RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations'

Picks of the Week

November 9 to November 15

Featured Investigation:

The Rise of Latino America

Despite concerns about immigration enforcement, Latinos remain remarkably optimistic about their future in America. Drawing on their sweeping report published by the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas, Joel Kotkin & Jennifer Hernandez write for RealClearInvestigations about how the nation’s largest minority group—now 20% of the U.S. population—is transforming America's demographic, economic, and political landscape. Key findings include:

• Latinos grew from 5% of the U.S. population in 1970 to 20% in 2023, accounting for 56% of population growth over the last decade. By 2060, they will drive nearly all net population growth in America.
• U.S. Latino GDP reached $3.7 trillion in 2022—the world's fifth-largest economy—growing at 4.6% annually and outpacing national averages. Latino-owned businesses are the fastest-growing, with $620 billion in sales.
• Latino populations are spreading beyond the Southwest to the Midwest and Southeast. New "boomtowns" include Charlotte, Pittsburgh, and Columbus. By 2040, one in three Nashville residents will be Latino.
• Despite challenges, 75% believe they can achieve homeownership and the American Dream. An overwhelming 94% cite hard work as key to success. Latinos show higher patriotism rates and lead growth in military and police service.
• While college enrollment surged 372% since 1990, only 16% earn bachelor's degrees versus 43% of whites. California Latino students—56% of public school enrollment—show particularly poor proficiency rates.
• Latino labor force participation (67.3%) significantly exceeds the national rate (62.7%). They constitute the majority of manufacturing workers in Texas and will form the majority of America's working class by 2032.
• Progressive policies on housing, education, and public safety conflict with Latino priorities. Some 85% support school choice, and 75% view recent immigration surges as problematic.

Waste of the Day

by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books

Congressional Staffer Has 190-Mile Commute, RCI

NYC Principal Gives Handouts to Friends, RCI

Utah State University Goes On Spending Spree, RCI

Throwback Thursday - Drunk on Wine Funds, RCI

Portland Can’t Afford its Parks, RCI

Trump 2.0 and the Beltway

The 9 Most Shocking Revelations in the Jeffrey Epstein Docs, Politico

Epstein's Secret Role in Middle East Diplomacy, Reason

Why Trump Pardoned Guiliani and Others Tied to 2020, Federalist

How An Adam Schiff Indictment Could Shake the Senate, Politico

MAGA-Aligned Media Emerge as New Mainstream, Reuters

Trump Seeks Voting Changes As Midterms Loom, Guardian

Ties Revealed Between U.S. Spy Agencies and Wuhan Lab, Daily Caller

Inside CIA’s Secret Mission to Sabotage Afghanistan’s Opium, Washington Post

The Story of Matt Gaetz's 17-Year-Old Accuser, New York Times

Is ‘Trump Derangement Syndrome’ Real?, Wall Street Journal

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

Leaked U.S. Documents Paint Grim Picture of Gaza Peace 

Politico

This article reports that a private documents and PowerPoint presentation obtained by Politico reflect grave concerns among some Trump administration officials that the Gaza peace deal between Israel and Hamas could break down because of the difficulty implementing many of its core provisions.

The presentation surfaces a particular concern about whether a so-called International Stabilization Force — a multinational security initiative meant to keep the peace in Gaza — can really be deployed. One slide shows an arrow with a question mark on it linking the first and second phases of the U.S.-brokered peace plan, underscoring the uncertainty about its prospects. … The biggest hurdles after two years of war are vast. In addition to setting up the International Stabilization Force, they also include managing Israeli hesitation to withdraw from Gaza as Hamas continues to flex its muscles, and properly staffing key institutions, such as the “Board of Peace,” that would oversee the peace plan.

This article reports that the administration challenges include the Palestinian Authority’s desire to shape events in Gaza despite Israel’s opposition; and questions about allies’ commitment to providing leadership and resources. “We’ve got to deal with the challenges and make sure they don’t unravel this,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last month. “So I’m not worried about it, but we’re aware that these are challenges that we have to confront. But yeah, I mean, it’s not — if this was easy, it would have been done 30 years ago,” he said.

In a separate article, the Washington Free Beacon reports that “Iran has spent the past several months quietly smuggling advanced arms to a growing number of terrorist proxies in the West Bank, ramping up its efforts to transform the territory into a Gaza-style militant hub that can replicate Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attacks since the Israel-Hamas ceasefire began a month ago, according to Israeli intelligence centers and regional analysts.”

Huge Surge in China’s Missile Production Sites 

CNN

China has undertaken a massive expansion of sites linked to missile production since 2020, bolstering its ability to potentially deter the US military and assert its dominance in the region, a new CNN analysis of satellite images, maps and government notices reveals.

