RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
March 25 toMarch 31
Featured Investigation
Forty years ago, the United States and China made a landmark deal to allow some students from the communist nation to attend universities in the hotbed of capitalism. The American dream was that by studying here, Chinese students, future leaders of their country, would become a powerful force for democratic political changeback home. As Richard Bernstein reports for RealClearInvestigations, China's pivot toward authoritarianism under Communist Party Secretary Xi Jinping - whose daughter attended Harvard - make it increasingly obvious that things haven't worked out that way. Instead, Bernstein reports, the initiative has exploded into one of history's largest transfers of education and knowledge from one country to another. There are now more than 350,000 Chinese students studying at American colleges; hundreds of thousands of others have gotten their degrees and returned home. More than one-third of all foreign students in the U.S. are from China. Combing data and interviewing Chinese students, Bernstein asks why American education hasn't created a fifth column of democraticreformers?There are many reasons, he reports: One is that many Chinese students are actually quite proud of their country's achievements and do not see themselves as pro-democracy dissidents. Another is that their encounter with American life does not always make them think that the U.S. is a model for China. Third, even for those students who favor political change in China, the harsh and sure penalties for advocating it are powerful disincentives against speaking out. In the view of some, Chinese students remain quiescent because China's system of surveillance and social control extends all the way to American classrooms and dormitories. As one China expert, who preferred not to be identified, put it: "As soon as there are two Chinese students, they tend to stay quiet, because you never know who the spookis." The result, briefly put, is that while China has gotten what it wanted from the American knowledge industry, the United States has not, at least not in its 40-year-old aim to serve as a sort of political inspirationfor awesternized Chinese elite. "You don't see the scales falling from people's eyes," Andrew Nathan, a Columbia University professor of political science who has had numerous Chinese students in hisclassroom, said. "You see people who are learning and exploring, but they're not changing fundamentally." Read Full Article Other Noteworthy Articles and Series The Grownups Running the Children's Gun March
Sultan Knish
In front of the cameras, March for Our Lives is portrayed as the grassroots movement of students fed up with gun violence. Behind the scenes,itis run by high-powered Hollywood activistswho also helped organize the Women's March and by professionalgun control lobbyists, manyof whom areconnected to billionaire Michael Bloomberg. How Facebook Helps Shady Advertisers Pollute the Internet
Bloomberg
Facebook has revolutionized scamming. The tools it developed to mine its trove of user data has made it the go-to platform not just for big brands and political campaigns but also hucksters. Facebook's targeting algorithm is so powerful, they don't need to identify suckers themselves—Facebook does it automatically. Top Trump Fund-Raiser Peddled Access
New York Times
After Trump's election, one of his major fundraisers, Elliott Broidy, quickly moved to market his White House connections to politicians and governments around the world, including some with unsavory records. Broidy suggested to clients and prospective customers of his Virginia-based defense contracting company, Circinus, that he could broker meetings with Mr. Trump, his administration and congressional allies. Adelson Helped Bring Together EPA, Israeli Water Firm
Wall StreetJournal
The Environmental Protection Agency has signed a deal to test technology from an Israeli company whose executives were twice granted access to EPA chief Scott Pruitt at the request of Republican Party donor and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. American Qaeda Escapee: Betrayal by Mueller and Comey's FBI
FoxNews
American photojournalist Matt Schrier, who was captured, tortured and held by Al Qaeda in Syria in 2012, claimsthe FBI put intelligence gathering ahead of his personal security. Since escaping, hesays he hascollected documents that suggest the FBI- which was then led by Special Counsel Robert Mueller-was more interested in monitoring his financial accounts, along with thedozenor morecomputers and tabletsthey bought with his money, than in freeing him. South Carolina: Army Engineers Failed To Fix Deadly Dam
The State
The U.S. Army found problems as early as 1979 at a Fort Jackson dam that crumbled during a deadly 2015 flood, but it failed to fix some of the problems cited by inspectors through the years, records show. The U.S. Department of Justice is trying to seal other records that could cast Fort Jackson in a bad light. College Hoop Glory Not for Kids of Poor Families Anymore
Undefeated
Sports has long been cast a way out of poverty, offering talented athletes a chance to become the first member of their family to go college. In fact, the number of"first-gens"has fallen dramatically. Fewer than 1 in 5 students playing Division 1 hoops, and 1 in 7 in all Division 1 sports, come from families in which neither parent went to college. And their numbers are declining. Indeed, the data suggest that athletes awarded scholarships in big-time college sports are more likely to come from advantaged backgrounds than the wider student body. Wisconsin:They Win the Lottery Again & Again & Again
WisconsinWatch
It's highly unlikely that you will get struck by lightning - but that's almost a shoo-in compared to your odds of winning the lottery time after time after time. But there areseveralsuch people inWisconsin, including the manwhose 21 tickets have netted him $128,417 and the woman whose65winners have earned her$466,780.Are they just lucky or have they figured out how to game the game? Put Down the Duckie: 4 of 5 Bath Toys 'Potentially Pathogenic'
Associated Press
Like almost everything else connected to children, rubber ducky bath toys turn out to be germ factories. Swiss and American researchers say that bacterium with long and scary Latin names - includingLegionellaandPseudomonas aeruginosa- love to hang out inside the squeaky yellow toys. They are often expelled when duck is squeezed - which is the whole point - unleashing potentially dangerous microbes into the baby's bathwater. There is no evidence of widespread illness; the bugs might help strengthen immune systems. | 
