RealClearInvestigations Articles
Waste of the Day: Record No-Bid Contract in DC
Topline: The firing of then-Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem came after she funded a $220 million ad campaign without a competitive bidding process, but she is far from the only federal official awarding no-bid contracts.
Washington spent a record $262.6 billion on no-bid contracts in fiscal year 2025, or 33% of all contract spending for the year.
Key facts: The competitive bidding process helps ensure that taxpayers get the best value for their money when the government buys a product or service. Several companies submit offers for the job, and the government chooses the cheapest one...
Waste of the Day: TBT — PepsiCo’s Greek Yogurt
Topline: PepsiCo’s odd attempt at being associated with health foods ended in failure in 2015, when its Greek yogurt factory closed due to poor sales.
The government tried its best to help PepsiCo succeed, at taxpayer expense. The Departments of Agriculture and Commerce spent $1.3 million to pave the road to the factory and upgrade its water supply. The money would be worth $1.9 million today.
The factory was also promised a combined $26.3 million in tax credits from New York State and Genesee County.
That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published...
Waste of the Day: Texas Taxes Fund Lobbyists
Topline: Texas taxpayers spent an estimated $42.3 million to $111.5 million to help local governments lobby the state legislature in 2025, even though 83% of voters oppose the practice.
A new report from the Texas Public Policy Foundation found that 570 lobbyists in Texas have at least one taxpayer-funded entity as a client, such as a city, school district or community college.
Key facts: Taxpayer-funded lobbyists have registered with the state to influence legislation involving emissions regulations, gun control, school vouchers, transgender students competing in college sports, legalized...
Waste of the Day: IRS Stocks Up On Weapons
Topline: Employees at the Internal Revenue Service are busy processing tax returns, but they’re equipped with supplies that go far beyond laptops and calculators. The IRS spent $2.6 million last year on military-style equipment like ammunition and rifle plates.
Federal agencies besides the Department of War spent more than $448 million on military equipment in fiscal year 2025. The dollar total encompasses 40 purchasing categories listed on USAspending.gov, such as grenades and chemical weapons.
Key facts: Some of the weaponry was purchased by law enforcement agencies like the...
Waste of the Day: Podcast Episode Gets $60K
Topline: Economic development corporation JobsOhio controls the sale of liquor in Ohio and uses most of the profits — $359 million last year — for job creation programs. But as a private corporation that is not subject to open records or open meetings laws, much of its operations are shrouded in secrecy.
The corporation is now under fire for sponsoring a $60,000 podcast that produced just one episode.
Key facts: Former Gov. John Kasich created the corporation in 2011 and put many of his campaign donors on its board. Ohio Attorney General David Yost tried to audit JobsOhio in 2013,...
RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations'
Picks of the Week
April 12 to April 18
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 Roger Pielke Jr. about his Substack article detailing how Al Gore’s seminal 2006 book and film on climate change, “An Inconvenient Truth,” helped politicize science.
On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller interviews James Varney about his recent RCI article on Alaska’s effort to build a new, 800-mile...
Waste of the Day: School Secretary Cashed Checks
Topline: A new Oklahoma state audit alleges that a former public school employee wrote fraudulent checks to herself and hid money meant for the school’s activity fund.
Key facts: Stacey Benard resigned from her secretary job at Varnum Public Schools in 2021 over allegations of embezzlement, with auditors finding eight checks totaling $9,621 that she wrote to herself.
Benard logged the checks in the school’s accounting software as payments to companies like Lowe’s and the Oklahoma Gas and Electric Company, but she allegedly printed them with herself listed as the payee....
Waste of the Day: TBT: Handouts For Pet Shampoo
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...
Wall or Sieve? Attacks Raise Doubts About U.S. Immigration System
In the wee hours of Sunday, March 1, a Senegalese immigrant clad in a sweatshirt bearing the words “Property of Allah” opened fire outside an Austin, Texas beer garden, killing three and leaving 14 others wounded.
On March 12, at Old Dominion University, a former Virginia National Guard member from Sierra Leone – released early from an 11-year prison sentence for attempting to provide material support to the ISIL – yelled “Allahu Akbar” before shooting and killing a beloved college professor and wounding two other people.
The immigrant brother of a...
Waste of the Day: Pittsburgh Has OT Crisis
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...
Waste of the Day: Laptops Are Unused or Missing
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,...
Waste of the Day: This Land Is Yours For $110,000
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...
BREAKING: Newly Declassified Docs Reveal Bias of Impeachment 'Whistleblower'
A former inspector general who fast-tracked a “whistleblower” complaint that led to the first impeachment of President Trump in 2019 knew the whistleblower was a registered Democrat and Joe Biden loyalist yet still determined his complaint was "a matter of urgent concern that appeared credible," according to newly declassified documents.
The documents also reveal the anonymous whistleblower secretly met with the Democratic staff of former House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff prior to submitting his complaint in August 2019.
Yet under direct questioning, the...
RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations'
Picks of the Week
April 5 to April 11
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 Epoch Times Senior Editor Jan Jekielek about his new book “Killed To Order: China's Organ Harvesting Industry and the True Nature of America's Biggest Adversary.” Read an excerpt from the book here.
On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller interviews RCI contributor Paul D. Thacker about the history and fate of birthright...
Book Excerpt - Killed To Order: China’s Organ Harvesting Industry and the True Nature of America’s Biggest Adversary
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...
Waste of the Day: Throwback Thursday - Smokey Bear Balloon Has High Price Tag
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...
Waste of the Day: Lawyers Rake in Fees From Chicago’s Wrongful Convictions
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...
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...
Frozen Fuel: Alaska Eyes Another Epic Pipeline
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...
Waste of the Day: Fiscal Doomsday Reached With $193.6T Gap
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...
