RealClearInvestigations Picks of the Week

RealClearInvestigations'

Picks of the Week

May 10 to May 16

RCI Podcasts & Videos

On this week’s episode of the RealClearInvestigations Podcast, RCI Editor J. Peder Zane and RCI Senior Reporter James Varney speak with Leighton Woodhouse about his article detailing how conservative legislators and influencers have joined with left-leaning animal rights activists to oppose scientific research using dogs.

On The Miller Report: Real Clear Journalism, Maggie Miller is joined by Senator Alan Armstrong from Oklahoma (R-OK) to discuss the “build baby build” movement and why America’s energy affordability crisis is being driven by infrastructure restrictions. In a separate episode, Miller sits down with Toby Rice, President and CEO of EQT, to discuss scaling to power AI, expanding LNG exports, and strengthening energy security.

Featured Investigation:

Unbridled Spending: Billions for Medicaid Expansion

Congress Never Approved

Walter Curt reports for RealClearInvestigations that when Congress refused to authorize a massive expansion of Medicaid home-care spending, the Biden administration achieved much of it anyway – routing the money through state Medicaid agencies and regulatory mechanisms rather than legislation. An RCI analysis of federal data found that Medicaid home-care spending nearly doubled between 2019 and 2024, to $46.4 billion a year, costing taxpayers more than $217 billion over five years – an amount nearly identical to what the White House had originally sought from Congress.

• After the home-care expansion was cut back in the Build Back Better Act and dropped entirely from the Inflation Reduction Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services worked with state agencies to expand waivers, raise reimbursement rates, and build out family caregiver payment programs.
• An RCI analysis of federal data found that Medicaid spending on home health care nearly doubled between 2019 and 2024, to $46.4 billion a year – an amount nearly identical to the $50 billion per year Biden wanted.
• Proponents argued the expansion would reduce reliance on more expensive nursing homes. It did not. Medicaid nursing-home spending rose nearly $5 billion over the same period, driven by sharply higher reimbursement rates rather than more residents.
• Most new dollars flowed to blue states. New York alone accounted for roughly a third of national home-care spending. Pennsylvania's home-care bill grew more than twelve-fold in five years.
• The expansion has attracted a growing number of federal and state prosecutions involving fabricated billing hours, payments for deceased beneficiaries, and family-member schemes in which care was never delivered.
• Critics argue that fraud prosecutions, while necessary, fail to address the underlying issue – massive federal spending with minimal oversight and no legislative mandate.

Featured Investigation:

How Opposition to Animal Testing Is

Bridging the Political Divide

Leighton Woodhouse reports for RealClearInvestigations that a major Wisconsin breeder of laboratory beagles is shutting down its external breeding operations after years of pressure from activists, regulators, and bipartisan political allies. Ridglan Farms agreed to release 1,500 beagles for adoption in a deal hailed by opponents of animal experimentation as a landmark victory; it will still be able to breed dogs for its own work. The agreement followed years of protests, undercover investigations, and mounting scrutiny over the treatment of research dogs.

• Ridglan Farms, one of the nation’s leading suppliers of beagles for scientific testing, faced hundreds of state animal welfare citations and agreed to suspend its breeding license beginning in July.
• Activists from across the political spectrum united against the company. Left-wing animal rights groups staged “open rescues,” while conservative figures including President Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump and right-wing activist Laura Loomer publicly pressured the animal testing industry. Critics described harsh conditions for laboratory dogs, including confinement in small cages, painful experiments, and surgical procedures performed without adequate pain relief.
• Advocates of animal testing argued that animal research remains essential for medical breakthroughs, citing treatments involving gene therapy, HIV prevention drugs, vaccines, and pacemakers. Opponents countered that advances in technology make animal testing increasingly unnecessary and that government-funded research institutions continue the practice largely out of institutional inertia.
• The animal experimentation industry receives billions in federal funding, primarily through the National Institutes of Health.
• Activists attempted a massive rescue operation in April but were met by a large police response using pepper spray, tear gas, and arrests. Although the rescue failed, the resulting publicity may have contributed to Ridglan’s decision to release the dogs. Animal welfare advocates say the Ridglan agreement reflects a broader national shift away from animal testing practices.

