RealClearInvestigations Articles

Topline: In 2012, artificial intelligence researchers funded by the federal government were not concerned whether their technology could interpret data or streamline workflows. They wanted to know if AI could navigate the high school dating scene. The University of California, Santa Cruz, used part of a $516,000 National Science Foundation grant to create “Prom Week,” a video game that simulated teenagers trying to get a date to the school dance. The grant would be worth $740,000 today. That’s according to the “Wastebook” reporting published by the late U.S....

Topline: The General Services Administration spent $133 million hiring consultants to study its own buildings, but nobody is keeping track of what the studies found or checking if they are reliable, according to a March 6 report from the GSA inspector general. Key facts: The money was paid from 2019 to 2024 by the GSA’s Public Buildings Service, which constructs and maintains federal buildings around the country. Consultants help determine which buildings need repairs and set construction plans and budgets. Using the study results, the GSA decides how to spend its Federal Buildings...

Topline: Almost 80% of the City of Rocky Mount’s cash and investments are gone following the disastrous tenure of City Manager Keith Rogers, according to a North Carolina state audit released on March 9. Rogers’ annual salary of $225,000 made him the highest-paid employee in Rocky Mount history at the time of his resignation, according to records obtained from the North Carolina Department of State Treasurer.  Key facts: Rogers took office in March 2023 and resigned in September 2024 with no official explanation.  His resignation settlement included a payment of...

Life on Jan. 9, 2020, was interesting for Joshua Helmer. At 31, he was midway through his second year as CEO of the Erie Art Museum in Pennsylvania. He had recently secured the loan of a Chuck Close painting from the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and an upcoming sale, including a painting by another famous artist, David Hockney, would help Erie generate funds to buy new works. And then it was Jan. 10. "I knew I'd never work again," Helmer said, recalling his reading of a New York Times article that ran that day.  "He Left a Museum After Women Complained; His Next Job Was Bigger," was...

Topline: Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) has billed taxpayers $111,000 for limousine services since 2019, according to a review of disbursement reports by The Center Square. The other 434 members of the House spent just $49,000 combined on the luxury service. Key facts: Waters’ spending includes $26,000 from July 2024 to June 2025. Her cars have been provided from Limousine House LLC since 2021, but The Center Square noted that there is little information available about the company. Its listed address is a residential apartment in Alexandria, Va., but the company does not appear in corporate...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week March 8 to March 14   RCI Podcast On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney use the new documentary on investigative reporting legend Seymour Hersh as a springboard for a wide-ranging discussion with RCI contributor Aaron Maté about the decline of skepticism and rise of propaganda in the legacy media.   Featured Investigation: The Grey Zone: When Do Protest Observers Become Lawbreaking Participants? As the Trump administration intensifies...

Topline: The Caring for Denver Foundation, tasked with running substance abuse prevention programs, is seemingly drunk on its own spending. The nonprofit spent $28,200 on its own meals and alcoholic drinks in a “disregard for fiscal accountability,” according to a new report by City Auditor Tim O’Brien. The city agency overseeing the nonprofit does not think that’s a problem. In its response to the audit, the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment wrote that city laws requiring purchases to be “reasonable” may not be “appropriate or...

When an ICE agent shot and killed Minneapolis resident Renee Good after she allegedly obstructed immigration authorities with her vehicle, disobeyed their commands, and attempted to flee – drawing fatal fire from an officer nearly struck by the vehicle – politicians and pundits decried her death as murder. They called it particularly unjust because she was not acting as a protester but a legal observer. After federal agents arrested Don Lemon for allegedly disrupting a St. Paul church service in protest of the same Twin Cities immigration enforcement surge Good had opposed....

Topline: West Virginia government officials spent $24 million in 2010 on expensive, high-capacity internet routers that could handle tens of thousands of users at once. Then, they placed them in libraries and schools that only had one computer in the entire building. 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...

Topline: The City of Boston’s soccer stadium renovation was supposed to cost taxpayers $50 million when it was announced in March 2024. The cost is now up to $135 million — a fact that Mayor Michelle Wu knew for a month before informing the public, according to the Boston Herald. Key facts: White Stadium has been used by student-athletes at Boston Public Schools since it was built in 1949. After the renovation, it will also house the Boston Legacy FC women’s soccer team. Wu announced the ballooning price in a Feb. 6 press conference, but a public records request filed by the...