More than 60% of 136 facilities connected to missile production or the Chinese military’s rocket force, which controls China’s nuclear arsenal, showed signs of expansion in satellite images. The sites, which include factories as well as research and testing centers, have expanded by more than 21 million square feet (over 2 million square meters) of constructed floor space between early 2020 and late 2025. New towers, bunkers and berms consistent with weapons development have cropped up in satellite imagery of these growing sites. In some cases, missile parts can even be seen in the images. … Weapons experts say that the projectiles produced by expanded facilities examined by CNN would be a key component of any possible attempted Chinese military takeover of Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as part of its territory.

This article reports that China is also growing its stockpile of nuclear weapon stockpile faster than any other nation, increasing its arsenal by about 100 new warheads annually since 2023.

DOJ Struggles as Thousands Exit - and Few Are Replaced 

Washington Post

This article reports that the Department of Justice is struggling to fill the thousands of vacancies that have arisen since Trump took office.

Last year, roughly 10,000 attorneys worked across the Justice Department and its components, including the FBI. Justice Connection, an advocacy group that has been tracking departures, estimates that around 5,500 people – not all of them attorneys – have quit the department, been fired or taken a buyout offered by the Trump administration. … The department’s struggle to fill vacancies reflects a dramatic shift for a law enforcement agency that has long attracted high-performing alumni from the nation’s top-ranked law schools and law firms. Multiple people familiar with the student bodies at top-ranked law schools and the department’s hiring process said the share of recent graduates across the political spectrum who are applying for jobs at the Justice Department has plummeted. … Attorneys in divisions that have seen significant departures are stretched thin, unable to keep up with incoming cases or complaints, according to people interviewed for this article. The vast majority of the 600 employees in the Civil Rights Division, for example, have left. The division has refilled a dozen or so of those career positions, despite its chief, Harmeet K. Dhillon, publicly touting the flood of applications she has been receiving.

While noting the challenges these vacancies are posing to law enforcement, this article reports that filling them could allow the Trump administration to dramatically reshape the DOJ’s career workforce. People familiar with the hiring process said that those applying now tend to be more conservative and align ideologically with the president.

Billions in Spending Over Unproven Cancer Drugs 

Bloomberg

This article reports that pharmaceutical giants are pouring billions into developing treatments that simply link old drugs together – with little proof they can help patients live longer. The drugs aren’t based on a breakthrough discovery. Instead, these “bispecifics” combine versions of existing medicines into a single drug.

Pharma companies have collectively announced more than $6 billion in deals in the past year – close to the entire annual budget of the National Cancer Institute – for the dual-acting drugs. They’re set to shell out even more money on clinical trials for thousands of patients. The frenzy … has morphed into a form of pharma FOMO that reveals as much about the business of oncology as the science. Even incremental advances on therapies can mean enormous profits, given the high prices commanded by cancer treatments. At best, some experts say, the new type of drugs would offer modest improvement on what’s currently available. At worst, they could fail outright, amounting to an enormous waste of time and money that could be better spent elsewhere.

This article reports that “most of the bispecifics were invented by companies in China, where clinical trials are cheaper and faster, and represent a major step in the country’s ambitions to become a biotech powerhouse. But U.S. regulators want to see that drugs work in patients outside of China, and a recent late-stage study that included North American patients yielded mixed results.”

California Graduation Rates Rise Faster Than Learning 

Los Angeles Times

California’s most recent high school graduation rate of 87.5% is the best the state has achieved since it launched its “accountability dashboard” in 2017. But, this article reports, even as state leaders are congratulating themselves, similar achievement levels were not seen in other measures of student learning.

The state's complex barometer of college and career readiness rated 51.7% of graduates as meeting the standard. On the plus side, that number was higher than last year's.

In other words, while the diploma itself might be presumed to signal that a student is ready for either college or a career, the data suggest otherwise: Nine in 10 students received a diploma in the 2024-25 school year, but only about half of the grads were deemed ready for college or a career. … The latest data echo a takeaway from the early October release of state test scores: incremental improvement overall and strong improvement in some places, coupled with indications that, in important ways, students have yet to catch up to pre-pandemic levels. Statewide, 48.8% of students scored advanced or proficient in English and 37.3% in math.

This article reports that California’s struggles reflect broader societal problems. The percentage of U.S. adults with only minimal reading skills increased from 19% in 2017 to 28% in 2023. For young adults age 16 to 24, the percentage of those who struggle to read increased from 16% to 25% during the same period.