Waste of the Day

by Jeremy Portnoy, Open the Books

North Dakota Mismanaged Horse Racing, RCI

CMS Was Overstaffed, RCI

Nepotism at NC College, RCI

Title I Movie Night, RCI

Seattle’s Homelessness Fiasco, RCI

Trump 2.0 and the Beltway

Trump Gives Polluters Reprieve from Air Quality Rules, ProPublica

Trump Trying to Reform How Pentagon Buys Weapons, Center Square

Obama's Pipeline for Children and Cronies of Iran’s Elite, Tablet

Trump's 2nd Impeachment Hinged on Illegal Recording, Federalist

Federal Cuts Put Nonprofits in Crisis Mode, Axios

The Democrats Can’t Let Go of Racial Preferences, Atlantic

Other Noteworthy Articles and Series

U.S. Intelligence Shows Iran Retains

Strong Missile Capabilities 

New York Times

This article reports that the Trump administration’s public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors. Classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities while the U.S. has depleted its stocks of many weapons.

Most alarming to some senior officials is evidence that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz, which could threaten American warships and oil tankers transiting the narrow waterway. … Iran still fields about 70 percent of its mobile launchers across the country and has retained roughly 70 percent of its prewar missile stockpile, according to the assessments. That stockpile encompasses both ballistic missiles, which can target other nations in the region, and a smaller supply of cruise missiles, which can be used against shorter-range targets on land or at sea.

This article reports “the findings underscore the dilemma Mr. Trump would face if the fragile month-old cease-fire in the conflict collapses and full-scale fighting resumes. The U.S. military has already depleted its stocks of many critical munitions, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, Patriot interceptor missiles, and Precision Strike and ATACMS ground-based missiles, and yet the intelligence suggests that Iran retains considerable military capability, including around the vital Strait of Hormuz.”

The Courts’ Overwhelming Rebuke of Trump’s ICE Policies 

Politico

The strongest pushback to the Trump administration’s push to detain immigrants before completing the process to deport them is coming from judges, this article reports. A Politico analysis has found these detentions, which are typically carried out with no opportunity for detainees to plead their case, illegal more than 10,000 times [see the database here]. That’s roughly 90 percent of all cases.

The administration has lost nearly 10,400 of the cases that have been decided, and prevailed in about 1,200. While some judges have heard more cases than others, the overwhelming majority of judges – more than 425 – have reached the same conclusion. Even a majority of Trump-appointed judges have sided against the administration. … Trump’s unprecedented detention policy, which is almost certainly headed to the Supreme Court, infuriated lower courts in ways no other modern issue has. It ruptured the relationship between the Justice Department and the judiciary; pitted the administration against itself; and upended innumerable lives – not just of the people swept up by immigration agents, but of their spouses and children, many of whom are U.S. citizens.

This article reports that Trump administration officials shrug off the one-sided rebuke from the courts, attributing their losses to “the left and their activist proxies on the judiciary” and predicting that they will prevail at the Supreme Court. “The law is not a popularity contest among judges,” a Justice Department spokesperson said.

Ohio's Massive Medicaid Fraud Loophole 

Daily Wire

In its continuing series on Medicaid fraud in Ohio, the Daily Wire focuses in this article on abuse of a program in which people are paid to visit the homes of elderly poor people and provide “cooking,” “cleaning,” and other nonmedical services that even include “companionship.” To limit fraud, federal law requires “electronic visit verification [EVV] capturing date, time, and service location.” But, this article reports, Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine’s administration inserted massive loopholes, including making the verification optional. 

For years, Ohio simply paid providers even if they didn’t submit any electronic evidence, according to a 2024 audit by Auditor of State Keith Faber. Faber’s audit, examining payments in 2022, found that 44% of personal services claims had no electronic verification. The situation was similar for home nursing. “This resulted in approximately $1.1 billion in claims not supported by an EVV visit,” the audit found.

