RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
February 26 to March 4, 2023 Featured Investigation: The Biden administration has allowed untold numbers of unaccompanied minors to enter the United States, but the liberal New York Times is again circumspect about a Democratic administration's blame for the problem even as it presents it, a contrast with its readiness to assign blame during the Trump years. The paper's headline -- "Alone and Exploited, Migrant Children Work Brutal Jobs Across the U.S." -- steers clear of the word Biden, as does the article until way down in paragraph 14, long after this billboard material: These workers are part of a new economy of exploitation: Migrant children, who have been coming into the United States without their parents in record numbers, are ending up in some of the most punishing jobs in the country, a New York Times investigation found. This shadow work force extends across industries in every state, flouting child labor laws that have been in place for nearly a century. Twelve-year-old roofers in Florida and Tennessee. Underage slaughterhouse workers in Delaware, Mississippi and North Carolina. Children sawing planks of wood on overnight shifts in South Dakota. Largely from Central America, the children are driven by economic desperation that was worsened by the pandemic. This situation is heartbreaking, but now also a predictable outcome of Biden border policies. This article largely ignores that issue and the larger question of how these children are supposed to satisfy their debts to smugglers or care for themselves absent employment. As a result, the article is more an exercise in emotional manipulation that makes readers feel for these children without grappling with the far harder question of what can be done to help them or those still arriving in their wake ‒ and whether the United States should be admitting them at all. In a separate article, the Times reports that Canadians are becoming concerned (and, again further down in the story, miffed at the Biden administration) as migrants stream across their border from the U.S.: “Nearly 40,000 migrants crossed unlawfully into the country last year ‒ more than double the number in 2019.” Waste of the Day
by Adam Andrzejewski, Open the Books Biden, Trump and the Beltway Other Noteworthy Articles and Series From the Annals of What Officials Are Permitted To Do Is Truly Shocking, this article notes that many public officials are allowed to accept heavily subsidized travel from investment managers or their funds. This article details the luxurious trips abroad enjoyed by state pension fund officials and paid for by private equity firms they are doing business with: Gaw Capital paid for most of the $21,127 business-class airfare for an Illinois fund official attending its 2018 meeting at the Renaissance Resort in Okinawa, Japan ‒ the state paid just $392. Florida officials visited Milan, Rome and Paris last June, courtesy of JPMorgan Chase & Co. funds. Other funds have since covered Florida officials’ trips to London, Stockholm and Helsinki. Those trips were all for officials to attend meetings as members of private equity firms’ limited partnership advisory councils, which have developed a reputation for taking place in posh, far-flung destinations. … Allowing investment partnerships to discreetly cover LPAC travel expenses helps defray costs and eliminates “some, but not all, of the optics of public employees traveling,” consulting firm Funston Advisory Services explained in a 2015 report for the New York City pension system. The trips themselves can be useful for due diligence, the group added. On the surface, the invasion of Ukraine seems to have inspired the better angels of some top Beltway lobbyists; they are offering their services to the war-torn nation for free. But, this article reports, some of these firms may be profiting on the backend by “taking in millions in fees from Pentagon contractors who stand to benefit from the country’s war with Russia.” Consider the law firm Hogan, Lovells, which has a strong lobbying division. While one of its attorneys, former Senator Norm Coleman, has filed paperwork declaring his pro bono work for Ukraine ... ... two of the firm’s paying clients, Looking Glass Cyber Solutions and HawkEye 360, have extensive defense department contracts and an interest in the conflict in Ukraine. Looking Glass, which paid Hogan Lovells $200,000 in 2022, holds a five-year contract with the Department of Defense to “to provide tailored cyber threat intelligence data and enhance the mission effectiveness of US military cyber threat analysts and operators” and writes on its website about the role of such threats in Russia’s military strategy. HawkEye 360, which also paid $200,000 to Hogan Lovells in 2022, similarly is a defense department contractor, specializing in detection and geolocation of radio signals. Their detection network conducted analysis in Ukraine and their website boasts of identifying GPS interference in Ukraine, appearing to be part of Moscow’s “integration of electronic warfare tactics into Russian military operation to further degrade Ukraine’s ability for self-defense.” To keep up with fast-paced competitors such as UPS and FedEx the U.S. Postal Service has hired “cut-rate trucking companies” that often run afoul of safety rules to meet their aggressive delivery schedules. The result, this article reports ... ... has been deadly. Postal contractors have been involved in at least 68 fatal crashes that killed 79 people in the past three years, according to police crash and inspection records. Nearly 50 long-haul trucking contractors that moved mail for the Postal Service had safety records so poor that another arm of the federal government, the Transportation Department, put them on probation, DOT data shows. Particularly common among the postal contractors were violations of DOT rules meant to guard against fatigue by limiting how many hours truckers can drive. About 39% of trucking companies that hauled U.S. mail busted those limits and related rules at a rate DOT says raises red flags, compared with 13% of for-hire trucking firms that were inspected during the time period, a Journal analysis of DOT scoring data covering 2021 and 2022 found. A federal investigation into a scheme to sell phony nursing credentials is prompting a crackdown in several states. This article reports: New York regulators told 903 nurses in recent weeks to either surrender their licenses or prove they were properly educated. Delaware and Washington state officials have yanked dozens of nursing licenses. Texas filed administrative charges against 23 nurses. More actions in additional states are expected. In some cases, lawyers for the nurses contend states are questioning the credentials of caregivers who earned diplomas legitimately. But there’s wide agreement in the industry that nurses with fraudulent degrees need to be rooted out. The article links these actions to a federal investigation codenamed Operation Nightingale, that found that “several now-closed Florida nursing schools sold phony nursing diplomas and transcripts from 2016 to 2022.” Say, when did wokeness become whiteness? Corporate America went on a hiring spree amid calls for racial justice following the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in 2020, increasing the number of diversity, equity and inclusion staff by 55%. But some of those jobs are now being phased out, this article reports, as companies face economic headwinds. The DEI officials who remain are overwhelmingly white: The attrition rate for DEI roles was 33% at the end of 2022, compared to 21% for non-DEI roles. Amazon, Applebees and Twitter lead the way with DEI layoffs since July 2022, according to Revelio Labs, a New York-based company that uses data to analyze workforce dynamics and trends. Another survey showed that Black employees represent only 3.8% of chief diversity officers overall, with white people making up 76.1% of the roles. Those of Hispanic or Latino ethnicity make up 7.8% and those of Asian ethnicity make up 7.7% Coronavirus Investigations For years, many government officials and influential news outlets dismissed suggestions that COVID-19 might have leaked from a Chinese lab as a fringe conspiracy theories. The lab leak theory, however, has gained new traction as the Department of Energy said classified intelligence reports make that explanation more likely. This article reports: The Energy Department now joins the Federal Bureau of Investigation in saying the virus likely spread via a mishap at a Chinese laboratory. Four other agencies, along with a national intelligence panel, still judge that it was likely the result of a natural transmission, and two are undecided. The Energy Department’s conclusion is the result of new intelligence and is significant because the agency has considerable scientific expertise and oversees a network of U.S. national laboratories, some of which conduct advanced biological research. The Energy Department made its judgment with “low confidence,” according to people who have read the classified report. In a separate column, RCI’s J. Peder Zane notes that while the DOE’s conclusion does not settle the questions regarding COVID’s origins, it raises troubling question about the fierce effort to silence such inquiries. In a separate article in the New York Post, Marty Makary of Johns Hopkins provides a read-it-and-weep overview of the medical establishment and federal government's profound failures in “10 Myths Told by COVID Experts." |
