RealClearInvestigations Articles

Anyone who has had an argument with their spouse knows that telling them to “just calm down” is usually not productive. But a taxpayer-funded study from 2013 arrived at the opposite conclusion, showing a link between avoiding emotional outbursts and marital satisfaction.  The study focused mostly on wives’ behavior, concluding that women who can “regulate” their “negative behavior” are more likely to have a successful marriage. The research was produced with a $325,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health, or $465,000 in today’s...

When Bari Weiss was hired to lead CBS News last year, many of the network’s star reporters feared the centrist founder of The Free Press news site would turn the network into a mouthpiece for the Trump administration. Longtime “60 Minutes” correspondent Scott Pelley was fired after he accused Weiss of “murdering the show.” If the season premiere of “60 Minutes” is any indication, progressives have little to complain about. In a segment titled “The Pardon Economy,” veteran CBS reporter Lesley Stahl alleges that Trump has upended...

Oklahoma spent $6.2 million planning and designing a behavioral health campus that was never built — and State Auditor Cindy Byrd says the work wasn’t helpful for the replacement project officials ultimately chose. Key facts: The Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services planned to build the Donahue Behavioral Health Campus in Oklahoma City for patients in need of urgent, overnight care. The state appropriated $87 million for the project in 2022, using federal Covid-19 relief funds. Oklahoma City and County contributed a combined $2.5 million. Before...

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announced it has cut off payments to 11 providers suspected of fraudulently billing $3.4 billion to Medicare Advantage for durable medical equipment in the past two years. Key facts: A New Jersey-based provider claimed to have treated one patient 38 times, but records showed the patient died before the first treatment began.  A Texas-based provider also claimed to treat nine patients that records showed were already deceased. Another six people the provider claimed to treat told CMS they never heard of the company. A company in Florida...

Five construction projects at a Department of /Veterans Affairs medical center in Fayetteville, Arkansas nearly tripled in cost because of delays that “could have been prevented” by better communication among VA staff, according to a Sept. 9 report from the agency’s inspector general. Key facts: Staff in Fayetteville hired construction companies for the five projects, but never provided the necessary blueprints or details about what the projects entailed, the IG found.  The construction companies were left to follow “vague” instructions, leading to errors...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the WeekSeptember 13 to September 19   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 Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Joby Warrick about his compulsively readable new book, “The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World’s First Super-Terrorist.”   Featured Investigation: Natural Gas Is Cheap – Why Is Your Bill So High? Natural gas has rarely been cheaper in Southwestern, Pennsylvania, yet monthly bills...

The Small Business Administration potentially made $11.5 million in improper payments to banks after overruling its own employees who had recommended reducing or denying government guarantees on 16 failed small-business loans. For another 13 failed loans, SBA took so long to review them that the six-year statute of limitations expired, wasting another $5.4 million, according to an Aug. 27 inspector general report. Key facts: SBA’s 7(a) program helps startups with a risky business model get loans, but it does not generally lend taxpayer money directly. Private banks make loans of up to...

The quintessential image of up-and-coming musicians toughing it out in a squalid tour bus was far from reality in 2013, when the federal government spent $284,300 helping record label executives travel overseas to sell music — $412,249 in today’s dollars. The American Association of Independent Music received the money from the Department of Commerce’s Market Development Cooperator Program to promote indie rock in China, France, Brazil and Canada. That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn. For...

A potentially sweeping reform to K-12 education beginning in January is forcing Democratic governors to weigh the political risks of joining or rejecting the new federal school choice program designed by conservatives.   The little-known program, called the Federal Scholarship Tax Credit, creates a new and possibly large funding stream for education based on private donations to nonprofit scholarship granting organizations. The uncapped initiative is expected to generate billions of dollars in scholarships that could affect the educational paths and performance of millions of...

RealClearInvestigations’ seven-part series, Islam’s Rise Across America, reports on the growing power and influence of Muslim-Americans across the country. GOP Battles Sharia: Is Islamic Law a Threat or Dog Whistle? Paul Sperry reports for RealClearInvestigations that congressional Republicans, backed by President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, are advancing legislation to restrict immigration from Muslim-majority nations and curb the spread of Sharia law in America. They warn that growing Muslim immigration is enabling the formation of parallel societies governed by...

