RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
Nov. 11to Nov. 17 Featured Investigation Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation is hitting a snag. Actually, several snags. Namely, the former Trump associates Mueller has indicted and squeezed for information. These men do not appear to have any evidence that Donald Trump colluded with the Kremlin to steal his election. As Paul Sperry reports for RealClearInvestigations: Mueller has obtained guilty pleas from four ex-Trump advisers — Michael Flynn, George Papadopoulos, Paul Manafort and Rick Gates — for crimes unrelated to election espionage. Facing the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence, each had strong incentives to turn on the president. So, too, do other Trump associates reportedly caught in Mueller's crosshairs - Carter Page, Roger Stone and the president's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, who has pleaded guilty to crimes referred by Mueller's office to federal attorneys in Manhattan for prosecution. … Nevertheless, substantial information gleaned from various sources by RealClearInvestigations and other news outlets suggests that Trump's former associates have not provided the smoking gun of collusion. Read Full Article Other Noteworthy Articles andSeries 250,000 Dead, 37,000 Missing in Mexico's Gang Crisis
Wall Street Journal
Some 37,000 people in Mexico are categorized as "missing" by the government - almost four times the number of people who vanished during Argentina's infamous "dirty war" from 1976-83. The vast majority are believed to be dead, victims of the country's spiraling violence, which has claimed more than 250,000 lives since 2006. And the number of disappeared may be far higher becausemany people are afraid to report the missing for fear of reprisals by judicial authorities, criminals, and police, especially municipal police, who in many parts of Mexico collude with criminal gangs. How Zuckerberg, Sandberg Failed Users and Resorted to Smears
New York Times
In just over a decade, Facebook has connected more than 2.2 billion people, a global nation unto itself that reshaped political campaigns, the advertising business and daily life around the world. Along the way, it accumulated one of the largest-ever repositories of personal data, a treasure trove of photos, messages and "likes" that propelled the company into the Fortune 500. But as evidence accumulated that Facebook's power could also be exploited to disrupt elections, broadcast viral propaganda and inspire deadly campaigns of hate around the globe, the company's founder, Mark Zuckerberg and its Chief Operating Officer, Sheryl Sandberg, stumbled. Bent on growth, the pair ignored warning signs and then sought to conceal them from public view. In response to criticism, Zuckerberg has been the public face of apology while Sandberg, working behind the scenes, has overseen an aggressive lobbying campaign to combat Facebook's critics, shift public anger toward rival companies and ward off damaging regulation. Cops 'Clear' Rape Cases but Don't Solve Them
ProPublica, Newsy, and Reveal
Law enforcement agencies across the country are using a legal strategy to make it appear as though they have solved a significant share of their rape cases when they simply have closed them. This investigation, based on data from more than 60 police agencies nationwide, found widespread use of "exceptional clearance," a classification police can use when they have enough evidence to make an arrest and know who and where the suspect is, but can't make an arrest for reasons outside their control - usually because a victim won't cooperate or a prosecutor declines to take the case forward. This article reports that police departments could leave such cases open or suspend them, but choose to close them because it makes them looks better. The Baltimore County Police Department, for example, reported to the public that it cleared 70 percent of its rape cases in 2016, nearly twice the national average. In reality, the department made arrests about 30 percent of the time, according to its internal data. The rest were "exceptionally cleared." How Did Larry Nassar Deceive So Many for So Long?