This article reports that shortly before EVV was made mandatory, it was neutered as a fraud prevention tool. The most important feature – GPS coordinates captured by an electronic device – was made optional and defaulted to “off.” … GPS is turned off for nearly half of home visits, with reliable coordinates present in only 53% of electronic records. … The patient was also supposed to sign their name to show that the patient and aide were actually together, but that, too, was removed in 2024, Faber’s audit flagged.

Iran May be Recruiting Anti-Jewish Attackers Online 

CNN

A string of mainly Jewish sites in London and other European cities have been struck in arson attacks in the past two months, including schools, businesses and volunteer-run ambulances. This article reports that at least 17 incidents have been claimed by a shadowy online group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia (HAYI), roughly translated from Arabic as “The Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right(eous)” – which only emerged online in March and says it’s targeting “Zionist” interests.

A CNN investigation has found apparent links between HAYI and an Iran-backed Shia paramilitary group. It has also found that what appear to be Iran-linked operatives are using social media to attempt to recruit individuals to carry out surveillance and potential violence against sites linked to the Jewish community in Europe. Posing as a young, London-based Telegram users, CNN journalists found channels advertising themselves as Iranian intelligence operating in plain sight. One posted in English and Hebrew that it was looking to recruit “high-paid agents in a completely secure and professional environment with 24/7 monitoring and support.”

In an exchange of messages with CNN, the “VIPEmployment” Telegram account said it was looking to “hire anyone who can harm Israeli interests or individuals.” On another account linked to the channel, a user calling themself Sina offered money in return for putting up posters in London criticizing U.S. President Donald Trump and the U..S-Israeli war with Iran, offering advice such as “you need to check and do it in a place where there are no security cameras.”

AI Making Digital Fraud Easier, Faster and Harder to Stop 

Bloomberg

This article reports that today’s digital ecosystem creates the perfect storm for identity theft. AI makes every step – from stealing personal information held by companies to finding the right Social Security Number to steal to faking a driver’s license – easier and more sophisticated.

The U.S. saw the highest number of data compromises in 2025 since the nonprofit Identity Theft Resource Center (ITRC) began recording in 2005. AI is already a powerful force in cybercrimes: 40% of the 5,000 data breaches that consumer credit agency Experian serviced last year were powered by AI, said Michael Bruemmer, vice president of Consumer Protection. The firm predicts that this year agentic AI, deploying multiple autonomous agents to achieve sophisticated goals with limited human oversight, will be the number one cause of data breaches. However, its powers go beyond just infiltration of institutional systems; agentic AI has also sharpened the urgency of identity theft and digital fraud cases: Subagents can scan the dark web for vulnerable Social Security numbers and personal information in seconds. Simultaneous attacks can occur by contacting multiple banks at a time impersonating a different identity, and agents can fill out complex government forms requesting loans. In February, a hacker used Anthropic’s Claude chatbot to attack various government agencies in Mexico, retrieving sensitive voter and tax information.

This article reports that identity theft cases reported to the Federal Trade Commission have shot up nearly 20% year over year. U.S. Head of Fraud at TransUnion Naureen Ali said globally more than $534 billion is lost to fraud annually.

In a separate article, Wired reports on a Dartmouth medical student named Chad Markey who suspected that AI – which often does the first review of applications – had misinterpreted language on his Medical Student Performance Evaluation that could raise red flags.

The MSPE stated that Markey had “voluntarily” taken three separate leaves of absence, totaling about 22 months, and had chosen to extend his third year of coursework over two years for “personal reasons.” That wasn’t quite true. In 2021, Markey was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis, an autoimmune disease that affects the spine and could flare up to the point where he couldn’t stand, much less do the intensive physical work expected of medical students during clinical rotations. He was on track to graduate from medical school in seven years, rather than the typical four, but his absences had been unavoidable and medically necessary.

This article reports that recruiters admit it’s fair to wonder about AI. The CEO of a hiring platform said last fall that his industry is in “an AI doom loop”: HR departments complain of a wave of AI-generated job applications, prompting the need for more AI filters. Applicants complain they’re getting unfairly filtered out.