RealClearInvestigations Articles

Arlington County, Virginia opened its first “SuperStop” bus stop in 2013, complete with heated floors, electronic display screens, and slanted pavement that allowed passengers to board a bus without stepping upwards. It was just missing one thing: a proper roof. Passengers found themselves drenched on rainy days or shivering in the winter because the bus stop provided little shelter.  The poorly-designed bus stop cost $1 million, or $1.4 million in today’s money.  That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S. Senator Dr....

In September 2024, automated computer systems flagged more than 400,000 people who were potentially wrongly receiving Social Security checks. Employees at the Social Security Administration ignored or did not fully review an estimated 80% of the alerts and are still sending out the checks today, according to a new inspector general audit. Recipients received more than $1 billion in the past two years. The report estimates that the government can still claw back $344 million, but $664 million is likely lost forever. Key facts: A Social Security recipient who returns to work is required to...

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “urgently” needs to “avoid further waste of taxpayer dollars” resulting from misguided purchases, according to a Sept. 24 report by the Government Accountability Office. ICE never developed a plan for spending the huge funding boost it received last year, and blew billions of dollars on initiatives that were later scaled back or abandoned entirely. Key facts: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act of 2025 gave ICE $45 billion to use for detention efforts by 2029, more than doubling its previous budget. In early 2026, ICE spent more than...

Federal disaster money meant to rebuild homes destroyed by Hurricane Sandy instead helped finance a contractor’s Lamborghini, Porsche, Jaguar and real estate after he defrauded Long Island homeowners. Alexander Almaraz, owner of the construction company Design Concepts Group, was sentenced last month to four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud. Key facts: After Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast in 2012, New York awarded $1.2 billion in federally-backed grants to help almost 13,000 families rebuild their homes. The funds came from U.S....

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the WeekSeptember 27 to October 3   RCI Podcasts & Videos On the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Dr. Robert Malone about how powerful businesses, government officials, foundations and journalists are behind the growing push to regulate artificial intelligence, an effort which, he says, has less to do with saving humanity from extinction than protecting the valuation and competitive advantages of AI behemoths.   Featured Investigation: Media Law: How One Firm’s...

Federal agencies spent the past two years deep cleaning their offices, throwing away $10 billion worth of inventory ranging from bandages to airplanes.  Only 9% of the items were donated, resold or reused by another agency, even though 56% of the items were unused, the Government Accountability Office found in a new report. Key facts: The report analyzed 48 million items thrown away from July 2023 to September 2025. Almost 60% of them originally cost $1,000 or more.  Fifty-six percent of the items were completely unused, the GAO found. Another 43% were “usable,”...

Voters often say that politicians have no common sense, but a little-known Senate program takes that belief a bit too seriously. The Office of Education and Training gives senators and their staffers classes on basic life skills like stress management, small talk, self-assertiveness, proper sitting posture and even sleeping. Taxpayers spent $1.9 million funding the classes in 2013, or $2.7 million in today’s money. The program still exists, but the dollar cost is unclear because it’s been incorporated into the larger Office of the Sergeant at Arms’ budget. That’s...

One of the most urgent questions facing society today is the potential impact of AI on education and labor markets. So it’s no surprise that two scientists attempted to provide an answer, producing a meta-analysis suggesting that incorporating ChatGPT in schooling dramatically improved student outcomes. Social media and online sources promoted the 2025 study as a beacon of bright light.  The problem is that the researchers’ conclusions were later found to be unreliable, and the study was retracted in April – another blow to the public’s faith in...

The State of Utah overpaid a janitorial contractor by $677,669 after one of its own employees falsified procurement documents and made improper contract changes. The Division of Facilities Construction and Management recovered some of the money, but $291,650 is gone, according to a September state audit. Key facts: The problems involved janitorial services at the Taylorsville State Office Building, a 415,000-square-foot complex housing more than a dozen government agencies.  Auditors said the employee responsible for the contract worked mostly in isolation. Reviewers failed to catch...

Contractors working at the Department of Veterans Affairs’ suicide-prevention hotline earned $11.2 million without answering a single phone call, according to a Sept. 1 report from the VA inspector general. Key facts: The Veterans Crisis Line is available 24 hours per day for veterans experiencing a mental health emergency. Trained government staff answer calls, provide support and send a medical team if there is an immediate risk of harm. In 2019, a contractor was hired to establish a backup crisis line. If the main Veterans Crisis Line was unavailable because of a power outage or some...

Many Americans may be losing trust in journalism, but attorneys at the Clarkson Law Firm are apparently not among them. In recent years, the Southern California-based firm filed at least four class-action lawsuits in federal courts that appeared to rely heavily on investigative articles published by ProPublica, STAT News, and other news outlets. Most of the suits came on the heels of negative stories about some of the country’s biggest health insurers, including UnitedHealth Group, Cigna, and Humana. Facebook’s owner, Meta, also seems to have come into Clarkson’s...

It’s no wonder that California’s infamous high-speed rail line has more than tripled in cost and been delayed by 20 years. The consultants working on the project have been killing time at a tiki bar, a nightclub, an escape room, a gym and more. Their travel expenses add up to more than $2 million, including $592,000 that was “not allowable,” per a Sept. 15 inspector general report. Key facts: The consultants are allowed to bill taxpayers for legitimate business expenses, but the state “routinely” allowed them to travel without advance approval, as required....

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the WeekSeptember 20 to September 26   RCI Podcasts & Videos On the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney discuss a wide range of articles published this week. Topics include the growing campaign to cast AI as an existential threat, the media’s lack of interest in the rampant fraud targeting taxpayer funds and the rise of Islam in Europe and the US. You can also listen to the Podcast on Spotify and Apple by search “RealClearInvestigations.”   On The Miller Report: Real...

Americans underpaid their taxes by an estimated $696 billion in 2022, according to new data released by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration.  Most of the money came from people and businesses that understated their income. But 9% came from people who didn’t file a tax return at all, and efforts to track them down have been slow-moving as the Internal Revenue Services’ case log remains backed up. Key facts: The IRS’ backlog of cases increased when its office buildings closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, but the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022...

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...