RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
April 24 to April 30, 2022 The Biden administration’s goal of supplying 40% of the nation’s energy from the sun by 2035 has touched off an ironic green-vs.-green struggle pitting local groups against “Big Solar” -- corporate and nonprofit green giants used to casting oil companies in the role of ecological heavy, Steve Miller reports for RealClearInvestigations. Miller reports: - Even as the administration thwarts oil and gas drilling, it has opened large tracts of federal lands for solar development by major corporations including Duke Energy, Exelon and BrightSource Energy.
- Many green advocates say hold on. They do not oppose a buildout of solar, but argue for more environmentally sensitive placement in brownfields, abandoned military bases and rooftops.
- But corporate energy likes the largest – and cheapest – way to produce solar: massive panel installations on pristine lands.
- The Sierra Club and other large wilderness advocacy groups are on board: Their directors include bankers and others with ties to corporate solar developers.
- Critics are alarmed by the speed with which solar farms – fenced off tracts of land protected by barbed wire – are being pushed through despite incomplete research on the damage to the environment.
- Federal scientist: “There is a rush to do this, and research takes time.”
Biden, Trump and the Beltway Ahead of the 2020 election, President Biden agreed to cover more than $800,000 in bills racked up by his son Hunter — including legal fees tied to the winding down of his controversial overseas business dealings, according to an email that surfaced this week. This article reports that the email, and an attached spreadsheet detailing the debts, call into question Biden’s repeated claim that he’s never discussed son Hunter Biden’s business with him: The spreadsheet shows Hunter Biden’s debts included more than $130,000 in legal fees due “ASAP” to the law firm of Faegre Baker Daniels, with $28,382 owed for “BHR Restructuring.” That appears to be a reference to the Chinese company Bohai Harvest RST (Shanghai) Equity Investment Fund Management, in which Hunter Biden held a 10 percent stake through a company called Skaneateles LLC. In a separate article, the New York Post raises more questions about the president’s claim that he never discussed his son’s foreign business dealings. It reports that Hunter’s closest business partner, Eric Schwerin, made at least 19 visits to the White House and other official locations between 2009 and 2015, including a sit down with then-Vice President Biden in the West Wing. “[Visitor] logs also reveal that Schwerin met with various close aides of both Joe and Jill Biden at key moments in Hunter’s life when he was striking multi-million dollar deals in foreign countries, including China.” Other Biden, Trump and the Beltway Mark Meadows' Leaked Jan. 6 Texts with Trump's Inner Circle CNN
House GOP's Involvement in Jan. 6 Planning New York Times
Durham Reveals Large Fusion GPS-Media Email Trove Reactionary
Georgia Tech Files: Spygate Figures Aided Mueller Federalist
Trumpers Breach Vote Integrity to Save It Reuters
How Trump's Stolen Election Narrative Came to Be ProPublica Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Was the government of Saudi Arabia involved in the 9/11 attacks? The question isn't going away. This article reports on a home video that shows two of the hijackers (Nawaf al-Hazmi and Khalid al-Mihdhar) at a 2000 party hosted in San Diego by a Saudi national named Omar al-Bayoumi, who was being paid a monthly stipend by Saudi intelligence. Al-Bayoumi was arrested in connection with the attack and later released for lack of evidence, even though a recently declassified FBI memo concluded, "There is a 50/50 chance Omar al-Bayoumi had advanced knowledge the 9/11 terrorist attacks were to occur." Retired FBI agent Danny Gonzalez, who worked on Operation Encore ... told CBS News last fall that he believes Bayoumi was part of the hijackers' U.S-based support network. "He helped them with apartments, he helped them with bank accounts." Reynolds American’s multibillion-dollar market in menthol cigarettes – a type favored by more than 80% of black smokers and 30% of white smokers – is under threat. About 150 cities and counties, this article reports, have placed some sort of restriction on the sale of menthol cigarettes, most issuing an outright ban. The Food and Drug Administration has drafted a national ban that could follow in the next few years, which estimates suggest could save more than 600,000 lives, including almost 250,000 black lives. The company has hired a team of Black lobbyists and consultants, including former congressman Kendrick Meek (D-Fla.), and sponsored the organization led by civil rights activist and MSNBC political show host the Rev. Al Sharpton. Those figures have in turn stoked fears among Black communities about what the bans could mean. At one presentation, this article reports, a retired police chief showed a group of black lawmakers a picture of George Floyd pinned down on the pavement with Police Officer Derek Chauvin’s knee on his neck, before telling them that a ban on menthol could increase policing in black communities and create a new layer of racism in America. The National Education Association spent $32 million (or 5.4% of its total revenues) on “representational activities” in 2021 – i.e., bargaining for better pay and working conditions for rank-and-file classroom teachers. The nation’s largest union spent twice as much money, $65 million, on political campaigns and lobbying, almost all of it supporting Democrats. This article reports that union filings with the Department of Labor also show that the NEA ... ... pays lavish salaries to hundreds of its more than 1,900 employees, especially among those working at the national headquarters in Washington. There are 344 NEA employees being paid more than $100,000 annually, nearly one in every five; many of the 344 make twice or three times the national average teacher salary. Another 45 NEA employees are paid more than $200,000 annually, with many of those receiving as much as four times the national average teacher salary. Three decades ago, the gravest public health threats to teenagers in the United States came from binge drinking, drunken driving, teenage pregnancy and smoking. These have since fallen sharply, replaced by a new public health concern: soaring mental health disorders including anxiety, depression, compulsive behaviors, self-harm and even suicide. This article, part of a yearlong New York Times series, reports that: In 2019, 13 percent of adolescents reported having a major depressive episode, a 60 percent increase from 2007. Emergency room visits by children and adolescents in that period also rose sharply for anxiety, mood disorders and self-harm. And for people ages 10 to 24, suicide rates, stable from 2000 to 2007, leaped nearly 60 percent by 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The article reports that the crisis is often attributed to the rise of social media, but solid data on the issue is limited; the findings are nuanced and often contradictory, and some adolescents appear to be more vulnerable than others to the effects of screen time. Coronavirus Investigations CDC and FDA officials 'altered' COVID-19 guidance and even 'suppressed' findings related to the virus due to political pressure, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. Whistleblowers said they did not speak up at the time for fear of retaliation, because they were unsure how to report the issues or believed leaders were already aware. This article reports: No specific cases of altering advice were revealed for confidentiality reasons. But the GAO mentioned in a footnote emails made public by congressional investigators last April that were sent between Trump officials and employees at the CDC. They suggested the agency had bowed to political pressure over a study in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports (MMWR) – a notice that documents current trends in U.S. health. … In the first year of the pandemic the FDA was also accused of "grossly misrepresenting" the effectiveness of a blood plasma transfusion for hospitalized Covid patients. … Its press release thundered that the treatment was 35 percent effective against death, a figure which Trump branded "tremendous." But scientists were taken aback by the figure, which was not mentioned in the official authorization letter or in the 17-page memo written by its scientist. It was also not in the analysis conducted by the Mayo clinic that was frequently cited. Other Coronavirus Investigations $700M Pandemic Loan to Trump-Tied Company Questioned New York Times
How the Travel Mask Mandate Went Down New York Times
How COVID Shrank America's Big Cities Atlantic |
