RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations'

Picks of the Week

March 1 to March 7

Featured Investigation:

Transparency: Suing Schools That

Hide Trans Kids’ Identities From Parents

John Murawski reports for RealClearInvestigations on the intensifying national debate over whether public schools can secretly support students' gender transitions without notifying parents. Roughly 40 lawsuits have been filed challenging these policies, several of which have reached the U.S. Supreme Court. Courts remain divided, states are passing competing legislation, and the Trump administration has launched federal investigations into school districts across the country.

• Parents in affected school district complain that schools are hiding children's gender transitions – including new names, pronouns, and even chest binders – without their knowledge. Schools and LGBTQ advocates argue student confidentiality is necessary to protect vulnerable youth from potential abuse or rejection at home.
• An estimated 6,000 public schools in over 1,200 districts have authorized concealing student gender transitions from parents. California alone reported at least 300 students placed on secret "Gender Support Plans" in one school year.
• The Supreme Court recently blocked California's policy preventing teachers from notifying parents about student gender identities, ruling 6-3 that parents are likely to prevail as the case proceeds through lower courts. Justice Samuel Alito has written that school "Gender Support Plans" raise serious constitutional concerns.
• Clinical psychologist Erica Anderson, herself transgender and a former board member of World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), warns that schools are hiding transitions that may be rooted in autism, trauma, or other issues – preventing parents from seeking proper professional evaluation for their children.
• Florida and at least 12 other states have enacted parental notification laws. California has moved in the opposite direction, prohibiting teachers from disclosing students' gender identities to parents, a policy now under federal investigation.
• In some cases, like that of Maine mother Amber Lavigne, children eventually reverted to their birth identity — suggesting that early intervention and family involvement may play a meaningful role.

Featured Investigation:

Can Billionaire Tax Cure California’s Healthcare Woes?

Ana Kasparian reports for RealClearInvestigations that California’s scandal-ridden Medi-Cal program is under mounting scrutiny as lawmakers pitch a first-in-the-nation wealth tax as a response to federal Medicaid cuts. Critics argue that the projected revenue – which would far exceed estimated shortfalls – will do nothing to address massive fraud and chronic mismanagement in the $200 billion program.

• The proposed “2026 Billionaire Tax Act” would impose a one-time 5% tax on billionaires’ net worth, potentially raising $100 billion over five years. Ninety percent would fund Medi-Cal; the rest would support education and food assistance. Supporters, including Rep. Ro Khanna, say it’s needed to counter federal cuts. Gov. Gavin Newsom warns it could drive wealthy residents out of state.
• California faces an $18 billion shortfall for 2026–27. Federal Medicaid reductions could cost the state billions annually, with estimates of up to $30 billion in lost funding and coverage risks for millions.
• Since 2007, state auditors have labeled the Department of Health Care Services “high risk.” Reports cite billions in questionable eligibility payments and ongoing oversight failures. A federal audit also alleges more than $1 billion in improper reimbursements tied to coverage for undocumented migrants—an allegation the state denies.
• Hospice and in-home supportive services have been magnets for fraud. Los Angeles County saw a 1,500% increase in hospice agencies from 2010–2022, with lax licensing and minimal inspections. Criminal prosecutions have recovered only a fraction of suspected losses.
• Medi-Cal expanded asset eligibility limits and extended full coverage to undocumented residents, driving enrollment and costs far beyond projections. Coverage for noncitizens alone costs about $9.5 billion annually. Facing deficits, lawmakers have partially rolled back expansions.
• Critics argue that without structural reform, new tax revenue may not resolve systemic waste undermining Medi-Cal’s long-term stability.

RCI Podcast

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with RCI contributor John Murawski about his article detailing the backlash against policies adopted by thousands of public schools that aim to conceal the gender identity of trans students from their parents.

