RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
November 1 to November 7, 2020 This week in RealClearInvestigations, Vince Bielski reports from the front lines of the war on "systemic racism": New York City. There activists in the nation's largest school system -- influenced by "critical race theory," the idea that racism is embedded in the structures of society -- are pushing to end "segregation" in selective public schools by abolishing as "racist" the grades and test scores that result in the schools' heavily white and Asian student bodies. In this polarizing battle, parents who support merit admissions are tarred as racists on social media. And it's a war flaring up nationwide, Bielski writes: - The nation's top-ranked high school, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology in Fairfax County, Va., faces an overhaul of its competitive admissions -- over protests from Asian parents who say their kids are being penalized.
- At Lowell High School in San Francisco, a plan to drop merit-based admissions because of the pandemic created an uproar from parents who want to protect its reputation for rigor.
- In New York City, advocates are calling for the end to admissions screening for almost 200 selective middle schools.
- And an advisory panel has urged Mayor Bill de Blasio to rid elementary schools of "gifted and talented" programs.
- The city could shift to assigning students to schools based on economic status, to spread out poor kids more equally.
- It's already revamping the curriculum to cater to the interests of low-income students (sidebar).
- But an advocate of the traditional merit system warns: "We are institutionalizing anti-intellectualism."
A federal judge named Joe Biden as a possible "witness" along with his son Hunter in a criminal fraud case last year that ended in the convictions of two of Hunter's business partners, Paul Sperry reports for RealClearInvestigations. The Democratic presidential candidate's appearance on a witness list casts new doubt on his claims he knew nothing about his son's shady business dealings. - Hunter Biden blamed one of his convicted partners — Devon Archer — for his father's name appearing on a list of potential witnesses in a January 2019 juror questionnaire filed in the case.
- In a 47-minute recording recovered from his abandoned laptop, an agitated Hunter can be heard grousing about calls he's been getting from his father, who apparently was upset with the developments as he prepared to launch his campaign for the White House.
- Hunter Biden was repeatedly implicated in a case that resulted in a jury verdict against Archer, Hunter's longtime business partner, for securities fraud in a tribal bond scheme that defrauded investors of some $60 million.
- Joe Biden in 2019: "I have never discussed with my son or brother or anyone else anything having to do with their businesses — period. I never talked with my son or my brother or anyone else in the distant family about their business interests, period."
- "If Joe knew nothing, why would he be named as a witness?" said a Wall Street compliance officer who has closely tracked several securities fraud cases connected to the Bidens.
In a separate article, Paul Sperry reports that a public-interest law firm has filed a complaint with the Justice Department against Hunter Biden, demanding an investigation into the failure of the Vice President's son to register as a foreign agent. Trump-Russia/2020 Election News Guide to 2020 Election Laws and Lawsuits ProPublica
2020 Election Litigation Tracker SCOTUSblog
How Hunter Biden Stumped the Media,The Intercept
All the Steele Dossier's Untrustworthy Sources Meduza Other Noteworthy Articles and Series How Software Infuses Racism Into U.S. Health Care
STAT
This investigation concludes that a common use of analytical software to get medical services to patients who need them most is infusing racial bias into decision-making. The bias results from the use of a patient's past medical spending and treatment as a proxy for health need. Less of that means healthier, the reasoning goes. But people of color with heart failure or diabetes tend to get fewer checkups to manage their conditions, meaning their costs are a poor indicator of their health status. One company using the algorithm reported that of the patients it targeted for stepped-up care, only 18% were black, compared with 82% who were white. When it revised the algorithm to disregard the health spending factor, the percentage of black patients more than doubled, to 46%. Nameless Hiker and the Case the Internet Can't Crack
Wired
In April 2017, a man began hiking the Appalachian Trail just north of New York City. He didn't bring a phone; he didn't bring a credit card. He didn't even really bring a name. Or at least he didn't tell anyone he met what it was. Hikers sometimes acquire trail names, pseudonyms they use while deep in the woods; he became "Mostly Harmless." He told people he met along the way - who found him kind and shy - that he had worked in the tech industry and he wanted to detox from digital life. A year after he began his hike, two other hikers in Florida came across his yellow tent, which had a pair of boots outside. Something smelled bad, and something seemed off. They called out, then peered through the tent's windscreen. An emaciated, lifeless body was looking up at them. They called 911. This article details the still-ongoing efforts of law enforcement and Facebook groups to identify the man - who stood 5'8" but weighed just 83 pounds when he died and had $3,500 in cash. Big Cash for Avatar Influencers as Covid Stymies Real People
Bloomberg Businessweek
At a time when interacting safely with other humans can no longer be taken for granted, the appetite for digital spokespeople - basically lifelike cartoon characters - is accelerating. Brands are expected to spend as much as $15 billion annually on influencer marketing by 2022, up from $8 billion last year. A growing slice of that money belongs to virtual influencers. "Virtual influencers, while fake, have real business potential," says Christopher Travers, the founder of virtualhumans.org, a website that documents the industry. "They are cheaper to work with than humans in the long term, are 100% controllable, can appear in many places at once, and, most importantly, they never age or die." And members of Gen Z - expected to number more than 2.56 billion worldwide by year's end - love them. Epic Insurance Battle on Lockdown Compensation
Bloomberg Businessweek
If a tree falls on a restaurant and forces it to shut down, is the business covered by its insurance policy? Almost certainly, because of the clear physical damage. But what if the same establishment is forced to shut down because of COVID-19? The answer to that billion-dollar question is far trickier. This article reports that U.S. plaintiffs' lawyers have filed more than 1,100 complaints against insurers, claiming they must cover the losses of policyholders forced to shut down because of the lockdowns. Insurance companies, by and large, have refused to pay, arguing COVID-19 is not the kind of "physical loss" their policies protect. The stakes are enormous. Business owners from small restaurants to major retailers say they could go bankrupt unless they're paid. Insurance companies say the payouts could cripple them. One industry estimate looking at just U.S. small businesses with fewer than 100 employees places the total monthly cost of reimbursing their pandemic losses at between $52 billion and $223 billion. The dispute is also playing out in Congress and state legislatures, where bills have been introduced requiring insurers to pay for pandemic-related losses. Coronavirus Investigations Schools Adopt Face Recognition in Name of Fighting Covid Wired
Ga.: When the Virus Came for the American Dream New York Times
In Hunt for Virus Source, WHO Let China Take Charge New York Times
People ‘Have No Idea' How They Got Covid New York Times
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