Half a century after the book “Why Johnny Can’t Read” sounded an alarm about the rise of illiteracy in the U.S., it has only gotten worse: A quarter of all young adults, many of them high school graduates, are now functionally illiterate. Unable to read more than basic, short sentences, their prospects in today’s information economy are bleak.  Half a century ago, this book raised the alarm about illiteracy in the U.S. Amazon This crisis gave rise to a movement that embraced the science of reading and produced a surprising success story in the Deep South,...

Topline: The Congressional Budget Office’s annual 10-year economic forecast warns that, by 2030, the federal debt held by the public will be $40.3 trillion, or 108% of the country’s gross domestic product — an amount never before seen in American history. Key facts: The federal debt held by the public differs slightly from the overall federal debt because it excludes money that government agencies owe to each other. Most economists consider it a more meaningful statistic. It reached $30.2 trillion in 2025, the CBO notes. By 2036, it will be even higher: the debt held by the...

Topline: The Rhode Island Department of Corrections spent a record $38.9 million on overtime in 2025, nearly a quarter of its total payroll expense, according to records obtained by Open the Books. Key facts: Director Wayne Salisbury made $177,420 last year, but 117 of his employees outearned him because of massive overtime payments.  Of the 1,512 people who earned a paycheck from the Corrections Department last year, including part-time employees, 811 earned at least $10,000 in overtime. There were 65 employees who made more than $100,000 of overtime, including eight who made more than...

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week March 1 to March 7   Featured Investigation: Transparency: Suing Schools That Hide Trans Kids’ Identities From Parents John Murawski reports for RealClearInvestigations on the intensifying national debate over whether public schools can secretly support students' gender transitions without notifying parents. Roughly 40 lawsuits have been filed challenging these policies, several of which have reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Courts remain divided, states are passing competing legislation, and the Trump administration has launched federal...

Topline: Controversial education firms that helped embed diversity, equity and inclusion principles in K-12 military schools during President Joe Biden’s administration are still working with the Department of Defense Education Activity, or DoDEA, and received a total of $171,175 in 2025. Key facts: Thomas M. Brady, the director of DoDEA from 2014 to 2024, announced in 2020 that DEI “must be a foundational premise in every aspect of our organization.” Changes to that affect were quickly made to the curriculum of DoDEA, which runs 161 schools for the children of...

A few weeks before Christmas in 2022, Amber Lavigne was cleaning her 13-year-old’s bedroom when she stumbled upon her daughter’s secret: a chest binder. She learned that Autumn had been wearing the garment, which girls use to flatten their breasts to achieve a masculine appearance, for about two months at school in Maine, where she had adopted a boy’s name, Leo, and was using he/him pronouns.  It was the first of two chest binders Lavigne found that had been provided to her eighth-grade daughter by a social worker at the Great Salt Bay Community School, according to a...

Topline: The federal government paid $2 million in service fees for bank accounts with a balance of $0 in 2011, many of which had been empty for over three years, according to a Government Accountability Office report from April 2012. The money would be worth $2.9 million today. 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...

Topline: The 2026 federal budget contains $15.8 billion in earmark funding for 8,475 local projects in lawmakers’ home districts, but the money was not distributed equitably. Senators who are Republicans or have been in Congress for decades were far more likely to receive money than their colleagues. Key facts: Senators filed their earmark requests in May 2025, but the majority were removed from the draft budget before it was signed into law this February. Those cuts were made partially along party lines. The average Republican senator got 47% of the money they asked for, while the...

California’s $200 billion-a-year Medicaid program, known as Medi-Cal, is one of the largest public healthcare systems in the nation. Behind the staggering price tag lies a program repeatedly flagged for waste, mismanagement, and fraud, raising fresh doubts as state leaders propose taxing billionaires to keep it afloat. For years, audits and federal investigations have documented everything from improper payments to large-scale fraud schemes. State officials have acknowledged that fraud has reached alarming levels in some sectors, including hospice services and in-home...