RealClearInvestigations Articles

Topline: In 2011, researchers from Pennsylvania State University used a $1.3 million federal grant to install televisions and electrical generators in seven remote villages in Vietnam.  There are worse ways to spend foreign aid, but the generators were installed only so the villagers could be used in a scientific experiment about “the causal link between television and family formation and reproductive health.” Seven other villages were denied televisions so they could be used as a control group. That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the...

Topline: Los Angeles County had 134 lifeguards who earned more than $200,000 in salary and benefits last year, costing taxpayers $70.8 million for the 1,500 lifegurads. Key facts: Chief of Lifeguard Services Fernando Boiteux made $523,351 in salary and benefits. His $100,000 pension contribution from the county meant he outearned every other lifeguard even without working overtime. Three others made more than $400,000 in total compensation. Waste of the Day 7.16.25 Open the Books Some lifeguards made their dough with a high base salary, while others racked up large overtime...

Topline: A law from 1935 that dictates how the Social Security trust fund invests its money could be causing the government to miss out on hundreds of billions of dollars of potential revenue each year. Key facts: By law, the Social Security trust fund must invest its money only in U.S. securities such as Treasury bonds and Treasury notes. Those investments earned $69.1 billion of interest in 2024, a low 2.5% rate of return. Waste of the Day 7.15.25 Open the Books If the trust fund was allowed to invest in private index funds, the rate of return could be much higher. An investment...

Topline: The Indiana Economic Development Corporation recently approved $168 million in tax breaks for four data centers, but the state refuses to tell the public which companies will benefit. One data center will likely be built on land managed by Surge Development, whose principal partner sits on the committee that approved the tax breaks. Key facts: This May, following public backlash Surge Development pulled its proposal to turn 775 acres of agricultural land into a data center campus. Chris King, Surge’s owner, told the Greenfield Daily Reporter his company needed more time to find...

Topline: The planned renovation of the Federal Reserve’s office buildings will cost $2.5 billion and include rooftop gardens, skylights, water displays and more, according to planning documents reviewed by the New York Post. Key facts: Construction will focus on the Marriner S. Eccles Building and Federal Reserve Board-East buildings in downtown Washington, D.C. The buildings will be outfitted with Georgian white marble, and there will be a new elevator system that drops Federal Reserve board members off in their private dining suite, according to the Post. Waste of the Day...

Topline: The City of Los Angeles received a $1 million federal grant to help its homeless and low-income populations in 2011, but the city probably could have found a more effective way to use the money. It awarded the grant to the wealthy architecture firm Gensler to create what LA Weekly called “a hip, new atmosphere” in their downtown office building, which the city justified by saying it would create temporary construction jobs for the unemployed. The money would be worth $1.4 million today. That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the...

With donuts now over $20 a dozen and a cup of coffee topping $3, working a shift for the Los Angeles Police Department isn’t what it once was. But with overtime pay at 1.5 times the regular hourly rate,  LAPD officers aren’t having trouble footing the bill at Randy’s or Starbucks. Indeed, overtime pay has now grown so much that some detectives earn more money than the city’s mayor and the state’s governor.  Thanks to overtime, many Los Angeles police officers earn more than Mayor Karen Bass.   Invision In 2023, the last year for which...

Topline: The General Services Administration plans to help federal agencies and local governments make $47 billion of purchases in 2026 using a data system that the GSA inspector general says is “almost entirely inaccurate, unreliable, and unusable.” Key facts: The GSA’s Multiple Award Schedule program helps government agencies buy goods and services at discounted prices.  Since 2016, the GSA has been experimenting with a way to lower prices even more with a rule called Transactional Data Reporting. Whenever a company makes a sale through the Multiple Award Schedule,...

Topline: The five inhabited U.S. territories are collectively $57.8 billion in debt and have issues with their financial statements that “can lead to poor financial decisions and lost access to capital markets,” according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Key facts: The GAO suggested that the territories may struggle to repay their debt even more than the 50 U.S. states. The territories have high energy and import costs, extreme weather, economies that rely on just a few industries, and had a population decrease from 2010 to 2020. Puerto Rico holds the...

Explosive new evidence suggests that some of the highest-ranking officials in the Obama-era CIA and FBI perjured themselves regarding their claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin helped Donald Trump secure his victory in 2016. A newly released CIA review challenges their sworn denials to Congress that the Steele dossier – a discredited set of allegations about Trump funded by Hillary Clinton’s campaign – was used as the basis for the years-long Russiagate probe that hamstrung President Trump’s first term. The eight-page review conducted by career CIA...