Waste of the Day

by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books

Military Spent Record Amount on King Crab, Lobster Tail, RCI

Emergency Fund for Porta-Potties, Donors, RCI

Earmarks Final Tally Nears $16 Billion, RCI

Throwback Thursday - Fees For Empty Bank Accounts, RCI

DEI Contractors Still in Military’s Schools, RCI

Trump 2.0 and the Beltway

Few Israeli Critics of Iran Strike, Guardian

Pete Buttigieg in the Wilderness, Atlantic

Less Than Meets the Eye in DHS' Deportation Figures, Daily Caller

NY: Candidate Jack Schlossberg Had No 'Earned Income' in 2025 , WFB

Why Top Animal Rights Group Is Praising Trump, Politico

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

Iran Leans on Cheap Drones to Penetrate U.S. Defenses 

NBC News

The military action in Iran underscores how Russia’s war on Ukraine has transformed the battlefield through the heavy use of drones. Although the U.S. and Israel have vastly degraded Iran’s traditional means of war – including its navy and missile launchers – it remains a lethal threat because of its reported vast quantities of Shahed drones, which are cheap and easy to produce and relatively expensive to shoot down.

The U.S. has not released data on the munitions it faced and shot down. Information from the United Arab Emirates’ Defense Ministry shows that Iran has launched hundreds of Shahed drones at the Gulf state, of which just over 90% have been intercepted. Those interceptions have come at a high cost. The U.S. and its allies generally deploy aircraft or the Patriot air defense system to protect from bombardment, but while the price of one Shahed is estimated to be $30,000 to $50,000, one interceptor can cost 10 times that or more while exhausting already dwindling stockpiles.

This article reports that Iran has always counted on facing a superior military, which is one reason it has pushed it to explore asymmetric warfare, in which smaller or technologically inferior forces look for ways to frustrate or exhaust the enemy.

In a separate article, CNN reports that tech wizardry was instrumental in the targeted attack that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader. Tehran traffic cameras hacked years ago were one part of a complex system that allowed Israel to map the city in detail, establish patterns of movement and build an intricate picture of what was happening inside an enemy capital through what one Israeli source called an AI-powered “target production machine.” Combining that ability with human intelligence has enabled Israel to assassinate scores of Iran’s nuclear scientists and many of its top military and political leaders.

China Is a Paper Dragon 

Tablet

One of the more surprising aspects of the Iran conflict – and of the capture of Venezuelan dictator Nicholas Maduro – has been China’s unwillingness to rise in defense of its allies. While there may be smart reasons for this lack of response, including concerns over sparking a global war, this article reports that it may also reflect Chinese weakness.

The narrative of Chinese strategic triumph rests less on structural analysis than on selective observation and wishful extrapolation. … Commentators continue to cherry-pick favorable indicators while ignoring structural constraints, presenting short-term performance as long-term trajectory. … the [Chinese] households facing stagnant income growth, the private entrepreneurs navigating regulatory unpredictability, the local governments struggling with fiscal strain – experience a very different economy. … This dynamic raises a historical echo. China’s developmental trajectory increasingly resembles that of the Soviet Union, which achieved extraordinary technological milestones – its celebrated “Sputnik moments” – while struggling to fulfill the basic needs of the people.

In a separate article, the Atlantic reports that after the toppling of leaders in Venezuela and Iran, President Trump’s next target may be an undeniably poor and broken nation, Cuba.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is in discussions with Cuban leaders at a “very high level” to potentially “make a deal.” Rubio also is in contact through unofficial channels with Raúl Guillermo Rodriguez Castro, the grandson of former President Raúl Castro, Fidel’s brother and successor, according to Axios. Trump has repeatedly emphasized Cuba’s dire economic state, telling reporters last month that “there’s no oil, there’s no money, there’s no anything.” He has also argued that the post-Castro Cuban regime is so fundamentally weak that its own rot would inevitably do the work of an invading army.

