RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
Jan. 28 to Feb. 3
Featured Investigation
The long-awaited internal Republican House FISA memo was released over FBI objections this week, alleging that senior Obama FBI and Department of Justice officials abused their powers to spy on Donald Trump's campaign, by hiding from the surveillance court their reliance on opposition research paid for by Hillary Clinton's campaign. The news was immediately refracted off Washington's madly spinning disco balls of media bias and partisanship. The GOP memo said the discredited dossier written by ex-British spy Christopher Steele was "an essential part" of the justification for electronic surveillance of Trump adviser Carter Page. It said Steele was "desperate that Donald Trump not get elected" and "clear evidence of Steele's bias" wasn't reflected in any of the applications to authorize surveillance, nor were the Democratic financiers behind him. Also, the memo says, the court was not told that Justice Department official Bruce Ohr passed information from Steele to the DOJ, with his wife, Nellie Ohr, working at the time for Fusion GPS, the opposition research firm that commissioned the dossier. And to justify surveillance of Page, the memo says, the government "extensively" cited a Sept. 23, 2016 news article that was in effect planted by Fusion GPS. President Trump claimed the memo "totally vindicates" him and assailed the Russia-meddling investigation as "an American disgrace." But echoing the FBI's objections about selective disclosures in the memo, Democrats put the phrase "cherry-picking" of information into overtime use. They seized on the memo's assertion that information about Trump campaign adviser George Papadopolous - not the dossier, they noted - "triggered the opening of an FBI counterintelligence investigation." But their earlier high-volume protestations that releasing the memo would harm national security - it did not - were undercut, to say the least, by their dismissal of the memo now as no big deal. What's next? High-stakes partisan brinksmanship with Trump looks likely as he considers which heads should roll. Pro-Trump calls for a second special counsel, to investigate the FBI, are growing. And with all sides agreeing that more information needs to be made public - although perhaps not which information - expect the disco balls to keep on spinning. Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Behind McCabe's Potential $1.9 Million FBI Pension, a Bigger Battle
RealClearInvestigations
The public's right to know what it pays federal workers has a clear limit: when the employee retires. While salaries are public information, pension information is strictly off limits because of privacy concerns. But pension secrecy is in the crosshairs again, in part because of the rash of Washington scandals, as Norman Leahy reports for RealClearInvestigations: FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has left the bureau under a cloud, with a federal pension that could provide him a lifetime payout of $1.9 million. Firms Shipped 20.8 Million Pills to West Virginia Town of 2,900
Charleston Gazette-Mail
Drug companies shipped 20.8 million prescription painkillers to two pharmacies in a West Virginia town of only 2,900 people over the past decade. In 2015, over 40 percent of oxycodone prescriptions filled by one pharmacy came from a single Virginia doctor at a pain clinic, reports Eric Eyre, whose coverage of the opioid crisis in West Virginia earned him the2017 Pulitzer Prize for Investigation Reporting. Living Large Off Unspent Campaign Funds
Tampa Bay Times/WTSP
Mark Foley was forced out of Congress more than a decade ago for sexual impropriety, but he was still able to tap his congressional campaign fund to dine on the Palm Beach social circuit four times in early 2017, ending with a $450 luncheon at the Forum Club of the Palm Beaches. Four years after he left office, former Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning paid his daughter $94,800 from campaign money. They're not the only examples. In their political afterlives, former politicians and their staffers are hoarding unspent campaign donations for years and using them to finance high living, advance new careers and pay family members. How Goodyear Hid Evidence of the 'Worst Tire' in History
Jalopnik
An investigation byJalopnikfound at least nine deaths and 34 injuries linked to crashes involving Goodyear's G159 from 2002 to 2009. Goodyear itself has received at least 98 injury or death claims over the tire. The article argues that Goodyear kept these problems quiet through an "aggressive effort to settle cases, handled by company attorneys who withheld crucial data from plaintiffs." The Nassar Investigation That Never Made Headlines
TheAtlantic
LarryNassar, the former Olympic doctor convicted of molesting dozens of young female athletes, might have been stopped in 2014 when a Michigan State University student accused him of massaging her breasts and vagina during a medical examination. Instead, his conduct was deemed "medically appropriate" based on interviews with three medical specialists and an athletic trainer who were employed by the school and had personal ties toNassar. Indiana: The Ghosts of 808 East Lewis Street
Elle
After reading about the murder of the three young men from Sudan in her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana, Tanisha Ford was surprised to learn that it happened at her family home. It was the place where her grandfather shot and killed her grandmother and thenhimself. Her story weaves herfamily sagatogetherwith a history of the townthat has been a refuge and source of tragedy for blacks, from thedays of Jim Crow to the modern era of global migration. Age-Denying Boomers Drive 'Early Bird' Special to Extinction
Eater
Baby boomers are driving the early bird to extinction. Though there are more retirees than ever, they have different expectations than their predecessors about what retired life should look like. Mostly, they do not want to be reminded in any way that they're old now. Demographic shifts are also in play. Poorer senior citizens are more likely to eat at fast-food restaurants; wealthier seniors don't care for bargain early dining; and the few seniors in the middle who still like the early bird may not be enough to keep it aloft. | 
