RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
June 16 to June 22 Matthew Dababneh's future looked bright in the fall of 2017. The 36-year-old Democrat had easily won re-election to the California State Assembly the previous year, where he was chairman of the powerful Banking and Finance Committee.Then the #MeToo movement erupted. A lobbyist named Pamela Lopez claimed he had followed her into a bathroom, locked the door and began "expos[ing] himself and . . . masturbating," and asking her to touch his genitals. The California Democratic Party immediately turned against him andDababnehquickly resigned.But that was not the end of the story, as Stuart Taylor Jr., co-author of"The Campus Rape Frenzy," reports for RealClearInvestigations:Dababnehhas become one of the very few accused men to sue the accuser. Moving the case from the realm of politics to an actual court of law will allowDababnehto challenge Lopez's account and provide other evidence that he says was ignored or dismissed because of #MeToofears and fury. For example: - Lopez changed her story about the location of the alleged transgression, at first telling the New York Times it was a Sacramento bar before later saying it had occurred in a Las Vegas suite during an extended pre-wedding party.
- Lopez has not named a single witness who saw her orDababnehenter the single bathroom used by guests at the party, which was attended by 60 or more politicians and others from the Sacramento and Los Angeles areas.
- At least two witnesses say they were withDababnehalmost the entire time and never saw him head for a bathroom.
The party's main host says there were so many people in the hall near the bathroom, or waiting on line to use it all night, that "if a man were to push a woman into that bathroom and follow her in, it is likely they would have been seen by multiple people standing there." While presenting evidence thatDababnehwasn't treated fairly, Taylor's reporting suggests the courts will still have to tackle the biggest question: Is MatthewDababneh, who struck many as an upstanding (and sober) legislator, in fact a predator who suddenly threw it all away by committing a disgusting sex crime at a big party? Or is Pamela Lopez, a lobbyist cast as a #MeToosurvivor, in fact an opportunistic liar? Read Full Article In North Carolina, Hog Farming's as American as Chinese Food
RealClearInvestigations
Forget Dorothy taking a tumble in the pig pen. Figuratively speaking, hog farming's not in Kansas anymore. Lately it's better known for horrid-smelling industrial-scale hog lagoons and costly lawsuits over them. At least, that was the sorry reputation of the business in North Carolina until a new myth-making machine kicked into gear. Welcome to the brand-new good old days of homespun American pig-raising -- brought to you in part by the Chinese.As Steve Miller reports for RealClearInvestigations, this is not simply a story of putting lipstick on a pig. It's story of global agribusiness - and what's become of the family farm. Miller reports: - Since 2015, a group called NC Farm Families has shaped a benign image of hog farming, availing itself of millions of dollars in TV, radio and social media advertising with the help of Virginia-based pork giant Smithfield Foods and its Chinese owner, meat giant WH Group.
- WH Group issued a denial of any connection to NC Farm Families -- sort of. It allowed that Smithfield Hog Production Group -- owned by WH -- "has joined with dozens of other hog production companies, farmers, and individuals across North Carolina in supporting NCFF."
- The image-shaping -- think Jimmy Dean, not Chairman Mao -- offers insights into consolidating global agribusiness; namely, the lengths taken to fend off environmentalists' onslaughts and make locally acceptable the unpleasant byproducts of voracious world appetites.
- China consumes half the world's pork and now is even more dependent on imports of the meat. That's because highly contagious African swine flu has devastated its own pig herds, at a time when Beijing is in a tariff war with the U.S.
