RealClearInvestigations Articles

Topline: The Congressional Budget Office estimates that an upcoming shipbuilding project will cost $6.2 billion to $7.8 billion, roughly two to three times more than the Navy claimed in its plan submitted to Congress. Key facts: The CBO’s estimate assumes the Navy will build 18 medium landing ships. Military officials have said they might buy up to 35 boats, which the CBO says could cost up to $15 billion. The boats will be used to deploy Marine Corps soldiers and missiles in the Western Pacific. The Navy estimated that each ship will cost $150 million, but the CBO predicts they will...

American journalism has never been very good at covering science. In fact, the mainstream press is generally a cheap date when it comes to stories about alternative medicine, UFO sightings, pop psychology, or various forms of junk science. For many years, that was one factor that made Scientific American’s rigorous reporting so vital. The New York Times, National Geographic, Smithsonian, and a few other mainstream publications also produced top-notch science coverage. Peer-reviewed academic journals aimed at specialists met a higher standard still. But over the past...

Two of my colleagues at RealClearInvestigations – Aaron Maté and Paul Sperry – recently recast one of the biggest stories of our time: America’s long, strange, and destructive entanglement with Ukraine. As with all great investigative journalism, Maté and Sperry draw on a wide range of documents and insider accounts to reveal facts the powers-that-be have tried to conceal. While President Biden and many other leaders from both parties cast Ukraine as a bastion of democracy and a beacon of freedom, Maté and Sperry reveal how a decade of anti-democratic...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the WeekApril 28 to May 4, 2024   Featured Investigation: What 10 Years of U.S. Meddling in Ukraine Have Wrought (Spoiler Alert: Not Democracy) In an in-depth report for RealClearInvestigations, Aaron Maté reframes Washington's powerful role in Ukraine as less a mission to protect democracy than an epic case of meddling by the Obama and Biden administrations – one that has caused political upheaval in both countries. Maté  reports: In backing a decade-long proxy war that continues to ravage Ukraine, Washington has shaped...

Topline: The federal government loses between $233 billion and $521 billion to fraud every year, according to a new study from the Government Accountability Office. Key facts: The fraud losses represent 3 to 7 percent of the $40 trillion the federal government obligated from 2018 to 2022, a ratio the GAO says is comparable to other large governments like the U.K. The dollar figure includes only crimes that cause the government to lose money it already has — not tax fraud or other ways the government loses potential revenue. Waste of the Day 5.3.24 Open the Books It does...

By Julie Kelly, RealClearInvestigationsMay 2, 2024 Jack Smith, special counsel: Opposed releasing files on the handling of Trump's documents case. AP Top Biden administration officials worked with the National Archives to develop Special Counsel Jack Smith’s case against Donald Trump involving the former president’s alleged mishandling of classified material, according to recently unsealed court documents in the case pending in southern Florida. More than 300 pages of newly unredacted exhibits, containing emails and other correspondence related to the early stages of the hunt...

On April 5, Candace Owens publicly invited her former Daily Wire colleague Ben Shapiro to a debate about "Israel and the current definition of antisemitism." It was Owens' criticisms of U.S. financing of Israel, and her criticisms of Israel's war in Gaza, that caused her departure from the Daily Wire two weeks earlier. Both Shapiro and Daily Wire CEO Jeremy Boreing responded by saying they would like to arrange the debate requested by Owens. That night, Shapiro appeared to accept her offer, writing on X: "Sure, Candace. I texted you on February 29th...

Topline: The now defunct National Drug Intelligence Center received a $39 million budget from Congress in 2008, years after officials across Washington had already identified the agency as a complete waste of money. 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 "Dr. No" by stopping thousands of pork-barrel projects using the Senate rules. He included projects that...

Like all great lies it perfectly inverted the truth: the evidence supporting natural spillover has always been thin. Conversely, the evidence pointing to a lab leak has always been compelling and has grown substantially more persuasive with time. A coalition of elite scientists and complicit media outlets have proven remarkably effective in suppressing the truth for this long. But in recent months, as congressional investigations have intensified, honest scientists and journalists have begun challenging the false consensus with greater alacrity as new...

Topline: The City of Denver is considering revising its ethics code after a councilwoman’s spending spree of over $15,000 was ruled “reckless” but not a “technical violation” of the law, according to Denverite. Key facts: City Councilwoman Flor Alvidrez was under investigation by the Denver Board of Ethics for a complaint filed in December. The complaint, which Alvidrez did not dispute, said that she paid her ex-husband $4,234 from her office budget to build a float for a Halloween parade despite already paying $10,000 to buy a float from a Denver...

