RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations'

Picks of the Week

February 1 to February 7

Featured Investigation:

Model City: Portland’s Journey

From Symbol of Chic to Shabby

Mark Hemingway reports for RealClearInvestigations that Portland, Oregon has experienced a dramatic decline in recent years. Once a cultural phenomenon, it is now a symbol of urban crisis, as failed progressive policies on crime, drugs, and homelessness have diminished the city's economy and quality of life.

• Portland now has America's second-highest crime rate after Memphis, with one in 16 residents victimized annually. The city had 6,268 fire-related incidents in a recent year, with 40% caused by vagrancy.
• Measure 110, passed in 2020, decriminalized hard drugs including fentanyl and heroin. Only 1% of ticketed drug users sought treatment, while fatal opioid overdoses increased five-fold from 280 in 2019 to 1,394 in 2023.
• In 2020, Portland cut $15 million from law enforcement, eliminating 84 positions. The Soros-backed district attorney declined to prosecute over half of arrested rioters during months-long courthouse sieges.
• Portland has a 34.6% commercial office vacancy rate, Higher than any major city in the nation. The U.S. Bancorp building sold for $45 million in 2024 after selling for $372.5 million in 2015.
• Former Bend Mayor Jeff Eager documented potential large-scale welfare fraud, including a Medicaid provider receiving $2.3 million while operating from an alleged drug den linked to Venezuelan criminal syndicates.
• Nike permanently closed its Portland outlet store citing retail theft and safety issues. Nike founder Phil Knight donated $3 million to Republicans—the largest such donation in state history.
• Thirteen Eastern Oregon counties voted to leave Oregon and join Idaho to escape Portland's political dominance and failed policies.
• Grassroots activists gathered 250,000 signatures in 45 days to repeal Governor Tina Kotek's transportation tax increase, threatening her reelection prospects.

Featured Investigation:

Power On: What PA’s Battle Over Climate Change

Can Teach the Nation

In a move that may have broader implications for the rest of the nation, Oliver Lee Bateman reports for RealClearInvestigations on Pennsylvania’s decision to abandon its efforts to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap and trade carbon program that includes 11 mostly northeastern states. Embraced by climate change proponents and largely opposed by labor, the Keystone State’s six-year battle over joining the RGGI froze energy investment and cost hundreds of union jobs. Now, Bateman reports, Pennsylvania is poised to embark on an energy buildout as the state confronts surging electricity demand from data centers and AI.

• Boilermakers Local 154 lost 650 workers (30% of membership) between 2019-2024 as projects fled to Ohio and West Virginia. Now Homer City's coal-to-gas conversion will employ 400 boilermakers, while Local 154 added 106 apprentices and wants another hundred.
• From 2012-2019, Pennsylvania saw 15 fossil fuel projects worth $13 billion. Post-2019, investment dried up as developers avoided potential RGGI carbon costs that rose to $26.73 per ton. Major coal plants Keystone and Conemaugh are now withdrawing 2028 retirement notices.
• State modeling showed RGGI would reduce Pennsylvania emissions less than 0.2% over eight years. Generation would shift to dirtier coal plants in West Virginia (94% coal-powered) and Ohio, potentially increasing regional emissions despite Pennsylvania's on-paper decline.
• Trade unions joined business groups after failed green job promises. Boilermaker retraining for solar ignored that electrical workers control that jurisdiction. Workers showed up at hearings; environmental groups' objections carried less weight.
• A June 2025 heat wave saw 70% demand surge; coal plants doubled output to keep lights on. December capacity auction fell 6,623 megawatts short – equivalent to two major plants.

• Shawn Steffee of Boilermakers Local 154 in Pittsburgh put the controversy in more terms. "I was born and raised in southwestern Pennsylvania. My family, my grandchildren – everybody lives here. I want clean air and clean water. I also want a job. I think we can get both."

RCI Podcast

Watch the latest episode of the RealClearInvestigations, hosted by RCI Editor, J. Peder Zane, and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney, here. 

