RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
RealClearInvestigations' Picks of the Week
Jan. 6 to Jan. 12
Featured Investigation: Immigrant Truancy
Each week dozens of students and their parents are called to appear in court in Jersey City because the kids have missed so much school. This is one small snapshot of the truancy problem in America, where one in seven students are deemed chronically absent.
And, as Helen Stapinski reports for RealClearInvestigations, this problem is especially acute among the children of immigrants – both documented and undocumented. But because of the highly charged atmosphere surrounding immigration, she reports, hardly anyone wants to talk about the problem.
- A soon-to-be-published study involving 5.1 million students across Texas found Latino migrant students have up to a 27 percent higher incidence rate of absenteeism and 82 percent higher odds of being chronically absent than the Latino non-migrant student population.
- A UNESCO report released in November found children of undocumented parents had a much higher rate of internalizing problems like depression, anxiety, withdrawal, low self-esteem, or a need for attention – all of which were linked to high dropout rates and poor school performance.
- Fear of deportation is having a big impact on attendance.
- Gang-related truancy is also an issue in many communities.
In addition to the harm to children, Stapinski reports, absenteeism places even greater strains on overburdened school systems.
In response to the truancy crisis, some states like New Jersey and Texas have been pivoting from treating truancy as a crime to treating it with intervention. John Ross, attendance supervisor for Jersey City’s public schools, told Stapinski:
“There’s still not enough time in the day to handle the load. Issuing a summons is the last tool in our toolbox. We’re working more on prevention. But you still have the 15-year-old where the parents do all they can do. They bring them to the front door of the school and they go out the back. Some kids are not listening.”
The Trump Investigations: Top Articles
Departure of DOJ's Embattled Rosenstein Called Imminent, ABC News
Specific 2016 Russian Vote Targeting Doesn't Seem to Exist, Washington Post
Russian Lawyer Linked to Fusion Charged With Obstruction, Daily Caller
Manafort Poll Tipoff to Russian Opertive Alleged, New York Magazine
Excerpt: Marla, Anti-Semitism, and the Battle for Mar-a-Lago, Vanity Fair
How a TV Producer Resurrected Donald Trump, New Yorker
Russian Firm Kaspersky Helped Catch Alleged NSA Data Thief, Politico
Hollywood Bit Player Had Walk-On Role in Manafort Loan, Bloomberg
Other Noteworthy Articles and Series
2d Case of Pro-Democrat Online Fakery in Alabama Vote
New York Times
A second stealth effort has been discovered in which progressive Democrats in Alabama appropriated Russian-style misinformation techniques in their effort to defeat Republican Roy Moore's run for the Senate. The “Dry Alabama” Facebook page, illustrated with stark images of car wrecks and videos of families ruined by drink, had a blunt message likely to turn off voters: Alcohol is the devil’s work, and the state should ban it entirely. Along with a companion Twitter feed, the Facebook page appeared to be the work of Baptist teetotalers likely to support the Bible-avowing Moore. The Daily Caller reported that two Obama-era officials were instrumental in the effort.
Strangers May Have Watched Your Amazon Security Cam Videos
The Intercept
Is privacy the cost of safety? That’s the question raised in this article, which says Amazon’s Ring security cameras provided its Ukraine-based research and development team virtually unfettered access to a folder on Amazon’s S3 cloud storage service. It contained every video created by every Ring camera around the world. This would amount to an enormous list of highly sensitive files that could be easily browsed and viewed. The source of the revelation said: “If [someone] knew a reporter or competitor’s email address, [they] could view all their cameras.” At the time the Ukrainian access was provided, the video files were left unencrypted, the source said, because of Ring leadership’s “sense that encryption would make the company less valuable,” owing to the expense of implementing encryption and lost revenue opportunities due to restricted access.
Chicago Seizes, Sells Ticketed Cars, Leaves Drivers With Debt
WBEZ
In 2017 alone, Chicago booted more than 67,000 vehicles for unpaid tickets. In about a third of those cases, the driver couldn’t afford to remove the boot, and the vehicle was later towed to a city impound lot. Of those 20,000 impounded cars, more than 8,000 were sold off, with the owners receiving none of the sale proceeds. Instead, the city and its towing contractor pocketed millions of dollars, while residents were left with ticket debt. All told, there have been nearly 50,000 of these sales since 2011. The vast majority of cars caught in these tow-and-sell operations hail from low-income and minority communities on Chicago’s West and South Sides.
