RealClearInvestigations Articles
RealClear Investigative Grants
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...
Waste of the Day: Alabama Hired Lawyer for Lawsuits He Caused
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...
Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday - Crash Landing for NASA Video Game
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...
Everything’s Bigger in Texas, Including School Debt
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...
Waste of the Day: School Officials Claim Safari Was “Professional Development”
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 Seeks Applicants for $20,000 Reporting Grants
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...
Waste of the Day: $34 Billion In Secretive Military Funding
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...
Book Excerpt - The Invisible Coup: How American Elites and Foreign Powers Use Immigration as a Weapon
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...
Waste of the Day: NYC Thermostat Repairers Made $325K, Thanks to OT
Topline: New York is the city where dreams come true — like making $325,000 to fix thermostats for the Department of Correction.
That’s how much the city’s top-paid thermostat repairer made in 2025, mostly due to $200,000 in overtime.
Payroll records obtained by Open the Books show the city spent $2.9 billion on overtime in 2025 for its full workforce, with 2,140 employees earning at least $100,000.
Key facts: The New York Police Department spent $1.1 billion on overtime, and the Fire Department spent $568 million. But many of the city’s highest earners...
RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations'
Picks of the Week
March 22 to March 28
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 Jacob Siegel about his masterful new book, “The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control,” which details how technology and progressivism have helped give rise to censorship, surveillance and propaganda.
On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller interviews James Varney about his RCI article (see above) on citizen...
Waste of the Day: Cybersecurity Programmers Have Foreign Ties
Topline: The National Science Foundation is spending $67 million on software that will protect American research from cybercriminals in enemy nations like China. But it’s being built by two universities that accept gifts from China and have faculty members who collaborate with the Chinese military.
Key facts: Texas A&M University and the University of Washington are leading the Safeguarding the Entire Community in the U.S. Research Ecosystem (SECURE) program and will receive $50 million and $17 million, respectively.
Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on...
Book Excerpt: The Information State - Politics in the Age of Total Control
In “The Information State: Politics in the Age of Total Control,” Jacob Siegel traces how we reached the point where anything that contradicts the dominant narrative can be labeled dangerous disinformation. As he charts how the technological infrastructure built to make society safer and more rational has steadily replaced democratic freedoms with systems of digital control, Siegel reports that commercial Internet applications now double as military-grade surveillance and influence tools. In this excerpt, adapted from the book, Siegel describes how the rise of Donald Trump...
Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday - Helping Beverly Hills’ Low-Income Community
Topline: If the federal government wants to address homelessness, Rodeo Drive might not be the best place to start. That hasn’t stopped Beverly Hills — with no qualified low-income areas — and nearby Santa Fe Springs from receiving Community and Development Block Grants for years to fund homelessness services and job creation.
City officials knew their neighborhoods were too wealthy for the grants back in 2012. They left the money untouched for years before eventually selling $206,426 in grant funds to other cities. The money would be worth $298,000 today.
That’s...
Waste of the Day: AZ School Vouchers Used For Hot Tub, Wedding Gifts, More
Topline: More than 18,000 Arizona families used school vouchers to make an "unallowable” purchase in 2025, costing the state at least $10.3 million for banned items like condoms, Broadway tickets and wedding gifts, according to records obtained by the KPNX news station in Phoenix.
Key facts: KPNX found that parents used school vouchers to buy $350,000 worth of tickets to live performances like Disney On Ice, The Lion King, Wicked and pop concerts. Some individual tickets cost $1,000.
Families also spent $77,551 on rideshare services like Uber and Lyft. One family used $6,000 to send...
Citizen Sleuths Spotlight Red Flags Galore in Government Spending
NEW ORLEANS, La.—Although they received millions of taxpayer dollars, it can be hard to find the offices of health service providers in the Big Easy.
Consider Faith and Hope of New Orleans, a home health agency that took in $11.6 million from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) between 2018 and 2024. The company’s website, as well as federal and state databases, lists its address at 3720 Gentilly Street.
But RealClearInvestigations only found an empty building at that location last week. Repeated phone calls during...
Waste of the Day: NYC’s $3.5 Million Toilets Are “In Purgatory”
Topline: It takes less time to put a man on the moon than to build an outdoor bathroom in New York City, according to former NYC Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe.
The nonprofit newsroom The City spoke with Benepe as part of an investigation into a $3.5 million restroom in Fort Washington Park proposed in 2022. The project is still in the planning phase four years later because of red tape and bureaucratic mess.
Key facts: The bathroom will be built over a large septic tank instead of connecting to city sewer lines, which planning documents said would allow it to be built “more...
Waste of the Day: Feds Bought Golf Carts For $8.4 Million
Topline: The federal government spent $8.4 million on purchases that included golf carts in fiscal year 2025, according to spending records obtained by Open the Books.
Key facts: Of that, the Department of Defense spent $4.5 million, more than half of the government-wide total. Veterans Affairs spent $3 million, Homeland Security spent $435,615, the Department of Agriculture spent $269,152 and the Department of the Interior spent $171,203.
Federal records typically don’t say what items were used for, and it’s possible some of the golf carts were used for transportation and not on...
RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations'
Picks of the Week
March 15 to March 21
RCI Podcast
On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Nancy Rommelmann about her new article detailing how one man became a scapegoat for the MeToo era.
Featured Investigation:
FBI Misled Court To Spy on Second Trump Campaign Adviser
Paul Sperry reports for RealClearInvestigations that wiretapping of advisers from Donald Trump’s first campaign was more extensive than previously known. Newly declassified FBI documents...
Waste of the Day: Failing TX School Paid Supt. $900K
Topline: Faith Family Academy, a taxpayer-funded charter school district in North Texas, was nearly shut down by the state following three consecutive years of poor student performance. Yet each year, its superintendent was paid between $500,000 and $900,000, according to records obtained by Open the Books.
Key facts: Mollie Purcell took over in 2012 as superintendent of Faith Family Academy, which has 3,000 students across two campuses in Oak Cliff and Waxahachie.
Purcell made $720,991 in 2023, including a bonus of $414,496, according to payroll records. The same year, the state-run...
Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday - NSF Funded “Prom Week” Video Game
Topline: In 2012, artificial intelligence researchers funded by the federal government were not concerned whether their technology could interpret data or streamline workflows. They wanted to know if AI could navigate the high school dating scene.
The University of California, Santa Cruz, used part of a $516,000 National Science Foundation grant to create “Prom Week,” a video game that simulated teenagers trying to get a date to the school dance. The grant would be worth $740,000 today.
That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S....