Waste of the Day

by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books

Contract Work Never Completed in CT, RCI

Universities Pile Up Billions in Research Overhead Costs, RCI

L.A. Funds Activists, Then Group Sues , RCI

Throwback Thursday- Flightless Airport Got Funding, RCI

Postal Service’s Record Payroll Leads to Losses, RCI

Trump 2.0 and the Beltway

RCI Video: Ben Weingarten Interviews SBA's Kelly Loeffler, RCI

Tulsi Gabbard Running 2020 Election Inquiry Apart from FBI, Guardian

Trump Filling Key NIH Roles with Loyalists, Ars Technica

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore Appears Caught in Yet Another Lie, Washington Free Beacon

Did Judge Blame Trump to Obscure Misconduct Probe?, NPR

Trump Ally Helps ICE Deport Palestinians to West Bank, Guardian

Trump vs. Canada, Atlantic

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

Anti-ICE Activists Get Millions From Soros-Backed Charity 

Daily Caller

From the Annals of Your Tax Dollars at Work, this article reports that sixteen activist groups mobilizing against immigration agents in Minnesota have one thing in common: financial support from a nonprofit backed by the Soros family’s Open Society Foundations.

The Minneapolis-based Headwaters Foundation for Justice awarded $3,321,013 in funds and non-cash assistance since 2014 to groups that now seek to monitor Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or protest the agency, according to a Daily Caller News Foundation analysis of tax filings, activists’ websites and their social media posts. One related protest at the Minneapolis-St. Paul (MSP) airport led to around 100 arrests on Jan. 23. … Several activist groups that coordinated “ICE Out” marches on Jan. 23 were funded by the Headwaters Foundation: Mizna, Unidos MN, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Minnesota, Communities Organizing Latine Power and Action (COPAL), Centro de Trabajadores Unidos en la Lucha (CTUL), Jewish Community Action, Voices for Racial Justice, Minnesota Freedom Fund and the LGBTQ groups OutFront Minnesota and Gender Justice.

In a separate article, Fox News reports that the head of the Minneapolis teachers union said that elected officials are involved in anti-ICE agitation in the city. "The notion that people that are actively engaged in ICE watch, in being vigilant in protecting our neighbors, in Signal chat groups, running plates, in their cars doing patrols – that somehow we're ashamed of that activity, that somehow you can call our bosses and show our faces and then we would be shunned by our community..." Marcia Howard told Al Jazeera in an interview that aired last week. "… Our bosses are in the Signal chats with us. Our elected officials are in the chats with us."

Alex Pretti Was Part of a Growing Gun Culture in Minneapolis 

Wall Street Journal

In addition to his cell phone, Alex Pretti brought a legally registered 9mm handgun with him as he videotaped ICE agents arresting illegal immigrants in Minneapolis. Although it appears that gun, which he never brandished, may have contributed to his shooting by ICE, the circumstances of his death are still not clear. This article reports that Pretti, a progressive ICU nurse who loved the outdoors, was part of a growing wave of liberal gun owners.

Gun ownership soared in Hennepin County, which includes Minneapolis, after the unrest surrounding the 2020 murder of George Floyd and during the pandemic crime wave that followed. Applications for permits to carry guns, which in Minnesota allows one to carry a gun openly or concealed, nearly tripled. Newcomers of all kinds bought guns. … Pretti’s status as a gun owner, his opposition to Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics and his support of Democratic causes have scrambled familiar political alignments … After Pretti’s shooting, the Liberal Gun Club, which has its own Minnesota chapter, released a statement saying “the right to keep and bear arms is fundamental” and calling for a thorough investigation. The Minnesota chapter of the Socialist Rifle Association—the chapter is primarily based in the Twin Cities – encouraged its members to reach out to local “ICE watch groups” after the Jan. 7 shooting of Renee Good by an ICE agent.

In a separate article, CNN reports that several left-leaning gun advocacy groups say they can hardly keep up with the surging demand for firearms training. “While Americans tend to think of gun owners as leaning more Republican and male, already more women, gay people and people of color have taken up arms in recent years, particularly after 2020.”

DHS Targeting Americans with Secretive Legal Weapon 

Washington Post

This article reports that the Trump administration is making increasing use of administrative subpoenas – a powerful legal tool that, unlike the ones people are most familiar with, federal agencies can issue without an order from a judge or grand jury – to “strangle free speech.”

In March, Homeland Security issued two administrative subpoenas to Columbia University for information on a student it sought to deport after she took part in pro-Palestinian protests. In July, the agency demanded broad employment records from Harvard University with what the school’s attorneys described as “unprecedented administrative subpoenas.” In September, Homeland Security used one to try to identify Instagram users who posted about ICE raids in Los Angeles. Last month, the agency used another to demand detailed personal information about some 7,000 workers in a Minnesota health system whose staff had protested Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s intrusion into one of its hospitals.

