RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
Dec. 15 to Dec. 21, 2019 Rep. Jerry Nadler, one of the top Democrats expected to argue the impeachment case in the Senate against President Trump, has a credibility problem: Last year he falsely accused Trump campaign aide Carter Page of being a Russian spy -- an accusation the Justice Department's watchdog debunked in his newly released report.Paul Sperry reports for RealClearInvestigations: - In February 2018, Nadler circulated a "Dear Democratic Colleague" letter -- later leaked to the press -- that trashed a House Intelligence Committee report detailing FBI spying abuses involving Page.
- But Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz found the FBI did in fact abuse its authority.
- Nadler also insisted in his four-page letter that the discredited, Democrat-funded Steele dossier did not play a substantial role in supporting warrants to spy on Page.
- But Horowitz found the opposite.
- Nadler implied that the Republican House Intelligence Chairman at the time, DevinNunes, was lying about what he had read in classified documents.
- But the Horowitz report concurred with the findings of Nunes.
- Nadler, now House Judiciary chairman, "has no credibility left," said a Republican staffer on the judiciary committee.
- Nadler's office did not respond to requests for comment.
Read Full Article Special Ed's Got
An Unjust-Suspension Problem
School suspensions get flak because blacks are far more likely to be disciplined. But that racial-equity debate misses the vulnerable group disproportionately suspended at many schools: special-educationkids. Max Diamond reports for RealClearInvestigations: - New York City special-needs kids are suspended more frequently than students in the general student body.
- At one school in Brooklyn, such kids made up 15% of students and over half of suspensions.
- Beyond New York City, same situation: disproportionate special-needs suspensions throughout the country.
- Key factor: Special ed isn't the way many imagine. It actually takes in a wide spectrum of disabilities that by law warrant extra services.
- There's no science to tell whether a student is manifesting his or her disability, or just misbehaving.
- What parents see as a child struggling with a disability, teachers often see primarily as violent behavior.
- Any fix is hampered by disagreement over the cause: Inadequate support for such kids? Or failed policies that have kept them from individualized instruction?
- Some think pre-K programs could help.
The Trump Investigations: Top Articles How 2 Soviet Émigrés Fueled the Trump Impeachment Flames, New York Times
The Ukrainian ProsecutorBehindTrump's Impeachment, New Yorker
Latvia Flagged ‘Suspicious' Hunter Biden Payments in 2016, John Solomon Reports
FISA Court Slams FBI Over Surveillance Applications, Fox
Text: FISA Judge's Order on FBI's Carter Page Deceptions, FISC
Durham Turns Focus to Ex-CIA Boss Brennan, New York Times
Questions Remain After Release of Horowitz Report, Rolling Stone
FBI Didn't Know Steele Worked for Russian Oligarch, Daily Caller Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Foster Kids (Pt. 1): More to Prison Than College
Kansas City Star
They are the low-hanging fruit of prize-winning journalism: articles about problems in care for the elderly, the disabled and the abused. The work isimportant andnecessary, but it is also unlikely to lead to permanent solutions,which why is these problems are perennial investigative-news chestnuts. That's just a little context for the Kansas City Star's powerful series on the problems kids face when they age out of foster care. It found"that, by nearly every measure, states are failing in their role as parents to America's most vulnerable children." It reports that roughly 23,000 kids across the country are churned out of the system every year, and more of them end up in prison than college. As part of its investigation, the Star surveyed nearly 6,000 inmates in 12 states — representing every region of the country — to determine how many had been in foster care and what effect it had on their lives. Of the inmates who took the survey, 1 in 4 said they were a product of foster care. Some spent the majority of their childhood in stragers' homes, racking up more placements homes than birthdays. Why Big Business Can Count on Courts to Keep Its Secrets
Reuters
Big business and its legal lieutenantshavesucceededin theirdecades-long effort to ensurethat secrecy cloaks lawsuits alleging that their products can kill or injure people.Over the years, they threw a blanket of confidentiality over discovery, the pretrial exchange of information between opposing sides. They turned protective orders into pro forma exercises to muzzle lawyers who might otherwise share pertinent information with regulators or the public. And they succeeded in getting judges to routinely seal court filings, thus ensuring that when lawsuits are settled before trial, as usually happens in product-liability cases, the evidence remains hidden. This article reports that the secrecy allowed drug makers to market painkillers as safe while the body count from the opioid-related epidemic mounted. Also, it allowed auto makers to sell cars with lethally weak roofs that killed people in rollovers, and gun maker Remington to knowingly sell rifles with bum triggers that killed scores of people. Mormon Church Accused of Hoarding Vast Charity Funds
