 2016, but The Chicago Tribune found there is “little evidence that the strategy has paid off financially.”  The city usually ends up settling the lawsuits, giving taxpayers little reason to spend exorbitant amounts on legal fees fighting the suits. Key facts: The Tribune highlighted numerous examples of Chicago dragging its feet during legal negotiations, which typically drives up settlement costs and allows lawyers to bill more hours. Waste of...

RealClearInvestigations is welcoming applications for its new grant program which provides $20,000 to freelance reporters to develop and publish their best, deep-dive ideas. What we offer: $17,000 stipend for a 6,000 to 10,000-word article or series. $2,000 travel budget $1,000 photography budget What We Want: Ambitious, big-idea, granularly detailed pieces of investigative reporting. We support independent-minded journalists who will go into the field (hence the travel budget), observe closely, report deeply, and deliver a well-crafted story or series that surprises and informs readers...

Underneath the glaciers polar bears patrol along Alaska’s North Slope, the decayed bodies of their ancestors who trod there eons ago have left trillions of cubic feet of natural gas, an energy bonanza for the modern world. That jackpot reservoir has left present-day Alaskans puzzling over how to divide the booty: How much do we need to keep for ourselves, and how much can we export? The answers lie hundreds or even thousands of miles away, among lawmakers in Juneau, in oil and gas company executive suites in New York and Texas, and in capitals of potential buyers spread across the Asian...

Topline: $193.6 trillion is the most important number in the United States. That’s how much extra money will be needed to fund Social Security and Medicare indefinitely, even after all payroll taxes and premiums are collected. The Fiscal Year 2025 Financial Report of the United States Government, released on March 19, declared that “the current fiscal path is unsustainable,” and the government will be forced to cut benefits by 2033.  Key facts: The Treasury’s financial report has sounded the alarm on safety net programs for years, but the estimates are now more...

Topline: Maryland state employees earned a record $406 million in overtime last year, according to payroll records, backing up the findings of a recent state audit that found Maryland has no “comprehensive process” for monitoring overtime spending. Key facts: The state audit defines “excessive overtime” as more than 50% of an employee’s base salary. Open the Books’ records show 3,810 employees collected that much in 2025. There were 375 employees who each made more than $100,000 in overtime.  The Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week March 29 to April 4   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 the podcaster and investigative journalist Walter Curt about his efforts to identify fraud, waste and abuse in government spending. On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller interviews Susan Crabtree about her recent article for RealClearPolitics reporting that the agent responsible for planning security at the Butler, Pa., event where...

Topline: Alabama legalized medical marijuana five years ago, but not one person has received a treatment. A flawed licensing process developed by the state and attorney William Webster has created dozens of ongoing lawsuits. Taxpayers and small businesses have paid the price, but not Webster. Alabama paid his law firm $604,000 to represent the state in the legal battles caused by the flawed licensing process he helped design, according to a state audit released on March 20. Webster’s firm was only supposed to receive $400,000, but the state failed to monitor the contract and mistakenly...

Topline: In 2012, NASA set out to conquer a new frontier: the iPad App Store. App development proved to be more difficult than actual space exploration. NASA spent $1.5 million to make a video game called “Starlite,” but the full version was never released. The money would be worth $2.1 million today. 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 U.S. Senator from Oklahoma, earned the nickname...

The State of Texas has become as synonymous with crippling public school debt as it is with oil wells and tumbleweeds.  Its public schools have $148.3 billion in bond debt – the most of any state by far – that will eventually have to be repaid, along with an additional $88.3 billion in interest. For every dollar of borrowed money public schools use to improve education, they must give 59 cents to outside creditors, including large institutions such as Wells Fargo and State Farm, as well as hedge funds. This costly debt burden, which is lining the pockets of...

Topline: Regina Speaker and Sandra Edling, directors of the county office managing schools in Montgomery, Penn., recently took the trip of a lifetime: a 14-day African safari with zebras, elephants and more. Taxpayers footed the entire $18,000 bill in the name of “professional development,” according to records obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer. When asked how the safari was related to her job, Speaker told the Inquirer, “Everything was through the lens of leadership. It was about that process of survival of the fittest, and how are you a leader, and what do you...

RealClearInvestigations (RCI) has announced a new grant program for investigative reporters. At a time when journalistic resources are contracting across the country, RealClear is encouraging reporters to apply for grants of $20,000 to fund deep-dive reporting projects. Grantees’ work will be published on RealClearInvestigations.com, the go-to hub for in-depth, longform reporting from across the web. RCI’s editor, J. Peder Zane, said the challenges journalism is facing now provide a great opportunity for news outlets that remain committed to fair, accurate, and consequential...

Topline: Lawmakers added 1,090 congressional increases in back-door earmarks worth $34 billion into the Department of War’s budget for 2026, according to analysis from Taxpayers for Common Sense.  Like earmarks, congressional increases fund projects that were not requested by the president and often benefit congress members’ home districts. Unlike earmarks, they can be requested anonymously, and lawmakers do not have to certify that there are no conflicts of interest. Key facts: The congressional increases include rockets, tanks, high-altitude surveillance balloons and much...

Debates about immigration largely revolve around what happens with immigrants once they arrive in the United States. In his new book, “The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon,” bestselling author Peter Schweizer argues that Americans need to start talking about who is sending immigrants to our shores and why. Backed by years of forensic fieldwork and a trove of confidential documents and intercepted communications, Schweizer details how foreign leaders, global NGOs, and even drug cartels have turned the country’s welcome mat...