This article focuses on the case of a man, identified as Jon, who sent an email to the lead prosecutor in a case seeking to deport an Afghan refugee, identified as H. “Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” he wrote. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise (sic) the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.” Five hours and one minute later, Jon was watching TV with his wife when an email popped up in his inbox. He noticed it on his phone. “Google,” the message read, “has received legal process from a Law Enforcement authority compelling the release of information related to your Google Account.”

Rep. Stacey Plaskett Briefed 'Friend' Epstein on Legislative Work 

Washington Free Beacon

Last May, Lee Fang reported for RealClearInvestigations that the Virgin Islands government appears to have enabled and protected Jeffrey Epstein, who owned a private island there. Customs agents at the airport, for example, reported seeing Epstein leave his plane with girls between the ages of 11 and 17, yet there is no record that anyone checked on their safety. Fang reported Epstein and his aides funded Delegate Stacey Plaskett’s congressional campaigns and met with her to discuss further donations. She later became the sole defendant in a RICO case filed by Epstein victims, accusing USVI officials of aiding the trafficking operation. The new set of Epstein files released by the Department of Justice this week, underscores the depth of Plaskett’s relation with Epstein. The Washington Free Beacon reports:

U.S. Virgin Islands delegate Stacey Plaskett (D.) called Jeffrey Epstein her "friend" in newly released text messages and provided the sex offender with exclusive non-public details about her legislative work, directly contradicting Plaskett's claims about her relationship with Epstein. … In an exchange on Feb. 27, 2018, Plaskett informed Epstein that the IRS had extended a tax break for residents of the Virgin Islands after hurricanes hit the territory. "You're the first person I told," Plaskett confided to Epstein, who pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor for sex. "Don't say anything yet," she added, telling Epstein she was going to issue a press release announcing the IRS decision. "Great work," said Epstein, who reportedly saved more than $300 million in taxes through various shell companies in the Virgin Islands, a popular tax haven for the rich and powerful.

The emails appear to contradict Plaskett’s efforts to distance herself from Epstein after House Republicans introduced a censure resolution against her last year. "I've been a prosecutor for many years, and there are a lot of people who have information that are not your friends that you use to get information from to get at the truth,” she told CNN in November in November.

In a separate article, Wired reported on the tech titans – including Reid Hoffman, Bill Gates, Peter Thiel and Elon Musk – whose names appear in the Epstein files, in some cases thousands of times.

YouTubers Weaponized FOIA to Embarrass Young Women 

New York Magazine

Police body cam footage has become a creepy, misogynistic industry on YouTube, where arrest videos of young, usually intoxicated women rack up views. This article reports that there are now more than 150 YouTube channels devoted to the unredacted arrests of everyday people. The most popular uploads are the most salacious and humiliating: “When Suspects Try to FLIRT With Cops” boasts 7.9 million views; “Hooters Waitress Tells Cop ‘I Can Take It All Off’” claims 2.4 million; and “Bodycam: Exotic Dancer Tries to Seduce Cop, Throws ‘Drunk’ Tantrum, and Pees Herself in Squad Car” has been viewed 3.4 million times.

The way it tends to go, Andrew Caggiano, president of the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police, tells me, is that first someone files an Open Public Records Act request for every DUI in his township. Then, they filter the list to exclude male names, and, finally, they request arrest footage for the rest. In a few months’ time, the videos pop up: young women slurring their words, stumbling around during their arrests. Caggiano is fairly sickened by the whole thing. “If one of my daughters made the mistake and got arrested, she goes to court, she takes responsibility, and pays her price, that should be it,” he says. “Not that this gets blasted all over the internet. You’re seeing people at their worst time. Why should that follow them for the rest of their lives?”

In a chilling exchange, New York magazine reports that it asked one video uploader why the majority of his videos featured women, when some 80 percent of DUIs are committed by men. “I cannot control what others want to watch,” he replied, “or what the algorithm ultimately chooses to promote.” Asked whether he was concerned that his videos might haunt their subjects long after posting, particularly in the era of AI facial-recognition tools, he said “basic information regarding who got arrested” has always been public, comparing his videos to police blotters, long a gossipy feature of local papers.