RealClearInvestigations Articles

Topline: The military’s Foreign Comparative Testing program has partnered with other nations to create new body armor, rockets, ammunition and, in 2012, chipotle-flavored beef jerky. Pentagon officials spent $1.5 million meant “to improve the U.S. warfighter’s capabilities” on researching a “meat roll-up” for use as a “savory snack.” The money would be worth $2.2 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...

Topline: A tiny contractor’s disastrous time running an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facility in El Paso came to an end this March. Now, a Government Accountability Office report has uncovered millions of dollars in wasted money and other issues that jeopardized detainees’ safety. Key facts: Camp East Montana opened in August 2025 as the nation’s largest ICE facility, with the capacity to hold 5,000 immigrant detainees. The Army gave the small firm Acquisition Logistics a $1.3 billion contract to run the camp. Acquisition Logistics had no experience running...

Topline: A Missouri school superintendent made out with perhaps the best rate of pay in the history of public schooling. Salary: $249,167. Hours worked: Zero. The Francis Howell R-III School District asked Dr. Mike Dominguez to resign before his first day on the job, but paid him a full year of salary to avoid a potential lawsuit. A state audit concluded the district did not perform a proper background check before hiring Dominguez, which could have identified concerns about his “competency” and “ability to lead the district.” Key facts: Dominguez had previously been...

Topline: Poor oversight in Broome County, N.Y., allowed officials to take expensive international trips, spend thousands of dollars on alcohol and parties, and get reimbursed for expenses without receipts, according to a May 29 report from the New York Authorities Budget Office. Key facts: The problems came from within the county’s industrial development agency, which provides loans and tax breaks to small businesses to help create jobs. The agency’s employees spent $239,908 on their county credit cards from January 2022 to June 2025, according to the report. Almost all of the...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week June 14 to June 20   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 Robert P. George, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence and director of the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University, about the national civics education he has spearheaded and how to have conversations across the political divide.   On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller speaks with Jeremy...

Topline: The Department of Justice had $77.5 million worth of expired grant funds sitting in bank accounts and unavailable for use as of Sept. 30, 2025, according to two recent audits by the agency’s inspector general. Most of the money was from the Office on Violence Against Women, meant to support victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.  Key facts: When the federal government gives a grant to a nonprofit, it first “obligates” the money by setting it aside in a bank account. It often takes months or years for the nonprofit to actually spend the money. If the...

Topline: Tax delinquency among recipients of federal subsidies is an under-investigated source of fiscal waste, but the Government Accountability Office published a landmark study on the issue back in 2012. Medical providers in Florida, New York and Texas with unpaid taxes were found to have received $6.6 billion in Medicaid reimbursements during fiscal year 2009, or $10.3 billion in today’s money.  One couple that owned a nursing business was even able to buy a new home while their company owed $3 million in taxes. That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting...

Topline: Michael Boaz, the former town manager of Pilot Mountain, North Carolina, made hundreds of unauthorized purchases on his city credit card from 2022 to 2024, including bullets and a hotel for his family vacation, according to a state audit released in May. Boaz was fired in 2024 when the allegations first came to light. Now that a state audit confirmed the questionable purchases, he has been indicted for felony embezzlement.  Key facts: Boaz’ questionable purchases totaled $18,426, much of which was spent on food. He spent $12,897 at pizzerias, barbecue restaurants, an...

America’s largest cities are increasing their spending at almost unprecedented rates. A RealClearInvestigations analysis of cities with at least 500,000 residents found they cumulatively raised their per-person spending by 18% over the last 10 budget cycles, accounting for inflation. The only equivalents on record are the spending surges ignited by the Great Society programs of the 1960s and Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal during the 1930s. But unlike those past eras, today’s cities do not have the revenue to support their heavy spending. State and federal funding have...

Topline: A Maryland state audit identified 16 issues with the management of Baltimore City Community College, including $20 million of missing inventory, payments to potential “ghost students,” and an employee receiving paychecks four years after they left their job. Key facts: According to the audit, more than 26,000 laptops and other “sensitive items” were unaccounted for in the college’s most recent inventory count in 2023. The college made no attempt to find the items and did not follow a legal requirement to report the incident to the state, the audit...

