RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
July15 toJuly 21 Featured Investigation Not just Democrats but also Republicans were targets of probable cyberattacks by Russian spies throughout the 2016 election. But you would hardly know it from the 29-page indictment of Russian agents delivered by Special Counsel Robert Mueller last week. As Paul Sperry reports forRealClearInvestigations,U.S. officials believe the Russians tried to hack the Republican National Committee, Trump campaign officials and state-level organizations.And that "challenges the narrative, now reinforced by Mueller's indictments, that Russia's scheme was solely aimed at damaging Hillary Clinton." Sperry reports: "RNC emails were stolen through the same spearphishing scams used against Democrats," a senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the investigation toldRealClearInvestigations. "In fact, prominent Republicans were targeted and similarly victimized by the disclosure of sensitiveemails during the campaign." The indictment acknowledges this on page 13:"The Conspirators alsoreleaseddocuments they had stolen inotherspearphishingoperations, including those they had conducted in 2015 that collected emails fromindividuals affiliated with the Republican Party." But that is the only mention of Russian attacks against Republicans in the29-page indictment. …Unlike information detailing attacks onDemocrats, the indictmentdoes not detail the "manner and means" by which the Russian conspirators allegedly carried out the theft against Republicans. Nor does it name thedefendants said to be directly involved in those crimes as it does in the case of the various Democratic breaches. Moreover, the reference makes itseem as if only individual Republicans, not the GOP's headquarters in Washington, weretargeted andthat those attacksoccurred before the 2016 election campaign. Read Full Article The Trump Investigations: Top Articles
Cohen Secretly Taped Trump on Playmate Payment, New York Times
Who Is Maria Butina, Accused Russian Agent?, Washington Post
Tony Podesta Is Offered Immunity to Testify AgainstManafort, Fox News
How Brennan Got His Collusion Narrative Out in 2016, Wall Street Journal
Nunes: Mueller's Charges Track House Intel Report, Washington Examiner Other Noteworthy Articles and Series Inside Israel's Raid to Seize Nuclear Documents in Iran
Wall Street Journal
Iran did not post guards at the warehouse holding documents detailing its nuclear program. That was a mistake. In January, Israeli agents covertly rummaged through the facility in a dramatic 6½-hour operation in Tehran, removing a trove of materials that included partial designs for a nuclear warhead. Iran denies it ever had such plans but this story notes that the documents track, and often repeat, revelations and assumptions made previously by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Malls Use License Plate Scanners to Spy for ICE Contractor
Electronic Frontier Foundation
Alarge shopping center operator in California has been providing time, date and location information collected by automated license plate readersfrom three of its mallsto a company that resells data to as many as 1,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide. This allows the government to examine the travel patterns of consumers on private property with little transparency and no consent from those being tracked. Oligarch's Firm Paid Democratic Candidate's Husband $700,000
Daily Beast
AUkranianoligarch namedIhorKolomoiskyis one of those figures who seems to have "allegedly" attached to his name. He allegedly has his own army; has allegedly been involved in billion-dollarcriminal schemes; and hasallegedlybeen involved in contract killings. What's not in dispute is that a number of businesses linked to the oligarch have paid at least $700,000 over two years to South Florida attorney Robert Powell, the husband of Democratic House of Representatives candidate DebbieMucarsel-Powell. Cuomo's Fundraising RigsSmall Donations
New York Times
One man likes New York Governor Andrew Cuomo so much that he has donated to his 2018 re-election campaign 67 times! True, each contribution was for just $1, but it was apparently the thought that counted. The thought being: making Cuomo appear less dependent on fat-cat money by bringing down his average donation size, as he faces an upstart primary challenge from actress Cynthia Nixon. The Times reported that one lobbyist, who had written checks of $10,000 and $5,000, also separately gave $50. State arts councilappointeeJaynneC. Keyes gave Cuomo $20,000 in July and then followed up with two modest donations of $5 each. New York: Intolerance Has Become Routine
ProPublica
Some 38 percent of Muslim, Jewish and Sikh residents surveyed by the New York City Commission on Human Rights said they had been verbally harassed or taunted because of their race or faith during the last two years. Nearly 10 percent said they had been the victim of an actual physical assault. A similar percentage of those surveyed said they had seen their property vandalized or otherwise defaced. A Tale of Two Killings in Chicago
City Journal
After another uproar over a police shooting in Chicago, this article calls attention to less-publicized and far more common violent crime continuing to devastate the city. "In the first six months of 2018, more than 60 children under 15 have been shot in Chicago. In June alone, an 11-year-old boy was shot in the head; a 12-year-old girl was killed as she was carrying her baby cousin; and a 14-year-old boy was gunned down by a passing car." The writer, Heather Mac Donald, has a political explanation: "Black Lives Matter activists have nothing to say about this violence because it does not involve police officers." Starbucks' Plastic-Straw Ban Means Using More Plastic
Reason
The plastic straw has become a public enemy among progressives, who have gotten it banned in Seattle and Vancouver and are working to do the same in cities from San Francisco to New York. Now Starbucks has announced plans to eliminate all single-use plastic straws at its 28,000 stores by 2020. But this story notices a green fly in the virtue-signaling ointment: "the inconvenient fact that by ditching plastic straws, Starbucks will actually be increasing its plastic use. As it turns out, the new nitro lids that Starbucks is leaning on to replace straws are made up of more plastic than the company's current lid/straw combination." Canada Poised to Become a Pot Superpower
The Walrus
When the Cannabis Act was approved in June, Canada became just the second country in the world (after Uruguay) to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. Canada's legal cannabis sector was already surging, with billions of dollars already having been invested by speculators. No one knows how disruptive a force the Cannabis Act will ultimately be, here and abroad, but if the corporate entrepreneurs have their way, Canadian bud might soon rival Molson in turning brains to maple syrup. Deadly Global Superbug Yeast 'More Infectious Than Ebola'
Wired
A deadly form of yeast that resists almost all of the drugs developed to treat or kill it is moving rapidly across the world, and public health experts are stymied over how to stop it. The yeast, Candidaauris, attacks and overwhelms the blood system like bacteria - only yeast has never done that before. "This bug is the most difficult we've ever seen," says Dr. Tom Chiller, the chief of mycotic diseases at the Centers for Disease Control. My Great-Grandfather, Nigerian Slave-Trader
New Yorker
In this remarkable article, the author details the central role her great-grandfather, with other Africans, played in the slave trade. In the late 19th century, his agents captured blacks and sold themto middlemen, who themselves sold these people to white merchants, who legally shipped them to Cuba and Brazil. Upon his death, "a leopard was killed, and six slaves were buried alive with him." The author asked her father, a lawyer and human-rights advocate, if he was ashamed of their forebear. "I can never be ashamed of him," he said, irritated. "Why should I be? His business was legitimate at the time. He was respected by everyone around." Investigative Classics: How the New York Times Helped Ban Abortion in 1872
RealClearInvestigations
Abortion was legal in much of America during much of the 19th century, especially before "quickening," or the child's first kick in the womb. That changed in part because of a seemingly unlikely opponent of abortion - the New York Times. In 1871, a quarter century before the Ochs family purchased the newspaper, the Times ran article decrying what it called "The Evil of Our Age." Then, just three days later, the body of a woman - dead from a botched abortion - was discovered curled up in a trunk bound for Chicago. This retrospective revisits the paper's coverage of the "trunk mystery," which inspired New York State to ban abortion in 1872. | 
