RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
Sept. 22 to Sept. 28, 2019 There's a racially conscious movement under way nationally to leave imperiled African American children in their troubled homes instead of placing them in statistically safer foster care, Naomi Schaefer Riley reports for RealClearInvestigations. Liberal groups, child welfare agencies, and some judges are acting under the belief that the child welfare system is racially biased and structured to break up minority families rather than protect kids. Riley reports: - Prime movers of the effort are the Casey Family Programs, a national philanthropy organization with a $2.2 billion endowment, and a New Orleans judge, Ernestine Steward Gray.
- With family court records sealed, Gray's activism on the bench is wreaking havoc with the youngest residents of Orleans Parish, some child advocates say.
- Lately reports of child abuse and neglect there have almost doubled, while the number of children sent to foster care fell almost 75%.
- In 2013, a 5-year-old old in the parish, Brandajah Smith, grabbed a gun in her home and took her own life. She had not been removed from the home despite indications she was sexually abused and had become fixated on the gun, her own death, and heaven.
- Judge Gray contends black kids nationally are "disproportionately represented" in the child welfare system because of racial bias.
- Gray says research "shows that rates of child abuse and neglect are not higher in families of color."
- National statistics report, however, that black children are more likely to suffer maltreatment.
- Gray's high-stakes experimentmay be in violation of federal equal-protection law.
The difference between removing imperiled children to foster care and keeping them in their homes is stark, says James Dwyer, a law professor at the College of William & Mary."We know that a substantial portion of parents reported once for maltreatment will be reported again if the child remains in their custody," Dwyer says. But "weknowrates of abuse and neglect in foster care are miniscule by comparison — one quarter of 1% annually." Read Full Article How Many Spy Targets Were There in Russiagate? One ... or Four?
RealClearInvestigations
A little-publicizedCapitol Hill exchangesuggests that three Trump campaign figures besides Carter Page may have been the targets ofFISA-approved surveillance-Gen. Michael Flynn, PaulManafortand GeorgePapadopolous. EricFeltenreports for RealClearInvestigations that this would be especially significant becauseFlynn andManafortwere high-level figuresinconstant contact with Trump.Feltenalso reports: - During an interview with former Attorney General Loretta Lynch last December, Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee mentioned the four men and said, "One thing that all of these persons had in common was that each was the subject of a FISA court investigation."
- At the same interview, Rep. Jim Jordan made the same claim. After a lawyer objected to any talk about classified "FISA applications," Jordan backed off.
- In his book, Papadopoulos writes that reporters told him he was under FISA scrutiny.
- Because the four men were targets of counterintelligence investigations, it would be unlikely that the government hadn't sought FISA warrants.
Under FISA's "two hop" rule, agents can spy not only on the target, but anyone in contact with the target (hop one) and anyone communicating with those contacts (hop two). This latter suggests that Trump may not have been far off when he alleged that the Obama administration had his "wires tapped" in Trump Tower just before his victory. The Trump Investigations: Top Articles Pelosi Announces Trump-Ukraine Impeachment inquiry, Washington Post
In Ukraine Phone Call, Alarmed Aides Saw Trouble, New York Times
Whistleblower Exceeds Mueller in Making Case, Washington Post
RepubsWant Whistleblower's Sources, as Inconsistencies Emerge, Fox
Whistleblower's Lawyer Group Pays Trump Snitches, Washington Examiner
Once-Secret Memos Cast Doubt on Joe Biden's Ukraine Story,TheHill
Flashback, July '19: Hunter Biden's Risk to Dad's Campaign, New Yorker
Democrats Were First to Enlist Ukraine in U.S. Elections,TheHill
Flashback '17: Clinton-Tied Kiev Dirt vs. Trump, Politico
Firsthand Rule Secretly Deleted on Intel-Whistleblowing Form, Federalist
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Journey of Tainted Vape Cartridge: China's Labs to Your Lungs
Leafly
Although mainstream vaping companies like Juul are under fire because of health issues connected to vaping, many of those problems are connected to counterfeit marijuana products, many of which are made in China and then sold to unwitting customers. This article unpacks the supply chain while reporting on the thriving black market in marijuana. Recent reports have estimated that America's legal, regulated cannabis industry accounts for only 22% of the nation's $52 billion in cannabis purchases. The other 78% of the THC market remains untested and out of control. Near the end of 2018, a new additive entered the street THC vape cartridge supply: a form of vitamin E oil used as a cutting agent. And hundreds of serious pulmonary injuries, and possibly as many as nine deaths, followed. Resettled Migrant Kids Divide Minnesota Farm Town
Washington Post
Since 2017, more than 270,000 unaccompanied minors have crossed into the U.S. along the southern border. Some of them have ended up in Worthington, Minnesota, a community of 13,000 that has received more unaccompanied minors per capita than almost anywhere in the country. This influx is causing a backlash. Five times in just over five years, the school district has asked residents to approve an expansion to handle the surge in enrollment. Five times, the voters have refused — the last time by a margin of just 17 votes. A sixth referendum is scheduled for November. This article reports that the divide can be felt all over Worthington, where "Minnesota nice" has devolved into "Yes" and "No" window signs, boycotts on businesses and next-door neighbors who no longer speak. A Catholic priest who praised immigrants was booed from the pews and has received deaththreats. But this being the Washington Post, it blames the complicated forces at work on "white farmers in this Trump-supporting county." Dem Clerk Charged With Altering Election Ballots in Michigan
National Review
A Democratic city clerk in a Detroitsuburbwho had been honored by the state party for her work was charged with multiple felonies for allegedly throwing 193 valid ballots in the trash in a 2018 race between two Democratic candidates. The clerk is on is on paid administrative leave until she can be tried. When Rides Go Wrong, Uber Investigators Put Company First
Washington Post
Uber has a team of nearly 80 specialized workers who grapple with some of the worst incidents that happen in Uber rides. But, this article reports, when they make a determination,"investigatorsare coached by Uber to act in the company's interest first, ahead of passenger safety."The agents, for example,are forbidden by Uber from routing allegations to police or from advising victims to seek legal counsel or make their own police reports, even when they get confessions of felonies, said Lilli Flores, a former investigator in Phoenix — a guideline corroborated in interviews with investigators, alleged victims and plaintiffs' attorneys. Customer Cards Make Starbucks $1.6B Monetary Giant
Moneyness
Starbucks customers may be paying more than they think for their "triple, venti, non-fat, caramel macchiato." That's because they hold about $1.6 billion that customers have put on Starbucks cards and other credits with the chain. Starbucks markets the cards as an easy way to make a purchase (neglecting to mention that swiping a debit or credit card is easy too). They also represent a big interest-free loan to Starbucks. In fairness, PayPal makes Starbucks look like a piker in the float game. Its customers have about $20 billion in interest free balances just sitting in their accounts. PayPal is required to store customer's funds in a segregated account at a bank, or invest them in government bonds so unfortunately forPayPal,it can't maximize its earnings on the funds that customers have lent it. Still,itain'tnothing. |