Topline: California is using federal Medicaid funds for Native American shamans to treat drug and alcohol addiction with drum circles, spiritual dances and herbal medicine. The “Traditional Healers” program was first approved under President Joe Biden in October 2024 but continues today in 21 medical centers, according to an investigation by the Washington Free Beacon. Shamans are reimbursed up to $801 for each “treatment.” One of the most recent contracts went to the Santa Ynez Tribal Health Clinic for $2.1 million in March.  The total dollar cost is unclear...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week June 7 to June 13   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 Joel Kotkin about his recent article for RCI, "The Strage Afterlife of Fascism," about how and why an ideology that peaked in the 1920s and 30s has become a fighting buzzword in contemporary politics.  On the Miller Report: RealClear Journalism, Maggie Miller speaks with David Rosner, Commissioner of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), about...

Topline: The Village of Cuba, New Mexico, has had “a sustained and indefensible breakdown in accountability over public funds” since at least 2020, according to a state audit released in May. The report identified dozens of issues, including a public official with $11,471 in unpaid water bills and another who used public funds to buy a Subaru Crosstrek without approval.  Key facts: Auditors found the village never implemented proper processes to monitor its payroll, bank accounts, credit cards, or employee sick leave. There were not enough staff to perform “basic...

Topline: Most bus stops consist of a bench and some plexiglass but, in 2012, the City of Grants Pass, OR ,decided that wasn’t good enough. The mayor used federal funds on expertly designed bus shelters “with public art to make them an interesting and attractive place — something that was truly unique to the City of Grants Pass.” The city quickly had buyers’ remorse after realizing that burdensome federal grant regulations would drive up the cost, but it was too late. Five bus stops were built at a cost of $388,000, or $570,000 in today’s...

Topline: Starbucks is getting a “venti” sized handout from the State of Tennessee to build a new corporate office in Nashville. The company will receive $30 million in economic development grants funded by taxpayers. Key facts: The deal comes with several benefits for Tennessee. Starbucks says the office will create up to 2,000 jobs and represent a $100 million capital investment. The state told Channel 5 Nashville the grant contract has a legal clause allowing Tennessee to recoup its money if Starbucks fails to deliver on its promises, though the full details are not...

Topline: The company renovating the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool is being paid $850,000 more than the typical amount for comparable federal contracting work, according to a report from The New York Times. The vendor was paid a premium for “accepting a difficult job on a tight deadline,” and the government never checked to see if another company would be cheaper. Key facts: Federal construction projects typically have profit margins of 6 to 12%, but Atlantic Industrial Coatings will make 20% profit for its work on the reflecting pool. The total taxpayer cost will be $13.1...

Bill Gates has long been one of the most admired people in the world, especially since he stepped down from his role running Microsoft to devote himself and much of his fortune to philanthropy. That reputation has been tarnished recently, however, by revelations of the billionaire’s close relation with sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and exposés on his own fraught relationships with women. When Bill Gates stepped down as Microsoft's CEO in 2000, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation started that year with an endowment of $20 billion which became his prime source of...

Topline: Lifeguarding in Los Angeles County is not just a way to soak up some sun at the beach. It’s one of the most lucrative public sector jobs in America. Thirty-eight lifeguards each made more than $300,000 in salary and benefits in 2025, according to payroll records obtained by Open the Books. The highest-paid was chief lifeguard Fernando Boiteux, who made $568,049. Key facts: Most of the top-paid lifeguards were employed by the fire department to work at Los Angeles’ largest beaches. The 164 full-time employees — those enrolled in a pension plan — made $41.2...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week May 31 to June 6   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 Andrew G. Bostom – whose books include “The Legacy of Jihad” and “The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism” – about how Shariah law differs from U.S. jurisprudence and the extent to which it reflects the values and aims of American Muslims. In The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller sits down with Scott Tinker,...