How Cities Make Money by Fining the Poor
New York Times
Politicians who don’t want to take the hit for raising taxes are increasing fines and fees to raise revenues. Many counties around the country engage in civil forfeiture, the seizure of vehicles and cash from people suspected (but not necessarily proven in court) of having broken the law. At a time when the Federal Reserve Board estimates that 40 percent of Americans don’t have enough money in their bank accounts to cover an emergency expense of $400, these levies are transformed into jail sentences for many poor people. By threatening a defendant with incarceration, a judge is often able to extract cash from a person’s family that might otherwise be difficult to touch. One expert explained: “A typical creditor can’t put you in a steel cage if you can’t come up with the money.”
After Parkland, Hundreds of Districts Quietly Arm Teachers, Staff
Vice News
Eleven months after a mass shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, left 17 people dead, at least 215 school districts across the U.S. have quietly adopted new policies to arm teachers or school staff. Nationwide, at least 466 districts now allow school staff to be armed, encompassing hundreds of thousands of students of all ages. School districts are racing to arm staff even as there’s no definitive evidence that arming them saves lives.
Gun Use Surges in Europe, Where Firearms Are Rare
Wall Street Journal
Spurred by increases in terrorist incidents and immigration, gun ownership is rising in Europe, where strict laws still make owning firearms difficult. Europe’s unregistered weapons outnumbered legal ones in 2017, 44.5 million to 34.2 million, according to the Small Arms Survey. Many illegal weapons come from onetime war zones, such as countries of the former Yugoslavia. Others are purchased online, including from vendors in the U.S. “Europe represents the largest market for arms trade on the dark web, generating revenues that are around five times higher than the U.S.,” concluded a recent Rand Corporation report. Permits for less lethal air-powered guns roughly doubled in the three years through the end of 2017, to 557,560, according to the registry. The air guns resemble real guns and shoot tear gas or loud blanks to scare away potential attackers.
Smugglers' Profits Grow as Migrants Despair at U.S. Border
New York Times
The Trump administration has adopted a number of strategies over the last two years to deter migrants and persuade them to turn around — or not to come at all. In response, many migrants are weighing the costs and dangers of a faster option: hiring a smuggler, at an increasingly costly rate, to sneak them into the United States. “I’m scared to go to the border crossing, because they will deport me,” said a Guatemalan looking to cross from Mexico. “I’m stuck here until my family in the United States can save enough money to pay for a smuggler.”
We Don't Know How Risky Pot Is
New Yorker
When it comes to marijuana, we really don’t know very much about its almost certain health risks or its alleged health benefits. Malcolm Gladwell says a 68-page National Academy of Medicine report, which launches his article, is a study in caveats:
Is it good for epilepsy? "Insufficient evidence." Tourette’s syndrome? Limited evidence. A.L.S., Huntington’s, and Parkinson’s? Insufficient evidence. Irritable-bowel syndrome? Insufficient evidence. Dementia and glaucoma? Probably not. Anxiety? Maybe. Depression? Probably. Does the use of cannabis increase the likelihood of fatal car accidents? Yes. By how much? Unclear. Does it affect motivation and cognition? Hard to say, but probably. Does it affect employment prospects? Probably. Will it impair academic achievement? Limited evidence. This goes on for pages.
The World's Most Notorious and Daring Falcon Egg Smuggler
Outside
On May 3, 2010, a balding, middle-aged passenger at Birmingham Airport in England was found with surgical tape wound around his abdomen. The tape encased three woolen socks containing a total of 14 smallish eggs ranging in color from brick red to marbled brown. The man claimed they were duck eggs and told police his physiotherapist had recommended that he wear the eggs pressed against his belly to force him to keep his muscles taut and strengthen his lower back. They were, in fact, the eggs of a protected species – the peregrine falcon. This article tells the story of the man, Jeffrey Lendrum, who for decades helicoptered up and rappelled down to aeries on cliff faces from Patagonia to Quebec, snatching unhatched raptors and selling them, investigators believe, to wealthy Middle Eastern falconers. This week in London he goes on trial for the fourth time.