This article reports that regime change is, of course, fraught with risk – especially from the flood of refugees that might try to flee their island nation at a time when the Trump administration is trying to reverse immigration flows.

US Adversaries Visited Sensitive Labs Under Biden 

New York Post

This article reports that citizens of China, Iran, and Russia made close to 30,000 trips to sensitive American research facilities during the Biden administration.

Between Sept. 1, 2021, and Aug. 31, 2024, 28,028 Chinese nationals, 304 Iranians, and 1,608 Russians visited laboratories run by the Department of Energy, according to the office of Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). … The length of the visits ranged from hours to months, with remote access provided in some cases, according to the Department of Energy’s Foreign Access Central Tracking System (FACTS) database.

The Department of Energy said all foreign visitors from adversarial countries are subject to counterintelligence assessments before they are allowed to enter any of the 17 federally funded laboratories it oversees across America. The article provides no evidence of untoward conduct by the visitors. Still, Sen. Ernst said there is great reason for concern. “After COVID-19, we should have learned our lesson about trusting Communist China’s scientists. We know our adversaries run sophisticated espionage programs to steal research; we do not need to invite them in.”

Solar In Poor Countries Creating Huge Lead Hazard 

Matthew Yglesias/Substack

Solar power has been a profound blessing in remote areas of Africa. If you live, as hundreds of millions of people do, in a village that does not have a functioning electrical grid, a decentralized power system based on rooftop solar is life-changing. But – there’s always a but – this article reports that a downside lurks.

A new report from the Center for Global Development documents that most of these systems use lead-acid batteries, like Americans use in cars. Lead-acid batteries work for a while and then need to be recycled. If they’re recycled safely, that’s fine. But in poor countries, most lead-acid batteries are not recycled safely and they become a huge source of toxic lead poisoning. … In rich countries, solar systems use cleaner, safer, but more expensive lithium-ion batteries. … Lead batteries are cheaper than lithium ion, so it seems that lead batteries are dominating the market in poor countries. Those batteries are then recycled and ecological catastrophe ensues.

This article reports that “the solar issue is worth paying attention to not just for the irony that a green technology is contributing to extreme environmental harm, but precisely because decentralized solar is such a fundamentally promising technology for poor countries. It’s plausible that African solar generation will go vertical over the next few years, which would be great – except if it also means a huge increase in unsafe recycling of lead batteries, then that would be terrible.”

Why Epstein Investigations Took So Long and Did So Little 

New York Times

In the six-plus years since Jeffrey Epstein’s death, many of his friends and associates have been named and shamed but none have been criminally charged apart from the late financier’s co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell. This has provoked anger and conspiracy theories in many quarters. This article reports that the millions of pages of recently released Justice Department emails, prosecutorial memos, interview transcripts and other records help explain why more people weren’t charged and why Mr. Epstein was able to act with impunity for so long.

Part of the reason was a series of missed opportunities, in both Democratic and Republican administrations, to bring him and others to justice: A tip that went unaddressed in the 1990s. A controversial plea deal in Florida that left F.B.I. agents and prosecutors unsatisfied. A years-long investigation by federal drug agents that went nowhere. And a miscommunication among federal officials in 2016 that scuttled a potential investigation in New York. … [Prosecutors] lacked proof, for example, that other men participated with Mr. Epstein in a child-sex-abuse ring. They did have evidence of possible crimes against women, but they believed those were state offenses, not federal ones. Yet the records also show that prosecutors did not aggressively pursue other potential avenues, such as how Mr. Epstein moved his money through banks around the world. They did not interview any of the men who were Mr. Epstein’s main financial sponsors.

This article reports that the lack of U.S. prosecutions contrasts with law enforcement in other countries, which “is moving swiftly to build cases based on revelations in the new records. In Britain, for example, police last month arrested Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the former Prince Andrew, and Peter Mandelson, a recent ambassador to the United States, as part of their investigations of corruption-related crimes. Authorities in France and Norway also have opened investigations.”