RealClearInvestigations Original Articles

Wikipedia, the world’s go-to site for information that professes to take a neutral point of view, is coming under fire for alleged anti-Israel bias in the sources it favors and content it delivers to millions of readers.  The criticism is coming from several quarters, including a bipartisan group of 23 members of Congress who, in an April letter, expressed “deep concern regarding antisemitism” found in the online encyclopedia. The entries routinely highlight the work of anti-Zionist scholars and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), according to a...

This article contains graphic descriptions that may not be suitable for all readers. Parental discretion is advised. RALEIGH, N.C. – Like public libraries across the country, branches in North Carolina’s capital city turn rainbow-hued each June in celebration of Pride Month. Festive book displays featuring “queer-themed” titles written for all ages – from toddlers to teens and adults – are set out for the public as innocently as if the subject in question were cooking, gardening, or personal finance.  The colorful Pride books set out by Wake County...

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...

The first in a two-part series on the global housing crisis. Next to inflation, Americans ranked housing as their top financial worry in a Gallup survey last May. It’s only gotten worse. January home sales were down 5% from last year’s dismal numbers. Record numbers of first-time buyers are stuck on the sidelines as housing affordability stands at the lowest level ever recorded, while one in three Americans now spend over 30% of their income on mortgage or rent.  The housing crisis is not just an American problem, but a global phenomenon that hits the...

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,...

As the Trump administration faces substantial pushback in the courts, including an unprecedented wave of nationwide injunctions halting its policies, some are claiming that his opponents are tilting the scales of justice by selectively bringing their lawsuits before sympathetic courts in a practice called “forum shopping.” They note that three-quarters of the lower court justices who have blocked Trump policies were appointed by Democrats. Gaming the federal justice system, however, is harder than it sounds because plaintiffs bring cases before courts rather than judges. Most...

NEW ORLEANS—In drab, windowless rooms strung along a tight corridor, migrants who have flooded into the United States in recent years trickle before immigration judges each weekday morning.  These makeshift courtrooms are a far cry from the scorched border with Mexico and busy ports and airports through which these millions of immigrants have entered the U.S., almost all illegally. But despite the differences in miles, atmosphere, and often language, the people appearing in U.S. immigration court (“alien respondents,” in legal terms) know what is afoot. In many cases,...

A nonprofit founded by Georgia Democratic politician Stacey Abrams to protect voting rights paid more than $20 million to a lawyer who is a close friend and helped set up two of her private businesses, according to tax and state incorporation filings and other records obtained by RealClearInvestigations. Abrams’ Fair Fight Action redirected the tax-exempt donations and government grants to Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, her former campaign chair between 2019 and 2023. Most of the funds covered legal expenses charged by the boutique law firm Lawrence-Hardy co-founded, for a...

This is the second of a two-part series on the global housing crisis. Read the first installment here. The affordable housing crisis in America and many other advanced countries keeps getting worse because it is largely dominated by the wrong voices talking about the wrong places. For years the YIMBYs and NIMBYs have debated development in urban centers: While “Yes in My Back Yard” advocates seek to “build, build, build” ever more density in urban centers for environmental reasons, the “Not In My Back Yard” forces want to limit development often to...

This is the second of a two-part series on the global housing crisis. Read the first installment here. The affordable housing crisis in America and many other advanced countries keeps getting worse because it is largely dominated by the wrong voices talking about the wrong places. For years the YIMBYs and NIMBYs have debated development in urban centers: While “Yes in My Back Yard” advocates seek to “build, build, build” ever more density in urban centers for environmental reasons, the “Not In My Back Yard” forces want to limit development often to...

The first in a two-part series on the global housing crisis. Next to inflation, Americans ranked housing as their top financial worry in a Gallup survey last May. It’s only gotten worse. January home sales were down 5% from last year’s dismal numbers. Record numbers of first-time buyers are stuck on the sidelines as housing affordability stands at the lowest level ever recorded, while one in three Americans now spend over 30% of their income on mortgage or rent.  The housing crisis is not just an American problem, but a global phenomenon that hits the...

When Jeffrey Epstein purchased Little Saint James, the teardrop-shaped island south‑east of St. Thomas, in the late 1990s, he was seen as a mere oddity. A one-time math teacher who claimed to manage the fortunes of billionaires, he told U.S. Virgin Islands officials that he was seeking privacy. He also appears to have purchased impunity. The alleged crimes that Epstein committed on that emerald island reachable only by helicopter or ferry would explode into an international scandal. Investigators accuse him of raping and sexually abusing girls as young as eleven at his island compound where...

While green advocates commonly use the terms renewable, sustainable, and net zero to describe their efforts, the dirty little secret is that much of the waste from solar panels and wind turbines is ending up in landfills.  The current amounts of fiberglass, resins, aluminum and other chemicals – not to mention propeller blades from giant wind turbines – pose no threat current to local town dumps, but this largely ignored problem will become more of a challenge in the years ahead as the 500 million solar panels and the 73,000 wind turbines now operating in the U.S. are...

Like the weather, everyone complains about Pentagon spending and mismanagement, but no one does anything about it. Leaders of the world’s most expensive military have refused to conduct or failed to complete every internal financial audit since Congress first demanded such accountability in the 1990s. The Department of Defense owns over 70% of the nation’s assets and can’t account for half of them. In fairness, military brass has had plenty of enablers in its failures to tame wild and sometimes blindfolded spending, with a special boost from political...

By John Murawski, RealClearInvestigationsMay 7, 2025 AUSTIN, Texas — Lacking three crucial components – students, faculty, and facilities – the two educational experiments proposed in this state capital sounded like moonshots just a few years ago.  Pano Kanelos, University of Austin president: “We’re growing a university that’ll be around for centuries.” University of Austin Today, the School of Civic Leadership at the University of Texas and a feisty startup calling itself the University of Austin are not just up and running, but...

Increasingly banned at school. Photo By: Kaboompics.com Cellphone bans in schools are all the rage. Recently, New York became the fourth state to embark on one, as part of a budget deal for the coming school year. For many adults, the bans make intuitive sense: Who wants kids distracted on their phones while the teacher is teaching? Maybe getting rid of them could even reduce bullying or improve youth mental health? Phone Free New York founder Raj Goyle, while speaking of New York’s prospective ban, claimed, “If you look at the data in schools that have one ... test...

By Ana Kasparian, RealClearInvestigationsMay 1, 2025 Smiley Martin should have been behind bars.  A career criminal with a long rap sheet involving firearms, he was given a 10-year sentence in 2018 for punching, dragging and severely beating his girlfriend with a belt. In prison, Martin was found guilty of beating another inmate and engaging in other criminal activity. Nevertheless, he was freed just four years later, thanks to a plea deal that categorized him as a “nonviolent offender” and a California ballot measure that sharply reduced sentences for “good...

The Anti-Defamation League recently asked people in 103 countries whether they agreed with 11 antisemitic statements including: “Jews are responsible for most of the world’s wars,” “Jews have a lot of irritating faults,” “Jews have too much control over the media,” and “Jews’ loyalty is only to Israel.”  The ADL Global 100 survey for 2024 classified almost half of respondents as “possessing antisemitic attitudes” because they agreed with at least six of the 11 statements. Of course, an average that high means that in...

Against fierce resistance, the Trump administration is enlisting the Internal Revenue Service and Social Security Administration in its crackdown on illegal immigration. A hunt out on the streets – and deep into government records. AP On April 7, the IRS signed an agreement with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that alarmed progressive pro-immigration groups and like-minded advocates – and reportedly prompted the tax bureau’s acting chief to resign in protest.  The deal allows ICE to request the tax return information of migrants who are not...