The Cut
It is commonplace to describe the 499 known victims of gymnastic doctor Larry Nassar as "breaking their silence." But over more than two decades of consistent abuse, women and girls reported to every proximate authority. They told their parents. They told gymnastics coaches, running coaches, softball coaches. They told Michigan State University police and Meridian Township police. They told physicians and psychologists. They told university administrators. They told, repeatedly, USA Gymnastics. They told one another. Athletes were interviewed, reports were written up, charges recommended. The story of Larry Nassar is not a story of silence. The story of Larry Nassar is that of an edifice of trust so resilient, so impermeable to commonsense, thatit endured for decades against the allegations of so many women. Maxine Waters' Daughter to Get $200K+ for Campaign Work
Washington Free Beacon
The daughter of Rep. Maxine Waters (D., Calif.) will collect more than $200,000 from her mother's campaign after its debts are paid off, for leading a lucrative slate mailer operation, Federal Election Commission filings show. Karen is in charge of slate mailers, or endorsement mailers, in which candidates pay Rep. Waters' campaign to appear on mailers that are sent to more than 200,000 residents in the South Central Los Angeles area, where Waters holds a good amount of clout. The mailers contain a sample ballot and quotes of support from Waters. Governor-elect Gavin Newsom and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris are among the politicians who have paid Waters' campaign tens of thousands of dollars to appear on the mailer. Such mailers are common in California but Waters appears to be the only federal level politician to run such an operation from her campaign committee. What Started California Fires? Experts Track the Blazes' Origins
New York Times
One huge fire in California's past was caused by a spark set off by a man with a hammer, working on a fence post in a field of dry vegetation. Another began at a backyard barbecue. A 2007 fire on Santa Catalina Island was ignited by workers cutting metal wires with a torch. As investigators try to determine what started the most devastating wildfire in California history, determined by a running toll of scores killed this week, the beginning premise is that human beings — through their mistakes, or their toys, tools and technologies — were probably behind it. But looking into the cause of a fire, which can take months of painstaking work, also means rolling back the clock to a moment and to a spot that, like most of the town of Paradise, has been reduced to ash. What was there at the moment of the fire's birth was probably destroyed by the fire itself, or at least profoundly altered. The Sorry State of the Freedom of Information Act
Reason
More people than ever want to know what the government is doing in their name and with their money. At the same time, despite recent legislation to strengthen the law, it's more difficult than ever to pry loose documents about the federal government. The number of FOIA requests denied or censored by the feds hit a record high in the first year of the Trump administration as the number of times the government said it would be illegal under other U.S. laws to release requested information nearly doubled to 63,749. Even forthcoming documents were on a slow train. The average time to receive a processed FOIA request from the State Department in fiscal year 2017 was 652 days, for example. The average time to receive a response to an administrative appeal was 503 days. Pipeline Vandals Are Reinventing Climate Activism
Wired
On Oct. 11, 2016, anetwork of climate change activists who call themselves the Valve Turners chokedoff oil pipelines in North Dakota, Montana,WashingtonState. Instead of fleeing, they allwaited for the police. Getting arrested was part of the plan. Across the country, the Valve Turners and their support teams had closed the valves in the hope of getting into court to present to a jury what is called a "necessity defense," arguing that their crime was an act of civil disobedience meant to prevent a greater harm—in this case, death by climate catastrophe. Idaho: EPA Set to Reopen Mine That Poisoned the Waters
Bloomberg
The Bunker Hill Mine is Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, was one of the richest sourcesof zinc, lead and silver in American history. It shut down in 1981 in part because it was a big polluter, turning the local watershed into a major Superfund site. In the decades since, Coeur d'Alene has become a booming retirement spot, especially for conservatives; it also part of the Trump's administration's efforts to revive traditional industries such as mining.Hence the tension between the needs of homeowners and industry. Behind the Sudden Global Backlash Against Plastic
Guardian
Until recently, plastic enjoyed a sort of anonymity in ubiquity: we were so thoroughly surrounded that we hardly noticed it. Today's cars and planes are, by volume, about 50 percent plastic. More clothing is made out of polyester and nylon, both plastics, than cotton or wool. Each year, the world produces around 340 million tons of the stuff, enough to fill every skyscraper in New York City. But in just the past few years an anti-plastic movement has created a wave of public anger demanding the elimination of plastic. This would require more than a packaging-free aisle at the supermarket and soggy cardboard drinking straws at the pub. Plastic is everywhere not because it was always better than the natural materials it replaced, but because it was lighter and cheaper - so much cheaper, in fact, that it was easier to justify throwing away. |