Beneath the authenticity debate lies a deeper issue: What constitutes a family farm in an era of globalized agriculture? In North Carolina, it's a fair bet that that the family hog farmer works under contract for Smithfield, which takes its orders from the Chinese. The Trump Investigations: Top Articles State Dept.: At Least 15 Broke Rules in Hillary Email Case, Washington Times
Clinton Email Guy 'Can't Recall' If Hillary Was in the Loop, Judicial Watch
Now, Word of Mysterious Third 'Scope Memo' for Mueller, Washington Examiner
FBI WarnedManafortFile Might Be Fake, Used It Anyway,TheHill
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Air Force Landlord Falsified Records to Boost Income
Reuters
Balfour Beatty, among the U.S. military's largest housing providers, systematically falsified its maintenance logsat Oklahoma's Tinker Air Force Basefor years,Reutersreports.The fake entries made the company appear responsive to tenant complaints and unsafe conditions, helping it secure millions in "performance incentive fees" for good service that it otherwise often would not have qualified for. The efforts left families in harm's way and persuaded Air Force brass to ignore warnings of trouble raised by military base employees.Records also show Tinker-based Air Force housing officials warned about the deception at least 18 times since 2015. Facebook Moderators Expose Desperate Working Conditions
The Verge
Facebook moderators are supposed to make the world a better place by purging the social network of hate speech, murder videos and child pornography. One thing the workers are having a hard time improving is their working conditions, including low pay and long hours in a filthy environment. Employees at a vendor-operated Facebook content moderation site in Tampa broke their nondisclosure agreements to recount frequent verbal and physicalabuse, and managers laughing off or ignoring sex harassment and threats of violence.Is Facebook telling them to"Lean In"? Millions of Businesses on Google Maps Are Fake
Wall Street Journal
You're locked out of your house. What to do?Google "locksmith."The first few results are ads for "local" businesses. You call one - and that's where the trouble starts. This articlereports Google'ssearch engine and Google Maps are overrun with millions of false business addresses and fake names created by aggressive con artists who often provide shoddy work at exorbitant rates - or deceptive businesses that want to seem like they have local offices. The scams are profitable for nearly everyone involved, Google included. Consumers and legitimate businesses end up the losers. Many U.S. Jails Fail to Stop Inmate Suicides
Associated Press
Many suicides in jail might be prevented if inmates were provided their medication, according to a review by the Associated Press and the University of Maryland's Capital News Service. They looked at more than 400 lawsuits over alleged mistreatment of inmates, most of whom were mentally ill. Some 40 percent of those lawsuits involved suicides in local jails — 135 deaths and 30 attempts. In about a third of those 165 cases, staff allegedly failed to provide prescription medicines. Many inmates also weren't checked regularly because of staffing shortages or inadequate training. More than half the suicides or attempts occurred during the first week of being jailed, and about 80 percent of the inmates were awaiting trial. Some inmates were even given razors. Teens Trigger Concern in First States to Legalize Marijuana
Washington Post
The first two states to legalize recreational marijuana - Colorado and Washington - are starting to grapple with teenagers' growing use of highly potent pot, even as both boost the industry and reap huge tax windfalls from its sales. Calls to poison control and emergency room visits have risen. Concern among medical professionals is mounting over pot's harmful long-term effects on young brains, which are not fully developed until age 25. Computer-Generated Influencers Have Millions of Followers
New York Times
LilMiquelahas1.6 million Instagram followers. Each month, more than 80,000 people stream her songs on Spotify. She has worked with the fashion label Prada, given interviews from Coachella and flaunted a tattoo designed by an artist who inked Miley Cyrus. LilMiquelaisa computer-generated character.This article reports that her success has companies thinking: Why hire a celebrity or supermodel to market your product when you can create the ideal brand ambassador from scratch? Tons of Venezuela's Gold Vanished in Africa
Wall Street Journal
On two flights in early March, at least 7.4 tons of gold with a market value over $300 million moved from Venezuela to a refinery in Uganda.The gold arrived on Russian charter jetliners at the international airport in Entebbe, a midway point on its journey to the Middle East. The shipments expose an aspect of the global underground economy that many suspect Venezuelan PresidentNicolásMaduro is exploiting to cling to power. Bypassing the U.S.-dominated international finance system, Venezuela's central bank between late 2017 and early this year sold at least 73.3 tons of gold, with a market value of around $3 billion, to companies in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey. Million-Dollar Treasure Chest Hidden in the Rocky Mountains
Money
Fine art collector ForrestFennfirst imagined the treasure hunt in 1988 when he thought he'd die from kidney cancer. He'd bury millions in art and jewels in a remote area -- along with nine clues about the treasure's location into a 24-line poem about "the home of Brown," "the blaze" and "where warm waters halt."Fennsurvived his cancer scare but says the his treasure remains buried somewhere in the Rocky Mountains in 2010. His self-published a book about his effort, "The Thrill of the Chase," was featured on the "Today" show. By 2018, this article reports, an estimated 350,000 people had searched for the chest, which may be worth as much as $5 million. Although some are skeptical, mostof the searchers do not believe it is a hoax. States Cracking Down on Bogus Emotional Support Animals
New York Times
Dogs remain man's best friend, but please, no frisbee-fetching in the aisles. Seriously, more and more people are turning not just to dogs but a wide array of critters not just for companionship but "emotional support," claiming the right to take them onto planes and into restaurants and stores. With alligators, ducks and even insects among the supposed psychic soothers, many think the situation has jumped the shark. The National Service Animal Registry, a for-profit company that sells official-looking vests and certificates for owners, reports its log has grown from 2,400 support animals in 2011 to nearly 200,000 now. The fact that most of these animals are dogs has landlords and businesses smelling a rat: They suspect wide abuses of the Americans with Disabilities Act. So states are on the hunt, and Fido might not be the only one in the dog house. |
