RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
Sept. 16 to Sept. 22

Featured Investigation

Affirmative action isn’t just for women and minorities any more – the federal government is also making businesses hire more men and whites. 

As Max Diamond reports for RealClearInvestigations, the Labor Department’s Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs – the agency holding power over all $500 billion in federal contracts – requires that the employee rolls of all federal contractors look like the demographic mix of their surrounding communities. 

For example, if 10 percent of the employees in a certain division are women, or men, or African-Americans or whites, but population statistics say twice that many women, or men, or African-Americans or whites are available to do the job, then the company can risk losing its government contract if it doesn’t try to hire more of the underrepresented group to meet the higher percentage.

Diamond reports:

• The office directed a Tennessee supplier of military clothing to hire 56 more men to run its sewing machines. 
• The office also directed a Texas landscaping company to make offers to 21 white men as well as 9 women and 15 African-Americans. 
• Between 2014 and 2018, the agency completed over 9,800 investigations based on complaints and evaluations. In 2017, such investigations resulted in over $23.9 million in compensation for victims of discrimination, according to the office’s congressional budget justification.  

Diamond also reports that complying with the regulations is so complex that many companies hire consultants to help them develop “affirmative action plans” that determine which racial or gender groups they need to recruit.

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Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

Suppressed Blasey Ford Yearbooks: Fast Times at Holton-Arms
RealClearInvestigations 

During fiery Senate hearings on Thursday, Democrats tried to use Brett Kavanaugh’s high school yearbook to connect the Supreme Court nominee to a culture of toxic masculinity. But Republicans did not mine the yearbooks of Kavanaugh’s chief accuser, Christine Blasey Ford. As Paul Sperry reports, the yearbooks from the elite, all-girl Holton-Arms School show that she too was schooled in an atmosphere of heavy drinking and sexual conquests in the early 1980s.

Sperry notes:  

• The annuals objectified men and even talked about hiring male strippers, including one in a “gold G-string," for sweet sixteen parties. They also featured the young Holton coeds dressed as Playboy bunnies and posing seductively atop desks, school-uniform skirts hiked up. 
• One section, “While the Parents Were Out,” talked about partying with boys at area house parties where kids got so drunk they “ruined" their parents' “heirloom Persian rugs” with vomit. 
  
• “The tenth grade taught us how to party,” the girls bragged in another section. And, “Loss of consciousness is often an integral part of the party scene.” 
• A caption on another page talked about girls having “their choice of men” at the neighboring boys schools, including Georgetown Prep: “No longer confining ourselves to the walls of Landon and Prep, we plunged into the waters of St. John and Gonzaga with much success."

Europe's Diesel Car Emissions Are Way Over Lab-Test Levels 
MIT 
In September 2015, the German automaker Volkswagen was found to have illegally cheated federal emissions tests in the United States. Now a new MIT study reports that in Europe, 10 major auto manufacturers produced diesel cars, sold between 2000 and 2015, that generate up to 16 times more emissions on the road than in regulatory tests. The researchers predict these excess emissions will cause some 2,700 premature deaths per year across Europe.

As a Saudi Prince Rose, Bin Laden Business Empire Crumbled 
Reuters 
Before – and after – its name became synonymous with terror, the Bin Laden family grew rich as the Saudi royal family’s favored building contractor. But King Abdullah’s death in January 2015 triggered a swift fall from royal grace. Three Bin Laden brothers, senior executives in the family firm, were among more than 200 businessmen, royals and officials detained in November 2017 in an anti-corruption drive ordered by Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The state gained effective control of the company in April 2018. 

Dangerous, Daredevil World of Snagging Instagram 'Likes' 
Los Angeles Times 
Inexperienced hikers' obsession with snaring “likes” and shares on social media has led to a big rise in rescues of grandstanding idiots by first responders. Los Angeles County’s search and rescue teams conducted 681 missions in 2017, the largest number in five years. It’s a 38 percent increase from the 491 rescues they did in 2013. 

Dispatcher Shortages Slow 911 Responses Nationwide 
USA Today 
When Americans dial 911 in an emergency, they expect a fast response and a reassuring voice at the other end of the line.  But 911 centers across the country are struggling to hire enough operators, slowing the time it takes to answer calls. On rare occasions, the delays have led to injury and even death. Shortages have become more acute over the past year or two as labor markets have tightened with unemployment under 4 percent.

Tampa, the Most Dangerous Place to Bicycle in U.S. 
Wall Street Journal 
As subsidized bike-sharing programs have taken off, so has the number of bike-related deaths. The number of cyclists killed in motor-vehicle crashes nationwide hit 840 in 2016 – the most since 1991 and a 35% jump from 2010. A range of likely reasons explains the rise in deaths, including more overall vehicle traffic; driver distractions, especially cell phones; and alcohol use, both by drivers (in 12% of crashes) and cyclists (22% of fatally injured cyclists). Nowhere is this problem more evident than in Florida.

How Puerto Rico Became Newest Tax Haven for the Super-Rich 
GQ 
Mark Gold, who made a fortune helping Floridians contest traffic tickets, was looking for a tax haven. The usual suspects – Andorra, Lichtenstein and Monaco – were enticing, but they would have required him to give up his U.S. passport. Then he discovered Puerto Rico, the only place on U.S. soil where personal income from capital gains, interest, and dividends are untaxed. Since 2012, more than 1,500 mainlanders have established residency on the island.

Colleges Teaching Toxic Masculinity 101
Daily Beast 
The perceived problem of “toxic masculinity” is making the move from academic conferences to the classroom, and even the football field. At Brown University, the Masculinity 101 program includes football team discussions led by the starting running back. That probably has nothing to do with Brown's football squad being 0-2 as of last weekend.