Topline: Something is off about the math in Honolulu’s police department corruption scandal, and taxpayers will be left shortchanged.  Former city officials admitting their involvement in a conspiracy to give former Police Chief Louis Kealoha a secret $250,000 payout were ordered to repay the full amount to the city. However, taxpayers will reimburse the three officials $308,000 for their legal fees, according to KHON2. Meanwhile, Kealoha still has his $250,000 payout and is still earning a pension, despite acknowledging that he is required to give back the money. Waste of...

A high-stakes battle over the future of education is playing out in the state that has long had the best public schools in the nation – Massachusetts. The likely overhaul of high school education and graduation requirements in Massachusetts is mostly aimed at lifting the academic performance of low-income black and Latino students who have been left behind in the state’s rise to the top. Leading the charge are progressive teachers’ unions and school administrations that want to broaden the scope of high school to include soft skills like teamwork and cultural awareness, as...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week June 29 to July 5   Featured Investigation: Shovel Ready: Despite Warnings, Biden’s Energy Department Disbursed $42 Billion in Its Final Hours In its final days, the Biden administration's Energy Department approved a staggering $93 billion in green energy loans, with nearly $42 billion committed in just the last two working days—exceeding the previous decade's total loan disbursements. This frenzied spending occurred despite warnings from the department's Inspector General about potential conflicts of interest, James Varney reports...

Topline: Maryland State Sen. James Rosapepe justified the new state budget’s sweeping tax and fee increases by claiming that “Maryland is under attack from Washington,” blaming a loss of federal contracts for the state’s $3.3 billion deficit. Most lawmakers have not mentioned that the budget deficit is at least partially Maryland’s own creation. Records show that Maryland’s payroll increased by nearly $642 million last year, the largest one-year increase since OpenTheBooks began tracking the salaries in 2017. Waste of the Day 7.4.25 Open the...

Topline: For “SimSim Hamara” — the Pakistani version of Sesame Street — the word of the day is “fraud.” Or at least it was in 2012, when the U.S. Agency for International Development abruptly cancelled a $20 million grant after uncovering “credible allegations of fraud and abuse” against the show’s producers, Rafi Peer Theater Workshop. The arts organization denied the charges, and no one was ever convicted of a crime.  USAID had already spent $10 million, or $14 million in today’s money. The “Wastebook” reporting...

Buried in the 940-page “big, beautiful” budget blueprint is an unprecedented tax credit that, if approved, will be a long-sought victory for the private school choice movement in its drive to expand and break into Democratic states that for decades have blocked its path. The tax credit program, which would provide scholarships to K-12 students to pay for private schooling, would mark a significant shift in federal education policy. The scholarships would be the first major federal initiative designed to propel the nationwide growth of private school choice, a largely conservative...

Topline: A weekly allowance or a lemonade stand are great ways to teach young kids how to manage their money. A loan from the Small Business Administration is not.  Yet according to the Department of Government Efficiency, the SBA issued 5,593 loans in 2020 and 2021 worth $312 million to businesses whose listed owners were 11 years old or younger. Either America’s children have suddenly become expert entrepreneurs or, more likely, another round of fraud from the Covid-19 pandemic has been uncovered.  DOGE also claimed that the SBA gave 3,095 loans worth $333 million to...

The far-left activist who murdered two people outside the Jewish Museum in Washington, D.C. last month, and the Egyptian illegal immigrant who hurled Molotov cocktails at pro-Israel demonstrators in Boulder this month shouted the same slogan: Free Palestine. In a troubling twist, their anti-Israel messages are being echoed by hatemongers at the opposite end of the political spectrum: white supremacists, fascists, and neo-Nazis who have seen the proliferation of anger against the Jewish state as an opportunity to broaden and advance their own cause. Just six days after the Oct. 7, 2023,...

Topline: State and local governments spent an estimated $770 million in 2023 to incarcerate immigrants who had been in the country for less than three years, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office. Key facts: The CBO report reviewed the “surge population” of immigrants that began arriving in 2021 and added 4.4 million people to the U.S. population by the end of 2023. “Most” of the immigrants “were not lawful permanent residents” and “were not eligible to apply for lawful permanent residency,” according to the...