Medicare spent an estimated $380 million acquiring human organs that were either transplanted into patients without Medicare or never transplanted at all, according to a new Department of Health and Human Services inspector general audit. Key facts: Medicare reimburses hospitals for removing kidneys, hearts, lungs and other organs from donors after they die. Federal law says Medicare should only bear those costs when the organ is used in a Medicare-covered transplant. But decades-old Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services guidance tells hospitals to assume that any organ they send to a...

The U.S. Army gave $533 million to General Dynamics to build an artillery factory in Texas that has yet to produce a single usable shell, according to an investigation by ProPublica. Key facts: The Army wanted to rapidly increase production of 155mm artillery shells after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. General Dynamics was the only U.S. producer of the shell bodies at the time. Instead of using its own proven manufacturing process, General Dynamics used new “flow-forming” machinery from Turkish subcontractor Repkon. The equipment had never produced the newer model of shell the...

Retiree Janet Stechly examines her often confounding gas bill in her Washington, PA, home. RCI WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania—Janet Stechly, a retired schoolteacher, and her husband, a retired coal miner, pore over every monthly expense. One of the most confounding is the monthly natural gas bill for their small townhouse in southwestern Pennsylvania. Their March bill from Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania totaled $95.17, but only $13.99 of that was for the gas itself. The other $81.18 covered delivery ($40.68) and a series of hard-to-decipher items including a “customer charge”...

The Department of Homeland Security claimed to have saved $10.5 billion through cost-cutting measures led by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. A new audit by the Government Accountability Office argues that less than 1% of that amount was actually saved. Key facts: Most of DHS’ reported savings came from cutting 30 information technology contracts that could have cost up to $10 billion over the next 10 years.  However, DHS still needs IT to function. Because the contracts were cut, the General Services Administration had to increase its spending on IT and share...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the WeekSeptember 6 to September 12   RCI Podcasts & Videos On this week’s RCI Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discussed several articles in an extended news round-up. They included recent investigations into the Iran war, new tech that's pushing fake news, and the 25th anniversary of 9/11. You can also listen to it on Spotify and Apple by searching for “RealClearInvestigations.” Featured Investigation: Devolution Revolution: Americans Returning Power to the People A cluster of small, mostly...

The Securities and Exchange Commission paid $10.7 million to store its electronic data at a Maryland facility that was allegedly certified by a company that does not exist. AiNET Corp. and its former CEO Deepak Jain recently agreed to pay $1.8 million to settle allegations that they violated the False Claims Act by knowingly defrauding the government. The settlement does not contain an admission of guilt. Key facts: When the SEC began looking for a new data center in 2012, it required applicants to have a Tier III certification. That means the data center is fully operational even when...

The U.S. Army spent $297 million in 2013, or $425 million in today’s money, developing a surveillance blimp as long as a football field that was supposed to hover over Afghanistan for three weeks at a time. It flew once — for 90 minutes over New Jersey — before the Army canceled the program and sold the blimp for just $301,000 to the company that built it.  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...

The last remaining 15 terrorist detainees held at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison are considered the “worst of the worst,” “high-value detainees,” and “forever prisoners,” but Gitmo parole records reveal that at least three of the violent jihadists have been recommended for release recently despite high recidivism rates. Mjuayn al-din Jamal al-Din Abd al-Sattar is a “committed member of al-Qaeda” who fought with Osama bin Laden at Tora Bora. Wikipedia One is Mjuayn al-din Jamal al-Din Abd al-Sattar, a “committed member...

The Department of Housing and Urban Development has not been checking the Treasury’s Do Not Pay List of groups that should not receive federal money. In the first six months of fiscal year 2026, the agency gave $2 billion in rental assistance to entities that were not registered, according to a new audit report. This is after not having any access to the list. In 2024, HUD, lacking access to the Treasury’s Do Not Pay List, gave $5.2 billion in rental assistance to entities that did not properly register for it. Key facts: HUD sends roughly $15 billion in subsidies every year to...