By Aaron Maté, RealClearInvestigationsApril 30, 2024 In successfully lobbying Congress for an additional $61 billion in Ukraine war funding, an effort that ended this month with celebratory Democrats waving Ukrainian flags in the House chamber, President Biden has cast his administration’s standoff with Russia as an existential test for democracy. Flag-waving Democrats in the House chamber. That is, Ukrainian flag-waving Democrats. Free Press Journal/YouTube “What makes our moment rare is that freedom and democracy are under attack, both at home and...

Topline: The Statue of Liberty is supposed to be a symbol of democracy and freedom, but a new inspector general report claims that millions of dollars of taxpayer money are being wasted at the base of the monument. The National Park Service wrote a $43.9 million contract for security at the Statue of Liberty, but poor oversight led to an “increased risk to public safety and to the safety of the site itself,” according to the report. Waste of the Day 4.30.24 Open the Books Key facts: Universal Protection Services provides 110 unarmed guards for the Statue of Liberty and...

Robert Savage says stories claiming he helped Hunter Biden in Los Angeles were based on fabricated text messages: Savage alleged that the reporters and publications recklessly disregarded information that the text messages, which came from a laptop that purportedly belonged to Hunter Biden, were fabricated. Despite that, they published articles and tweets in 2021 and 2023 that suggested Savage communicated with and met with Biden in Los Angeles. ... In a deposition to the House Oversight Committee conducted under oath in February, Hunter Biden denied knowing Savage or meeting with...

Topline: A San Francisco nonprofit showed “gross fiscal noncompliance” and “wasteful practices” after receiving $240 million in grants, loans and subsidies from the city, according to a new audit report. Key facts: HomeRise helps homeless Californians find affordable housing, but many of its issues stemmed from paying its own employees. The nonprofit borrowed $4.5 million from its own operating account to pay employees. $2.1 million of that had not been returned as of last August, the city controller’s audit found. HomeRise also gave staff surprise bonuses...

It may be shocking how little the glitzy event provides for charity: The event raised $133,000 for 30 scholarships — a little over $4,000 per student. The students also receive a tour of the White House. To provide context on this paltry scholarship number, consider how much is spent on the weekend. A single corporate media outlet will often shell out as much as $200,000 on the political glitz and glamfest to entertain A-list guests. The venues sponsoring after-party events for the dinner charge a minimum of $250,000 for a few hours of cocktail...

With withdrawals and losses accumulating, military bloggers such as Myroshnykov and the DeepState site have both taken aim at official Ukrainian communications, accusing the armed forces of increasingly unrealistic updates from the battlefield. DeepState, in a post on Telegram, published a graphic video of a Russian soldier being killed in a drone strike in the village of Soloviove – but used the clip to argue that isolated incidents can mask the bigger picture, which it accused the military of doing as well. “You can watch with pleasure forever the video of a Russian (soldier)...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the WeekApril 21 to April 27, 2024 Featured Investigation:'Grading for Equity': Promoting Students by Banning Grades of Zero and Leaving No Class Cut-Ups Behind In RealClearInvestigations, Vince Bielski reports on "Grading for Equity," an ambitious project that has gained traction in public schools nationwide despite frequent objections that it's a form of leniency hurting the very kids it aims to help. Bielski reports: “Grading for equity” joins police officers in schools, transgender bathrooms, the history of slavery, and standardized testing...

Arizona has mandated Holocaust education but so far it has failed to match the onslaught of denial on social media. “What we are doing isn’t working in its own right,” Volker Benkert, a professor of German and European history at Arizona State University who studies the roots of genocide and is advising the education center organizers, told me. “I’m worried that we are building a Holocaust museum with narratives of the past.” A recent poll by YouGov and The Economist found that one in five young Americans believe the Holocaust is a myth....

Topline: The assistant city manager in Austin, Texas stopped working four months before his retirement but kept collecting his taxpayer salary anyway, netting $85,000 at the end of last year. Key facts: On September 1, 2023, Austin announced in a memo that Assistant City Manager Rodney Gonzalez would retire “effective in January,” implying that Gonzalez would keep working for the rest of the year. In reality, Gonzales stopped working that September. The city placed Gonzalez on paid administrative leave, allowing him to keep collecting his salary until January, according to city...