Washington Post
A former investment manager alleges in a whistleblower complaint to the Internal Revenue Service that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has amassed about $100 billion in accounts intended for charitable purposes. The complaint accuses church leaders of misleading members — and possibly breaching federal tax rules — by stockpiling their surplus donations instead of using them for charitable works. It also accuses church leaders of using the tax-exempt donations to prop up a pair of businesses. Haiti: UN Troops Fathered Hundreds, Then Left
The Conversation
United Nations personnel have notonlybeen providing aid andsecurityin Haiti - some of them have also been fathering children and then fleeing, leaving the mother and child in extreme poverty. This article reports on research by an academic team that interviewed approximately2,500 Haitiansabout the experiences of local women and girls living in communities that hostUNoperations. "Of those, 265 told stories that featured children fathered by UN personnel," the researchers write."That 10% of those interviewed mentioned suchchildren highlightsjust how common such stories really are. The narratives reveal howgirls as young as 11 were sexually abused and impregnated by peacekeepers and then, as one man put it, 'left in misery' to raise their children alone, often because the fathers are repatriated once the pregnancy becomesknown." This article alsonotesprevious reportsthat UN peacekeepers inadvertently introduced cholera to Haiti and have been connected to child sex abuse. Decades of Workplace Sexism Lawsuits vs. Bloomberg
ABC News
At least 17 women have taken legal action against the company run by presidentialcandidate Michael Bloomberg over the past three decades; three of the cases specifically name the billionaire media mogul for his role increatingthe company'sallegedly toxicculture. On repeated occasions Bloomberg faced and fought allegations that he directed crude and sexist comments to women in his office, including a claim in the 1990s that he told an employee who had just announced she was pregnant to "kill it." The comments attributed to Bloomberg in court records are echoed in a gift book he received from colleagues in 1990: a compilation of his alleged quotes. The booklet contained comments such as, "Make the customer think he's getting laid when he's getting[expletive]," and, "If women wanted to be appreciated for their brains, they'd go to the library instead of to Bloomingdales." None of the cases made it to trial - four were either dismissed or withdrawn, while five were settled out of court. Three cases remain active. How a 'Safer' Opioid Became a Third World Peril
Associated Press
Tramadol was sold as the safer opioid in the developing world, pain relief without all of the dangers of OxyContin, Vicodinandfentanyl. But mass abuse of tramadol spans continents, from Africa to the Middle East, creating international havoc some experts blame on a loophole in narcotics regulation and a miscalculation of the drug's danger. Unlike other opioids, tramadol flowed freely around the world, unburdened by international controls that track most dangerous drugs. But abuse is now so rampant that some countries are asking international authorities to intervene. A separate article from Bloomberg questions whether the FDA is too slow on the trigger when it comes to recallingpotentially dangerous medications. Largest Security Firm Lost Hundreds of Guns
Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel/USA Today
The largest private security company in the world can't keep track of its guns. "And the consequences are clear: One of their missing guns was held to a woman's head as a man threatened to rape her. Another was used to pistol-whip a pizza delivery driver. A third ended the lives of two men playing video games. Before they were used to hurt or kill people, each of these guns was assigned to a security guard whose job was to protect the public. Then they were stolen from G4S, a company that brings in billions of dollars with promises of "securing your world." War Vet, Dating Site, and the Underage-Sextortion Call From Hell
Wired
Men across the country - including the veteran featured in this article -are being targeted by ascam called the"underagedgirl" shakedown. It begins withsomeinnocent back and forth onadating siteduring which the "girl"confesses at some point that she is not yet 18. Before long the man receives a call from a fake cop or a fake parent offering a choice: pay up or go to jail. The "parents" say they want to be compensated because they had damaged a computer fighting with their daughter (or son;some scam victims were gay men); or had smashed her phone; or to cover therapy because the whole incident was so traumatic. Often one payment leads to another: If a victim hands over a few hundred bucks to cover, say, a broken cell phone, the scammers soon call again to say the girl nowneeds expensive medical treatment because she attempted suicide. In at least one case, the scammers squeezed about $1,000 out of a mark to pay for a nonexistent girl's funeral. |
